Larry Taunton

In September 2019, the board of Fixed Point Foundation unanimously decided to reinstate Taunton as executive director, stating, "Larry accomplished more than most of us thought possible, often at great personal risk and sacrifice. It is not wholly uncommon for people in high profile work to suffer their own setbacks, and Larry did. But he faced it with courage and dignity and he has done all that we have asked of him and more these last two years."

In the fall of 2017, Taunton resigned as the executive director of Fixed Point Foundation citing a lack of recovery since his injury and manic pace of work. In 2018, Taunton admitted that he "had engaged in inappropriate (consensual) behavior outside the bonds of my marriage some time ago." His resignation came "after he was confronted about allegations that he had inappropriate relationships with two young women on the ministry staff."

In 2016, Taunton published a book entitled The Faith of Christopher Hitchens about his friendship with the late atheist, in which he claimed that Hitchens seemed to be reevaluating his religious options, "if only theoretically," after his cancer diagnosis. But the author is nonetheless clear that he does not believe Christopher Hitchens made a deathbed conversion: "I make no Lady Hope-like claims regarding Christopher Hitchens. As we have seen, there were no reports of a deathbed conversion."

In October 2015, Taunton was nearly fatally injured when hit while cycling, suffering 39 broken bones including a skull fracture, his jaw, 19 breaks in his neck and back, all ribs on the right side of his body, and a punctured lung and massive internal hemorrhaging.

Larry Taunton has personally engaged some of the most outspoken opponents of Christianity, including Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Peter Singer. In 2007, he organized "The God Delusion Debate" on the merits of Dawkins' arguments against Christianity as set forth in his bestselling book, The God Delusion. The discussion was heard by over a million people worldwide. In 2008, he chaired a follow-up debate at the University of Oxford. In 2010, Taunton publicly debated Christopher Hitchens. In 2015, he debated atheist Daniel Dennett and imam Zaid Shakir on Al Jazeera America, as well as skeptic writer Michael Shermer. He has also been a guest on a variety of television and radio shows, and has been quoted by the New York Times and Vanity Fair, among other newspapers and magazines.

Larry Alex Taunton (born, May 24, 1967) is an American author, columnist, and cultural commentator. Larry Taunton's work has been covered by the BBC, The New York Times, and many others.