Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1994

Rep. Rush Holt Speaks at the Secular Coalition for America’s Lobby Day Event

At the Secular Coalition for America’s Lobby Day last week, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) was one of the featured speakers and video of his talk is now online:

If any parts stand out to you, please leave the timestamp/summary in the comments!

Nine Red Flags in Relationships Between Atheists and Believers

The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses 9 red flags in relationships between atheists and believers:

The list comes from Dale McGowan‘s forthcoming book In Faith and In Doubt. It’s not all doom and gloom, though! Check out this video to see how to make these kinds of relationships work.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next!

And if you like what you’re seeing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon.

March for Marriage and the Presbyterians: Contrasting Religious Responses to Same-Sex Marriage

My friend Sarah Jones of Americans United poses with “Ben Franklin” at the March for Marriage. No, they weren’t getting married. Sarah reports she got the plague from the attendees, and I reminded her that they didn’t have vaccines in Franklin’s time.

Here’s two diametrically opposed religious responses to the growing consensus in favor of same-sex marriage rights.

On the more predictable side, we have last week’s March for Marriage at the Capitol. Rick Santorum was there, of course, because what else does he have to do these days? Heather Adams at Religion News Service reports:

Faced with a string of losses in the court and a rapid shift in public opinion in favor of gay marriage, planners of Thursday’s rally aimed to show lawmakers — and especially courts — that they will not give up without a fight.

Can you imagine being so angry about who strangers decide to marry that you’d drop everything and head to D.C. for an hours-long protest? What must your own life lack, what hole has not been filled, that can explain this kind of active loathing?

As one attendee put it, who brought her 8-year-old daughter with her:

When you take time from your busy schedule to come out for an event like this it shows them that it’s important.

And I guess that’s what you want to teach your kid is important.

Anyhoo, apparently there weren’t that many who felt that way, as Adams reports, “The rally drew a far smaller crowd than organizers had expected.”

Now contrast this with what happened at a meeting of the U.S. Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly at the same time. While in 1991 and 2009 the Presbyterian Church voted to forbid its pastors from performing same-sex marriages, on Thursday they overwhelmingly voted to actually change their definition of marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two people,” as well as reversing their ban on clergy performing said marriages.

The measure still has to be ratified by a majority of “presbyteries” (kind of like its congressional districts), but that looks like it’ll happen.

The New York Times‘ Laurie Goodstein reported on the vote, and spoke to several attendees, and this one stood out to me:

“My heart breaks,” the Rev. Steve Wilkins, representing the New Harmony Presbytery in South Carolina, said during the debate. “I don’t think it’s up to us to change the definition of marriage; in fact marriage has been defined by us and revealed to us in God’s word.”

What that makes me think about it how “God’s word” seems to be losing some of its potency, even within religions. I’m no theologian, but I have to think that according to “God’s word,” the reverend is right, the Presbyterians are rejecting something that God himself has ordained. They obviously aren’t too worried about what the Big Guy will think about it, or else they think he’s always been cool with gay marriage, or that he’s not sufficiently interested. Whatever the reason the Presbyterians decided to go this very positive route, it’s indicative to me of the rise of compassion as a driving force in modern and future “religions,” and the waning of supernaturalism, factionalism, and dogma.

And think about those angry folks at March for Marriage. Their numbers are dwindling, fast. God’s rules about this kind of thing just don’t hold the sway that they used to.

Pastor Serving Jail Time for Raping an Underage Girl Now Wants a Reduced Sentence Because He Says It Was Her Fault

Three guesses what happened to the Christian youth groupie girl who said the following:

“I was raised by my parents and teachers to trust and obey my pastor. He was a celebrity to me, a father figure and a man of God. As my pastor, I sought guidance and counseling from (Schaap) when I was in need of help.”

You guessed correctly. Jack Schaap (above), pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond (Indiana), got high on power, seduced the 16-year-old, and defended his “relationship to” (grooming and rape of) the girl in a court of law.

This is how the Chicago Tribune reported it last year:

Schaap wrote the girl, “You opened your heart wide to me — you made me more than a Pastor/Rescuer — you made me your friend your confidant, your beloved. You gave me your trust, your heart, your love, + your affection,” according to the memo.

Schaap continued that their relationship was sanctioned by God and he referred to their “fantasy talk” during a counseling session. “You have affectionately spoken of being ‘my wife.’ That is exactly what Christ desires for us. He wants to marry us + become eternal lovers!”

So far, this is pretty much what we’d expect from a pastor-turned-child-predator situation. Creepy spiritual/romantic whitewashing, “counseling” as a cover for the relationship, hero-worship manipulated to coerce a naïve minor into sexual acts.

Schaap was tried, convicted, and is now serving time for his crimes. But now he’s issued an appeal to his sentence, saying that due to the girl’s original reasons for seeking him out for counseling, she should share part of the blame for his actions.

He seems to think that raping an underage girl was totally not his fault “due to the aggressiveness of (the girl) that inhibited impulse control…”

Impulse control. She’s the one with issues with impulse control? Uh-huh… A teenager with “impulse control” who got raped should let her rapist serve less jail time because he couldn’t keep it in his pants.

The Times of Northwest Indiana reveals even more details:

Federal authorities said their private counseling sessions increased in number, length and intimacy.

The girl wrote, “(Schaap) violated my trust. But when it was being violated, I didn’t even know it because he made me believe what we were doing was OK and right in the eyes of God. When I asked him if it was wrong, he told me no and that I was his precious gift from God. I felt so special when he texted me from the holy altar during his sermons.“

Here’s what’s really disturbing to me about this: people’s vulnerability and naïveté about issues of faith at a young age leaves them wide open to predatory people addicted to manipulation and social power. Youthful trust and wonder at the numinous, when leveraged to obligate a person into secret-keeping, false loyalty to authority, and distrust of self, damages a person in deep, deep ways. I’ve heard people call the results of this “spiritual trauma,” and I’ve seen it cause PTSD in victims of this sort of spiritual abuse.

Regardless of what you believe about god or faith, this abuse of trust is a deeply personal violation, and Schaap is re-victimizing this girl by continuing to gaslight her experiences at his hands for the sake of assuaging his own ego.

Publicly-Funded Charter School Invites Clergy Member to Deliver Sermon at Graduation

Hope Academy, a charter school in California that receives public funding, did something at their recent graduation ceremony that public schools like theirs aren’t allowed to do: They invited a pastor to deliver a sermon.

They didn’t even try to hide it; he wore a clerical collar onstage:

Not only that, large portions of the speech were lifted from two generic sermon websites, which just piles on to the evidence that this was a Christian speech. (And brings up all sorts of other questions about plagiarism…)

Thankfully, the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center is on it, sending the school a letter warning them to put an end to this in the future:

Speaking from a lectern for more than five minutes, the cleric conveyed a sermon about the value and history of salt that matched almost word-for-word a 2010 entry from a sermon blog. He added to those comments a theological discussion of table salt that closely mirrored a passage from another sermon posted online in 2005. At one point, the cleric commented on the significance of salt in Christian theology, noting that an “overturned salt cellar… conspicuously placed in front of Judas” in Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper conveyed “a subtle message to people about the purity of his loss.” As he preached he also told members of the graduating class that he would “be praying for you” and that “God will continue to bless you, watch over you, and keep you as you work to prove you continually are worth your salt.”

…

The content of the speaker’s sermon went well beyond the nonsectarian graduation prayer found unconstitutional by the [Supreme] Court… His remarks included (1) a reference to salt, which is a notable symbol in Judeo-Christian faith traditions; (2) a discussion of The Last Supper, which portrays a key moment in the Christian narrative of Jesus; and (3) the use of the words “God” and “praying” as part of a final blessing. These utterances conspired to make the speech an unambiguous sectarian prayer, particularly in light of its similarities to previously published Christian sermons. For a publicly-funded charter school to arrange for and permit its delivery at graduation was therefore unconstitutionally coercive, whether or not attendance at the event was mandatory.

How does this sort of thing even happen?

How does no administrator think to say, “You can’t do this”?

Well, maybe that’s because the speaker appears to be one of the charter school’s five board members, Ted Smith:

I should note that I haven’t confirmed this and the AHA doesn’t mention his name anywhere in the letter. (I’ve asked the director of the school to confirm or deny that it’s Smith.) But at least that could explain why no one challenged the decision: Because people don’t want to challenge their boss, nor should they have to.

Why a board member would put the school at risk of losing a costly lawsuit, I don’t know. No matter who the speaker was, though, too many adults allowed it to happen — and they need to let the AHA know ASAP that it won’t happen again.

Internal Investigation of Christian Leader Accused of Sexual Harassment Reveals He Did Not Act Criminally

Conservative Christian religious leader Bill Gothard stepped down from his ministry, Institute in Basic Life Principles, four months ago, after a recovery support group for former members detailed 34 women’s alleged experiences of sexual harassment.

This week, the ministry released a statement following up on the status of their fearless leader. The statement includes the following bit of brilliance:

In response to allegations against Bill Gothard, the board sought the facts through a confidential and thorough review process conducted by outside legal counsel. Many people were interviewed, including former board members, current and past staff members, current and past administrators, parents, and family members.

At this point, based upon those willing to be interviewed, no criminal activity has been discovered. If it had been, it would have been reported to the proper authorities immediately, as it will be in the future if any such activity is revealed.

IF there had been sexual harassment DISCOVERED it would have been reported immediately.

As if that has ever actually happened in the history of sexual abuse in the church.

When a religious system decides to do an “internal review” or investigation into accusations of abuse, I generally suspect that they have something to hide. When you have that much power over a group of people, if you don’t go seeking out an objective third party expert (like G.R.A.C.E.) to do your internal investigation, what makes you think that any victims of abuse in your ministry would actually trust you to protect them?

The IBLP statement concludes:

We are seeking and praying for a new permanent president for the IBLP ministries. Please pray with us to this end.

At least Gothard’s not being reinstated. But there’s no way a victim of abuse in IBLP could possibly trust an IBLP-run investigation to have their best interests at heart, especially with this final gem from the statement:

The Board does not believe that Mr. Gothard’s shortcomings discredit the truths of God’s Word that were taught through him.

Nothing to see here in the IBLP ministry empire! Carry on!

(via Christianity Today)

Religious Art with Modern Errors

Artist Nastya Nudnik adds common computer/Internet errors to famous paintings. And since a lot of famous paintings are religious in nature, the results are fantastic:

You can see several more examples here and here.

(via Boing Boing)

Atheist Files Discrimination Lawsuit Against Former Olympia Sports Supervisor for Workplace Harassment

Jason Rines, an atheist who used to work at Olympia Sports (in Maine), has filed a lawsuit against the company and his former supervisor Lori Brooks because, he says, she “discriminated against him and harassed him” because of his godlessness.

Beyond the proselytizing at work, Brooks even accused Rines of theft — because, you know, atheists are immoral:

In mid-December 2012, Brooks informed Rines that someone had taken money from her purse, which she had left in the store’s back room. Rines told her he didn’t know anything about it, the complaint says.

Later that month, the district manager and the store’s loss prevention consultant came to the store and asked Rines about the missing money. No other employees were questioned about the incident, the complaint says.

Brooks told the district manager and other store employees that Rines had taken her money, according to the complaint.

Brooks also seemed to tell everyone that she was working with an atheist, leading to this awkward encounter:

… Brooks’ church pastor came to the store and gave Rines a Christmas present: a compact disc of Christian music and a book written by a “former atheist.”

The pastor had learned from Brooks that Rines was an atheist, the complaint says.

Lee Strobel. It’s gotta be Lee Strobel. That had to be the last straw, I’m sure of it.

Anyway, Rines eventually resigned because he couldn’t take it anymore and Brooks replaced him with yet another member of her church.

It’ll be a while before this issue gets resolved, but I have a hunch that this sort of thing — a religious boss harassing an atheist employee — happen often and we just never hear about it. If the complaint is accurate, then I wish Rines the best.

I tried to contact him him late last night for more information but hadn’t heard back at the time of this posting.

Deviating from Tradition, Spain’s New King is Coronated in a Secular Ceremony

You may have heard by now that Spain’s King Juan Carlos abdicated his throne after nearly 40 years in power, handing over the crown to his son, the new King Felipe VI.

King Felipe VI (left) with Juan Carlos

The coronation ceremony for new kings and queens is traditionally Catholic — as are the majority of the Spanish people, at least nominally — but the last coronation took place before the country adopted a democratic Constitution. So, in an attempt to be inclusive of all people, King Felipe VI’s official ceremony was purely secular in nature:

Pepe Apezarena, an expert on the Spanish monarchy, said the absence of religious symbols “coincides with the concept of the king contained in the Spanish constitution.”

“The monarch is king of all Spaniards and therefore in public he should not lean in any specific direction, but in private it is different. That is why we have seen the prince attend religious ceremonies.”

The King also declared his “faith in the unity of Spain,” which sure as hell beats putting faith in a supernatural alternative.

And given the performance of the country’s team in the World Cup, I’m sure residents of Spain aren’t very fond of God right now, anyway.

To be sure, Felipe is Catholic and said he would have a religious ceremony — but at a separate time. Just as it should be.

(Thanks to @Worchd for her help with this post)

Ken Ham’s Ignorance is Exposed (Again) in a Rant Against UK Schools Banning the Teaching of Creationism as Science

Creationist Ken Ham just found out that the UK government has told all publicly-funded schools that they cannot teach Creationism as valid science and he’s furious.

And when Ken Ham is furious, everyone else is delighted, because his rage-posts shed light on how much he doesn’t understand about evolution.

Let’s go through his rant section by section…

That’s not how science works

… although they say “theory of evolution” — the education department wants the belief in molecules-to-man evolution taught as fact.

You guys, Ken Ham doesn’t know what “theory” means.

Ken Ham also doesn’t know the difference between “all the available evidence supports this theory” and “fact.”

Did you know that evolution does not even qualify as a valid scientific theory?

That link offers two reasons evolution is not a valid scientific theory: 1) You can’t see one species turn into another species. 2) God could’ve done all the things we typically attribute to evolution.

Proving once again that Ken Ham doesn’t understand evolution.

Also, secularists will gladly use the term “creationism,” seemingly indicating that it is a belief system, but most secularists avoid the term “evolutionism”?

That’s because Creationism is a belief. And evolution is not.

… the [UK] government has declared that the only starting point they accept to build a way of thinking to interpret life in regard to origins is naturalism or atheism. Really, the UK government is now declaring that the state religion is atheism, and that this must be imposed on students as fact.

That’s right: atheism is the state religion… for a country with an actual state religion.

Ironically, two paragraphs later, Ham points out that the government mandate references how “most mainstream Churches and religious traditions” support evolution… which contradicts the idea of this being all about atheism.

Which leads me to this conclusion:

Even Ken Ham doesn’t read Ken Ham.

Why is the United Kingdom in the state that it is in? One of the main reasons is because many Christian leaders have compromised God’s Word starting in Genesis by accepting man’s fallible opinions of evolution and millions of years.

I don’t know what “state” he’s talking about here, but I’m guessing elected officials, policy decisions, and worldwide economic trends have more to do with the state of the UK than the fact that not all citizens believe in bullshit.

If we cannot trust God’s Word in Genesis, how can we trust the Bible in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John? The simple answer is that we cannot, which is one of the major reasons youth are leaving the church in droves.

Huh. Okay, I actually agree with Ham here… I feel dirty now.

Directly contrary to what the documents state, observational science consistently confirms the Bible.

Except it doesn’t. We can even directly observe evolutionary changes happening in lab settings.

And if someone wants to point me to the observational evidence that a person can come back from the dead, I’d love to check it out.

And as I show very clearly in my recent debate with Bill Nye, biblical creationists can be great scientists producing innovation resulting in leading technological achievements.

I’m pretty sure it’s a law now that Ham has to mention that debate every time he writes anything…

In any case, a handful of Creationists may have made a few contributions to science, but they never involved disproving evolution. You don’t need to understand evolution to understand everything in the science world, just like you don’t have to understand economic theory to do well in the stock market.

But it sure as hell helps you get a fuller, deeper understanding of how the world work.

In other words, their starting point to discuss origins is that God has already been ruled out! Only one view is allowed to be taught to students — naturalism. Thus, no matter what evidence is found, students have to be taught to interpret that evidence within an atheistic framework.

The UK government’s starting point isn’t “God doesn’t exist.” It’s more like “we’ll go where the evidence leads.” If your God doesn’t make the cut, that’s your problem. (Though plenty of religious people will tell you they’ve found ways to reconcile the two worlds.)

And if Ham has some magical evidence of God’s existence that’s eluded all of us, I’m sure we’d all love to hear it.

(Image via Shutterstock)