The evangelical Christian owner of the Hobby Lobby craft store chain says he doesn’t want his employees’ health insurance to cover certain kinds of birth control because… I guess he figures they can just make their own using the store’s products? CEO David Green and his family actually filed a federal lawsuit (PDF) yesterday against the government to get out of paying for comprehensive health insurance: The [health care] Mandate illegally and unconstitutionally coerces the Green family to violate their… Read more
When you take an extreme position to its logical conclusion, very strange things can happen. Nowhere is this more evident than on the extreme end of the pro-life movement. We start with a premise: A fertilized egg is fundamentally equal to an infant. If you accept this premise fully, truly without reservations or cognitive dissonance, then where does it take you? Exceptions to abortion bans in the cases of rape and incest becomes nonsensical. (After all, you wouldn’t murder the… Read more
Now that the public Christian prayers before home football games have been stopped at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, some locals are worrying that the church/state separationistas will go after the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (a.k.a. The Home That Peyton Manning Built) for doing the same thing: “We wouldn’t have the capability to go searching for these things, so unless someone local contacts us, we don’t go seeking violations,” said Freedom From Religion Foundation staff attorney Stephanie Schmitt. Schmitt… Read more
In 2008, Richard Cizik, the vice-president for governmental relations at the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), made a mistake. He told the truth. In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, he said this about his attitude toward gay marriage: “I’m shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say that I believe in civil unions. I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don’t think.” What?! He supported civil unions and… Read more
Nancy Shehata, one of Patheos’ Muslim bloggers, has a response to the bloodshed in Libya. I don’t have anything to add; it’s just nice to see a sane reaction to the pointless violence. I am so god damned tired of this. Sorry, I just can’t find any literary way to put that. I am so god damned tired of Muslims allowing themselves to be manipulated by a god damned low-budget stupid YOUTUBE VIDEO. This low-rent video was put together by… Read more
Earlier today at the University of South Alabama, a Christian student climbed onto a JagTran shuttle (the campus-owned bus) and began preaching. This is how Daily Kos contributor weatherdude, who was on the bus at the time, explained it: [She] ran on the bus and shouted “I’m from [some organization I didn’t catch the name of] and I’d like to save your souls in the name of Jesus.” She stood at the front of the bus and put her arms… Read more
Who knew it took courage to be in the majority? A new film called Last Ounce of Courage opens this Friday. It’s focuses on a character named Bob Revere, a Christian pharmacist who’s tired of the way those damn liberals at the ACLU are trying to take away all aspects of faith from the public square. Because, you know, who needs church/state separation? Then I think some kids get involved and they save Jesus and Santa or something. Just watch… Read more
