Another post by NOSHA Board Member and Humanist Advocate writer Marty Bankson to his blog Bricolage.   Here is the opening excerpt:       I just became familiar with the journal First Things. The same people that published it have a Facebook page by the same name. I ended up on their mailing list and got a steeply discounted offer to subscribe. The mailer introducing the publication said First Things “is the home of today’s greatest religious thinkers and writers…with…lively…

    A NOSHA member passed along this cartoon from a former New Orleans resident, Ralph Scheeler, who was a kindred spirit as you can see from the punchline : “We lost the house, the barn, the livestock and the farm equipment. Our two kids are still in the I.C.U. My wife has permanent brain damage and I have internal organ damage.  But! God took care of us! We’re still alive!”       Ralph Scheeler and his wife, Annette,…

  NOSHA board member and Humanist Advocate reporter Marty Bankson presents a thoughtful interview with Harry Greenberger, president emeritus of NOSHA.     Born Free in Okeechobee   When the first question came up during my discussion with Harry Greenberger, a quotation came to mind: “Everyone starts out being an atheist.” It turns out to be the words of the sage, but sardonic curmudgeon-commentator, Andy Rooney who appeared regularly on CBS’s “60 Minutes”. Harry has earned the “sage” moniker, stating…

Persecutors Pay the Price February 2016 Getting comfortable in the nearly straight-backed, hardwood benches with a minimum of padding involved  a continual re-alignment of posture for the dozen disciples of New Orleans’ club for Christian persecutors unaccustomed to sitting in church. The benches—pews in churchspeak– were in the voluminous Leavell Chapel, located on the grounds of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The Persecutors made a rare appearance in church and suffered the punishing seating arrangements as a penance to…

We are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and community-minded supporter in NOSHA board member, Marty Bankson, who does double-duty as the newsletter reporter for The Humanist Advocate, our quarterly publication reflecting on our recent meetings and activities. We couldn’t do it without him! He has his work featured on “At The Well” that tries to improve the image of Christians in American public discourse. That Bankson’s writing is featured here is a wonderful testament to the ideas and efforts…

~A special report from NOSHA member Eve Ortiz As 2015 comes to an end, NOSHA members came together once again to volunteer at the Second Harvest Food Bank. While families and friends all across the nation start preparing for their end of the year festivities, many see the need to give back to their communities through volunteer work. This time of year is about giving; giving our time and our labor can be the best gift of all. Food banks…

Mr. Alan Wolfe helps coordinate the “First Tuesdays: Spirituality in the City” speaker series and acts as the liaison between the guest speakers and a the co-sponsorship of The Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church and several other Catholics entities. Now in it’s seventh season, guests from diverse religions, human interest groups, and prominent leaders in local government and business are chosen to “initiate conversations about their spiritual traditions and address the theme ‘Spirituality in the City’.” We met up with Mr….

Harry Greenberger’s Secular Invocation New OrleansCity Council November 19, 2015   “I am Harry Greenberger, President Emeritus of the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association.   Thank you for having me today for my eighth secular invocation before this Council. Only one Councilperson now seated was here for any of those prior meetings, so I find it appropriate to give a quick explanation of the constitutional requirement that mandates allowance of such invocations. An old Supreme Court ruled that “Freedom of…

The November reading for  the NOSHA meeting by Connie Roeder Gordon Schultz (November 21, 2015) _____________ In 1990 as Voyager 1 spacecraft sailed away from Earth, Ground Control issued a command that directed the craft to turn around and look back from its 4 billion mile vantage point and photograph all the planets it had passed leaving our solar system. “From Voyager’s vast distance, the Earth was captured as an infinitesimal point of light, actually smaller than a single pixel…