"I dare you to pass this bill and allow me to send chaplains to your schools." -not a verbatim quote.

Reprinted from Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them-A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken by permission of Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright c Al Franken, Inc., 2003. "Supply Side Jesus" illustrations c Don Simpson. All rights reserved. This excerpt, or any parts thereof, may not be reproduced without permission.

A 1998 book by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández featuring provocative, sexually-charged themes has resurfaced, likely adding further scrutiny to the already embattled prefect of the Vatican’s doctrine office.

Titled “Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality,” the 26-year-old work includes graphic descriptions of human sexual relations and discussion of what the Argentinian theologian describes as “mystical orgasm.”

The nearly 100-page-long book also depicts in detail an imaginary erotic encounter with Jesus Christ on the shores of Galilee, which Fernández said was based on a spiritual experience disclosed to him by a 16-year-old girl.

Trevor reviews the state of evangelical attempts to trash science in favor of their beliefs.

(podcast)

scientists led by archaeologist Prof Mark Collard of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver say the truth may be far more gruesome. “There is compelling evidence that these people may have had their fingers amputated deliberately in rituals intended to elicit help from supernatural entities,” said Collard.

Keri Ladouceur no longer calls herself an Evangelical Christian.

Like many younger members of this sprawling American religious tradition, she’s left what she says has become a movement mostly defined by aggressive white conservatism and Christian nationalism, the prerogatives of male privilege, and a near obsession with regulating human sexuality.

Brian Dalton reviews the immorality of Mosaic Law and deconstructs the apologetic that says Yahweh didn't reveal his perfect moral code because we weren't ready for it.

Crosspost from !atheism@feddit.de.

An overview of studies which investigate correlations between morality and religious vs. secular / atheist ideologies presented by Phil Zuckerman who is a professor of sociology and secular studies at the Claremont colleges in California, USA.

Summary: Atheists / secular people not only have morals but are even more moral than religious people.

Note: Of course moral is a matter of perspective. In this context we agree that compassion and empathy are our foundations of moral.

Mike Johnson seems to have forgotten he's been elected to public office, not to church leadership. Conflating the two violates our First Amendment right to freedom of conscience.

The latest helpful guidance from Mr. Deity. If like so many of us you hear voices in your head, but aren't sure it's God, this vid's for you.

The agony of Wehner, Gerson, former Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore, and others over the intense loyalty most of their fellow conservative Evangelicals have displayed to Donald Trump, even as his record and rhetoric have grown more heathenish, is understandable. But they shouldn’t be all that surprised. In the mid-20th century’s great battles over fascist and quasi-fascist threats to parliamentary democracy, support for authoritarian and totalitarian leaders of the political right was generally concentrated among religious Christians who had incorporated secular conservative cultural views (especially nationalism and in many cases antisemitism) into their faith.