This post originally appeared on my personal blog, Temple of the Future. Zack Ford, an atheist LGBTQ blogger and activist, has written eloquently on many of these issues. Find his posts on this topic here.

Baltimore, MD. Charm City. Thousands of LGBTQ activists throng the halls of the Hilton, networking, strategizing and, let's be honest,…

"For too many people, the choice is between a religious community, or no community at all." So said Kate Lovelady, leader of the Ethical Society of St. Louis, one of few thriving Humanist communities in the USA (and perhaps the world).

She's right. That's why the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard today launched the Humanist Community Project, an effort to bring freethinkers together to share resources, ideas, and…

Put yourself in the shoes of a family member of a 9/11 victim, visiting the 9/11 Memorial for the very first time on September 11th, 2011.  You wander through the eight-acre Memorial quadrant for a while, finding solace among the trees, a core of quiet within the Big Apple. You follow the sound of falling water to one of the twin reflecting pools, marking the footprints of the fallen Towers, and stand at the rim watching the water flow…

I've always been a contrarian. Christopher Hitchens' Letters to a Young Contrarian is one of my very favorite books. I will take a position against any recognized orthodoxy, often arguing the opposite side of a case to the one I truly support if I feel strong opposition is lacking. I like to probe…

Late last night U.S. sources reported that Osama bin Laden had been found and killed. Soon after President Obama made a statement to the nationconfirming the news. And immediately the U.S. erupted in celebration.

Outside the White House, citizens gathered to wave American…

I've upset someone again. After an excellent  panel on the role of faith communities in the LGBTQ movement at the LGBT Momentum conference,  I posed some questions which I thought were respectful, if challenging. Why, I wondered, do progressive people stay in religious communities and try to salvage them, fighting with traditionalists of their own faith, instead of leaving those communities (many of the central commitments of which they no longer…

I’m a choirboy. Take a look at my photo and you can probably tell – there's something about my angelic features, and the slight haze of a halo above my head. As a kid I sang with my school's chapel choir, and I loved singing in Sunday Service. I loved the sense of ritual, the quiet aura of the space, the beautiful hangings and artwork. I even quite liked the sermons! But most of all I loved the singing.

I remember once going up to the altar to be blessed – something I didn’t usually…

"I do not know how to prove physically, that we shall meet and know each other in a future state; nor does Revelation, as I can find, give us any positive assurance of such a felicity. My reasons for believing it, as I do most undoubtedly, are that I cannot conceive such a being could make such a species as the human, merely to live and die on this earth. If I did not believe in a future state, I should believe in no God. This Universe, this all would appear, with…

I never feel more alive than after a concert, and singing with the Boston Gay Mens Chorus gives me a special buzz. Tonight I'm especially excited - I've just sung Christmas Carols at Holly Folly, the annual Christmas celebration in Provincetown (the gay Mecca of North-East USA), and I'm fizzing with energy. The crisp winter's air fill my lungs as I bounce joyously back to my hostel, and I revel in the sound of snow crunching underfoot,…

In January 1956, Martin Luther King was in despair. His decisions as a civil rights leader in Montgomery, Alabama were being questioned, even by former supporters. He had tried to resign his role as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, feeling he was not the best man for the task. He had been receiving anonymous death threats by phone and by letter - 30 or 40 per day by late January. He feared for himself and for his young family. He was 26 years old.

On January 27th,…

"I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today, and will stand by you tomorrow...Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding. In the words of Job, 'when I looked for light, then came darkness.'"

So said President Obama in his…

First it’s the sound of my breath entering my nose, a slight whistle created by my stuffed-up nostrils. Then it’s the cars rumbling outside, the vibrations passing through the window and catching my attention. Next, the shifting weight of the person next to me, the grumble in my stomach as it digests the pizza I’ve just inadvisably eaten, the thoughts of an argument I had with a friend two days ago, ideas about what I’m going to write in this post. At each interruption, I try to reign my…

Finally, all secrets would be revealed. Mulder and Scully would be vindicated, and the Truth that was once "Out There" would burst into the public domain. Courtesy of NASA, today we were to receive official confirmation that, yes, we are not alone in the universe: life had been found on other planets.

To those who believed the above, the highly-hyped NASA press-conference at 2pm EST today fell woefully below expectations. Instead of news of little green men, we received details of…

I know how to celebrate Christmas. The tree, the carols, the mulled wine, the mistletoe: all this makes sense to me. Although I am not a Christian, I know the Christmas story and its significance in the arc of the religion's narrative. I have sung in countless Christmas services and carol concerts, performed in nativity plays, and even attended midnight mass. My family has a wealth of Christmas traditions. Watching The Muppet Christmas Carol each year on Christmas Day is one favourite, and…