In one of his recent sermons, Pastor Mark Driscoll offered advice to fathers in part drawn from a book he wrote (PDF) a couple of years ago. That book includes wonderful nuggets of wisdom like this one: Furthermore, throughout proverbs (e.g., chapters 2, 5, and 7) the father also speaks very frankly to his son about hot women with necklines that plunge down to hell. Rather than encouraging porn, the wise father encourages his son who is not built for abstinence to get married young and enjoy his wife’s body. The wise father knows that the ultimate goal for his son is a faithful marriage, and so he encourages his son’s sexual desires toward marriage. Don’t watch porn, son. If you want sex, just get married quickly. That’ll solve alllllll your sexual frustration problems. Father of the year, right there. [Click headline for more…] Read more
“Interview an Atheist at Church” Day is today, but one video is already up and it’s fantastic. Neil Carter, who blogs at Godless in Dixie, was interviewed at the Meadowbrook Church of Christ in Jackson, Mississippi: [Click headline for more…] Read more
I know, that’s an easy question for us to answer: You lean on friends, family, community, people who actually exist, etc. But it’s one of those questions religious people love to ask, anyway, as if there’s no way to grieve without God: What do atheists do in times of crisis? After the Worst Week Ever, and just after the National Day of Prayer, NPR’s Michel Martin spoke with Harvard’s Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein about what atheists do to get through rough times: [Click headline for more…] Read more
At Catalyst (a major Christian conference) yesterday, Pastor and Alpha-Manly-Man Mark Driscoll made a comment that may have been intended as a joke but he wasn’t kidding about the core of the message: “I know who made the environment and he’s coming back and going to burn it all up. So yes, I drive an SUV.” In other words, screw the environment; Jesus is coming back to save us all in this lifetime so why worry about recycling and climate change and wasting gas…? [Click headline for more…] Read more
The Rockingham County Board of Education (North Carolina) has decided to vote on whether or not they should pray at meetings at the request of board member Ron Price. They currently have a moment of silence but that could change after the May 13 meeting. And we all know prayer doesn’t count unless everyone else can hear it. Board member Leonard Pryor won’t be around for that vote, though, because he resigned in protest this week: In a letter he sent to Chairwoman Nell Rose on May 1, Pryor wrote: [Click headline for more…] Read more
For the past year, street preachers in Penn Square (Pennsylvania) have made lunch a little less pleasant. They have a right to be there, but it doesn’t mean they’re not annoying. So Jim Patterson, Ryan Meehan, and Brendan Krick decided to preach alongside them… from the gospel of Bill and Ted: Meehan and Krick host a comedy open mic night once a week, so check it out if you’re in the area! Read more
By now, you’re probably aware that the sexual abuse of minors by molester priests is quite possibly the biggest open secret in Catholic history. But just in case you had any doubts, here’s the latest from the Aussie press: Catholic Church Insurance, the insurance provider for the entire Australian arm of the institution and a Church-owned business in its own right, has a list of high-risk priests it refuses to cover because they’re just too likely to trigger abuse-related compensation claims. The Catholic Church’s own insurance company says it has a list of people who it has refused to cover because of their actions. People who would have exposed the Church’s insurer to compensation claims. Today the big insurer admitted the list is used to directly reduce its liability. That’s right. We’re talking about working priests who are able to serve in diocesan environments, even though the Church has enough information to flag them as uninsurable. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Columbus High School athlete Derrick Hayes ran the anchor leg for his track team’s 4 x 100-meter relay. Last week, he helped win the race that would have qualified his team for the state tournament… but tournament officials said he broke the rules and wouldn’t be allowed to move on. His violation? As Hayes crossed the finish line in first, he “put his hand by his ear and just pointed to the heavens,” Hayes’ father said. Officials ruled that the gesture violated a state scholastic rule against excessive celebration, which includes raising one’s hands. The team was disqualified, and barred from competing at the state championships. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Riham Said is the host of an Egyptian television show called “Sabaya el-Kheir” and she recently interviewed fundamentalist Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssef el-Badri. If this interview is real — and it’s hard to find much information on it at the moment — it’s just incredible. Not only did Said take off her hijab during the interview (shocking her guest) she asks him on air why he had no problem when she wasn’t wearing one before the interview. She also asks him why he accepted money to appear on the show if he wasn’t going to answer her questions. [Click headline for more…] Read more
Syndicated columnist Tina Dupuy was raised as a Creationist but eventually discovered science. In a recent column she talked about why it’s so important that we not let Christian myth make its way into our public schools and she does it with the sort of rhetoric you rarely see from people who don’t have a personal stake in the matter: [Click headline for more…] Read more
