Reading Time: 5 minutes With Russia having formally annexed four occupied regions in Ukraine after a series of sham referendums, to strong rebuke and promises of escalating consequences from the EU and NATO, one can be forgiven for thinking this was an altogether bleak week. (The recent press of an extreme hurricane in Florida, and ongoing energy grid destabilization […]
Law
Posted inBooks
‘American Crusade’: How the Supreme Court is weaponizing Christianity
Reading Time: 6 minutes Three years ago, constitutional attorney, atheist, author, and “fake Christian” Andrew Seidel wrote about the threat of Christian nationalism in his book The Founding Myth, arguing that we were never a “Christian Nation” in any real sense of that phrase. Yet even though we weren’t founded as a Christian country, and even though we won’t […]
Posted inEducation, Law, LGBTQ, LGBTQ News
Yeshiva University shuts down all student clubs to thwart one LGBTQ group
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yeshiva University, a private Orthodox Jewish school with campuses in New York City, has decided to shut down all undergraduate clubs rather than allow an LGBTQ group to meet temporarily. It marks the second time this week that Orthodox Jews are in the news for making the worst possible decisions when they easily could’ve done the bare […]
Posted inLaw
Catholic League: Relax! Priests’ victims are “adolescents, not children”!
Reading Time: 4 minutes In 2018, the public finally saw a Pennsylvania grand jury’s report into the Catholic Church’s abuses in six dioceses across the state. We learned that more than 300 priests were accused of abusing more than 1,000 children. The stories were absolutely horrific. Many of those priests were dead. Of those who were alive, some couldn’t […]
Posted inCulture
Sociologist: It’s called ‘culture war’ for a reason
Reading Time: 7 minutes On May 2nd, 2022, the Haven, Kansas city council voted to remove decals from police cars that said “In God We Trust.” They did so in a sensible effort to recognize the separation of church and state. Sixteen days later, after an intense backlash from conservative citizens in Haven, the city council reversed that decision. […]
Posted inLaw
Fargo School Board nixes Pledge of Allegiance due to ‘under God’ phrase
Reading Time: 2 minutes In a sensible move that’s sure to infuriate conservatives, the Fargo School Board in North Dakota voted this week to stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance to open their meetings. The board only began saying the Pledge back in April, but the faux-patriotic ritual didn’t go over well with some members of the community who […]
Posted inLaw, Theater
Before ‘Hamilton,’ The Door McAllen church stole ‘Beauty and the Beast’
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Door McAllen, a church in Texas, has been under serious scrutiny for the past several days after performing an unlicensed, Jesus-centric production of Hamilton over the weekend. The show is not available for any outside group to perform right now, much less a church that changes the show’s message. Making matters worse, Friday night’s […]
Posted inReligion
The Mormon Church’s ‘help line’ keeps sex abuse victims in danger
Reading Time: 6 minutes If you are a member of the Mormon Church and you have a problem, you’re supposed to talk to your local bishop. And if the bishop has questions about how to handle an issue—say an accusation of sexual abuse—he can call a special 24-hour “help line.” If the social worker or counselor is told about the […]
Posted inPolitics
Judge: Lawmaker who blocked atheists on Twitter must hand over documents
Reading Time: 3 minutes Arkansas State Sen. Jason Rapert has lost yet another legal battle in his pathetic quest to avoid online criticism from atheists. It’s the latest twist in a battle that started in 2018, when American Atheists filed a lawsuit against the lawmaker best known for erecting an unconstitutional Ten Commandments monument outside the State Capitol. They […]
Posted inLaw
With the Lemon Test gone, a police-led prayer vigil may be legal again
Reading Time: 6 minutes The Supreme Court’s decision to gut the Lemon Test may lead to a government-sponsored Christian prayer vigil being declared legal. More specifically, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated an earlier (sensible) decision that respected church/state separation. What happens now is anyone’s guess. This saga began in 2014, when Greg Graham, chief of the Ocala […]