Atheist Defends Christianity Against Secular Media

Political commentator S.E. Cupp is an atheist, yet she defends religion against some of atheism’s more militant proponents. She said that some, like Christopher Hitchens and Bill Maher, “are evangelists. They are proselytizing.”

Cupp spoke to students at The King’s College on Sept. 15. She said 95 percent of people in the world believe in some type of a divinity. For militant atheists to pretend “that religion is on the fringe,” she said, “is not only incredibly presumptuous, it’s a lie.”

In her book Losing Our Religion, she wanted to fight back against this notion. She used her book to show that the “liberal media” are “absolutely threatened by Christian America—threatened politically, threatened ideologically.”

For Cupp, it was clear that the media were attacking the religious faithful. But even more, she said, “It’s not just attacks; it’s lying about the genesis of our American beliefs.”

She talked specifically about freedom of religion. Some media personalities, she said, claim that the whole point of the religion clauses in the U.S. Constitution was that religion ought to be done in private. “That is absolutely a lie. That’s the opposite intent. The Founding Fathers wanted you not to be afraid to be a public Catholic, or to be a public Protestant.” (Chris Ross/EP News)

ECFA Responds to Threat on Faith-Based Hiring Rights

In response to pending federal legislation that would restrict the hiring rights of Christ-centered nonprofits, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (EFCA) released a policy statement on Sept. 20, stating that faith-based hiring must be protected as a matter of religious freedom. ECFA joined with 100 religious leaders earlier this month in sending a letter to House and Senate members, asking them to respect religious hiring rights. The letter reminded members that the First Amendment guarantees the right to free religious exercise, proffering a religious organization the right to hire those of like-minded faith. (EP News)

Maine Schools Under Pressure To Let Boys Use Girls’ Restrooms

The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled this week that Orono Middle School discriminated against a sixth-grade male student who wants to live as a female by only offering the student access to a gender-neutral bathroom. The commission said it will work with the state education commissioner to add rules pertaining to sexual orientation and gender identity, as it pertains to education, in the Maine Human Rights Act.

Dr. Dean Byrd, president of the Thrasher Research Fund, said, “Children should be safe at school, but I’m not so sure that particular world views ought to be primary. Diversity by its very definition means different world views, and those different world views may contradict the world views of particular families; so I think parents ought to be concerned. When you get into areas of gender identity, development, sexual orientation, we’re talking about world views. It’s certainly a slippery slope. Schools ought to educate, not indoctrinate.” (EP News)