First of all, this is neither made up, nor is it an Onion article. I checked. Twice. On May 13th, congregants of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, NC were treated this heart-warming sermon by Pastor Charles Worley : I… figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers, but I couldn’t get it past the Congress. Build a great big large fence, hundred… fifty or a hundred-mile long. Put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop… Read more
This is the first post in a series of interviews with secular students and leaders in the U.S. military, inspired by comments on this post. Different Academy students correctly pointed out that each branch of the military has a different culture and levels of religiosity, yet you will see here that all are fairly religious. Non-theistic student groups in the military do not have the same ease-of-formation or resources as found on civilian campuses. So, to get a handle on… Read more
Manitoba’s Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau just introduced some very sensible legislation. Bill 37 would make it illegal for children under the age of 18 to ride a bike (even as a passenger) without a helmet. If you’re caught without a helmet, you could be fined for up to $50 (or face an alternative punishment to be decided later). On the whole, though, it makes sense and there’s good reason for requiring it: From 2005 to 2009, 374 children were… Read more
One of the reasons I’m excited to visit Columbus this weekend is that I’ll get to see Elyse Anders, who runs the Women Thinking Free Foundation. She’s been working hard to get people vaccinated (and educating people about why that’s so important). As it turns out, one of our mutual friends — an activist herself — hasn’t been fully vaccinated and her parents aren’t exactly pushing for her to get them. So we’d like to help. Any funds raised beyond… Read more
The NAACP announced Saturday that they now endorse marriage equality. The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People passed a resolution supporting gay marriage at a meeting of its board of directors in Miami, saying it opposed any policy or legislative initiative that “seeks to codify discrimination or hatred into the law or to remove the constitutional rights of LGBT citizens.” This is the right move for the country’s oldest civil rights organization and it follows closely behind President… Read more
In anticipation of their upcoming conference in New Orleans, the American Humanist Association has put up this ad on local streetcars through June 28th: In addition, the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association is putting up the following billboard near the Superdome from June 4th-10th: Speakers at the conference (June 7th-10th) include Gloria Steinem, NPR’s Science Friday host Ira Flatow, and MSNBC/The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur. Read more
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is very concerned about doctors following proper procedures when dealing with patients. Unfortunately, instead of the Hippocratic Oath, Rabbi Yosef has decided to go with Exodus, which dates from the same approximate period but is much less compassionate and has not been updated ever since. In fact, Yosef doesn’t want Jewish doctors treating non-Jews on the Sabbath: … the spiritual leader of Shas said that while doctors are expected to do everything in their power — even… Read more
There seems to be something that everyone is talking about, but no one is actually saying it out loud. It seems that are a number of “male speakers behaving badly towards women at conferences” and yet they keep getting invited back because they’re big names and conference organizers can’t afford not to invite them. But it’s the other way around, they have to opt out of inviting them because these speakers are doing real harm to our movement. Anyone who… Read more
You know what they say about New Jersey. No, not that thing. The other thing: Only the strong survive. If this is so, basic science literacy is just barely surviving, though starving, abused, and neglected. Though I make my home in Maine and have spent years in Virginia and DC, I am a native New Jerseyan. Not only do I trace my cultural origins to the Garden State (I was born in Denver, but we left when I was not… Read more
