It used to be that the only people who could officiate your wedding ceremony in Washington, D.C. were representatives of religious groups: The officiant is any District of Columbia Judge or anyone who is authorized by a religious organization to officiate marriages, such as a minister, priest, rabbi or imam, so long as he or she is registered with the Marriage Bureau to officiate marriages. Humanist and Secular Celebrants did not count, so atheists were pretty much left in the dark. They could fake it and get a religious person to solemnize their vows… or they could just have a court wedding. Back in February, D.C. City Council member (and candidate for Mayor) Tommy Wells tried to change that when he introduced a bill that would create “one-day officiant permit[s]” that didn’t require a religious organization to sponsor you. Today, Mayor Vincent Gray signed that bill, the Marriage Officiant Amendment Act Of 2013, into law. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Collegedale, Tennessee was founded as the home for Southern Adventist University and has a huge Seventh-day Adventist population. The school is so religious, in fact, that it actually observes the Sabbath (as Adventists do). This is from the student handbook (PDF): That’s why it’s a bit surprising (and amazing) that Collegedale just became the first city in Tennessee to extend benefits to same-sex partners of its government employees: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Brother Jerry DeWitt has a problem. Since he first felt called to the ministry — a call that came in his teens — he’s been trying to bring about a revival: a gathering of souls that he would lead to Christ. He’s been moving from church to church, building his ministry and trying to get his doctrine right. Nothing seems to fit, and as time passes, it becomes clear to him that the disconnect is less about his failure to find the Word, and more a failure of the Word itself, which contains a myriad of positions that Jerry can’t accept, and contradictions that he ultimately comes to see as lies. This is the central arc of Hope After Faith: An Ex-Pastor’s Journey from Belief to Atheism (Da Capo Press, 2013). DeWitt starts by taking us back to his roots in DeRidder, Louisiana, to a church culture where religion fundamentally reorders one’s priorities, that sees spirituality as its wellspring, and accepts God as the only possible source of hope. These are people who welcome (Christian) preaching in the public schools and call their minister right after dialing 9-1-1. The first two-thirds of the book catalogue DeWitt’s struggles to balance creating a life for his family with finding his way as a young, Pentecostal preacher. The last third tells the story of his ultimate disillusionment with Christianity, his coming out as an atheist, and the fallout, as his professional and personal life disintegrate and he becomes a pariah. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Yesterday, I posted a rebuttal to Part 1 of Robin Schumacher’s article at the Christian Post trying to take down my argument that atheists are helping draw people away from the Christian church (as a whole). Schumacher is now back with Part 2. Here’s his first issue: Mr. Mehta says, “The myth surrounding Jesus is part of the problem with Christianity… To believe in Jesus means believing that he was born of a virgin, rose from the dead and performed a number of miracles. There’s no proof of any of that ever happened”. Says who? Let’s just stop there. Says who? Says anyone who doesn’t believe in magical fairydust and unicorns. Says anyone who has never seen these things happen in the modern day. Says anyone who needs some damn good evidence to believe in the supernatural. But Schumacher says he has evidence of those things! [Click headline for more…] Read more
***Update***: Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers tells me that the situation has been resolved and Bise will receive both a secular written form and take a secular oath. More information on “So Help Me God” oath issues can be found here. The American Humanist Association responds: Air Force officials have agreed to administer a secular oath and to allow a revision of the written oath the Officer Trainee was required to sign to remove the “so help me God” reference. Maj. Stewart L. Rountree has written attorneys for the American Humanist Association and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers that the entire graduating class will be informed of the option to take a secular oath and apologized for the error. “Our previous legal advisors were mistaken in advising us that it was required,” Maj. Roundtree wrote. “Our current legal advisors made me aware and we will ensure it reaches all corners of our program.” … Today, Jonathan Bise will become an officer in the United States Air Force. However, he’s been told he will have to say an oath with the phrase “so help me God” in order to graduate — no substitutions allowed. As a non-religious person, the government can’t make anyone take a pledge like that, and the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center is trying to put a stop to it before it’s too late: [Click headline for more…] Read more
***Update***: Unrelated to the billboard image below and Facebook’s claim that it violated community standards, I’m hearing from a lot of you about how this particular Facebook page was notorious for posting images/memes without giving proper credit to their creators and claiming them as their own creations. If that’s true, I apologize for giving them any publicity. I’ll do my best to find out more information and speak to the moderators of the page. ***Update 2***: Well, I fucked this one up. I apologize to everyone for publicizing a group that posts images from other sites without giving them credit. Even if Facebook pulled them for the billboard, they should have been pulled for content-stealing a long time ago. Thanks to everyone who sent me emails with evidence of their malfeasance. You can read more about this issue here. I’ll try to do better next time. … The Atheists and Rational Thinkers group on Facebook had more than 113,000 members (which is pretty damn impressive) and served up a frequent dose of funny memes/screenshots pertaining to religion, but Facebook just removed the group from the site for violating its terms of service. Specifically, they said one particular image went against the site’s community standards and that’s why the page was taken down. Which image? This billboard from American Atheists: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Darrell at Stuff Fundies Like came across an old questionnaire that Fairwinds Independent Bible Church used to send out to potential guest ministers (the church has since changed its name) That’s about as fundie as you can get… believe in our specific brand of Christianity or to hell with you. It reminds me of the classic Emo Philips joke, too. [Click headline for more…] Read more
The text of the Swiss Psalm, written in 1841 and adopted as the National Anthem in 1981, includes lyrics like this (when translated into English): When the morning skies grow red, and over us their radiance shed Thou, O Lord, appeareth in their light when the alps glow bright with splendor, pray to God, to Him surrender for you feel and understand that He dwelleth in this land. In the sunset Thou art night and beyond the starry sky Thou, O loving father, ever near, when to Heaven we are departing joy and bliss Thou’lt be imparting for we feel and understand that Thou dwellest in this land. That’s a nice… psalm… but, outside of church, it’s really out of place. The Swiss government has finally recognized this and they’re ready to chuck their current, religious anthem in favor of a new, secular one: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Last week, CNN posted a column I wrote on how atheists are helping drive young people away from the church. Christian apologist Robin Schumacher took issue with it and has started to respond at the Christian Post. Here’s the statement he appears to be most frustrated with: Articles and books about why millennials are leaving Christianity often focus on what churches are doing “wrong.” They’re anti-gay, anti-women, anti-science, anti-sex-education and anti-doubt, to name a few of the most common criticisms. Schumacher doesn’t buy that at all: In today’s culture, to be anti-anything is bad so we see Mehta employ the typical paint-your-opponent-against-something-rather-than-for-something technique right out of the chute. But that aside, the question is, are the claims true? Let’s look at just a couple of them. This should be fun… especially since I can back up what I wrote: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Catholic Deacon Greg Kandra recently released a video for CatholicNewsService in which he clarified the Church’s position on homosexuality. Blogger Rebecca Hamilton says, “As usual, he nails it,” so you *know* this is gonna be good: [Click headline for more…] Read more
