Alexandra Alter of The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about churches hiring “mystery worshipers”, like Thomas Harrison, to critique their churches. Waitaminute… I’ve heard that one before… I suppose our situations are a bit different. In Harrison’s case, he’s critiquing things that don’t matter at all. Mr. Harrison — a meticulous inspector who often uses the phrase “I was horrified” to register his disapproval of dust bunnies and rude congregants — poses as a first-time churchgoer and covertly evaluates… Read more
Last week, I mentioned an incredible article highlighting the abuses taking place at Mercy Ministries — a Christian-based rehabilitation home. I managed to get in touch with a victim from Mercy Ministries who is willing to answer questions about her time there. Please submit your questions below and I’ll send them along. Read more
I just finished Dan Barker’s excellent book Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists. Dan is the co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the author of Losing Faith in Faith. Much of that book is reprised in this more updated version. But if you haven’t read the older book, now is the time to check out version 2.0. Unlike most books written by atheists, Dan was the real-deal fundamentalist Christian. He was Ray Comfort… Read more
I know I’ve asked this before, but I could use some website help… I’d like to figure out how to make this site more Google-able and that may involve setting up the proper link for a sitemap (I don’t think the current one works), making sure the titles for the pages look right, fixing up some source code, and seeing if there’s anything I can do to change the PageRank. I have some free time in the morning (yay for… Read more
Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly ran a straight-forward, fair piece about at the religions of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates — including Sarah Palin and That One. It’s a quick video, or you can just check out the transcript! (Thanks to Jeff for the link!) Read more
This Wednesday night, I’ll be speaking at Kensington Community Church (Troy Campus) in Troy, Michigan (just outside Detroit) about my church-going experiences. The plan is for the pastor to interview me — we’ll discuss what I discovered at churches across the country and my own experiences dealing with Christians as an atheist. If you’re in the area, it’d be great to have some like-minded support 🙂 There’s a book-signing afterwards, too! More information is here. The event begins at 7:00… Read more
Reader Nancy sends this amusing anecdote via email: While on lunch duty for the middle school of our Episcopal preK-12 school, the 8th grade history teacher told us that he had been having a discussion about freedom of religion when one of the students made the comment that he was agnostic. At that point another student… blurted out, “You worship eggs!?” Yep. And Zoroastrians worship Zorro. Read more
Mark at The Calladus Blog does a remarkable job highlighting the saga of Possummomma, a fellow blogger whose health problems kept her indoors — literally in the dark — and whose blog was taken down because of some nuts harassing her. Truth be told, I’m not familiar enough with the recent portion of the story to know how much of either side is accurate and I’m not in contact with Possummomma. But if Mark is right, then it’s a sad… Read more
Looks like Governor Sarah Palin was using taxpayer money to fund her own faith back in Alaska: Since she took state office in late 2006, the governor and her family have spent more than $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at least 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors, including Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, records show. … On a weekend trip from the capital in June, a minister from the Wasilla Assembly of God… Read more
This week, I’ve been reading Dan Barker’s fantastic new book Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists. I’ll write more on it later. In the meantime, one particular passage jumped out at me. When Dan finally made the leap from fundamentalist preacher to atheist, he let all of his family and close friends know that he was no longer a Christian courtesy of a letter explaining his decision. The responses included people who wrote that he… Read more
