Mr. Deity Discusses Marriage

So, I love Mr. Deity, and I love this latest video. It’s no secret that LGBT rights are near and dear to my heart, and I feel strongly support of atheism in part because I know one can’t logically support bigotry.

Enjoy it, and check out his other videos!

We Are Not a Christian Nation

The constitution guarantees freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

So I was browsing through my RSS feeds and ran across this gem: Texas State Rep: Avoid School Prayer Ban By Reading Christian Proverbs To Students via Think Progress. A Texan representative, Debbie Riddle, has decided that while it may not be ok to read the Bible at large, in classrooms, it’s certainly not harmful to read proverbs. Apparently Debbie is unaware that proverbs is a book within the Bible.

This is part of an ongoing trend of the Christian political machine to find any means possible to circumvent the separation of church and state, defined in  the first amendment of the constitution, as follows:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…

Now, it’s not at all unusual to find Christians trying to indoctrinate children, but this political maneuvering around the first amendment strikes me as a remarkable hypocrisy, and I’m not the only one whose noticed. The delusional “tea party”, an almost comically extremist sect of the republican party, is heavily associated with religion and religious values. In addition, they claim to support the constitution as the document by which our country should be governed.

Enter the hypocrisy: the tea party advocates actions like the one Debbie proposes – and ignores that they are unconstitutional! It drives them absolutely mad that the founders of the constitution (who weren’t at all like the radical christian right of today) built in protection against religious indoctrination in our schools.

And this is only the most recent example: classroom prayer, creationism, bible readings.. these issues seem to sprout up without end.

Christians say they are being attacked on matters like this, and you know what? They are absolutely right (pun definitely intended). These behaviors should be attacked. They are unconstitutional for a reason – we are not a Christian country. If you want evidence of that, take a look at what Mr. John Adams (a “founding father”) had to say on the matter:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..

There it is – in addition to the first amendment. Read it and weep, ye who would seek to turn the United States into a theocracy.

All this hypocrisy has to stop. If you’re going to use constitution to defend your right to practice your religion, we’re going to use it defend our right to keep the government secular.

What’s going on with Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, The Muppets, Mike Huckabee & LGBT?

Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy

The General Story

The water is getting muddy on this one, so let’s get everything into a single blog:

1. As an organization, Chick-fil-A donates to anti-gay organizations like Exodus International.
2. Dan Cathy, the owner of the Chick-fil-A brand, said this during a radio interview: “we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. And I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude that thinks we have the audacity to redefine what marriage is all about.”
3. Dan Cathy then said this to a religious publishing organization: “guilty as charged” and is very “supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit.”
4. The Jim Henson company severed ties with Chick-fil-A and redirected funds they received from Chick-fil-A to GLAAD.
5. Boston mayor Thomas Menino refuses to allow Chick-fil-A building permits in the city.
6. Mike Huckabee proposes a “Chick-fil-A” appreciation day on August 1st.

So, there’s a lot of “wrong” in all this. I’m going to go through a bit of it:

• Marriage was around before Christianity.
• Dan Cathy is making a thinly veiled “disasters are the result of gay marriage” argument.
• The biblical definition of a family unit is very diverse and in many ways offensive to our modern sensibilities.
• Mike Huckabee is not trying to defend Christianity – he’s trying to attack a group he doesn’t like, the same as he always has. Unfortunately, his positive spinning pulls the wool over many people’s eyes.
• Many people have no idea that they are supporting anti-gay sentiment and hate speech by going to Chick-fil-A on August 1st. Much like disguising creationism as intelligent design, it’s the modus operandi of Christian figureheads to misguide their flock.

Any prejudice and discrimination Christians are receiving over this, is the direct result of the prejudice and discrimination they demonstrated beforehand. Look no further for evidence that religion fuels and supports hate.

The Franchisees

For their part, the franchise owners of Chick-fil-A have come out with their own statement, in an attempt to deflect some of the much-deserved media frenzy:

“The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect –- regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.

Chick-fil-A is a family-owned and family-led company serving the communities in which it operates. From the day Truett Cathy started the company, he began applying biblically-based principles to managing his business. For example, we believe that closing on Sundays, operating debt-free and devoting a percentage of our profits back to our communities are what make us a stronger company and Chick-fil-A family.

Our mission is simple: to serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”

So, what to do?

Boycotting Chick-fil-A, while a very visible protest, only fuels the idea that Chick-fil-A is being ostracized for their Christianity. For my part, I recommend that we focus our attention against Dan Cathy and the organizations that lobby and discriminate against the LGBT community to begin with. Here are 3 examples of how to do a positive protest:

• Do not attend the August 1st event proposed by Mike Huckabee.
• Encourage people you know not to attend.
• Attend counter-events like the August 3rd kiss-in.

Colorado shooting: Westboro Baptist Church to picket funerals of Aurora victims (examiner.com)

Wesboro Baptist Church plans to picket at the funerals of those killed in the Colorado shooting. Margie Phelps is seen above (daughter of Fred Phelps, the church’s founder)

Even if this is just a publicity stunt, it’s disgusting.

Colorado shooting: Westboro Baptist Church to picket funerals of Aurora victims via examiner.com