I’m going to keep both my daughters, 8 and 10, home from school two mornings each week. On those mornings, I’m going to educate them on core ideas and values that my wife and I share, and then we’ll demand that the school provide the children full academic credit for the things they learned while they weren’t at school with the rest of the students. It’s our right, you see? Here’s what we’ll do: On Tuesday mornings, I’ll be teaching my girls all about alternative medicine, because I want them to become well-versed in the art of magnet-healing and aromatherapy. On Thursday mornings, my wife will teach the kids cleromancy (the casting of bones) — and her favorite, dowsing. That’s our plan. Do you like it? I ask because members of the Ohio House of Representatives are considering a bipartisan bill that would let public high schools give students time off for religious instruction. These students, despite missing as much as a fifth of the regular curriculum, would receive credit toward graduation for religious lessons taken during school hours but outside of school. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Someone seriously pissed off Alexander Lucie-Smith, a Catholic priest, because this is the last paragraph of an article he wrote for the Catholic Herald: Heresy, and atheism, produce nothing beautiful. They can’t. They are stony barren fields. And the examples above are some of the ugly fruit of these intellectually incoherent movements. Wow. What did we do?! Did atheists desecrate a Renaissance painting depicting a scene from the Bible? Did we burn down an ancient church? Did we kill off an entire group of religious people? Nope. Someone didn’t capitalize the word “God”: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat from New Jersey, died this morning from viral pneumonia at the age of 89. While he was planning on retiring in 2014, the remainder of his term could be filled through a special appointment by NJ Governor Chris Christie or by a special election. While Lautenberg was Jewish, he was a strong supporter of church/state separation. OnTheIssues.org reported that Americans United for Separation of Church and State gave Lautenberg a 100% approval rating on church/state issues, and the Secular Coalition for America gave him a perfect A grade in 2009. [Click headline for more…] Read more
In April of last year, the City Council of Lake Elsinore, California talked about how nice it would be to honor local veterans with a monument. $50,000 was budgeted for the project and all the designs they considered in the following weeks seemed fairly typical for such a monument. They included the American flag, a bald eagle, the city’s crest, military branches’ emblems, etc. In July, Mayor Pro Tem (i.e. vice mayor) Daryl Hickman suggested the monument be placed, not in the courtyard of City Hall, but near the entrance of Diamond Stadium, a city-owned minor league baseball stadium. The City Council agreed to the change and moved forward with a plan to build a redesigned monument… but the design that was eventually put forward in October featured a soldier kneeling in front of a Christian cross: There were several objections from people who attended the October meeting, but Hickson saw no problem (PDF) with the proposal: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Evangelist Larry Tomczak at Charisma wants you to know that if you’re a “practicing homosexual,” you’re going to hell, and he’s going to tell you why. But first, a disclaimer: I approach this subject not as an angry, mean-spirited extremist but rather in a spirit of humility, as a would-be friend of both supporters and opponents… I want to be part of the generation arising that is not so much imposing but proposing a better way that really does lead to peace, freedom and long-term happiness in human relationships. I love that. Whenever Christians preface what they’re about to say with, “I’m not one of those mean Christians,” you know whatever comes next is gonna be truly vile. Already, in Part One of his Bigot Trilogy, he assumes that gays and lesbians are incapable of peace and long-term happiness… which may be true since they’re subject to the sort of Biblically-based prejudice people like Tomczak throw their way. Let’s see what Mr. Totally-not-a-Christian-bigot has to say about homosexuality: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Trinity makes perfect sense. Unless you try to explain it, in which case you’re going to hell: (Thanks to @LMFinney for the link!) Read more
I wanted to let you all know I recently accepted a position on the Board of Advisors for a really wonderful organization called The Child-Friendly Faith Project. The group was founded by Janet Heimlich, author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment. [Click headline for more…] Read more
School ends this week and I’ll be speaking at a variety of places over the next couple of months. The list is below. If you’re in the area, please consider stopping by! [Click headline for more…] Read more
If that headline didn’t make sense, it’s because Rep. Steve King (R-IA) didn’t make any sense either. In an interview with WorldNetDaily, King explained that he once proved to Alan Colmes that America was a Christian nation. His proof? Well… just watch: Got all that? Because we expect that a man who accidentally runs over his neighbor’s dog would apologize to his neighbor and ask for forgiveness, that makes us a Christian nation. Somehow. [Click headline for more…] Read more
