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Penn Jillette’s Signs You May Already Be an Atheist

By Steve A. Wiggins

…God, No! was published, to great acclaim. As of October it ranked #273 in Amazon’s book sales category. (Those of us whose books are ranked down in the millions can’t help but feel a little pang of jealousy; it does tell us, however, who is getting read!) Jillette is the vocal member of Penn & Teller, the bad-boy magician duo, and a noted iconoclast. Largely a ramble through his inner monologue, God, No! is the first book to cause me to laugh out…

What’s More Frightening Than Snakes on a Plane?

By Devin Kuhn-Choi

…using to sit in their assigned seats next to women, indicate. Here on RD, Kara Loewentheil recently argued that the airplane demonstration but that it “replicates the broader social and political movement strategies we’ve seen on a personal scale,” and highlighted the similarities between these smaller-scale protests and religious employers protesting the Affordable Care Act under claims of religious freedom. While I agree with Loewentheil’s point…

More Mixed Signals from Pope Francis; Church of England Wrestles with Rifts; Faith Groups Lobby Pro & Con on Irish Referendum; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…. The website Erasing 76 Crimes published a new map of countries with laws against homosexual activity, which includes four fewer countries than it did at the beginning of last year. Responsible for the decline from 82 to 78 are Mozambique, which dropped its anti-gay law as part of a Penal Code overhaul last year; Palau, which decriminalized homosexuality last year; the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus; and São Tomé and Príncipe, which had actu…

Waiting for Lightning to Strike: A Wobbly Agnostic among the Atheists

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…y that Des Moines was a Christian city, thank you very much and don’t call again. Someone apparently got through on the second try.) The potbellied MC crosses the stage in that wide-legged stride that identifies him as an ex-jock, a guy who crushed the quarterback for the pure joy of it. Back at the podium, he tells us that many were confused when the American Atheists chose Des Moines as the national convention site. “Why Des Moines?” people kep…

The Sacred and the Dead: The Trouble with Sugar Magnolia

By Kaya Oakes

…d girls who swayed through those parking lots asking for change, and the “mamas” and “old ladies” minding the camp stove while 60-something-year-old Deadhead guys hit on my teenage friends by offering them tickets to shows. Deadheads were anathema to my chosen subculture of socially conscious punks. East Bay punks were aggro and in your face about social justice, feminism, human rights; Deadheads, in our eyes, were too stoned and obsessed with the…

Wolves Repelled by Christian Rock, Bibles for Porn, Fox Rejects Super Bowl Ad

By Michael J. Altman

…ich we all know is the proper context for John 3:16 at a football game. In Alabama, a meditation class is helping to lower prison violence. The National Prayer Breakfast was held on Thursday and a variety of speakers talked about their spiritual lives. President Obama spoke candidly about his personal Christian faith. Astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, spoke about what good might come out of the Arizona shooting tragedy. One…

Abortion and the Stories Clergy Tell

By Dennis S. Ross

…a burial service for a man I didn’t know and a family I’d likely never see again. The son of the deceased, a grandfather himself, scanned the nearby graves and pointed to an inscription for a 23-year-old woman who died in 1931. “My aunt passed before I was born. She had an illegal abortion,” he said as if our unfamiliarity gave him permission to unearth a family secret. “What a shame,” was all I could muster, having heard the start of a story I di…

The Drowning of Bin Laden

By Haroon Moghul

…and sustained al-Qaeda; where your body goes when no one wants it. Hence Osama’s last rites: He was washed and shrouded for a funeral, in accordance with Islamic custom, but then dropped into the sea, in a gesture at odds with Islamic custom only narrowly interpreted. It seems the decision was made not out of respect for bin Laden, but to show that the United States will not be forced into the dynamic al-Qaeda needs in order to survive: you are ei…

Phelps’ Vile Words Test First Amendment

By Lauri Lebo

…ek in Topeka, Kansas last week. By the way, it’s been described by the media as a compound. It’s actually a city block of fenced-in homes in a rather nice residential neighborhood with lovely landscaping. It’s so nice that at first, I figured I was at the wrong place. But then I saw the giant banner on the second-story house which serves as the church, “GodhatesAmerica.com” and the vandalized garage door with painted over, but still visible, penis…

Ultra Orthodox Murder-Suicide Makes Headlines

By Shalom Goldman

…s and blamed Aberman’s family. At Rosenberg’s funeral his friends told an Haaretz reporter that Rosenberg “carried a vendetta against the Aberman family and maintained that they were trying to ruin his life.” Interviewed after the funeral, Rosenberg’s boss stated that “he told me that the would-be bride’s family did a thorough check on him with the Hasidic Rabbis and that negative things were said about him.” There was also a property issue involv…