Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1755

“Thousands of Ministers” Whose Faith Has Worn Thin Feel Trapped In Their Jobs, Says Christian Writer

Especially for a blog called the High Calling, this is quite the admission.

There are thousands of ministers out there who no longer wish to be ministers. They no longer want to work in churches. …But they don’t know how to leave. They don’t have anywhere to go. They don’t know what to do. …

Some ministers become disillusioned with the business side of the church. Seminary was all theology and ideology. Then you arrive in the church of our culture and discover that the congregation is really lo...

Ken Ham Whines About Proposed Statue Honoring Pro-Science Lawyer, Unaware of Actual Statue Honoring Creationist

Last week, I posted about the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee, home of the legendary Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, where there stands a statue of lawyer William Jennings Bryan. (He was on the Creationist side.)

Recently, there’s been a push for the courthouse to put up a statue of the other attorney in the trial, Clarence Darrow. It would be a privately-funded statue, with the American Humanist Association managing all the money involved.

A model of what the final Clarence Darrow sta...

Duck Dynasty Daddy Muses About Atheist Family Getting Raped, Shot, Beheaded, & Castrated to Show How God is Good

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson (below) wanted to tell his audience at the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast on Friday that atheists don’t have any moral authority because, apparently, you need God to be good. It your typical Christian apologist bullshit… but the example he used to illustrate his point is just appalling:

I’ll make a bet with ya. Two guys break into an atheist’s home. He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and tie him up in a...

Why Does Wichita State University’s Basketball Team Employ a Chaplain?

It’s commonplace for professional sports teams to have chaplains. They’re private leagues; it’s not a constitutional violation. But the NCAA is a very different story. Many of the schools in this year’s men’s basketball tournament are public universities and, therefore, have no business having someone on the team whose job it is to promote Christianity.

But that’s what’s happening with Wichita State, the school that beat the higher-ranked Kansas Jayhawks over the weekend to get to the Sweet 16...

Faith Healer Benny Hinn Is Admitted to Intensive Care For Heart Problems

Irony alert:

Televangelist Benny Hinn was admitted to the intensive care unit in an Orange County, California hospital this weekend after suffering heart problems in Brazil last week. The 63-year-old healing evangelist is expected to make a full recovery, but recognizes that he may have overdone it during a week-long crusade in South America.

“This is a challenge, but I’m getting good reports,” Hinn toldCharisma News. “We don’t have all the answers … as we get older, our bodies need repair.”

In...

Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas Is No Longer the Worst Movie in IMDb’s History

I think Kirk Cameron is having a party somewhere.

Last December, I noted that his movie Saving Christmas had the dubious distinction of having the worst film in IMDb history.

(The lowest rating anyone can give a movie, in case you’re wondering, is 1. Which means if 0 stars were an option, the score would probably be even lower.)

But it’s been overtaken undertaken!

Saving Christmas is now the second worst movie in IMDB history… with the title now held by Kod Adı: K.O.Z., a Turkish propaganda film...

American Atheists Will Air Its First National TV Commercial Tonight on CNN

Before and after tonight’s CNN special, “Atheists: Inside the World of Non-believers,” American Atheists will air its first-ever national TV commercial:

You know, given the nature of AA’s billboards, this is relatively tame…

It’s not the first time an atheist group has aired a commercial on mainstream television. FFRF aired a controversial ad featuring Ron Reagan (the late President’s son) on Comedy Central and Fox.

Ohio Public School District Asks Students to Practice “Christian Values” in Handbook

Check out this page from the student handbook for Edon Northwest Local School District in Ohio:

Which “Christian values” do they want students to uphold? Being willing to kill someone if God tells them to? Stoning people who violate any of the Ten Commandments? Condemning gay and lesbian students in the district who decide to date someone of the same gender?

(And is it weird to anyone else that they separate “honesty” and “Christian values” as if they’re different things?)

In any case, there’s n...

Ken Ham: Climate Change Would Be “Startling” if Earth Were Millions of Years Old, But It’s Not, So Don’t Worry!

It’s always unnerving to hear Ken Ham admit the reality of climate change. But then he keeps talking and everything goes back to normal.

God did it.

In his latest brain dropping, he goes after his critics:

… creationists do not deny climate change! And at Answers in Genesis we don’t shy away from using the term “climate change.” Climate change is an observable process that we see happening around us. We can measure the temperature in the present and see that it changes from year to year (this is...

Utah’s Pro-Life Governor Signs Bill Approving Firing Squads for Death Row Inmates if Lethal Drugs Are Unavailable

In 2010, Utah Governor Gary Herbert (below) signed a bill charging women who arranged for an illegal abortion with “criminal homicide.” In 2012, he got behind a law requiring women to wait an unnecessary 72 hours before getting an abortion. NARAL Pro-Choice America calls him “anti-choice” while giving the whole state an “F” grade for its stances on abortion-related issues.

So look at what Governor Pro-Life did today:

Utah became the only state to allow firing squads for executions Monday when G...