Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1742

Catholic School in Iowa Won’t Hire Gay Teacher Because He’s Engaged, but Students Are Staging a Walkout

Dowling Catholic High School in Des Moines, Iowa is the latest school — and by latest, I mean I just posted about a similar situation a couple of hours ago — to reject a potential teacher for the faith-based crime of being gay and engaged:

Officials at Dowling, a school in West Des Moines with about 1,430 students, recently learned that a substitute teacher who had applied for a full-time teaching job is engaged to a man with whom he is in a same-sex relationship, officials said.

The substitute...

How Crisis Pregnancy Centers Mislead Women Who Want to Obtain Abortions

Last year, reporter Meaghan Winter attended a meeting of the anti-abortion Heartbeat International conference, and she’s written about her experience in Cosmopolitan.

To nobody’s surprise, the conference was full of misinformation everywhere. And the attendees were encouraged to mislead women who were seeking abortions:

Throughout the conference, I asked at least a dozen pregnancy center staff if seeing so many unplanned pregnancies ever tempted them to suggest birth control pills or IUDs. Agai...

Catholic School Speech Coach, Who Led Team to Four State Championships, Will Be Fired if He Marries Boyfriend

A lot of readers know that I’m the head coach of a competitive high school Speech/Forensics Team in Illinois. Even though I’m not in the classroom anymore, I’m still coaching because I get to work with a wonderful group of students and it’s such a worthwhile activity. So this story hits really close to home.

If you visit the website for Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, Nebraska, this image will greet you on the front page:

Their team has won the State tournament four years in a row. That’s...

“Don’t Believe in God? You’re Not Alone!” Billboard Goes Up in Knoxville, Tennessee

If you’re in the Knoxville area, be on the lookout for this billboard which is scheduled to go up today:

The Rationalists of East Tennessee paid $1,800 for the sign, which will be up for a month… right across from a Baptist church.

I’m told the group actually tried to put up a similar billboard a few years ago, but were blocked by the local advertising company. To get around that problem this time around, the atheists went directly to the Lamar Advertising corporate folks

(Thanks to Shawnee for...

He May Want to Stop Walking on Water Then…

Seen in Daytona Beach, Florida:

(Thanks to Garman for the image)

Nebraska Governor Issues “National Day of Reason” Proclamation

Get ready to see National Day of Reason proclamations issued by mayors and governors across the country.

First up this year, at the request of the Omaha Coalition of Reason, is a proclamation signed by Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts:

WHEREAS, The application of reason, more than any other means, has proven to offer hope for human survival upon Earth, improving conditions within the universe, and cultivating intelligent, moral and ethical interactions among people and their environments; and

WHE...

Once Again, Logic and Reason to the Rescue

Until now, I never considered this argument for why religion is wrong…

Thank you to Clickhole for showing us how it’s done. All we need are shovels…

Members of Metal Band Nightwish Explain Why They’re “Openly Secular”

Following in the footsteps of Rep. Barney Frank, Penn & Teller, Bill Maher and several others, members of the symphonic metal band Nightwish have recorded a video explaining why they’re “openly secular”:

That video is cooler than I will ever be.

The band members, Tuomas Holopainen and Troy Donockley, said in a statement:

We feel it vital to speak out in retaliation and show our solidarity with freethinkers the world over: those who are proud to search for answers by themselves. Honest challenge...

Huffington Post Laughably Explains How to Redecorate Your Home According to “Local Space Astrology”

This is a guest post by Bo Gardiner, the pen name of a Virginia-based environmental professional, naturalist (in both senses of the word), writer and humanist activist. She blogs at Under the Greenwood Tree.

…

An associate editor for Huffington Post Lifestyle, Suzy Strutner, has bequeathed upon the world a truly extraordinary work of inanity in a piece called “Your Birthday Says A LOT About What Happens In Your Home.”

So there’d be no confusion, HuffPo wisely waited till the day after April Fool...

After Publisher Blocks Book’s Release Over Mention of Author’s Same-Sex Boyfriend in Bio, There’s a Happy Ending

In 2013, David Powers King and Michael Jensen were in the final stages of publishing their young-adult fantasy novel Woven when they saw a mistake on the back cover.

The biographical information for King was fine, but Jensen’s was missing this line: “He lives in Salt Lake City with his boyfriend and their four dogs.”

The Acquisitions Editor for publisher Cedar Fort, Inc. told him the reason in an email:

I was concerned about your bio and wondered what effect it would have with our [Mormon] buyer...