Republican Who Voted to Impeach Trump "Disappointed God"

He's a disappointment to us for other reasons.

• In the GOP, displaying the bare minimum of decency is all it takes to be excommunicated by your party, your family, and your God. Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger knows all about it after his extended family wrote him a scathing letter condemning his vote to impeach Donald Trump.

  Two days after Mr. Kinzinger called for removing Mr. Trump from office following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, 11 members of his family sent him a handwritten two-page letter, saying he was in cahoots with “the devil’s army” for making a public break with the president.

  “Oh my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God!” they wrote. “You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name!”

• Former evangelical university student Drew McCoy breaks down how the toxic culture of these institutions leads to shame and trauma.

• Five members of the Bangladeshi Islamic Jihadi group Ansar Ullah Bangla Team were sentenced to death today for the 2015 murder of atheist author Dr. Avijit Roy. Roy’s widow, who was a surviving victim of the same attack, takes no comfort in the verdict, saying the government needs to fight extremism on a larger scale, even blaming the Bangladeshi Prime Minister for playing nice with an Islamist group that has threatened the lives of secular writers.

• Pew Research Center released a survey on the religious affiliation of Black Americans. Of the 21% who identify as “Nones,” only a sliver are atheist/agnostic. Mandisa Thomas of Black Nonbelievers comments:

  I am curious about the distribution for this survey. While I am pleased with rise of the religiously unaffiliated within the Black community, it is almost ludicrous that only 1-2 percent would be noted as atheist/agnostic. My work with Black Nonbelievers has proven that there are indeed more of us, so I am concerned about the who’s and where’s, and if the definitions were accurately spelled out for the participants.

• As we told you yesterday, Joe Biden is reestablishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. A lot of atheists want to ax the office altogether for obvious reasons; others say it could be beneficial if done right. Here: You decide.