Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1944

We Now Have a Tumblr

For anyone who uses Tumblr, I’m happy to announce that we’ve finally set one up for this site. Most of the material consists of memes and other images we post on the regular Facebook page, but it’s a lot easier to share if you’re already a Tumblr user.

Now one of you kids please show me how to work this thing…

Christian St. Louis “Killer” Cop Suspended For YouTube Diatribe Against Military Women, Muslims, and “Sodomites”

Fun to watch, if you like unhinged diatribes from Jesus-loving cops:

The spittle-spewing gentleman is Dan Page of the St. Louis County Police Department, addressing a gathering of Oath Keepers – and yes, you heard him just fine. In talking about his apparently beleaguered religious liberty, he alleges

There’s a couple out there in New Mexico right now that are being prosecuted and put out of business and were arrested because they refused to take pictures of sodomites. What about my freedom of religion from that?

That’s a reference to the wedding photographer who declined to take a female same-sex couple as clients. Here are the facts of the case. Surprise: the photographer in question was neither arrested nor prosecuted.

Page also has a problem with women in the military:

You got women trying to be — by the way, and I deeply resent this, we’ve had our first female Green Beret… we have our first female ranger. What happened here? Something’s wrong.

Page again:

You have persecution, prosecution … the final phase is execution.

Now he’s rambling about Muslims (all of whom, he says, are itching to cut your head off) and how their end-times arrival was foreshadowed by the biblical tale of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. One of those supernatural cowboys is said to ride a pale horse that Page assumes is actually green. Guess what? Green is the color of Islam. Uncanny!

Obama is allowing hundreds of thousands of them to come in every week.

Muslims, not Horsemen. So that would be more than 10 million Muslim immigrants a year at a minimum; at least 80 million over the course of the President’s two terms. Who knew? (The most plausible number of Muslims in the United States is around three million, but I concede that there could be at least another 80 million of them — equal to one quarter of the known U.S. population — who are being trained in secret FEMA camps, probably by African death squads under the control of Obama’s Kenyan relatives.)

In a longer cut of the video, at 2:37, Page can also be heard to unabashedly offer this statement:

I personally believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. But I’m also a killer. I’ve killed a lot. And if I need to, I’ll kill a whole bunch more. If you don’t want to get killed, don’t show up in front of me.

Oath Keepers, by the way, claim to be

… a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, reserves, National Guard, veterans, Peace Officers, and Fire Fighters who will fulfill the Oath we swore, with the support of like minded citizens who take an Oath to stand with us, to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help us God. Our Oath is to the Constitution.

If you’re a woman, a Muslim, or gay, do you reckon that when officer Page encounters you, he’ll defend your constitutional rights?

The St. Louis police department is not sure about that either, and, on the basis of his out-to-lunch speech, has suspended Page pending the outcome of an investigation that will likely include a psychiatric evaluation and a good deal of scrutiny by Internal Affairs.

Mississippi’s Jackson Public School District Began the Year with Jesus at a Mandatory Event for Faculty Members

In the district I taught in, we used to hold a massive beginning-of-the-year event for faculty members at a nearby Christian church. It was the only local space that could accommodate that many people. But it wasn’t a problem because, other than the building itself, you wouldn’t have known you were in a church. The speakers focused on the upcoming school year and there were no prayers or anything of the sort.

The Jackson Public School District in Mississippi held a similar event a couple of weeks ago at the Mississippi Coliseum… but infused Christianity throughout the mandatory, three-hour-long, district-sponsored event.

It must have been a surprise for any faculty member who looked at the event description on the district’s website:

According to the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center, this is what happened:

Reverend Roy Maine was invited by the School District to deliver the opening prayer.

The Reverend began his sermon by asking the entire faculty to “shut your eyes please” and pray. Following that was a series of “call and responses” where he would ask the teachers, “please say amen to that,” to which they would respond, “amen!” The Reverend said that the reason they were all there was to “to see just what God’s going to do this [school] year.”

…

The religious proselytization did not end with the Reverend’s sermon. Nearly every speaker at this three-hour event engaged in some form of religious preaching, recitation of Bible verses, and invocation to “Lord” and “God.” The event was best described by our client as “one long church service.”

Apparently, Reverend Maine delivered a prayer at last year’s convocation as well, proving that this wasn’t just an isolated incident.

The AHA isn’t filing a lawsuit. Yet. They’re just asking Superintedent Dr. Cedrick Gray to promise it won’t happen again and explain how the district will take steps to enforce that in the future.

“Given the numerous cases holding that prayers and sermons at public school-sponsored events violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, it’s shocking that the district would include such blatantly religious practices at a compulsory convocation,” said Monica Miller, an attorney with the Appignani Humanist Legal Center.

“When public schools get unnecessarily involved in supporting sectarian prayer at educator events, they disregard the rights of teachers of other religions and those of no religion,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association.

Even in Mississippi, it’s amazing how many public school officials think it’s effective or legal to join together in Christian prayer to kick off the new year. It’s also not working. Education Week ranked the state dead last (51st) when it came to K-12 Student Achievement. Maybe if district officials spent more time talking about how to help students and less time asking God to intervene in their affairs, they might get somewhere.

Friendly Atheist Podcast Episode 11: Billy Hallowell, TheBlaze.com

Our latest podcast guest is Billy Hallowell, faith and culture editor at TheBlaze.com (the site founded by Glenn Beck):

Billy has written pieces for The Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Huffington Post, and several other websites, and he is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel. His interest in politics and social issues goes far back. He used to be the CEO of VoterWatch, a non-partisan nonprofit focusing on government transparency, and even began a website in high school encouraging students to make a difference in their communities.

We spoke with Billy about what he’s learned from working under Glenn Beck, what conservatives do poorly, and how we share a surprising bond involving actor Nicolas Cage.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the podcast. If you have any suggestions for people we should chat with, please leave them in the comments, too.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, get the MP3 directly, check it out on Stitcher, or just listen to the whole thing below.

And if you like what you’re hearing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon and leaving us a positive rating!

Who Owns the ATHEIST License Plate in Your State?

Just out of sheer curiosity, I’m trying to compile a list of all the people in the U.S. who own the “ATHEIST” license plate in their state. Not a variant of it, not another synonym for atheist, but the actual seven-letter plate.

Minnesota’s August Berkshire with his ATHEIST license plate

You can help me compile that information by going to this spreadsheet and filling out whatever you know or find out (or passing it along to anyone who might have that information). I’ve filled out a few of the rows already.

Even if you could document vanity plate information from your state, that’d be helpful! Thanks.

Brigham Young University Bookstore Accidentally Stocks Greeting Cards Celebrating Same-Sex Weddings

Officials at Brigham Young University sprang into action last week when a moral crisis rocked their campus: Hallmark greeting cards celebrating same-sex weddings showed up unannounced in the campus bookstore.

The Mormon-owned BYU operates under an “honor code” banning anyone from acting on feelings of same-sex attraction. According to BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins, the greeting cards — which read “Mr. and Mr.” or “Mrs. and Mrs.” — violated that code.

“Homosexual behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex,” [the code] states, “but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings.

Bookstore staff didn’t notice the cards until storegoers started posting photos of them online, no doubt tickled by the irony of pro-LGBT decor turning up on one of the most homophobic college campuses in the country. It’s unclear how or when the cards showed up in the bookstore, but it definitely wasn’t on purpose.

It wasn’t immediately clear when they were placed, but Jenkins said they weren’t up long. BYU staffers have spoken with the company about leaving similar cards off the school’s store shelves in the future. BYU doesn’t plan on ending its contract with Hallmark.

“This was just someone stocking the shelves who wasn’t aware,” [Jenkins] said. “We’ve been able to work with them.”

Nobody is surprised, of course, that BYU flipped out and took these cards off the shelves. The person stocking the shelves probably didn’t make the connection, but in my head, I’m going to pretend this whole thing was intentional and that some Hallmark employee is laughing maniacally at the ruckus s/he caused.

As always, BYU’s queer and allied students are managing to find a silver lining despite their school’s codified homophobia.

Samy Galvez, president of the group Understanding Same Gender Attraction (USGA) and a senior at BYU, said changes to the honor code in 2007 and 2010 allowed students to talk about their sexual orientation without fear of being expelled.

Though he declined to comment on the greeting cards, calling it an accident, Galvez said he generally has found a welcoming environment at BYU.

“I was really amazed to see how welcoming and how loving people are,” he said. “Even though you know people adhere to a standard of conduct of not advocating for same-sex marriage, at the same time that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of showing empathy.”

I’d also like to point out two of the more interesting comments on the Salt Lake Tribune article.

From user BeezerSLC:

Nice to know that things haven’t changed at BYU. When I was there in the 80s they pulled the Muppet greeting cards because there were complaints Miss Piggy was showing too much cleavage and wasn’t setting a good example of modesty.

And from user exmo88:

Come on Hallmark! Make them a card that says “Mr. and Mrs, and Mrs, and Mrs, and Mrs, and Mrs, and Mrs.”

Okay, you knew that one was coming.

Hindu Group Leader Urges Town of Greece (NY) to Not Exclude Atheists from Giving Invocations

In response to the Town of Greece (New York) changing their invocation policy to exclude non-religious speakers, Rajan Zed (below), President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, issued a press release Saturday condemning the Town Board and urging them to be more inclusive:

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, stressed that as Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Baha’is, Confucians, Daos, Shinto, Jains, Zoroastrians and others had freedom of their belief systems and were respected for their respective choices, and so should be the atheists. We all should be more inclusive if we wanted to create harmony in the world.

…

Who were we as human beings to judge publicly that other humans’ beliefs different than us were wrong? Zed asked.

Take a step forward in inclusiveness, Rajan Zed urged the Town of Greece Board.

Great message and one the Board Members should take to heart.

Now, for what it’s worth, the Universal Society of Hinduism is one of those organizations like the William Donohue‘s Catholic League — it’s pretty much a one-man show with little hint of broader membership. But when even a religious person/group tells you you’re treating atheists like second-class citizens, it should be a sign you’re doing something wrong.

(Image via Wikipedia. Thanks to Brian for the link)

She Loves to Praise the Lord

Mr. Bullshit and Mr. Credulous finally have a new friend in Little Miss Hallelujah:

You can read the full story by Crispian Jago right here. Too bad there isn’t a happy ending!

Bill Nye Speaks About His Debate Against Creationist Ken Ham

Bill Nye the Science Guy was the keynote speaker at this year’s The Amazing Meeting, and video of his talk is finally online. He spoke at length about his debate with Creationist Ken Ham:

If nothing else, watch the part beginning at the 1:03:15 mark. Inspirational.

An Indian State Just Found a Way to Make Blasphemy Laws Look Lenient

You thought blasphemy laws were bad? According to a new law in the Indian state of Karnataka, officials can arrest you before you’ve even done anything that might be considered blasphemous.

The full explanation of what’s going on is better explained in the Bangalore Mirror, but here’s how bad it could get, according to Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet and Society:

If I publish an image of a naked body as part of a scientific article about the human body, is it obscene or not? It will not be obscene and, if I am arrested under the IT Act, I will be produced before the magistrate within 24 hours and can explain it to him. But now, I will be arrested under the Goonda Act and need not be produced before a magistrate for 90 days. It can be extended to one year. So for one year, I will be in jail even if I have not committed any wrong.

Even if the law is overturned by the court system, it may take a while — and who knows how many people will unnecessarily be taken into custody before that happens?

(via iMortal. Image via Shutterstock)