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philosoraptor42Hey, they're just trying to be Christ-like and how can they do that without at least giving the impression of being persecuted?
Yes, it seems that the American Christian Anti-Defamation Commission have decided to make an annual 'victim list' of all the things they think are done specifically to undermine Christianity in America. In 2008 apparently Obama was bashing Christians by simply being one. Here's the list for 2009. (They work backwards and so will I.):
10. Pro-life Pastor Reverend Walter Hoye of Oakland, CA was jailed for exercising peaceful, pro-life speech.
Pro-choicers and the courts are being mean to them!
Dum-Dum-DUMMMMM! Oh noes! Apparently the courts are biased against Christians exercising their right to protest.
So let's look at this a little more closely, shall we?
Abortion clinics have so much trouble with protesters that a law was set up last year preventing protesters from coming within 8 feet of those entering or leaving the clinic and preventing protesters from coming within 100 feet of the clinic itself. The clinics have also felt the need to employ volunteers to escort people in and out of the clinic and help them to feel less threatened. There's a rather neat advert for this position on youtube, if you are interested in seeing it. So it seems that protesting is going on without a hitch and to such a degree that it is leading to a great deal of harassment for those entering the clinic.
In the link I provided above, Walter Hoye is in court challenging the law after being convicted on two counts of violating it the previous year.
Of course, not all anti-choicers are Christian and not all Christians are anti-choice, so it's not obvious what this has to do with "Christian bashing".
9. Rev. Fred Winters was murdered while preaching in his pulpit in Maryville, Illinois.
A murder in point 9? You're probably expecting quite a shocking list now, aren't you? Well actually of all the points in the list this seems like the most worthy of note. Clearly the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (from now on CADC) think other things are more shocking than murder. (There are some clues in the title above.)
So is this point valid, at least? Well actually that's a difficult one to answer. The article in The Times tells us that a preacher was shot dead while delivering a sermon (on "happiness" - ouch). However, it makes clear that the murderer's motivations are unknown, we can't be sure whether the murderer was often in the congregation, we don't know whether or not the murderer knew the priest personally. With all this uncertainty it's difficult to be sure what was going on.
Fortunately another source informs us that the murderer was batshit insane (he suffers from schizophrenia and Lyme disease):
In any case, this is far less clear cut than the murder of a congregation by a gunman in Tennessee in 2008. In that case, the gunman specifically mentioned the religious views of the Church regarding acceptance of homosexuality before committing the crime. (They accepted homosexuals, he didn't.) Strangely enough, this was not on the CADC's list for 2008.
Still there's one strong link between the two crimes. In both cases the Christian right's response was that more people should bring guns to Church. *facepalm*
8. HBO's program "Curb Your Enthusiasm" aired an episode where the main actor urinates on painting of Jesus. When confronted HBO would not apologize.
Comedians are being mean to them!
Yeah, I can't even be bothered. Apparently the way it works is that a character in the show is on drugs for some reason or another and ends up somehow urinating all over the place. One of those places in a painting of Jesus. The owners of the house mistakenly believe that Jesus in the painting is miraculously 'weeping' and naturally the previously drugged-up character cannot really afford to correct them.
Poor taste maybe, but hardly an attack on Christianity. (And is this really supposed to be worse than a murder???)
7. The overt homosexual participation in Obama's presidential inaugural events by "Bishop" Vickie Eugene Robinson, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D. C., and a homosexual marching band.
Gays exist and that's... um... mean! What? And Obama employs them to do unspeakable things like singing and playing musical instruments!
Worse than murder apparently.
6. Police called to East Jessamine Middle School in Lexington, Kentucky to stop 8th graders from praying during their lunch break for a student whose mother was tragically killed.
Teachers are being mean to them!
Actually it seems that the problem was that they didn't just pray during the lunch break. They carried on into lesson time. When the teachers asked them to go to class, the children refused. Allegedly they nearly had a riot on their hands (hence the call to the police).
5. Pro-life activist Jim Pullion was murdered in front of his granddaughter's high school for showing the truth about abortion.
The problem with this is clear from their description. This guy wasn't protesting in front of an abortion clinic. He was protesting outside of a school. This "protest" apparently involved holding up images of dead foetuses for all the schoolchildren to see. What a wonderful public service. We actually have the testimony of one of his family members that this victim of murder was motivated more by misogyny than concern for the unborn.
Once again, Christians aren't always anti-choice and vice versa, but even if this list were from the Pro-Life Anti-Defamation Commission, it would still be questionable whether this was really a good example to use. (Let's not forget that for many anti-choicers, this was considered a reasonable response to the horrific victimisation and eventual murder of Dr. Tiller.)
4. An activist judge ordered a home school mom in New Hampshire to stop home schooling her daughter because the little girl "reflected too strongly" her mother's Christian faith.
The courts are being mean to them! Persecution!
Rather unhelpfully the CADC provide very little information for anyone to actually work out which people they are referring to. Looking on google it would be easy to mistake this for a case of chinese whispers with no actual real event which started it off. However, another blog was able to help me out on this.
Even checking out the Fox News article on the matter (once you've actually tracked it down, of course) it quickly becomes clear that the case is more complicated than they've made out.
A divorced couple had a joint decision-making responsibility on how their child was educated and, since they could not decide for themselves the parents both went to a court for the decision to be made for them. The father wanted her to go to school full-time. The mother was unwilling and only put the girl through three state school courses in order to appease their ex-spouse. Both parents had left the decision up to the court and, unsurprisingly, the one who didn't get what they wanted (the mother) complained. Both parents were Christian, though apparently the father wasn't so dogmatic.
The problem lies in the part of the Guardian Ad Litem where they describe the experiences of one of the councellers. The report claims "the counselor found Amanda to lack some youthful characteristics. She appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith." Now, I have to admit that I still do not know what they meant by "youthful characteristics". However, the whole paragraph is as follows:
On the other hand, the mother apparently made a serious of false allegations in regards to the counsellors. I think that is far more likely to have biased them against her than her Christian beliefs. In any case, three separate counsellers came to same conclusion. The girl would be better off in school:
3. The Federal Department of Homeland Security issued a report entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate" that labeled conservative Christians extremists and potential terrorists.
Obama's government have included right-wing extremists in their report! It doesn't make any reference to the kinds of right-wing nutcases complaining about it, but even so.... Persecution! Or something.
Um yeah, it's actually a load of crap. What a surprise. Check here and check here.
Oh dear, I can't be arsed with this anymore. Check out what this guy has to say if you care.
And if you missed it last time around, here's a rather awesome video highlighting the misappropriation of the term "bashing" by the Christian right from when the 2008 list was released:
Cross-posted to atheism
Yes, it seems that the American Christian Anti-Defamation Commission have decided to make an annual 'victim list' of all the things they think are done specifically to undermine Christianity in America. In 2008 apparently Obama was bashing Christians by simply being one. Here's the list for 2009. (They work backwards and so will I.):
10. Pro-life Pastor Reverend Walter Hoye of Oakland, CA was jailed for exercising peaceful, pro-life speech.
Pro-choicers and the courts are being mean to them!
Dum-Dum-DUMMMMM! Oh noes! Apparently the courts are biased against Christians exercising their right to protest.
So let's look at this a little more closely, shall we?
Abortion clinics have so much trouble with protesters that a law was set up last year preventing protesters from coming within 8 feet of those entering or leaving the clinic and preventing protesters from coming within 100 feet of the clinic itself. The clinics have also felt the need to employ volunteers to escort people in and out of the clinic and help them to feel less threatened. There's a rather neat advert for this position on youtube, if you are interested in seeing it. So it seems that protesting is going on without a hitch and to such a degree that it is leading to a great deal of harassment for those entering the clinic.
In the link I provided above, Walter Hoye is in court challenging the law after being convicted on two counts of violating it the previous year.
Of course, not all anti-choicers are Christian and not all Christians are anti-choice, so it's not obvious what this has to do with "Christian bashing".
9. Rev. Fred Winters was murdered while preaching in his pulpit in Maryville, Illinois.
A murder in point 9? You're probably expecting quite a shocking list now, aren't you? Well actually of all the points in the list this seems like the most worthy of note. Clearly the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (from now on CADC) think other things are more shocking than murder. (There are some clues in the title above.)
So is this point valid, at least? Well actually that's a difficult one to answer. The article in The Times tells us that a preacher was shot dead while delivering a sermon (on "happiness" - ouch). However, it makes clear that the murderer's motivations are unknown, we can't be sure whether the murderer was often in the congregation, we don't know whether or not the murderer knew the priest personally. With all this uncertainty it's difficult to be sure what was going on.
Fortunately another source informs us that the murderer was batshit insane (he suffers from schizophrenia and Lyme disease):
"Mr. Sedlacek is likely to provide his attorneys with inaccurate or illogical explanations for his behavior, have problems with following the process in a courtroom setting, have significant difficulty listening to and understanding explanations that are provided to him, and be unable to respond in a relevant manner during pleading or testimony,"It looks likely that this was more than just a grudge against the preacher. He brought enough ammunition to kill 30 people and had planned in advance that the day of the murder would be "death day". However, it could be that he picked a Church because he knew there would be lots of people or there or it may even have simply been because that was first place he goes on a Sunday morning. Who knows?
In any case, this is far less clear cut than the murder of a congregation by a gunman in Tennessee in 2008. In that case, the gunman specifically mentioned the religious views of the Church regarding acceptance of homosexuality before committing the crime. (They accepted homosexuals, he didn't.) Strangely enough, this was not on the CADC's list for 2008.
Still there's one strong link between the two crimes. In both cases the Christian right's response was that more people should bring guns to Church. *facepalm*
8. HBO's program "Curb Your Enthusiasm" aired an episode where the main actor urinates on painting of Jesus. When confronted HBO would not apologize.
Comedians are being mean to them!
Yeah, I can't even be bothered. Apparently the way it works is that a character in the show is on drugs for some reason or another and ends up somehow urinating all over the place. One of those places in a painting of Jesus. The owners of the house mistakenly believe that Jesus in the painting is miraculously 'weeping' and naturally the previously drugged-up character cannot really afford to correct them.
Poor taste maybe, but hardly an attack on Christianity. (And is this really supposed to be worse than a murder???)
7. The overt homosexual participation in Obama's presidential inaugural events by "Bishop" Vickie Eugene Robinson, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D. C., and a homosexual marching band.
Gays exist and that's... um... mean! What? And Obama employs them to do unspeakable things like singing and playing musical instruments!
Worse than murder apparently.
6. Police called to East Jessamine Middle School in Lexington, Kentucky to stop 8th graders from praying during their lunch break for a student whose mother was tragically killed.
Teachers are being mean to them!
Actually it seems that the problem was that they didn't just pray during the lunch break. They carried on into lesson time. When the teachers asked them to go to class, the children refused. Allegedly they nearly had a riot on their hands (hence the call to the police).
The school's Superintendent told reporters, administrators had no problem with the kids praying. They say, their concern was that the students would be late for class. They also told reporters, they've never threatened to arrest the group.Apparently encouraging students to get educated is anti-Christian. Who knew?
5. Pro-life activist Jim Pullion was murdered in front of his granddaughter's high school for showing the truth about abortion.
The problem with this is clear from their description. This guy wasn't protesting in front of an abortion clinic. He was protesting outside of a school. This "protest" apparently involved holding up images of dead foetuses for all the schoolchildren to see. What a wonderful public service. We actually have the testimony of one of his family members that this victim of murder was motivated more by misogyny than concern for the unborn.
Once again, Christians aren't always anti-choice and vice versa, but even if this list were from the Pro-Life Anti-Defamation Commission, it would still be questionable whether this was really a good example to use. (Let's not forget that for many anti-choicers, this was considered a reasonable response to the horrific victimisation and eventual murder of Dr. Tiller.)
4. An activist judge ordered a home school mom in New Hampshire to stop home schooling her daughter because the little girl "reflected too strongly" her mother's Christian faith.
The courts are being mean to them! Persecution!
Rather unhelpfully the CADC provide very little information for anyone to actually work out which people they are referring to. Looking on google it would be easy to mistake this for a case of chinese whispers with no actual real event which started it off. However, another blog was able to help me out on this.
Even checking out the Fox News article on the matter (once you've actually tracked it down, of course) it quickly becomes clear that the case is more complicated than they've made out.
A divorced couple had a joint decision-making responsibility on how their child was educated and, since they could not decide for themselves the parents both went to a court for the decision to be made for them. The father wanted her to go to school full-time. The mother was unwilling and only put the girl through three state school courses in order to appease their ex-spouse. Both parents had left the decision up to the court and, unsurprisingly, the one who didn't get what they wanted (the mother) complained. Both parents were Christian, though apparently the father wasn't so dogmatic.
The problem lies in the part of the Guardian Ad Litem where they describe the experiences of one of the councellers. The report claims "the counselor found Amanda to lack some youthful characteristics. She appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith." Now, I have to admit that I still do not know what they meant by "youthful characteristics". However, the whole paragraph is as follows:
According to the Guardian ad Litem's Further Report and testimony, the counselor found Amanda to lack some youthful characteristics. She appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith. Amanda challenged the counselor to say what the counselor believed, and she prepared some highlighted biblical text for the counselor to read over and iscuss, and she was visibly upset when the counselor (purposely) did not complete the assignment. The counselor was unable to conclude that there was supporting evidence for the claim that Amanda was experiencing extreme difficulty or that her emotional and mental health were at risk from extended contact with her father. The counselor concluded that Amanda would likely benefit from continues and frequent contact with her similarly aged sibling (Mr. Kurowski's other daughter, age seven), and in the community."Far from claiming that the daughter's behaviour was perfectly normal, the mother actually blames her behaviour on the father. (That being said, the court does not believe the girl to be 'troubled', but simply to be unable to understand that people can have different points of view from her own.): "She testified that Amanda''s wide variety of adverse symptoms are caused by increased contact with her father."
On the other hand, the mother apparently made a serious of false allegations in regards to the counsellors. I think that is far more likely to have biased them against her than her Christian beliefs. In any case, three separate counsellers came to same conclusion. The girl would be better off in school:
"My client is concerned because of the isolation that is borne of that and the lack of exposure to the broader culture at large," Donovan said. "People of different heritage, people of different culture, tolerance, group problem-solving, making friends, losing friends — all of the things that come with a public school education."Apparently the mother wanted to avoid their child going to school because she was worried about "secular influences". It's not a terribly good argument. You might as well argue that you need to keep your child locked in the cellar because otherwise they might meet people with different views.
3. The Federal Department of Homeland Security issued a report entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate" that labeled conservative Christians extremists and potential terrorists.
Obama's government have included right-wing extremists in their report! It doesn't make any reference to the kinds of right-wing nutcases complaining about it, but even so.... Persecution! Or something.
Um yeah, it's actually a load of crap. What a surprise. Check here and check here.
2. President Obama's appointment of radical anti-Christians like homosexual activist Kevin Jennings as the "safe school czar;" pro-abortion advocate Kathleen Seblius made Secretary of Human and Health Services, and Chai Feldblum, pro-homosexual and anti-religious liberty judge nominated for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
1. The Federal Hate Crimes Bill that attacks religious liberty and freedom of speech. For the first time in our history ministers are vulnerable to investigation and prosecution for telling the truth about homosexuality.
Oh dear, I can't be arsed with this anymore. Check out what this guy has to say if you care.
And if you missed it last time around, here's a rather awesome video highlighting the misappropriation of the term "bashing" by the Christian right from when the 2008 list was released:
Cross-posted to atheism
