Tag Archives: Bigotry

Feel the Christian love: 4-year-old sings “Ain’t no homo gonna make it to Heaven.”

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Jesus preached faith, tolerance, and love. I wonder what he would make of this performance by a 4-year-old boy at the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle in Greensburg, Indiana?

For those of you having trouble making out the words here’s a transcript:

I know the Bible’s right,

Somebody’s wrong…

Ain’t no homo’s gonna make it to heaven

I’m not that disturbed that a 4-year-old is singing this song. It’s clear by his reaction to the cheering adults around him that he really doesn’t understand what it is he’s singing about.  He only knows that it makes all the adults in the room think he’s wonderful. It’s the adults with their enthusiastic standing ovation that disturbs me. It’s the adults who should be ashamed of themselves. The kid is a victim.

Not that any of them see it that way. The video has gone viral and the church finds itself being bombarded with negative criticism so much so that they updated their website yesterday with this statement:

5/30/12 – The Pastor and members of Apostolic Truth Tabernacle do not condone, teach, or practice hate of any person for any reason. We believe and hope that every person can find true Bible salvation and the mercy and grace of God in their lives. We are a strong advocate of the family unit according to the teachings and precepts found in the Holy Bible. We believe the Holy Bible is the Divinely-inspired Word of God and we will continue to uphold and preach that which is found in scripture.

Technically speaking I suppose there’s nothing inherently hateful about the lyric “ain’t no homos going to make it to Heaven.” Depending on how you interpret the Bible it could be considered a simple statement of fact. The absolute glee and joy of the people in the congregation to the claim, however, is borderline sociopathic.

Consider the implications of this song: If the homos aren’t going to Heaven then their obvious destination, according to their professed beliefs, is Hell — a place of endless suffering beyond imagining — and they’re just delighted by that idea! Isn’t it wonderful that we’ve gotten this cute little boy to sing about how those nasty gays are gonna burn, burn, burn!

You’d think a good Christian would be saddened that anyone would end up in Hell, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. And it’s not enough that they have to be bigots themselves, but they have to make sure their kids are bigots from as early an age as possible too. And people wonder why Richard Dawkins says indoctrinating your kids into religion before they’re even able to understand it is a form of child abuse. He’s darling! How could that be considered abuse?

It’s shit like this that sometimes makes me wish Jesus were real and would show up right there on that stage just about the time the kid stops singing just so I could see the looks on the faces of the people who were so happy about that cute little ditty. Based on what I know of his teachings in the Bible I somehow doubt he’d be particularly amused by their antics.

With love like that who needs haters?

Utah Senator Chris Buttars is an asshat.

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It seems the bigoted Senator thinks that gays are a bigger threat than terrorists:

Sen. Chris Buttars: “Homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion. And you say that around here now and everybody goes nuts. But I don’t care.”

[…] “They’re mean. They want to talk about being nice. They’re the meanest buggers I have ever seen.”

And just seconds later, Buttars draws a comparison between some gays and radical Muslims.

“It’s just like the Muslims. Muslims are good people and their religion is anti-war. But it’s been taken over by the radical side.”

[…] He also talks about gay marriage being the beginning of the end.

Buttars: “What is the morals of a gay person? You can’t answer that because anything goes.”

And finally, this is how senator Buttars refers to the “radical gay movement.”

“They’re probably the greatest threat to America going down I know of.”

This was all from a documentary being filmed on the passing of Proposition 8 in California. I suppose the Senator deserves some credit for being honest enough to not try and hide his bigotry, but he’s still an asshat.

Elizabeth Dole is a bigot.

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In a recent press release she’s attacking her opponent in the upcoming elections, Kay Hagan, for having the audacity to go to a fund raiser by the Godless Americans PAC:

“Kay Hagan is trying to run a campaign in North Carolina that casts her as a moderate but the money that’s paying for it is coming from the left-wing fringe of political thought,” said Dole Campaign Communications Director Dan McLagan.  “You can tell a lot about a person by their friends and these are friends most North Carolinians would not be comfortable having over for dinner.”

And a hearty fuck you, Mrs. Dole is well deserved for that crack. It may be hard to believe, but most of us non-believers tend to get along just fine with the rest of you folks who opt to believe in invisible Sky Daddies. The above comment is nothing less than pure bigotry and it doesn’t stop there:

Hagan’s campaign is being largely funded by labor unions intent on ending North Carolina’s status as a right to work state, liberal trial lawyers and ultra left wing groups like MoveOn.org which is a deeply anti-military organization.  Now Hagan has added anti-religion activists from Boston Massachusetts to the list.

“Kay Hagan does not represent the values of this state; she is a Trojan Horse for a long list of wacky left-wing outside groups bent on policies that would horrify most North Carolinians if they knew about it,” McLagan said.  “This latest revelation of support from anti-religion activists will not sit well with the 90% of state residents who identify with a specific religious faith.”

That’s an awfully big assumption to make and the fact that you seem to be encouraging it just proves how big of a bigot you really are. The ironic thing is that most of us have never heard of Kay Hagan prior to your press release, but we have now and quite a few of us are contributing to her campaign thanks to your prejudice.

Atheism, Religion, and the Scarlet A in my Sidebar

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So the other day I read a post by Paul at Cafe Philos about “Standing up for Nontheists. It’s a very good post and is thought provoking, as all of Paul’s posts usually are.

For years, my deepest, most fervent and heart felt opinion on the ontological existence of deity has been a passionate conviction that the question of whether or not god exists is boring.

This is probably one of the few areas where Paul and I differ. But my interest in the issue comes more from my own stupidity on religion than from anything else. I wasted my younger years not learning all the interesting concepts out there in the world. Which leads to my interest in just about everything nowadays.

The main point made in Paul’s post is his frustration of seeing how atheist are treated in this country. And it can be very frustrating at times for an Atheist. Take the simple definition of the word atheism. It means lack of belief, specifically any religious belief. So Atheists are being mistreated, and in some cases abused, because of their lack of a belief. If that last sentence sounds odd to you, welcome to the world of an atheist.

What is the reason for the bigotry and mis-treatment of atheists over their lack of beliefs? Please tell me it’s not from some misguided thought about how a lack of a belief in any religion predisposes someone to more violence or criminal activity. Hopefully it’s not that myth about divorce rates. Does it have something to do with our lack of beliefs threatening your beliefs?

Whatever the reason, take any question from above and even if the answer is yes, bigotry and mistreatment to any human being is uncalled for. Part of living in a civilized society is treating others fairly, justly, and not discriminating. As well as giving someone the civil rights they deserve so long as they do not remove or encroach on the rights from someone else.

So, as Paul did with his blog, I will be adding the “Scarlet A” to my blog. Not because I necessarily care about the movement of outspoken atheists and not because I am the sort of person to sum up my feelings and thoughts with a bumper sticker slogan. But because I am tired of being treated differently for my beliefs and I want others to know why.

I add the “A” to my blog because what Nicole (see video below) went through is bullshit and undeserved. No belief should exclude someone from treating others fairly and humanely.

Southern racists substitute the word “Canadian” for the N-word.

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Bigots and racists in the American South have found a way to offend not just blacks, but Canadians in a single stroke. Because use of the word “nigger” has become so socially unacceptable they’ve started using the word “Canadian” as a kind of substitute or codeword:

Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. “She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn’t understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else,” the blogger wrote.

“After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian’ was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to [with the N-word.]”

A similar case in Kansas City was reported last year on a Listserv, or electronic mailing list, used by linguistics experts. A University of Kansas linguist said that a waitress friend reported that “fellow workers used to use a name for inner-city families that were known to not leave a tip: Canadians. ‘Hey, we have a table of Canadians…. They’re all yours.’ “

I suppose the only surprising thing is their choice of word, though the article mentions that the prevailing theory is that it’s a means of labeling blacks as outsiders that just sounds weird whereas calling them “Mexicans” or “Latinos” would have made the substitution rather obvious.

I was going to rant on Mitt Romney’s speech on religion…

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… but so many other atheists have done a much better job of ripping it apart that I can’t think of anything else to add. In particular is this entry from Atheist Revolution to which I can only add, “Yeah! What he said!”

Not that I was likely to vote for Romney if he got the nomination to begin with, the worst of the Democrats looks fantastic in comparison, but at least we can see his bigotry right out in the open. The question is: Will the rest of the religious Americans recognize it as well and, more importantly, will they care?

Christian neighbors decide to vandalize atheist’s cactus plants…

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Because, you know, that’s what Jesus would do, right? A snippet from Kazim’s Korner on the incident:

So I rang the bell and greeted them in as friendly a manner as possible, all smiles. I reintroduced myself to the woman and asked if she perhaps knew anything about the chopped plant. Despite giving me a fairly frosty reception, she invited me in and called her husband down. I had a seat on their couch, they took positions opposite me, and the husband had his arms folded the whole time and a very sullen scowl on his face.

Yes, he cut down the agave. I received a lecture on how dangerous it is to the neighborhood kids, and all sorts of gruesome scenarios about eyes being poked out. But what struck Ginny and me as weird later was when we realized that they hadn’t cut any of the spines facing the sidewalk—only the side on the street. (Again, see the picture.)

They then went on to lecture me about the general awful nature of our yard. Now, our yard may not be the most beautiful and well-kept in the neighborhood, but it is mowed regularly and there are quite a few houses that look worse than ours. I’m not a gardener myself, and I’m really busy with school, but I think Ginny does a reasonable job with it.

I took all this politely and said I understood their concerns, and is there anything else? Then we got into the bumper stickers. The wife said several times that they “make her sick” and she is very angry that we disrespect her religion. That she could never be friends with someone who doesn’t “share her values.” That she is firmly set in her beliefs and would never change them.

I said I don’t want or expect her to change her beliefs, I have never asked her to. I don’t proselytize to people who haven’t approached me about the subject. And while I sympathized with her feelings, the very fact that she is willing to announce that the bumper stickers sicken her is unfortunately one of the chief reasons why we feel the need to express ourselves in this way. That Christians—not you, I stated—feel that it’s acceptable to go door-to-door inviting people to their religion, and that we are expected to keep quiet about our opinions because they are supposedly offensive. We are sad that you view our bumper stickers that way, but we see it as a small but legitimate exercise of our free speech.

His wife has her take on the story as well:

t wasn’t an act of kindness or neighborly caring that drove this man to mutilate my poor agave, it was an act of a bigot who holds nothing but disdain for us because we believe differently from him. He is a Christian(the kind that gives Christianity a bad name) and we are atheists. In his mind he has all the justification he needs to break the law by not only trespassing, but to vandalize as well, because we don’t matter as far as he is concerned. He views us as the lowest of the low and we don’t deserve to be treated with respect.

For the record the cops were called, but they decided not to press charges against the neighbors or even have the cop give them a warning. While it’s commendable that they decided to turn the other cheek, so to speak, I can’t help but wonder if the fact that they weren’t at least reproached by the officer will be taken as a sign that they are free to vandalize again in the future. I suppose the police at least have it on record now in case the neighbors decide to practice their particular variation of Christian morality again in the future.

Links found via The Friendly Atheist.