Jun 18 2013

Inviting pedophiles into homes with children, a good idea?

I promised to keep this person anonymous and also asked permission to share this. It’s a good message about common sense, child welfare, and how religion can be used to cloud people’s better judgement:

…My very religious Evangelical Christian mother-in-law called last night. Her husband, my father-in-law, is a pastor and their church hosts some refugees from [insert Third-World Nation here]. They are really involved in “ministering” to these refugees and dealing with them is the joy of my mother-in-law’s life at the moment…It really makes her feel that God is using her.

One of these refugees, a middle-aged man, allegedly molested a child. The child called child protection services, and the man was arrested. He is currently in jail until his court date.

As my mother-in-law was explaining, she kept defending the man. She explained how nice a man he is, how faithful he is and how, if true, it was simply a mistake due to cultural differences. She tried to tell me his life story, about how he had a hard life and was, himself, abused as a child, etc. She was making excuses for him, empathizing with him, and then giving him the benefit if the doubt. She proceeded to explain how she suspected the child was setting him up or lied, etc.

I was so angry inside as she was explaining that I had to ask her to hold as pass the phone to my wife to help regain control, so I didn’t bite her ear off.

I recently found out that when I was a kid, my parents used to have Bible studies at our house…they’d invite all the church misfits. People with psychological problems, etc. My Dad felt he was being like Jesus by bringing all the undesirables into our house. Many of them really creeped my brother and I out, but there was one we feared. He would come to chat with us in the basement and ask us personal questions about our bodies, etc. He never touched us. Well, my dad recently admitted this man was a pedophile, and he knew it at the time. But through the power of the blood of Jesus, felt he was taking a healthy risk in faith by bringing him into our home.

This madness infuriates me to no end. I no longer feel comfortable letting my children be in their care, because of this!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Guess that was venting. There aren’t many people I can talk to around here about this stuff.

Jun 18 2013

Open thread on episode #818, Matt and Jeff

Sorry we’re late with this.

Jun 14 2013

Iron Chariots spam

A while back I decided to upgrade the server software for the Iron Chariots wiki and install a bunch of add-ons, including one that allows me to force all new editors to write a short biography and wait for approval. It’s kind of a headache, but before doing this, we would get dozens of new users a day who would start filling up the wiki articles with advertisements for wristwatches and porn. Unfortunately, sometimes I can go for a couple of months without remembering to check the spam trap, and then people complain. But it beats the alternative.

Today I remembered that I haven’t approved users since April, so I cleared out a fairly manageable 17 requests. Nearly half of them were spammers who were stupid enough to put spam in their biography, so that was easy. I approved a bunch of requests… and then I saw this guy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jun 09 2013

Open thread on episode #817 with Russell and Martin: Grace, love and mercy edition

Edit: On Sunday’s show we spoke with philosopher and blogger Dan Fincke, who discusses the concept of secular objective morality in these posts:  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/camelswithhammers/tag/leah-libresco/. Additionally, Martin referenced some YouTube videos debunking claims of advanced scientific information in the Koran. Here is the promised link to the YouTube channel.

Martin  It’s Martin (dat’s me!) and Russell fielding the hordes today, so I know you will all tune in. Comment below on the shenanigans when the dust has settled later today. In the meantime, I’ve been warming up with a couple of amusing exchanges with some Facebook creationists today. Helps to stay in fighting trim. Enjoy.

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You gotta love the irony in the fellow’s comment about treating atheists with “grace, love and mercy” under that graphic. But I guess that’s how those terms are defined in their dark little world.

Jun 06 2013

In which we squee

So this happened.

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Jun 02 2013

Open thread on AETV 816: Russell and Jen

Russell and Jen discussed religious harassment in the military. Then we took calls from an atheist dealing with depression, an agnostic Mormon trying to decide whether the personal satisfaction of belief outweighs any potential harm, and several others.

Jun 02 2013

Vatican: But seriously, atheists still get tortured forever

Hemant Mehta already mentioned this last week, but it bears repeating. We’ve been getting a lot of email asking us if we heard the exciting (?) news that Pope Francis said atheists don’t necessarily go to hell. A few days later, the Vatican hastened to assure us that — yes, ha ha, that infallible pope, he’s a kidder all right.

Vatican spokesman Thomas Rosica has now issued an “explanatory note” stating:

…they cannot be saved who, knowing the Church as founded by Christ and necessary for salvation, would refuse to enter her or remain in her.

[...]

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May 31 2013

Open thread on AETV 815

 

Sorry for the late posting, I just realized that neither Matt nor Don ever posts their own threads. Anyway, here it is.

May 22 2013

More on the Merry Christmas bill

I got email today from a reporter for “The Christian Post.” He wanted to ask me some questions about my opinions expressed yesterday on Raw Story. I am not familiar with this reporter’s writing, but thought it might be a bad idea to go into a phone conversation cold. So I wrote a message to him first, and I’m reproducing it here for discussion.

Read the rest of this entry »

May 21 2013

Texas “Merry Christmas Bill”

I got quoted at length by a RawStory.com blogger looking for a reaction to the Texas legislature’s latest salvo in the War On Christmas. It was not the most diplomatic interview I’ve ever given. :)

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/21/texas-merry-christmas-bill-is-a-bunch-of-bullsht-says-atheist-tv-host/

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