A lot of religious schools have been freaking out over Obamacare because they’re now required to provide emergency contraception to their employees… and they think that amounts to promoting abortion… because they don’t actually know how birth control works. For the most part, it’s been Catholic universities leading the charge. But evangelical Mecca Wheaton College (just outside Chicago) has also joined in: In the early stages of the battle over the contraception mandate, coverage mostly focused on the protest from… Read more
Nearly a month ago, Shady Grove United Methodist Church in Irmo, South Carolina got vandalized with atheist-themed graffiti: I don’t know if atheists actually did that, but it definitely makes it harder for us to explain that we can be good without god when shit like that happens. You all raised money for a similar incident last year, so I thought it would be a nice gesture if we could do that again and, with the help of the church’s… Read more
Craig and Aimee Howley at Ohio University are doing research on K-12 teachers/administrators who are also non-religious. A great deal of research in education focuses on the experiences of marginalized groups. The aim of this study is to investigate the experiences of one such group — teachers who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics, or freethinkers. Little is really known about the experience of atheists in any realm of social discourse in the United States, and no study has investigated the… Read more
The Registrar General for Scotland, George MacKenzie, just released a fascinating report on births, deaths, and marriages in 2011 (PDF). It turns out civil ceremonies — conducted by local government officials — made up 52% of all ceremonies last year, up from 31% in 1971. Humanist celebrants conducted 2,486 marriages last year compared to 5,557 conducted by the Church of Scotland. (For the purposes of this report, Humanist ceremonies fall into the “Other” category, not the “Civil” category.) The overall… Read more
In June, 2010, the Touchdown Jesus statue in Monroe, Ohio burned down: There’s good news, though, for lovers of Jesus statues. In a couple of months, you’ll be seeing a replacement: The new statue created by Cincinnati native Tom Tsuchiya is called “Lux Mundi” or “Light of the World.” The original statue the “King of Kings” was destroyed by fire caused by a lightning strike two years ago. Jesus just wants a big hug. And if you give it to… Read more
We all handle Internet trolls differently. I usually don’t engage with people trying to get a rise out of me — in the comments below, on Twitter, whatever — unless I think the topic needs addressing. I usually don’t post about them on this site because there are more pressing/interesting issues to write about when time permits… and, honestly, the trolls don’t really bother me. They don’t threaten me. They’re easily ignorable. No doubt, though, it’d be tougher to ignore… Read more
The Religious Right loves to say that liberals are intolerant of their bigotry: “Unfortunately, their response is typical of intolerant homosexual activists,” [Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver] continued. “They will go to any lengths to silence the majority of Americans who believe that children do best when raised in a natural family with one mom and one dad.” Right, we’re silencing their free speech. We’re taking away their rights. We’re the oppressors. Slacktivist has a wonderful, simple response to that: Anybody… Read more
Most colleges have a policy when it comes to funding student groups: You have to be a registered student organization in order to get any money. Once you’re officially registered (whatever that requires), you have access to grants, free meeting space, the ability to advertise, etc. Virginia Tech had a different policy for religious groups, though: “Organizations will not be provided funding to support religious worship or religious proselytizing. Funding requests to host religiously oriented programs, on campus and open… Read more
Before you go back to school, the Illinois Family Institute wants to remind Christian parents everywhere how they can go after those damn teachers who challenge students’ thinking. No joke. Laurie Higgins’ piece is entitled “Challenge teachers, not books” (PDF). Because, as we all know, teachers who discuss banned books are the real problems with our schools. Parents can object to teachers rather than texts. Here are some suggestions for parents who are fed up with the subtle and not… Read more
