Apostacon Offers Free Admission to Grace University Student Suspended For Lesbian Relationship

You may already be aware of the shameful behavior of the administrators of Omaha school Grace University^[1].  Especially if you're on Reddit^[2].  If you're not familiar with it, a Christian school found out one of their students was gay and kicked her out.  They're apparently even refusing to even transfer her credits until she pays $6,300 owed because she had her scholarship taken from her.  She's since married, and her wife has started a petition to have the debt forgiven^[3].

Today, Omaha Atheists posted that Apostacon has offered her free admission^[4].  Apostacon had sent out the following:

Thursday, June 15th, 2013 — Secular conference “Apostacon”, formerly known as the Midwest Freethought Conference, is offering free admission for their September 20th – 22nd event as a gift to Danielle Powell, the former Grace University student who was kicked out before finishing her bachelor’s degree after it was discovered she was involved a lesbian relationship.

“We take pride in welcoming everyone to Apostacon, regardless of anything as arbitrary as their sexual orientation.” says William Newman, spokesman for Apostacon. “While it may not make up for the financial and educational difficulties she now faces as a result of Grace University’s ridiculous behavior, we hope to show her that there is a large population of the Midwest who welcomes the LGBTQ community with open arms. This conference will be fun while also educational, focusing on secular activism issues like separation of church and state, as well as social justice causes and more. The Flying Spaghetti Monster theme and logo embraces our sense of humor while reminding us to utilize science and reason in our daily lives.”

 “As a member of the LGBTQ community, I am saddened by the news that Grace University would exclude any student based on the antiquated laws of an ancient religion, rather than embrace diversity and promote equality,” says Meagan, Treasurer of Apostacon.

 “It’s clear that Grace University is falling short of its name,” said David Silverman, President of American Atheists and Apostacon headliner. “This is a textbook example of religiously motivated bigotry. I hope that Grace changes its policy to reflect compassion and acceptance, rather than discrimination and intolerance. It’s pathetic.”

Apostacon 2013 is hosting quite a few speakers supportive of the LBTQ community. Nathan Phelps, son of Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church, is a board member of the organization Recovering From Religion. Mr. Phelps speaks regularly in support of LGBTQ causes and against his father’s “God Hates Fags” placards. AJ Johnson, founder of Be Secular, identifies as bisexual and speaks on the topic “God Really Does Hate Fags.” Also speaking will be Dr. Darrel Ray, author of books entitled “The God Virus” as well as his most recent, “Sex and God,” where he promotes broad and healthy sexuality outside of religious beliefs.

 ###

 If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Apostacon spokesman William Newman, please contact Apostacon at info@apostacon.org or call (402) 522-6463, or visit the website at www.apostacon.org.

The Christians in this story rejected Powell for being comfortable with who she is instead of repressing her identity to conform to their narrow view of what they say sexuality is  Now they want her to pay a debt she shouldn't owe because she only owes it because of their bigotry.

The atheists in this story would welcome her with open arms, no matter her sexuality.  Even if she shows up to the conference wearing a cross and proclaiming herself to be a devout Christian.  As evidence, our conference last year had two Christians on stage.  One of them, Fred Heeren, is someone I've spoken to since and is someone who has my respect.  He also opened ReasonFest^[5], gets positive reviews from atheists^[6], and goes with them to speak to governors^[7].

There's a reason I'm so happy that I'm atheist instead of a fundamentalist of any religion.  A great number of people in my life do not conform to the narrow minded views of places like Grace University and too many other religionists.  If I were like them, I'd be forced to shut of a lot great people out of my life.  While Heeren, my new dialogue partner^[8], and my parents^[9] prove it's not an either/or situation, I'd still much rather be good without god(s) than a bigot with a god.

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1.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/danielle-powell-grace-university_n_3428514.html
2.  http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/1g8iy3/christian_university_expels_student_for_being_gay/
3.  https://www.change.org/petitions/grace-university-don-t-force-my-wife-to-pay-back-college-scholarships-because-she-s-gay
4.  http://www.omahaatheists.org/2013/06/14/apostacon-offers-free-admission-to-grace-university-student-suspended-for-lesbian-relationship/
5.  http://youtu.be/i8z5MWsbFAY
6.  http://jrh3k5.blogspot.com/2012/03/show-me-god-stellar-book-review.html
7.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wwjtd/2013/05/atheists-including-my-fiancee-go-smile-to-smile-with-sam-brownback/
8.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/search/label/Discerning%20With%20A%20Christian
9.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2013/04/an-open-letter-to-some-atheists.html

Helping A Child Eat

Teresa MacBain's a pretty awesome person^[1].  So seeing her make a request for help is something I couldn't let go unanswered.

My friends, I must ask a favor. You know that I've never asked for any personal favors, but this is a desperate situation. My nephew has lost his job which has put his family in a very bad spot. While that is a tough thing, (which many of you have or may be facing) the big issue is his 2 year old son. Noah was born with PKU (pku.com) which is a serious condition. Noah can't eat any protein at all, ever. Because of the PKU, he has to eat special food that is very expensive. (Formula is $695 per month!) Obviously, they don't have the funds to buy his food. Get this... they went to their catholic church and they told them that they couldn't help. The disease is so rare (only 14k cases) that there aren't any resources for Noah. 

My sister (the one who is very religious and tells me that she is so upset that she won't see me in heaven) called to tell me about Noah. She personally asked me if my "atheist friends" would help. Did you get that? The church won't help so my sister is asking for my atheist friends to help. 

I'm not asking you to send me or them money. All that we have to do is go online to the PKU store and purchase a gift certificate for my nephew. If you're willing to do this, send me a PM and I'll give you the information you need to get it to Noah.

Where the church refused to help, I believe atheists will step up.  To help, please visit the donation page Teresa created^[2]

But don't do it to show up the Catholics.  Don't do it because I'm asking nicely.  Don't do it because Teresa's the very deserving Atheist of the Year^[3].

Do it because the kid needs to eat.  Do it because it's the right thing to do.

And for what it's worth, my belief that atheists would step up is not without evidence.  The page was newly created, and thus at $0, half an hour ago when I started typing this (and trying to get my crappy computer to cooperate with the donation page).  Now it's already at $385.  I bet our community could get this goal achieved overnight.

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1.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2012/12/twelve-apostates-former-clergy.html
2.  http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/help-noah-get-his-pku-formula/51198
3.  https://twitter.com/AmericanAtheist/status/318181106316873728

Twelve Apostates - Gene Roddenberry

I'm of the Next Generation generation.  I had never seen The Original Series when Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered.  My television watching in the 90's consisted largely of Star Trek and reruns of M*A*S*H.

With the Star Trek Universe, Gene Roddenberry gave us a look at what we could do after we finally outgrow religion.  And he did so without even raising the ire of those who freak out at even the slightest criticism of religion/Christianity.  Not even when they took a direct shot at the danger religion poses to society.

I think how it treated religion was a big part of why Star Trek appealed to me so much.  For them, religion was a thing of the past.  All religion was to them like the Greek's gods are to us now.  Even when they found worlds who had gods, there was actual evidence of those gods.  They had characters that could easily be mistaken for gods who were, for the most part, never actually treated like gods.

And when they found something claiming to be a god, they still challenged them, giving us one of the best lines in cinema, as well as one of my favorite things to say to people quoting the Bible as proof of their god claims.

The Earth of Star Trek was a world beyond war, crime, hate, poverty, etc.  It was a world without religion.  It's one of the best examples of  "Good Without God" I've seen.

It may have been a fictional utopian world, but it's still a goal worth striving for.  We may not get there, but as long as we are fighting over who's myth is better and willfully holding back societal and technological progress, it's not even a possibility.

Please Help JT Help Matt & Beth

I opened Facebook yesterday to pictures and posts from Beth Presswood (wife to Matt Dillahunty) of their ransacked house.

Today, I opened to a link to a post from JT Eberhard and his, not unexpected efforts to help them.  All three of them are excellent examples of what it means to be "Good Without God".

Matt is seriously a great guy.  So…I’m not in a place right now where I can donate.     Maybe at the first of next month.  If you feel like chipping in, you can send Matt a donation via paypal at the address sans.deity[at!]gmail.com.

Here’s what I can do: all the money I make off this post, I will donate to Matt next month.  I make $100 per 25,000 hits, so unless this post goes viral (or gets some help from reddit), it probably won’t be much.  But it’s money that none of us has to cough up individually, and I’ve made damn near $1,000 from a viral post before, so it’s possible.  It’s what I can do.

Please visit his post, upvote the post on Reddit, and share it wherever you can, to get it more attention so it can do more good.