Religion

Nov 152011
 
Halloween in San Leandro: "You are Going to Hell!"

San Leandro has some wonderful holiday traditions.  Some, like the Christmas tree lighting downtown, were sponsored by the city and have pretty much disappeared in this age of budget cuts.  Others, sponsored by private businesses, are alive and well.  My favorite is Safe Streets Safe Tricks Halloween, organized by the merchants on the Bancroft/Dutton area.  For two hours on Halloween afternoon, kids can go trick or treating to most of the businesses there (Safeway, as you would expect from a big, greedy corporation, does not participate).  Every merchant gives the kids candy, but Dutton Ace Hardware goes the “extra mile”: [Continue Reading]

May 072011
 
San Leandro gears up for Constitutional fight.

Hires premier anti-RLUIPA advocate to argue for its unconstitutionality I was sad, if not surprised, to read that the San Leandro City Council voted 5-2 (with Mayor Cassidy & Councilwoman Cutter in the minority) to appeal the 9th circuit Faith Fellowship decision to the US Supreme Court.   That’s exactly what I predicted Meyers Nave, the City’s law firm, would push the City Council to do.  I was tickled, however, to read that they’ve engaged Cardozo Law Professor Marci A. Hamilton to represent them on this appeal.  Hamilton is not only the country’s most prominent critic of RLUIPA,  and of [Continue Reading]

May 022011
 
Come pray at the Senior Center!

I pride myself on being San Leandro’s most infamous atheist.  I came into local prominence a couple of years ago when I challenged the San Leandro School District to stop teaching overtly religious songs in school.  I had been appalled to find out that McKinley Elementary School‘s evangelical Christian music teacher, Kathy Maier, had made my 6-year old learn and sing the song “Silent Night” which praises Jesus as God.  Not kosher in my book. So when I read a letter on last Thursday’s San Leandro Times accusing the city of establishing religion by allowing the Calvary Chapel church/religious group [Continue Reading]

Apr 112011
 
Is Creekside Community Church changing its tune on homosexuality?

In what may be a sign of the times, the Creekside Community Church seems to be toning down its anti-gay rhetoric.  Most conspicuously, it has redesigned the website of its Celebrate Recovery “Christian based” 12-step program to remove mention of “same sex attraction” as one of the addictions that it covers.  Indeed, Creekside is going as far as having its Coordinator of Children’s Ministries, Peggy McGregory, deny the existence of that part of the program (alas, an archived version of their website from 2009 clearly shows it listed among other “addictions”, the page describing the program is not archived, but [Continue Reading]