No God? No charity.

The good folks at Rock Beyond Belief have been given the final word: no, absolutely positively no atheists will be allowed to feed homeless vets in connection with their secular, godless concert.

This means that the evangelicals surely had to follow this law too, right? Of course not.

They were permitted to raise funds (in the form of cash!) for months on post. They raised $54,000 in tithing at every chapel on post – there are several. That is a colossal fundraising effort, repeatedly violating the regulation – at multiple locations on post.

But atheists won’t be allowed to collect a few canned goods to help out their fellow soldiers. Because really, what’s the well-being of a bunch of starving, homeless heroes (who have sacrificed so much for the rest of us) compared to the awful and terrifying prospect of having the public realize that atheists are—gasp!—nice people?

Good to see the leadership at Ft. Bragg making such a plain and forthright statement of their priorities.

The equal rights bill you never heard of.

There is a major human rights bill under debate in Canada. You’ve probably never heard of it, which is a bad sign, because it’s important.

It is about what happens to actual human beings. Human beings whose rights are being denied, identities being invalidated, ability to participate in our society being hopelessly compromised, ability to live without fear of assault or harassment being taken away, and pursuit of simplest forms of happiness, fulfillment and life’s rewards being rendered untenable, impossible. Real living, breathing Canadians being denied their chance at anything resembling a full, rewarding and safe life by the complacency of an uninformed public.

Read the full story at Sincerely, Natalie Reed.

School prayer draws opposition from—wait, who?

For more than 30 years, Dr. Harold Brockus was the Presbyterian pastor at the Good Samaritan Church in Pinellas Park. Sermons, missions, prayers. Everything you would expect from a place of worship and a man of God.

So when a school prayer bill landed on Gov. Rick Scott’s desk this month, Rev. Brockus understandably had reason to care. Enough reason to put his name on a letter imploring the governor to do the right thing with this proposed law.

Don’t sign it.

via Tampa Bay Times.

The only people who really profit from laws mandating state-sponsored prayer are the lawyers who will take home fat fees from all the lawsuits it will take to bring the state back in line with the Constitution again.

God’s definition of marriage

God’s definition of marriage, according to a lot of people today, is given in Genesis 2:24: “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” But there are a few problems with that. For one thing, the word “wife” does not appear in the original text. The word used there is “ishshah,” or woman–the same word Adam uses in the previous verse when he says, “She shall be called woman (ishshah), for she was taken out of man (ish).” There was no license, no priest or rabbi, no vows, or in short, no wedding. Eve was a woman, and Adam just took her and started sleeping with her, without marriage. If you want to find the earliest Biblical reference to actual marriage, you have to go to Sodom.

[Read more…]

I had no choice, he was packing a whole bag of Skittles

This is old news by now, but the passing of time has only made it even more outrageous. A white vigilante named George Zimmerman has shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, and hasn’t even been arrested.

Zimmerman, 28, claims he shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last month in self-defence during a confrontation in a gated community in Sanford, Florida.

Zimmerman spotted Martin as he was patrolling his neighbourhood on a rainy evening last month and called the police emergency dispatcher to report a suspicious person. Against the advice of the emergency dispatcher, Zimmerman then followed Martin, who was walking home from a convenience store with a bag of Skittles sweets in his pocket.

via guardian.co.uk.

As the Guardian reports, this has now led to an investigation by the US Justice Department, joined by the FBI and the US attorney’s office. But he still has not been arrested. If you happen to be passing by the Action Request form for the Sanford police department, you might want to ask why not.

“The real bigots are the liberals”

Writing for Mail Online, one Simon Heffer spews:

I believe that the only people who should be able to marry and have a wedding are those of different genders.

Well I believe that people should only publish opinions that do not make them look like narrow-minded twits, but you don’t hear me calling for the outlawing of Simon Heffer, now do you.

Sheesh.

[Read more…]

In bed with the Church?

They say that politics makes strange bedfellows, but this one seems a bit stranger than most.

David Coburn, the openly gay spokesman of Great Britain’s U.K. Independence Party, claims that Prime Minister David Cameron is “picking a fight” with the religious community over same-sex marriage, insisting that pushing such legislation “shows a lack of toleration towards others who look on marriage as a holy sacrament between man and woman.”

Coburn and UKIP made their opposition to the same-sex marriage legislation known last week, arguing that civil unions are a superior alternative that would not hinder religious freedom.

via the Christian Post.

Allowing everybody the same rights is a lack of tolerance? I suppose it is, in the same way that allowing McDonalds to sell hamburgers shows a lack of tolerance for vegetarianism.

[Read more…]

My years in the pro-life movement

So Doonesbury is taking on the medical rape bill this week, and there’s all the associated uproar you’d expect. Maybe now would be a good time for me to reminisce about my experiences as a pro-life advocate.

This was back during my evangelical Christian days, of course. As a conservative evangelical, I was automatically pro-life, almost without thinking. And yet, I did think too, which got me into a bit of trouble. Creationism was the biggest factor that ultimately made me question my faith, but my pro-life experiences made no small contribution to that outcome.

[Read more…]

Speaking of slavery…

If you haven’t yet stopped by Libby Anne’s blog, you should at the very least check out this post about Kirk Cameron and Doug Phillips.

Phillips teaches that a woman is never to be out from under male authority no matter her age or marital condition, and that being under male authority includes complete submission and obedience, because God speaks to women through their male authorities. This is nothing short of slavery.

Christians all too often criticize mainstream Muslims for failing to police the more radical and barbaric of their sects, but turn a blind eye to oppression and medieval morality in their own ranks.