On the American Atheists’ "skip church" billboard campaign.

Deep in the heart of superstition ...

American Atheists launch provocative campaign in religious Deep South, by Peter Foster (The Telegraph)

Advertising hoardings show a young girl writing a letter to Father Christmas: "Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church! I'm too old for fairy tales."

Counterpoint: Billboards are a waste of money, anyway.

American Atheists’ Billboard Campaign is Misguided, by Steve Neumann (Patheos)

While I admire American Atheists’ chutzpah for operating deep in hostile territory, I think their strategy is misguided. This Christmas season they are showing billboards in the Bible Belt with little children saying things like “Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church! I’m too old for fairy tales.” I don’t think this is the best use of their resources, for several reasons.

My conclusion: Polemics never got anywhere by being meek and self-effacing, and we'll have to break a few eggs to halt the encroachment of theocracy in America.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Satanic Temple, the Supreme Court and government-sanctioned religion.

Touched by His Noodly Appendage

While I wouldn't "join" the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster any more quickly than the various other religions, pastafarianism might become a key element of my plans for New Albanian religious tolerance as a key element of beer tourism.

But hold the tomatoes. I prefer white clam sauce with my pasta, please, and the real point of the essay linked here is whether the Satanic Temple counts, too.

Devil’s Advocates, by Mark Joseph Stern (Slate)

Thanks to conservative Supreme Court rulings, the government must support the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Satanic Temple.

When Rosenberger first came down, many liberals bemoaned it as a loophole through which Christians could obtain more government funding. It may well be—but it’s also the Satanic Temple’s best shot at getting its display in the Florida Capitol. State officials claim that, because they were generous enough to open up the space to religious groups in the first place, they retain the final authority over who gets to display what. Rosenberger says: absolutely not. If officials didn’t want the Satanic Temple erecting a display in the capitol rotunda, they shouldn’t have let religious groups in in the first place. Now that they’ve opened the gates, they have no right to stop the stampede.