God wants everyone to have one mommy and one daddy… according to a new children’s book that masks anti-gay preaching as wholesome literature. God Made Dad & Mom, written by Amber Dee Parker and illustrated by Hannah Sequra, is the story of a little boy named Michael who learns through prayer what real families are all about. Real families, apparently, can only consist of two different-sex parents, because that’s what God wants. [Click headline for more…] Read more
You’ve probably experienced, more than once, the death of a love one. I have too. We could’ve saved ourselves an ocean of tears and a mountain of grief (not to mention the expense of the funeral!) if we’d only called a Christian prayer team to restore our relative or friend to life. Nifty! Yes, these self-proclaimed resurrection specialists really do exist. Like 75 million Americans (30% of all U.S. Christians), they believe in the literal truth of the Bible. The deadraisers are special in that they concentrate on Matthew 10:8: Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. We’ll return to the Americans in a moment, but this wacky international movement is on my mind today thanks to a Dutch Pentecostal evangelist. I learned through a friend that the evangelist, Ronald Plat, has been offering his services to the parents of a girl who recently committed suicide. When they declined his entreaties, he turned to a mother whose two pre-teen sons were found brutally murdered earlier this month. She, too, inexplicably refused to let him anywhere near the bodies of her children. Plat stayed positive, musing on social-media sites how the Netherlands will be “turned on its head” once his death-cheating miracles get the “media attention” they deserve. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Rebecca Vitsmun has struck a chord with people. Maybe it’s because she was so forthright, yet so harmless, when she told Wolf Blitzer she was an atheist. Maybe it’s because she was a breath of fresh air after seeing victim after victim of the Oklahoma tornado thank God for anything and everything. Maybe it’s because we hope that we, too, can be as comfortable in our atheistic shoes as she was in the face of a famous newscaster asking her about her faith on national television. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Using information from last year’s global survey of religiosity (conducted by WIN-Gallup International), the Washington Post put together a nifty map explaining where the world’s “convinced atheists” lived: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Simply put: Many of these so-called bible study clubs and other religious initiatives are not what they say they are. They have an agenda far more sweeping, and potentially threatening to public education, than they let on. The biggest factor driving this insertion of religion into public schools is judicial activism from the right. I know these are bold claims. Some people will say they’re alarmist. I have learned firsthand that they aren’t. Read more
Remember The Thaw, the video created by Reach America that featured young Christians talking about how they being persecuted for their faith and “frozen” out of the public square? Now, Dustin and Jackie, atheists from Pennsylvania, have created a secular version of it (called “The Melt”): [Click headline for more…] Read more
Last month, a house burst into flames four doors down from blogger Leia. Thankfully, no one lived in it, but several firefighters had to spend several hours putting it out. As an ex-Mormon, Leia writes that her first thoughts were all religious in nature but, as an atheist, she decided to do something more than just thank God for keeping everyone safe: [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Photoshop Phriday challenge: Remove one letter from the name of a movie and redesign the poster. Of course, that led to Godfellas: [Click headline for more…] Read more
Texas Governor Rick Perry is set to sign a bill (HB 308) that will allow teachers and students to say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah” or “happy holidays” without repercussion. Even though no one was ever trying to stop them. The same bill allows for holiday displays, too: [Click headline for more…] Read more
