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As the pandemic gets more serious, Americans are getting less serious about their churches being compliant with COVID restrictions. Those surveyed in March, then again in October, show a trend toward defiance of health measures in favor of their “freedom.” And this is why we can’t have nice things.
Pastor Todd Coconato was told by God to keep praying and the election will be overturned. But wait! He also believes that when this happens, atheists will be moved by the power of God and become believers.
On the flip side, if the election isn’t overturned — and it won’t be — believers still won’t entertain the idea that there is no God.The Human Rights Campaign recently released a “Blueprint for Positive Change,” offering Joe Biden suggestions on how to make life more equal for LGBTQ people. One key point:
The Department of Education should issue a regulation clarifying that this provision, which requires accreditation agencies to “respect the stated mission” of religious institutions, does not require the accreditation of religious institutions that do not meet neutral accreditation standards including nondiscrimination policies and scientific curriculum requirements.
So basically, your institution will not meet accreditation standards if you fire someone when you discover they’re in a same-sex relationship or if you teach Creationism. Being a religious school doesn’t mean you get to override basic rules.
In some ways, this shouldn’t matter since Christian schools have their own accreditation agencies (with little weight in the secular world). But you knew evangelist Franklin Graham was going to cry persecution over the “godless, secular agenda” of the left.The Secular Democrats for America also released a pointed plan they hope Joe Biden’s administration will adopt— one that will help undo Trump’s damage while restore secularism to government.
Among a number of areas of concern highlighted by the report are the unconstitutional government funding of sectarian programs and religion-based discrimination, the marginalization of science in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic, public servants using their positions to proselytize, and the failure to protect religious minorities abroad from persecution and discrimination at home.
In turn, the group offered a detailed set of policy initiatives and programs the Biden administration can adopt, along with a list of Trump-era executive orders, programs, regulations, and guidance that need direct repeal or intervention.
None of the recommendations should be controversial. Unlike Project Blitz for evangelicals, this isn’t calling for government promotion of atheism. It’s calling for neutrality. But people with superiority complexes hate being treated as equals…
There are a lot of atheists in states you wouldn’t expect! (Let’s all raise a glass to what I can only assume are the two atheists in Wyoming.)
The Jehovah’s Witnesses may soon lose their tax-exempt status in Australia for refusing to join a federal program that pays back victims of sexual abuse. On the flip side, that could leave them vulnerable to even more costly lawsuits.
Not a week goes by that Rick Wiles doesn’t have some nauseatingly violent fantasy against liberals.
Street preacher John Jacob, who just got elected to Indiana’s State House, took to Instagram to trash-talk Catholics. Not for any good reason — like condemning sexual abuse and the Church’s awful response to it — but to call them heretics for “perverting the gospel.” It’s safe to assume what he thinks about the rest of us who are even further outside his rigid Christian bubble.
Finally, why is it that some pastors have no problem saying “My body, my choice” when it comes to vaccines… but never accept it when women say it in another context?