A lot of atheist groups recently tried to get people to sign a petition on behalf of Alexander Aan, the Indonesian atheist sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for the crime of… saying he’s an atheist. If we could get 25,000 signatures in a month, the Obama administration would have to respond to it and maybe they would take action in some way. The deadline for the petition was yesterday. It got about 8,000 signatures. Well under the amount needed…. Read more
Too bad. As of August 30th, eBay’s putting the kibosh on sales of anything that’s not quite tangible, including a lot of things that probably should’ve been prohibited a long time ago because they’re just scamming gullible people: The following items are also being added to the prohibited items list: advice; spells; curses; hexing; conjuring; magic; prayers; blessing services; magic potions; healing sessions; work from home businesses & information; wholesale lists, and drop shop lists. Doug Barry at Jezebel doesn’t… Read more
Remember Michael Leisner, the Cheerios protest dude who was mad because of General Mills’ pro-gay-marriage stance? He is no more: Leisner died Saturday while waiting in his car for his sons to finish playing tennis, said the Rev. Dwight Denyes, senior pastor at Emmanuel Christian Center in Spring Lake Park. The family said in a statement that the two sons found Leisner in his car and not breathing. He was taken to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids and died “of… Read more
Perhaps due to the renewed focus on Governor Bobby Jindal’s plan to send $11,000,000 of taxpayer money to Creationism-endorsing schools, it looks like the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is now smartly taking it more slowly when approving new programs: The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Tuesday held back state approval from six new schools that board President Penny Dastugue says she is afraid were formed strictly to take advantage of the new voucher program. Dastugue said… Read more
At the 7:00 mark of the video below, after a long conversation about how evangelical couples should have three kids each in order to outbreed the rest of us, Christian Right leader Bryan Fischer speaks with Ed Vitagliano about the “threat of secular fundamentalists.” I listened… because I figured they were talking about mah people. So what were their examples of how we’re threatening religious liberty? Brad Pitt’s Christian mom wrote a pro-life, pro-Romney letter-to-the-editor in which she said President… Read more
News story. Sentence 1: Three different police departments are searching for one man, wanted for a string of smash-and-grab burglaries in Philadelphia and Bucks County. News story. Sentence 2: The man was caught on surveillance breaking into the Trevose Beer in Lower Southampton Township on Saturday wearing a shirt that read “Property of Jesus.” That is all. Read more
David Barton appeared on Bryan Fischer’s American Family Radio yesterday to talk about the “attacks” on his book The Jefferson Lies (and by “attacks,” I mean fact-checking): They revel in the fact that Barton is the most “dangerous man in America” because he presents a threat to “the agenda of secular fundamentalists on the left.” Then Barton cries “woe is me” about how he had no input into publisher Thomas Nelson’s decision to pull Barton’s book from the shelves: Barton:…… Read more
This is David Givens: “I would hope that creationism is presented as a theory in the classroom, in a science classroom, alongside evolution.” … “I think we are very committed to being able to take Kentucky students and put them on a report card beside students across the nation,” Givens said. “We’re simply saying to the ACT people we don’t want what is a theory to be taught as a fact in such a way it may damage students’ ability… Read more
The Windy City Times, an LGBT-focused newspaper in Chicago, ran a brief piece yesterday about my battles with the Illinois Family Institute. Because, you know, I think LGBT students should know they’re loved and I won’t put up with any bullying in my classroom… and IFI thinks that sort of thinking has no business in public schools. My favorite line has to be this one from IFI’s Laurie Higgins: “Do I think homosexuality is immoral? Yes. But that doesn’t mean… Read more
The Barna Group (The “Gallup” of the Christian world) just released a survey they did with Christian women to see how they feel about church and their role in it. I’ve highlighted a few of the more disappointing findings… (click to enlarge): Barna Group president David Kinnaman is someone who does a lot of good work in informing Christians what they look like to non-Christians. But I was disappointed in the way he framed the findings, presumably so Christian church… Read more
