Old Chuck is at it again. More martyrdom drivel.
This past week an ABC News debate aired on “Nightline,” which pitted popular theists against Internet atheists. While I’ll have more to say about that battle of wits in my next article, it testifies to the growing number (30 million Americans) of those who profess there is no God. Add to that what I believe is possibly three times the number of functional atheists, those who believe in a God but practically don’t show it, and America is facing a new religious horizon in which atheism is becoming a formidable foe.
Well, first and foremost, it wasn’t by any stretch a ‘battle of wits’, since Cameron and Comfort got their asses handed to them. If it was to be made into an action film, it’d probably resemble a vaudevillian rendition of the Gunfight at the O. K. Corral, with Ray and Kirk as the Clantons, fumbling for their guns before getting their fool heads blown off. Secondly, atheism’s not a religion, third, if atheists want a seat at the damn table; unless I woke up in Berlin in 1941, this is fucking America, Chuck, and neither you nor anyone else has the constitutional right to deny me or anyone else a seat at that table.
Though the majority of Americans continue to claim to be Christians, a Gallup poll discovered 45 percent of us would support an atheist for president, 55 percent would support a homosexual candidate and 72 percent would support a Mormon candidate.
Such a survey is a clear indication that most Americans are simply confused about what it means to be Christian. It also shows that the secularization of society is alive and well, especially when almost half would endorse an atheist president.
Ummm…most Christians are confused about what it means to be them, and you clowns still can’t agree on a standard.
Secularization is a bad thing, how exactly?
The opponents of God
Once upon a time, years ago, it seemed that the only major fire for atheism burned from the anti-Christian work of Madelyn Murray O’Hair and the American Atheist organization, whose claim to fame was the banning of prayer and Bible reading in public schools in 1963.
O’Hair was a primary figurehead in America in the 20th century, but atheism has been around since ancient Greece up until this century.
Today many more antagonist groups and individuals to theism abound, and they are using every means possible for global proliferation – from local government to the World Wide Web. Such secular progressives include the Institute for Humanist Studies, Secular Coalition of America, American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Internet Infidels, the Atheist Alliance International, Secular Student Alliance, Society for Humanistic Judaism, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, etc. Of course no list of atheistic advocates would be complete without mentioning the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, as well as the anti-God militancy of men like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris.
Cue the weird X Files whistle music…the creeping conspirators are hiding in the shadows, waiting to pounce!
Life ain’t an action movie, Chuck.
Though the U.S. Constitution outlaws religious discrimination, these organizations and individuals would love nothing more than to help society look with distain upon Christianity and, ultimately, make its components illegal. In fact, right now, they are coalescing and rallying at least 5 million of their troops to mount counter offensives to Christianity.
We have heard this particular nonsense before, have we not? Discrimination = criticism, and vice versa. I love how he make it seem as if it’s some sort of war of good vs. evil. Dontcha just love these folks, living in a comic book world?
For that reason I believe theistic patriots need to be wise to atheists’ overt and covert schemes, exposing their agenda and fighting to lay waste to their plans.
Wow, do I hear the thrumming chords of McCarthyism in all this? Yes I do.
Not too patriotic, Chuck.
Step 1: Initiate restrictions and legislation against theism and Christianity
In God we bust
For these liberal groups to win the war of ideological dominance, they know they must minimize the effects of Christianity, which many are doing (unbeknownst to others) behind the scenes through lobbying and legislation. In fact, two significant actions occurred on the National Day of Prayer just two weeks ago!
‘Minimize the effects of Christianity’? What effects? The crazies wandering the streets with sandwich boards, pronouncing the ‘End Of Days’? Women claiming that ‘gawd’ told them to kill their kids? GW sending our troops into a debacle based on a little voice in his head? Dominionists trying to take over our country in the name of their cosmic babysitter?
Shame on you. Shame on you all.
The London Telegraph noted that, while American Christians were praying across the land on the National Day of Prayer, atheists were petitioning the Texas Legislature against the civic display of the words, “In God We Trust.”
Umm…hello? Establishment clause of the First Amendment? Don’t let a little thing like constitutional rights get in the way, now.
Eroding and erasing theistic language in culture is a growing trend. Earlier this year George Washington dollar coins were not only inscribed with the words “In God We Trust” on their edges, but many excluded them entirely! Such minting modifications are a flagrant defiance against theism and a public reflection of the place God is now relegated – to the fringes of society.
That was an error, Chuck, not some ‘evil atheist conspiracy’. Sheesh, I’ll lend you a quarter so you can by a clue. Or one of those mis-struck dollar coins, hehehehe.
Secularists of course have made repeated attempts to rid “under God” from “The Pledge of Allegiance.” Thank God the Legislature of Texas is moving along a bill to include the words in our state pledge: “Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God and indivisible.” I was also grateful to read in the Dallas Morning News May 1 that the House also embraced legislation “that seeks to clarify the rights of Texas public school students to offer public prayers at football games or graduation, hand out religious messages or hold religious meetings during the school day if they want.”
The Pledge of Allegiance, as anyone well-informed knows, was inserted in the last half of the 20th century during the…drum roll please!…Tah DAH! The McCarthy era.
If Texas wants to secede, I’m all for it. Ass-backwards state anyways.
Another example of atheistic advocacy can be found in the 10,000-member Freedom from Religion Foundation initiation of a Supreme Court case, which asserts that President Bush’s faith-based initiatives pose a violation of the wall of separation between church and state.
Surprise! Yes, they do indeed. Reading comprehension must be shot to hell, Chuck. ‘ Prohibiting or respecting’…guess where that comes from?
Atheists also received a proverbial shot in the arm by locating a representative and advocate of sorts in Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who “is the first member of Congress – and the highest-ranking elected official in the country – to make known that he is a nontheist.”
No doubt Chuckles and his brownshirt buddies would forcibly eject Mr. Stark from office, if they could.
His election stands in stark contrast to the wishes of our Founding Fathers, who encouraged American citizens to vote Christians into public office. As John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, wrote to Jedidiah Morse on Feb. 28, 1797, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
So you may as well as ban Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and any other ‘alternate’ religions from attaining office as well.
I have illustrated amply both here and here, that not only is this horrendously incorrect, it’s discriminatory and yes, unpatriotic.
The tyranny of the state over the church
The other legal disgrace that occurred on the National Day of Prayer was that Congress passed what might become one of the most religiously restrictive pieces of legislation in history: H.R. 1592, “The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.” With Senate approval, this bill will expand the law against such hate crimes, allowing federal funds and other resources to assist local law enforcement to deter and punish acts of violence committed against an individual because of the victim’s race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.
LEGAL DISGRACE!?!? Let me get this straight – you want to become an advocate for violence committed against non-Christians? Wait for it…Chuckles tries to pull some rhetorical crap about this:
While the bill purports to target crimes of brutality, not speech, it could very easily end up (even inadvertently) restricting First Amendment rights of Christians to speak freely against such anti-biblical practices as homosexuality and transvestitism. As Janet Folger, the author of “Criminalizing Christianity,” has pointed out, “H.R. 1592 isn’t about hate. It isn’t about crime. It’s about silencing our speech.”
Obviously, Norris hasn’t read the damn thing.
As with other laws of this type, once enacted, local justices could easily expand its interpretive enforcement to encompass a wider meaning than originally conceived. Once enforced, what would stop a clergy from being accused as an accessory to a hate crime, after he preached to his church on Sunday about the woes of same-sex marriage and discovered on Monday one of his congregants got in a fight with a homosexual co-worker as a result of a moral altercation? The fact is, if the hate-crime bill passes, pastors could easily become pulpit partners in crime.
Read the whole bloody thing. It specifically mentions physical violence several times, along with kidnapping, and it’s hardly loose in its wording.
I agree with Rev. Henry Jackson, who said the law would “mandate unequal protection under the law and will pave the way for criminalization of thoughts and religious beliefs contrary to politically correct ideas.”
I call bullshit on that one. Denouncing something from a pulpit isn’t included, if you want to speak out against something, go to it, this is America, baby. But if you (as a pastor) specifically instruct the sheep to ’smite the unbeliever’, the homosexual or transvestite, then sorry buck-a-roo, your ass is in a sling. Freedom of speech doesn’t hand you a blank check to do as you like. It’s not a luxury, it’s a privilege and a responsibility, and if you cause violence by blathering about it, you share the blame.
Hate-crime laws are not only a violation of our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion, but a violation of the 10th Amendment’s limitations on the power of federal government.
The 10th amendment is hotly contested, even today. A reserved powers clause hardly applies here. Besides, most hate-crime laws are targeting people who would infringe on other people’s ’ life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’, don’t they?
Hang together or hang separately?
Thank God our president’s senior advisers have gone on record that they will advise him to veto the bill if it reaches the doors of the White House. We, too, must follow his lead by speaking up and taking a stand against this unnecessary and unconstitutional bill – and any others like it. Just as atheists are gathering to combat God, we patriots must come together to sustain the godly heritage we’ve been handed. As Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”
Oh, goodie – more false dichotomies, religious oppression, and comic book histrionics. The ‘Evil Atheist Conspiracy’ is conspiring to take religion away!
Get real. Better yet, get bent.
I urge you to write the president and your representatives today to encourage the overturning of this ungodly, religiously restricting and unconstitutional piece of legislation, erroneously titled by the misnomer, “Hate Crimes Prevention Act.”
There must be something incredibly potent in the water table in Texas – it seems to make folks more than a little crazy.
Final analysis – intolerant, unbelievable, the Karate Kommando is cognitively dissonant.
In laymen’s terms, he’s thoroughly addled.
Not a very good American, I might add.
Can you imagine the fundie protests in the streets if even a small group of people tried this here?
