Dear Jesus, My mom and dad do drugs at home and it scares me. Will you help them stop? Thank you for hearing my prayer.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.”

Just over a month ago, the Supreme Court said they didn’t want to hear an appeal from the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners (in North Carolina), putting the final nail in the coffin on their attempts to keep praying to Jesus before meetings.

An hour away, it looks like the Rowan County Board of Commissioners don’t want to take the hint. In fact, they prayed to Jesus at their meeting earlier this week:

Rhode Island: Teen atheist Jessica Ahlquist has faced a blizzard of taunts, abuse, and threats of physical violence after a federal court ruled a controversial Christian prayer banner hanging in her high school auditorium must come down.

On Friday, Rhode Island police began investigating the threats.

Jessica Ahlquist has been the public face behind a much publicized battle to remove the unconstitutional prayer banner displayed at Cranston High School West. Jessica, a student at Cranston High, has faced prejudice, adversity, and religious intolerance from Christian extremists in her fight to remove  the unconstitutional prayer banner.

  The abuse and threats have only intensified since a federal judge ordered the “immediate removal” of the controversial Christian prayer banner located in the auditorium of Cranston High School West.

William Hamby, Atlanta Atheism Examiner, offers examples of the abuse and threats being directed against Jessica via social media. The following is but a small sample:

How does it feel to be the most hated person in RI right now? Your a puke and a disgrace to the human race.

shes not human shes garbage

I think everyone should just fight this girl

F**k Jessica alquist I'll drop anchor on her face

Let's all jump that girl who did the banner

But for real somebody should jump this girl

I want to punch the girl in the face

I hope there's lots of banners in hell when your rotting in there you atheist f**k

jessica alquist is gonna get punched in the face

A sign reading “Have a safe holiday season,” donated by American Atheists and sponsored by Travis M*A*S*H (an atheist group), can now be seen at the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California: (see above.)

Staff Sergeant Dan Rawlings had to fight to get that sign up there, despite there already being a Nativity Scene and a Jewish Menorah on the premises. And a day hadn’t even gone by before someone tampered with the setup, moving the light illuminating the atheist message so that it lit up the sign next to it.

(Because, apparently, telling people to have a safe holiday season is blasphemous…)

One other interesting point: California Church IMPACT, “the legislative advocacy arm of the California Council of Churches,” is mad about the displays. Not at the atheists, but at military officials.

Why? Because they’re placing the Nativity Scene alongside displays from non-Christian faiths:

The Nativity is a key symbol for the Christian community. Submerged into a putative “secular holiday display” and surrounded it with generic, not religious, icons, means that the Nativity has become no more valuable than Rudolph as part of Christmas.

…

We do not wish to relinquish the Nativity as something meaningful to us as a specifically religious symbol. It is not décor, it is not a designer motif, it is not a greeting card image, and it should not become a political football. It is important to a lot of us as a critical part of our faith.

Paraphrased: Why are you not giving us more privilege? Don’t you know that we’reChristians, dammit?!

TLC’s All-American Muslim is a reality show depicting five Lebanese-American families in Dearborn, MI. I haven’t seen it, but this review from Entertainment Weekly‘s Ken Tucker sure makes it sound harmless:

These “characters” are all reasonably appealing, either charming or entertainingly irritating in the tradition of reality TV, though the show is edited at a snail’s pace. All-American Muslim centers on explaining customs and beliefs, and how the people the producers have selected either follow or ignore their religion’s dictums.

Despite that, The Florida Family Association — a group promoting “traditional, biblical values” — sees a darker purpose behind the series:

All-American Muslim is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law.  The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.

The group called for an e-mail campaign pressuring the show’s advertisers pull their spots. At least one company caved under the pressure.

Lowe’s acknowledged pulling commercials from “All-American Muslim” following consumer complaints, but denied they came from one group.

“We understand the program raised concerns, complaints, or issues from multiple sides of the viewer spectrum, which we found after doing research of news articles and blogs covering the show,” said Katie Cody, a Lowe’s spokeswoman.

The denial that Florida Family Association was the primary influence behind the decision seems dishonest, considering that Lowes sent an e-mail to the group’s Executive Director informing him of the decision.

But I can understand why Lowe’s wants to avoid the taint that any association with FFA would produce. In addition to their annoyance at any show of tolerance towards Muslims, they also freak out about the growing acceptance of homosexuality. Right now, they are particularly disgusted by Gay Day at Disney World and the Teen Nick show Degrassi, which features LGBT characters. But the backlash is happening anyway. As of this writing, the #LowesHatesMuslims Twitter hashtag is attracting multiple messages every minute.

Though Muslims and atheists certainly have some stark disagreements, I think it’s important for us to take stands against sectarianism in all of its forms. The fears FFA are expressing are irrational and contrary to the evidence that American Muslims (who represent less than 1% of the population) tend to be moderate and participate positively in American life. And the type of rhetoric used against them is largely the same as that used against against gays and secularists.

To whom it may concern,

The Salvation Army, a Christian organization, states that intimate homosexual acts are forbidden:

Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex. The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage.

The Salvation Army also states:

The Salvation Army believes that God’s will for the expression of sexual intimacy is revealed in the Bible, and that living fully in accordance with biblical standards calls for chastity outside of heterosexual marriage…

Such Bible-based beliefs about same-sex relationships are archaic, amoral, demeaning, errant, insufferable, repulsive, and unsubstantiated. These base views oil the slippery slope of exclusion, hatred, bigotry, suffering, bullying, gay-bashing, and, eventually, murder. It is long past time to change.

Arguments in defense of Christianity’s views, written by a Christian in response to the previous paragraph, read as follows:

1. Inclusion. Christians promote their inclusiveness by mentioning that all non-procreative sex is a sin, not just the sex acts performed by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, or transgendered individuals.
2. Superiority. Christians think that homosexuals should be allowed civil unions, but not marriage, and that heterosexuals are not superior to homosexuals.
3. Acceptance. Christians preach love and acceptance; they emphasize that homosexuals are accepted for who they are, as long as they refrain from sin.

Let us examine these statements, starting with acceptance.

On Acceptance. The word acceptance is defined as follows:

• i. A person’s agreement to experience a situation, to follow a process or condition (often a negative or uncomfortable situation) without attempting to change it, protest, or exit.
• ii. The act of accepting; a receiving of something offered, with approbation, satisfaction, or acquiescence.

By calling upon same-sex Christians to “embrace celibacy,” the Salvation Army hasattempted to change the behaviour of homosexuals. Informally, accepting something means to do so without attempting to change it. The Salvation Army Christians, therefore, do not preach acceptance; they preach conditional acceptance, which is much different.

On Superiority. The word equal is defined as follows:

• i. The same in all respects.
• ii. Like or alike in quantity, degree, value; of the same rank, ability, or merit.

The Salvation Army maintains that there is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to heterosexual marriage. If no same-sex unions are “equal to” heterosexual marriage, then same-sex unions and heterosexual marriages are somehow unequal — they differ in value, ability, or merit. Had the Salvation Army simply stated that same-sex unions are not supported by scripture, there could be no argument. Using the word equal suggests relative values. The Salvation Army Christians imply that heterosexual marriage is more valuable than homosexual unions, which is a judgement from superiority.

On Inclusion. In their presentation, Marriage and the Recognition of Same-Sex Unions, the Salvation Army defines marriage as having the following characteristics:

• Covenanting of one man and one woman, thus intrinsically heterosexual.
• A voluntary union of faithfulness, mutal affection, respect, and support.
• Socially indispensable environment for nurturing children.
• A benefit to both partners and to society as a whole.
• Respect and understanding of the sexes is passed on to succeeding generations.
• Mutual comfort, where sexual intimacy may be expressed within a secure and trusting environment.

Excepting the first, the Salvation Army correctly anticipated that people will assert that these characteristics also apply to same-sex couples. In the same presentation, the Salvation Army claims it “does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in the delivery of its services.” Yet challenging the legitimacy of same-sex marriage because same-sex couples cannot procreate like heterosexuals do is, at its core, sexual discrimination. (The Salvation Army maintains there are important theological, philosophical, historical, social, legal, cultural, and anthropological reasons to keep marriage a heterosexual union. No supporting evidence is given, only conjecture.) While Christians promote their inclusiveness, the Salvation Army Christians advocate discrimination, which is exclusionary.

It is disdainfully ironic that the Salvation Army’s religious agenda regarding same-sex marriage and homosexual acts abets condemnation, superiority, and exclusivity.

This is the cover of the latest issue of the New Yorker:

Each religion has its own theory of what happens to us in the afterlife. Whatever your beliefs (or lack of religios beliefs) are, it’s an ultimate sign of disrespect to be memorialized in a manner which doesn’t reflect how you lived. You wouldn’t place a a cross over a Jew’s grave or hold a Catholic mass for an atheist, would you? The New Yorker most certainly wouldn’t dare depicting a deceased celebrity in any stage of [Islamic] rites unless its editors were 1000% sure he was a Muslim.