For the last several years, my work as an interfaith activist has been largely defined by a single question: "Wait -- you do interfaith work, and you're an atheist?!"

That question, posed by religious people (to be fair, I've gotten that question from many atheists, though usually for a different reason-for more on that, check out this recent piece I wrote on atheists and…

This year, two notable controversies have been brewing in Tennessee: a proposed bill that would forbid educators from using the word "gay" in the classroom, and a court battle to determine if Islam is a religion. (The verdict? Islam is in…

These last few weeks, I've gotten a lot of questions about my newest tattoo -- a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on my right shoulder.

"Why Abraham Lincoln? Is it because there are rumors he was gay?" Well, no, but I do appreciate the opportunity to make a Gaybraham Lincoln pun, thank you.

"Why Abraham Lincoln? Do you want to make sure everyone knows that you really hate slavery?" Wait, was there ever a question about my stance on slavery?!

"Why…

“I still can’t believe this is what I do for living,” I thought to myself as I walked out of the airport in State College, Pennsylvania.

I was met by the Rev. David Witkovsky, Campus Chaplain for Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA, and Juniata Campus Ministry intern Lauren Seganos. “Welcome to rural Pennsylvania,” said Lauren as the crisp April wind threatened to knock us over.

I was in the middle of my second speaking tour…

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk in the organized atheist, humanist, skeptic and freethought movements about the potential benefits and drawbacks of interfaith work.

Over at Patheos, the Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, Roy Speckhardt, recently…

I am sitting in Oregon, adoring the all-too-brief bouts of sunshine interrupting the more extended periods of drizzle. The sky is clouded, as it apparently often is in this part of the world, and for the first time in a while I feel like the least hipster person in the room.

I am here because I was invited to speak for the University of Oregon's Alliance of Happy Atheists (UO AHA). After my speech, they gave me their first…

This post originally appeared on the Washington Post On Faith and the Huffington Post Religion.

The attacks on the United States of America orchestrated by Osama bin Laden occurred during my first week of high school -- what was supposed to be…

"I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion -- and where it isn't, that's where my work lies." -- Ram Dass

Ten years ago, in the summer before my freshman year of high school, I went with my church to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to do home repairs and work with at-risk youth. We stayed and worked in what was then the poorest county in the United States of America, and it was a hugely educational and personally transformative…

As I sit here contemplating Representative Peter King's (R-NY) upcoming "Muslim radicalization" hearings, trying to discern if my stomach ache is the result of the cookies I'm scarfing or the prospect of congressional hearings that specifically target one community, I'm comforted by rapper Lupe Fiasco's new single, "…

This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post Religion.

This February, as friends of mine flocked south to escape the unrelenting cold of Boston, I headed to the Midwest.

It was my first college and university speaking tour, put together in partnership with eight institutions in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa that extended invitations for me to come…

This piece originally appeared on the Huffington Post Religion and was co-authored with Valarie Kaur.

In the weeks following 9/11, a Sikh man named Balbir Singh Sodhi was…

This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post Religion.

In a recent interview with BBC Radio 4, musician Jack White (of the White Stripes and other bands)…

This post originally appeared in the Huffington Post Religion.

It may be mid-January, but I'm still thinking of Christmas.

The week between Christmas and New Year's Eve just might be my favorite of the year. It is the one time that my entire family gets together. We spend several days eating our favorite foods, catching up and playing board…

This post originally appeared in the Washington Post's On Faith.

In the wake of this national tragedy, many have speculated about whether violent rhetoric and imagery used by Sarah Palin and others directly influenced Saturday's devastating events. We may never know if there was a direct link between Palin's words and…

This article was originally published on the Huffington Post.

Derek Webb isn't your prototypical evangelical Christian -- but he hopes that someday, he might be.

A long-time darling of the contemporary Christian music scene, Webb has flirted with controversy a number of times since launching his solo career, most notably with his 2009 album Stockholm…

This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post Religion.

"'Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart." So said Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass, in a 2007 interview with The Atlantic.…