Faith, Hope and Charity: Why President Obama’s ‘Faith-Based’ Agenda Must Change - by Rev. Barry Lynn

Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 4, President Barack Obama asserted that his administration has “turned the faith-based initiative around,” implying that his policies represent a sharp break from past practices.
That’s news to me. In fact, from where I’m sitting, the core of Obama’s faith-based initiative looks pretty much identical to the deeply [...]

Watering-down of Protection for Gay People ’shames’ Parliament

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has condemned votes in the House of Lords last night, January 25, which removed the requirement for discrimination against gay people by religious organisations to be “proportionate.” The government’s definition of the roles that would be affected was also voted down, after strong lobbying by religious organisations including Church of [...]

British Humanists Want Bishops Out of Parliament

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is calling for the removal of the automatic right of Church of England bishops to sit in Parliament. The call has come in advance of an event being held this evening, Jan. 27, 2010, by Labour Humanists which asks, “Should the bishops be evicted from the House of Lords?” The [...]

Howard Zinn, Historian who Challenged Status Quo, Dies at 87 - by Mark Feeney

Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.
“His writings have changed the consciousness of [...]

Thank You, Howard Zinn - by Matthew Rothschild

Thank You, Howard Zinn, for being there during the civil rights movement, for teaching at Spelman, for walking the picket lines, and for inspiring such students as Alice Walker and Marian Wright Edelman.
Click here to read the rest of the article.

Howard Zinn: The Historian Who Made History - by Dave Zirin

Howard Zinn, my hero, teacher, and friend died of a heart attack on Wednesday at the age of 87. With his death, we lose a man who did nothing less than rewrite the narrative of the United States. We lose a historian who also made history.
Click here to read the rest of the article.

Humanist chaplains head to the UK

Do atheists need humanist chaplains if they have a crisis? It seems the demand is growing for non-religious chaplaincy services, but whether we can afford them is another matter
To read more, click here.

Re: Peace and Social Justice are Worth Fighting for - by Armineh Noravian

I find the article by Jende Huang in the HNN (1/13/10) shocking, to put it mildly, for many reasons.
His claim that Afghanistan and Iraq were “liberated” goes to the heart of his delusion that he is standing up for “solidarity with the oppressed” and seeking “the spread of Enlightenment values.”
The U.S. invasion of Iraq, to [...]

Rifles used by U.S. troops include Bible verse inscriptions

Combat rifle sights used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan carry references to Bible verses, stoking concerns about whether the inscriptions break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops.
To read the entire article, click here.

The love that still dare not speak its name (The Independent)

In the week that two Malawians go on trial for violating anti-gay laws, Daniel Howden finds that their experience is all too common in a continent of legalised homophobia
Erwin van der Borght, the director of Amnesty International’s Africa Programme, says that unlike in the debate over the death penalty, this is not a matter of [...]