Last year, the group Stop Islamization of America paid for bus ads in places like New York City and San Francisco encouraging people to leave Islam. They also told them where to find more information about leaving the faith and getting support. When the same ads were to go up in Detroit, they were rejected. The ad reads: Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? LEAVING ISLAM? Got questions? Get answers!” “It’s a purely anti-Muslim hate… Read more
Hi Richard, My wife and I are both atheists. I’ve been open about it since my very early teens, but prior to meeting me a little over four years ago, my wife “Annie” had generally lived her life not thinking too much about religion. She didn’t buy the stories, but went along with her family, who mainly acted pious in order to please the matriarch of the family, her maternal grandmother “Ruth,” for whom religion is central. Everyone holds Ruth… Read more
Mike Lee, the religiousantagonist, is back with a new video. This time, he’s not reshelving books in a library. Instead, he’s trying to cut a deal with a homeless person: Will he remove the word “God” from his sign in exchange for $20? My initial reaction was: Dammit, Mike, why are you being a jerk? How dare you exploit a homeless family like this? If you want to help them, just give them the money. You know what? From now… Read more
Congratulations to resident advice guru Richard Wade for winning the “Best Chat with the Bishop, Mishies, or Other Church Leaders” poll at the Main Street Plaza blog! I know it’s an online poll, but the accolade doesn’t surprise me at all. One of his columns must have stood out to the ex-Mormons at that site in order to be nominated in the first place. Thanks to everyone who voted. And feel free to share your love for his columns in… Read more
This is a guest post by frequent commenter Claudia. … Often the circumstances that surround an event tell us more than the event itself. We all know the stories of the manger scenes around the holidays: City puts up a manger scene on public property, secular group reminds city of the existence of the “Constitution” (and “lawsuits”), city takes down manger scene, and the atheist community is flooded with vitriol and hatred by religious people. In these situations, it’s not… Read more
Is the word “female” offensive? Tom Slowikowski offers up a thought experiment to test that out. He urges people to substitute the word “male” anytime a synonym is used — by yourself or others. “Those guys” becomes “those males.” “That man” becomes “that male.” Try it out. As Tom asks, do you feel devalued? Objectified? Dehumanized? Depersonalized? Or did you not mind at all? Read more
Today’s a big Speech Team day — It’s the Sectional tournament where we find out who will make it to next week’s State tournament. So I’m out of commission for a bit longer… In the meantime, I would appreciate any votes you can cast for this site in the Bloggies! We’re in the running for “Best Weblog About Religion.” And if you’d prefer to do something less complicated, we’re also in the running for the “Agnosticism/Atheism 2011 Readers’ Choice Award… Read more
LifeWay Christian Stores has decided to get rid of its ridiculous “Read with Discernment” program, in which certain books were marked with stickers encouraging people to “read cautiously.” I posted about this program a couple years ago. Since most of it is still relevant, I wanted to repost it here (with a couple edits to fix links). … To nobody’s surprise, LifeWay Christian Stores sells Christian books among their many products. As any reader of these books knows, however, the… Read more
Note: Letter writers’ names are changed to protect their privacy. Dear Richard, Compared to the letters you normally answer, my problem is very small. The thing is, it’s progressively getting worse and I want to nip it now rather than let it grow into something more column-worthy! The problem is my sister. Most of my family members are atheists to varying degrees, except for my sister who converted to Islam in her early twenties. Ever since then, religion has been… Read more
I got a stack of emails yesterday referencing how wonderful it is that House Resolution 81 was introduced in Congress: Representative Pete Stark (D-CA) just introduced H. Res. 81 to Congress, expressing support for designation of February 12, 2011, as Darwin Day. This resolution is a culmination of collaboration between Representative Stark, 2008 Humanist of the Year, and the American Humanist Association. The AHA didn’t hold back its enthusiasm: … Executive Director Roy Speckhardt issued a statement calling Stark’s resolution… Read more
