On Thursday, May 26, 2016, during a meeting of Republican congressmen, Representative Rick Allen of Georgia began reading a bible verse on homosexuality to express his opposition to a bill’s amendment that would turn Barack Obama’s executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT Americans into law.

In response, several moderate Republican lawmakers got up and left the meeting.

“It was f*cking ridiculous,” one of the congressmen said.

“A good number of members were furious,” reported another.

“A lot of members were clearly uncomfortable and upset,” a G.O.P. aide said.

There are no bible verses on the topic that speak of it favorably; it is called an “abomination,” a sin against God, and a reason to put gays and lesbians to death. Allen read Romans 1:18-32:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

The incident drew attention to the old debate over what role, if any, religious views should play in molding national policy in a country where not everyone follows the same religion — or even a religion.

The amendment was put on the bill by Democrats. Despite the walk-out, Republicans opposing the amendment voted against the bill (some Democrats voted against it over another amendment related to immigration), and the bill failed to pass.

For more from the author, subscribe and follow or read his books.

In the first week of June 2016, JoAnne Bolser, a teacher at Burns Middle School in Mobile, Alabama, was put on paid administrative leave for giving an offensive math test to her 8th grade students. The questions on the test featured characters with traditionally black or Latino names, such as “Ramón,” “Raul,” “LaShaunda” and “Tyrone.”

Questions (original grammar and spelling preserved) included:

Dwayne pimps 3 ho’s. If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Dwayne’s $800 per day crack habit?

Tyrone knocked up 4 girls in the gang. There are 20 girls in his gang. What is the exact percentage of girls Tyrone knocked up?

Leroy has 2 ounces of cocaine. If he sells an 8 ball to Antonio for $320 and 2 grams to Juan for $85 per gram, what is the street value of the rest of his hold?

Pedro got 6 years for murder. He also got $10,000 for the hit. If his common-law wife spends $100 of his hit money per month, how much money will be left when he gets out?

Ramón has an AK-47 with a 30-round clip. He usually misses 6 out of every 10 shots and he uses 13 rounds per drive-by shooting. How many drive-by shootings can Ramón attempt before he has to steal enough ammunition and reload?

A parent of one of Bolser’s students said the students at first “took it as a joke, and she told them that it wasn’t a joke, and they had to complete it, and turn it in.”

It is likely Bolser did not create the quiz herself, but rather found it online, a version of the “L.A. Math Test” that has existed for nearly two decades and gotten other educators in serious trouble.

Bolser, described as a “strict,” “well-respected” teacher, handed out the test one day before her retirement.

Bolser is white, Burns Middle School about 44% white, 48% black, 3% Latino, with 66% of students from households poor enough to qualify them for the Free or Reduced Lunch program.

According to FBI data, whites commit most crimes in the United States, due to a much larger population (whites make up nearly 70% of Americans, blacks 13%, Hispanics 17%), even if, due to disproportionate numbers of minorities in poverty, minorities commit some crimes disproportionately high given their low population numbers.

For more from the author, subscribe and follow or read his books.

As reported in The Week, there is much buzz as to just how Bernie Sanders will arrive at his rally in Cloverdale, California, tonight (June 3, 2016). There is a possibility the presidential candidate will skydive to the rally, which happens to be taking place at an airport.

The president of NorCal Skydiving, Jimmy Halliday, told the press that he had already done a jump with a Sanders staffer, and that the staffers are discussing the option with Sanders.

“I’ve been told they will run the idea by Bernie. I can’t confirm that’s the plan. I know that’s a possibility,” Halliday said. But if it does happen, “I will personally take him.”

The manager of the Cloverdale airport, Michael Morrissey, also reported this might actually happen. He mentioned, quite slyly, something about a “grand entrance.”

Halliday’s skydiving firm has, according to The Press Democrat, taken skydivers in their 70s and 80s. Sanders is 74.

The rally begins at 7:30 p.m. California time. Sanders is expected to arrive at 8:00.

For more from the author, subscribe and follow or read his books.

On Saturday, June 4, 2016, the Reason Rally 2016, an event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., is expected to be the largest gathering of nonreligious persons in American history, with perhaps 30,000 in attendance. The Reason Rally website encourages those who “think public policy should be based on scientific evidence, not religious beliefs” or “support the separation of church and state” should join the march. Further,

The goal of Reason Rally 2016 is to showcase the presence and power of the nonreligious voting bloc, and to demand that reason be put at the forefront of our public and political discourse. We want to excite and empower attendees about that message so they bring it back home and apply it at the local and state levels.

Not only are we celebrating our secular, atheist, agnostic, humanist, freethinking, and nonreligious identities, we are preparing to exercise our power at the voting box to bring good sense back to government.

There are many prominent figures on the speaking schedule: science educator Bill Nye, magician Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller, pastor-turned-atheist Dan Barker, physicist Lawrence Krauss, biologist Cara Santa Maria, and actor John de Lancie. Both evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and actor Johnny Depp had planned to attend and speak at the Reason Rally but were forced to cancel.

Christian evangelist Ray Comfort was also planning to attend — along with hundreds of other Christians — to try to convert atheists and agnostics at the event. Comfort had to cancel when the D.C. police called his plan a protest and required him to get a permit.

Two members of Congress, Bobby Scott and Tulsi Gabbard, will also speak.

About one-fourth of Americans are now atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.”

For more from the author, subscribe and follow or read his books.

Wednesday morning, June 8, 2016, a petition to remove California Judge Aaron Persky was garnering at least 500 signatures every 60 seconds, with 630,000 total signatures. At this rate, the petition will likely hit 1 million signatures by tonight.

Persky is under fire for sentencing Brock Turner, a Stanford University student convicted of raping an unconscious woman, to only 6 months in jail (he won’t go to state prison). Turner has the opportunity, also, to reduce his sentence by months with decent behavior.

While prosecutors pushed for 6 years in prison, the defense asked for 4 months. Persky, a Stanford graduate, said the fact that Turner was intoxicated meant he had “less moral culpability” and that “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.”

The New York Times writes that Persky seemed “to accept the defendant’s account (Mr. Turner said the victim consented)…. The judge said: ‘I take him at his word that subjectively that’s his version of his events…. I’m not convinced that his lack of complete acquiescence to the verdict should count against him.’”

The petition creator, Maria Ruiz of Miami, writes:

Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency. He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors. Please help rectify this travesty to justice.

For more from the author, subscribe and follow or read his books.