If you visited Comic-Con in San Diego over the weekend, you may have encountered street preachers near the Civic Center trolley stop. It’s really a perfect spot for them, given all the sinners walking into the convention hall… On Saturday afternoon, though, Brian Stone and a few of his friends decided to respond to them with signs of their own 🙂 See if you can guess which ones they are: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Richard Clark over at the Christ and Pop Culture blog has a problem with people who “hate-watch” the church, looking for any reason to point out its numerous flaws. He specifically calls out the excellent site Stuff Christian Culture Likes, which is targeted to those “who have been harmed by Christian culture.” Clark writes: But these Internet communities too often aren’t about healing. Not really. They funnel all of these triggers into one place, providing an opportunity for us to direct all of our rage, anger, and malice at what we have deemed to be rightful and deserving targets. These places of supposed healing become places of malice and mockery. … Here’s why I find this trend so frustrating and distasteful: biblical healing doesn’t happen this way. Hate doesn’t solve spiritual problems, and God’s Church isn’t sanctified by mercilessly mocking those who have done us wrong. These groups are hate-watching real-life drama, laughing at all the horribly written lines, mocking each villain’s downfalls, and gawking at bizarre plot twists. But these characters are human beings, whom the Bible refers to as neighbors. These plot twists have real consequences. Clark is ignoring that fact that mockery is a form of healing. It’s why so many atheists love(d) to listen to comedians like George Carlin rail against the Church — he let you know that it was okay not to respect a flawed belief system run by a corrupt organization. Even if you are religious, it’s important that you call out your leaders when they screw up, and SCCL does an excellent job of that. [Click headline for more…] Read more
In the wake of state and federal decisions on the side of same-sex couples, the Illinois Family Institute is desperate to find examples of Christians’ rights being taken away (as if civil rights are a zero-sum game). Of course they can’t find any legitimate examples of that. So here’s what they’re doing: They’re arguing that Christian business owners are being targeted for their beliefs by gay bullies. [Click headline for more…] Read more
It must be hard for believers to keep up with all the perfectly arbitrary requirements of their religion — eat this, don’t eat that; wear this, don’t wear that, and on and on. Luckily, holy men will help guide the confused, so that God doesn’t get too cranky. And so it was that rabbis from the Rabbinical Council of California came to inspect a 52,000 square foot production plant in Valencia, California, to examine the origins of every ingredient used in the manufacture of a brand of lubricant called Wet (link probably NSFW). The burning (or is that tingling?) question was whether the lube made there would become the first to be declared kosher. Says the company in a press release, As recorded in the book of Deuteronomy over 3200 years ago, Moses gave us The Ten Commandments and the Kosher laws. Since then, we’ve had Kosher hot dogs, Kosher wine and Kosher matzoh. But now, thanks to Trigg Labs, Wet® personal lubricants and intimacy products are also Kosher! Yay! [Click headline for more…] Read more
This is a possible disaster in the making but it doesn’t have to be: School officials in the Oklahoma city of Moore say students whose schools were destroyed in the deadly May tornado will attend classes next month in a refurbished junior high school building and a local church. Specifically, students who would normally be attending Briarwood Elementary School will be having their classes in Emmaus Baptist Church (PDF) next year instead. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Last month, I posted about how the Northeast Mississippi Secular Humanist Association wanted to purchase air conditioners for 10 families, including one with special needs: This year we will add a very special out-of-state family to our wish list. This family needs a portable unit to meet the needs of their young son. Portable units are more expensive than the small window units we provided last year but the unit we’d like to donate will serve as additional cooling and heating for them throughout the year. In addition, the portable unit will be able to go where their young son is instead of confining the family to a single room. How are they doing? We have an update and it’s a mixed bag: [Click headline for more…] Read more
OnKneesforJesus4 has chronicled the disturbing case of Richmond Outreach Center (“The ROC” Church) Pastor Geronimo Aguilar, who “currently faces possible life in prison for alleged sexual abuse charges involving a minor and the minor’s sibling.” [Click headline for more…] Read more
… and his name is Jesus: That’s just a sampling of what some Christians are saying on Twitter. The cringe levels are high on this one. (via @StuffCCLikes) Read more
Jason Heap wants to become a chaplain in the U.S. Navy and he seems perfectly qualified to do so: He has two master’s degrees, passed his physicals, and completed the paperwork… but Kimberly Winston tells us that what he doesn’t have is the endorsement of a religious organization (***Edit***: I should say that he does have the endorsement of a religious group, just not one approved by the Navy): [Click headline for more…] Read more
