Reading Time: 3 minutes Although I’m a committed nontheist and ardent church-state separationist, I’m not inflexible about it. Which is to say I see no good reason to oppose Christmas trees, for example, in public, tax-supported spaces. It’s been a centuries-long American civic tradition to erect Christmas trees all over creation, so to speak—in public and private spaces—and these […]
politics
Posted inPolitics
Idaho’s ‘faith-healing’ exemption has led to more senseless child deaths
Reading Time: 3 minutes Idaho is one of only six states where belief in “faith-healing” can help you escape charges of negligent homicide, manslaughter, or capital murder. So if a child dies because her Christian Science parents refused to take her to a doctor, those parents won’t be punished. Consider the state’s laws regarding children and vulnerable adults, which includes this […]
Posted inPolitics
Far right attacks in Brazil highlight world’s ongoing anti-democratic wave
Reading Time: 3 minutes On January 8, thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the far right past president of Brazil who flew to Florida days before the end of his term in office, stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in the capital, Brasilia. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) condemned these attacks as the work […]
Posted inPolitics
‘Freethinker’ Mark Rozzi just became the new speaker of the Pennsylvania House
Reading Time: 4 minutes Pennsylvania State Representative Mark Rozzi, a self-identified “freethinker,” is now the speaker of the State House after Republicans couldn’t use their slim (temporary) majority to elect a leader from their own party. If you’ve been following the drama in that state, you know how chaotic things have been. After years of Republican dominance in the […]
Posted inPolitics
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s veto of a secular addiction treatment bill makes no sense
Reading Time: 5 minutes On December 23, New York Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill (Senate Bill S7313A / Assembly Bill A8163) that would have expanded treatment options for secular people struggling with substance abuse and addiction. Hochul has now—finally—explained her veto of the addiction treatment bill, but it makes no sense whatsoever. The purpose of the bill was […]
Posted inDeep Dive
2022: The year in global review, Part II
Reading Time: 9 minutes Our exercise in the folly of year-end lists continues! In Part I of this global review for 2022, three key themes emerged from this year’s major news events. The first was “Europe on fire”, and the implications of energy infrastructure policy for the environment and future imperialist tyranny. The second dealt with the collapse of […]
Posted inDeep Dive
2022: The year in global review, Part I
Reading Time: 8 minutes All end-of-year lists are suspect. One must embrace futility when trying to summarize what happened on a planet of eight billion for one spin around the sun. So why do we do write them? At best, to break up our routines of knee-jerk outrage at the latest inane news item, and to think more systematically […]
Posted inPolitics
Rep. Jamie Raskin announces cancer diagnosis (without any mention of God)
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yesterday, Congressman Jamie Raskin released a statement revealing his diagnosis of “Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, which is a serious but curable form of cancer.” It’s a devastating blow for one of the most admirable members of Congress. It also comes nearly two years to the day after Raskin’s son died by suicide. Raskin was […]
Posted inReligious News
Cycles of extremism: NGOs suspend services after Taliban bans female staff
Reading Time: 3 minutes In a series of moves surprising no one, the Taliban government in Afghanistan this past week banned women from universities, and also locked girls out of primary school (essentially ending education to female persons across the board), before also banning women from work in any local non-government organizations (NGOs). The usual nonsense reasons pertaining to […]
Posted inPolitics
GOP lawmaker praises pastor whose church ignored child sex abuse
Reading Time: 2 minutes On Monday, Congressman Louie Gohmert, one of the most conservative members of the Republican Party, gave a general speech on the floor of the House and recited a sermon written for him by Pastor Tommy Nelson. Gohmert explained that Nelson, a friend who runs Denton Bible Church in Texas, sometimes joked about how he would […]