I happened to read something interesting today between calls at work and thought I would post a few comments on it.
This article, found on a catholic blog was published just two days ago. First, as a bit of back story this was commenting on the suit that the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed against Arizona governor Jan Brewer over her proclaiming a day of prayer in the state of Arizona. The state in which I happen to live for those who don't know.
Now, FFRF lost that case, and from what I have read it seems that it was poorly argued by the atheist side. The issue, of course, is one of church state separation. I don't particularly care what religion Jan Brewer belongs to, she can worship Jesus, Allah or Pez dispensers for all I care. However, using her position as governor to as a pulpit for her beliefs is (or at least should be) wrong.
I may speak more in another post on that issue later, but to be honest I'm not educated enough on the particulars of the actual lawsuit to really make a more detailed analysis of it. I mostly wanted to speak about the article by Mary Kochan that I posted a link to.
She starts out by suggesting that, and I quote:
The further irony of this article is that it is written by a Catholic, who is conveniently the friend of the founding fathers even though those of them who were religious were undeniably protestant and did not have a lot of nice things to say about Catholics. In fact an anti-catholic sentiment was rather common for most of American history and they were often views as unpatriotic because of their allegiance to the Pope. There were plenty of people in our country at that time who would have loved it if Catholics gone and found some other country to live in.
Isn't it odd that as soon as Catholics became accepted as part of the majority they turn around and and join in persecution of some new minority all the while claiming that us atheists are attacking them and we are somehow the real danger.
If anyone has a question about the inherent bigotry against atheists that most of her article intones just mentally replace the word atheist in her article with Jew, Black, or Hispanic and reread it and ask how many KKK members would suddenly agree with her article.
Now if only Kochan could managed to produce this kind of unbridled anger at her own church for protecting child rapists then maybe us "evil" atheists would have one fewer things to complain about.
Now, FFRF lost that case, and from what I have read it seems that it was poorly argued by the atheist side. The issue, of course, is one of church state separation. I don't particularly care what religion Jan Brewer belongs to, she can worship Jesus, Allah or Pez dispensers for all I care. However, using her position as governor to as a pulpit for her beliefs is (or at least should be) wrong.
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| My god dispenses candy, what has yours done lately? |
I may speak more in another post on that issue later, but to be honest I'm not educated enough on the particulars of the actual lawsuit to really make a more detailed analysis of it. I mostly wanted to speak about the article by Mary Kochan that I posted a link to.
She starts out by suggesting that, and I quote:
Let’s get this straight. The atheists are suing because they had to turn off the television to avoid the topic of religion or news announcements about the Day of Prayer. They had to alter their conversation to avoid the topic of religion. This made them feel like “outsiders”.To be clear, as I mentioned previously, the issue is about something a little be bigger than just feeling like outsiders. The ironic thing is that in her third paragraph she actually intones the exact fundamentalist view point that this is really about.
Yes, you are outsiders. Go start your own damn country. This one was started by Christians, you puerile dimwits. It is Christians who established and largely Christians who fought and died to maintain the freedoms you enjoy. And Christians are still the majority. Apparently your vaulted belief system doesn’t equip you to handle being in the minority. (added bold for emphasis)Without realizing she her very article justifies the reasons for the FFRF's lawsuit. She apparently wants to use religion as a criterion for citizenship. Then she goes on to justify the abuse of power by saying Christians are the majority so we just have to suck it up if we want to live here. Now irregardless of the religious beliefs of the founding fathers, they very carefully setup the U.S. government to avoid a tyranny of the majority.
The further irony of this article is that it is written by a Catholic, who is conveniently the friend of the founding fathers even though those of them who were religious were undeniably protestant and did not have a lot of nice things to say about Catholics. In fact an anti-catholic sentiment was rather common for most of American history and they were often views as unpatriotic because of their allegiance to the Pope. There were plenty of people in our country at that time who would have loved it if Catholics gone and found some other country to live in.
Isn't it odd that as soon as Catholics became accepted as part of the majority they turn around and and join in persecution of some new minority all the while claiming that us atheists are attacking them and we are somehow the real danger.
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| Help, Help, I'm being repressed. |
Now if only Kochan could managed to produce this kind of unbridled anger at her own church for protecting child rapists then maybe us "evil" atheists would have one fewer things to complain about.
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