GUTS Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma has a youth program they call Sub30. (Because, you know, that name’s so hip, you *have* to join!) One of the ways the group celebrates God is by having a regular Fight Night. It’s exactly what you think it is… They even celebrated their latest event on Twitter: Ok, so they box for Jesus. The whole point is to do something catering to younger people so they eventually become tithing church members. I have no… Read more
Fresh off their ripping-up-photocopied-Bible-Verses publicity stunt, Bruce Gleason and the Backyard Skeptics have put up two billboards in the Orange County area. The first one encourages readers to reject all religious superstitions (not just everyone else’s): Good luck reading all that while you drive… It’s reminiscent of the “Extraordinary Claims” campaign that went up in Canada last year: The second billboard the Backyard Skeptics are putting up has a simple message on it: “Faith has no answers. It only impedes… Read more
If you’re a non-violent criminal in Bay Minette, Alabama, you now have an option for how you’d like to handle your punishment: Stay behind bars… or attend the church of your choice. Operation Restore Our Community or “ROC”…begins next week. The city judge will either let [misdemeanor] offenders work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine or go to church every Sunday for a year. If offenders elect church, they’re allowed to pick the place of worship, but… Read more
Gordon Maples is the President of the Alabama Atheists and Agnostics at the University of Alabama (in Tuscaloosa). He gave a talk at the 2011 Secular Student Alliance conference on “Expanding Your Group in Harsh Territory”… by which he means The South 🙂 Gordon also wears the greatest hat *ever* during his talk. Check it out! If anything, check out the 5:30 mark for the chalkings they drew on campus. Beautiful! Read more
I have no idea what just happened to me while I watched dogmaticCURE’s latest video, but I suddenly feel inspired to grab a weapon, scream “THEY WILL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!” and charge after my enemies. Damn, that’s inspiring. (YouTube commenters rightly point out that the collage of brilliant minds beginning at 6:17 consist only of men. That’s an unfortunate oversight.) Read more
There’s a petition making the rounds on the White House website to remove “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s getting a lot of support… which, as you know, means absolutely nothing. The Pledge won’t change anytime soon. (If it ever does change back to it original form, you can bet it’ll be via the judicial system, not Congress or the President.) But there’s no reason you can’t lend your symbolic support: Odds are this won’t get an “official”… Read more
For the past decade, public prayers have been a regular part of the weekly football pre-game ritual at Arab High School in Alabama. That led the Freedom From Religion Foundation to send a notice (PDF) to the district’s superintendent: Arab City Schools must take immediate action to ensure that prayers are not scheduled at any school-sponsored events. The prayers at the football games constitute an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion. A reasonable Arab City Schools student would certainly perceive the… Read more
This is the price some students have to pay for standing up to religious forces in their public high school: Jessica Ahlquist is strong and confident — I know she can handle it. But she shouldn’t have to deal with anything like this just because she’s a vocal minority fighting against an illegal religious banner hanging in her school. Her courage is inspiring to me and (I know) a lot of you. Please support groups like the Secular Student Alliance… Read more
I love this design by Niels Shoe Meulman: Can we get that up in a church somewhere…? Maybe the leaders won’t notice. (via Reddit) Read more
This has nothing to do with religion. It’s just an amazing video by a wonderful singer — Lisa Hannigan singing “Knots” from her new album Passenger: (via All Songs Considered) Read more
