HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Mar. 30, 2006 Rep. Tom DeLay, claims that there is a war on Christians and "Values Voters". Asserting that the Christian faith "has always been in direct conflict with the values of the world", he has managed to stir up the uninformed masses who prefer to feel persecuted while holding a majority. When someone points out that Christians represent nearly an 80% majority in the United States, the eventual, though quiet, response is that "true" Christians are a small minority - which changes depending on who you ask. A recent study shows that atheists rank as the least trusted group in America. If the data from this poll is accurate, Americans rank atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants and homosexuals. As a testimony to the strong religious undertow of this country and the general ignorance about atheism, most respondents believed that atheists don't care about anyone but themselves and most would be unwilling to allow their children to marry an atheist. Atheists seem to be one of the last groups for which open bigotry is acceptable. The primary source of the bigotry and misinformation makes the claims of DeLay and others seem particularly ironic. While those who self-identify as atheists often bear the brunt of this bigotry, it also extends to those who adopt other labels. If you don't adhere to the common illusion that morality comes from some supernatural authority, you're fair game. Rachel Bevilacqua is a prime example. On December 18, 2005, Rachel put her 10-year-old son, Kohl, on a plane to visit his father for Christmas, as part of their custody agreement. Kohl was to return on January 2, 2006. He didn't. Kohl's father filed an emergency petition for temporary custody and the Judge granted it, without even speaking to Rachel. She wasn't notified of this for 17 days, a full week after her child was supposed to have been returned. Why? Well, it seems that Rachel is a member of the Church of the SubGenius and had participated in some of their X-Day events. This organization isn't a church or a religion, it's a social organization involved in parody, comedy and levity - often at the expense of organized religion. Some photos from the X-Day event were presented at the hearing, including pictures of the group performing a parody of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. The Judge took offense at the images and even called Rachel a "pervert", "mentally ill" and accused her of participating in "sex orgies". The images were so offensive to the Judge that he had to take a recess to compose himself. He ordered that she was to have no contact with her son, including letters, because he felt the pictures indicated "severe mental illness." One wonders what this Judge's psychological qualifications are, and why he has difficulty understanding the meaning of the word 'parody'. Examples of these pictures are available at the SubGenius website and from Rachel's blog, and it's clear to see why a devoutly religious person might be offended. However, these are adults, exercising their freedom of speech. In the United States, it's perfectly legal to mock religion. The Judge however, seems to have let his personal offense take charge, imposing his own ideals of morality on Kohl's mother. Make fun of religion, lose your kids. It doesn't matter that Kohl had a healthy, stable home. Nor does it matter that he was home-schooled and tested at a 5th grade level (on par with kids his age). Let's ignore that his family provided chess lessons, art lessons, Tae Kwon Do and boxing lessons. Clearly, this kid was at risk - at risk of not being raised to be a Christian. Kohl never attended an X-Day event, has never seen any of the pictures (his internet access is monitored to eliminate access to adult content) and the primary complaint by the father was that he has difficulty contacting Rachel and considers her a 'kidnapping risk'. Where are all of the fundamentalist Christians who like to scream about "activist judges"? Are they supporting this mother in her efforts to regain custody? Where are the masses who support free speech and freedom of religion? Perhaps they only support free speech that they agree with, and freedom of religion only applies to their religion. ------------ About the author: Matt Dillahunty is an active member of the Atheist Community of Austin (www.atheist-community.org). In addition to his article submissions for Useless-Knowledge, he enjoys e-mail and forum debates. He also hosts/co-hosts on a weekly call-in television program (The Atheist Experience) and a bi-weekly Internet radio program (The Non-Prophets), which are both sponsored by the ACA. After more than 20 years as a fundamentalist Christian, his interest in apologetics, skepticism and critical thinking convinced him that his religious beliefs were the result of irrational, uneducated thought and the beliefs of Christianity and other religions are simply untenable. Email: sans_deity@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
