Colorado lawmakers on Tuesday approved a bill to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples, a historic move that follows years of debate over LGBT rights in the state. The bill passed in both the Senate and the House, and Gov. John Hickenlooper has said he’ll sign the measure into law. It’s expected to take effect May 1st. A similar bill died last year in the then-Republican-controlled House, but Colorado Democrats made LGBT rights a priority when they regained control of the House in November. Read more
For a while now, I’ve been writing about the Christian prayers recited at meetings of the Hamilton County Commissioners (in Tennessee): Tommy Coleman and Brandon Jones filed a lawsuit against them and the case is still being decided, but in the meantime, Coleman has been trying to deliver one of the invocations: Read more
Last year, more than 150 groups and 20 national partners came together with the Foundation Beyond Belief to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through their Light the Night walk. We ended up raising a staggering $430,000 for the cause — the most money ever raised by a non-corporate group in its first year with LLS and the fourth most raised by a team last year overall. Simply incredible. Read more
The Freethought Association of Northern Michigan just placed the first of five billboards up in the city of Charlevoix: Some of the other billboard designs (minus the watermarks) that will go up in coming weeks include: Read more
The Catholic Church recently bought a $30 million share of real estate in Rome — including the largest gay sauna in Europe. Have they no shame?! (Wait, don’t answer that.) Read more
Tradition is important to the Catholic Church, but even the Church sometimes changes procedures when it becomes beneficial to do so. With that in mind, I propose blending the current method of choosing a pope with the method adopted by another venerable tradition that has been mostly scandal free. I speak, of course, of the Miss America Pageant. Read more
It’s once again time for A Week! Join thousands of people from all over the world in a global shared experience. Display an ‘A’ as your Facebook profile picture or change your cover photo for one week starting 17 March 2013 to raise awareness of how many people are ‘Good without Gods’ and don’t need religions to influence their lives. Read more
A group of atheists led by Michael Newdow is suing the U.S. Treasury for putting “In God We Trust” on our money. Newdow, of course, famously and unsuccessfully fought to remove “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance nearly a decade ago. Read more
Justin Bonaparte, a 39-year-old Charlotte resident told me that he “was raised in a nominally Christian household.” He, along with his older brother, attended a K-8 Catholic school, but he feels that was because private school offered them a better education not because his parents sought to further indoctrinate them. Read more
Not surprising: The majority of home-schooling families are Christian. Surprising: Many of those families are scientifically literate and embarrassed by Ken Ham and the Young Earth Creationism he espouses. Read more
