The Gaytheist Agenda

You may recall that I previously wrote about the ongoing problem in the US military with persistent Christian evangelism and bigotry toward those of other faiths, or of no faith. Recent news indicates that the trend continues, sadly. Spc. Jeremy Hall, the atheist who filed a religious discrimination lawsuit, has recently alleged that he has been threatened as a result.

Spc. Jeremy Hall filed a formal statement Wednesday with the Army. He says he overheard a conversation between two sergeants in his platoon and one wanted to “bust Hall in the mouth.”
Hall says he faces the animosity because he is an atheist and is suing the Department of Defense. He alleges it permits a culture that pushes fundamentalist Christianity.

He says he does not feel safe his unit.

Apparently Freedom of Religion, particularly in the military only applies to Evangelical Christians. Woe to non-conformists.

Now, from Newsweek:

The little book, with the camouflage cover, is everywhere. There are more than 50,000 copies with the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s on military bases across America. It’s in the homes of military families, who are praying their dear ones come home. It’s circulating at the Pentagon. Even the president has allegedly read it. “An aide to President Bush called me and said, ‘Henry, I think you’d like to know that the president is on his face before God every morning, and he’s using your [book]’,” its author told NEWSWEEK. The author is Henry Blackaby, a 72-year-old Canadian minister who is largely unknown outside Christian circles and who wrote the book together with his son Richard more than a decade ago. The book is the ever popular guide to prayer called “Experiencing God Day by Day.”

The Blackabys had already written and published the devotional when Henry was invited to speak in 2005 before a group of U.S. military chaplains. The chaplains were so inspired by Blackaby’s talk, the story goes, that they asked for copies of “Experiencing God Day by Day” to give to the men and women in the Army. Blackaby took the request to heart: he tapped some of his friends in the business world, received $176,000 in donations, redesigned the cover to match the Army’s camouflage uniforms and, with the help of his publisher, printed 100,000 copies to be distributed to the Army free of charge. …..

Military bases are flooded with religious literature, Christian literature in particular, and “Experiencing God Day by Day” is notable mostly for its serious tone and its orthodox approach to evangelical Christian theology. The book presents a daily verse from Scripture and a commentary on that verse; its intention is to help readers keep God ever present in their minds……The devotional is also a deeply evangelical text, and as such holds Christianity above other religions. “If you did not grow up in a Christian home,” reads the entry for June 10, “you can decide, as Joshua did, to reject your heritage of unbelief and begin a generation that serves the Lord.”

There would not seem, on the face of it, to be much of a problem with a group of private citizens sending a Christian prayer book abroad to lonely and spiritually hungry men and women who are, for the most part, Christian. But if you look closely at the “Experiencing God” phenomenon, says Jeff Sharlet, there is. Sharlet is a journalist who has been covering the Christian right for many years and is author of “The Family,” a forthcoming book about fundamentalist elites in America. “The military stands for our democratic nation, not for any religion,” he says. The ubiquity of this devotional “creates the appearance that this is an approved religion, that it’s favored by the state.” Not only is such an appearance isolating for military men and women who happen to not be evangelical—even mainline Protestants on military bases say they can feel marginalized, Sharlet says—but it also continues to create the impression abroad that the United States is engaged in a holy war. One man’s comfort is another man’s crusade, and such is the sad state of the world.

I find it disgusting, particularly considering the evangelical slant of the book. It’s obviously designed to recruit new Christians in addition to offering reading material to existing ones. Would the military allow books intended to proselytize for other religions, for atheism, etc? If not, then why are they allowing books evangelizing for Christianity and for one form in particular? This is wrong on so many levels.

Now from TheReporter.com :

What do the U.S. military and Christianity have in common? Nothing, if Mikey Weinstein has his way.

Weinstein is the founder of Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to resurrect what he believes is the crumbling wall between church and state in the military.

Specifically, Weinstein believes that a minority Christian viewpoint - one that seeks to turn the military into a Christian force - is infiltrating the ranks at all levels. If they succeed, he says, their beliefs could be forced onto people around the world and here at home.

As Weinstein says it: “We’re a Tiger Woods’ putt away from becoming the United Fundamentalist Christian States of America, brought to you by the faith-based Department of Defense and its Pentacostalagon.”

…..

It’s a cause that came to him four years ago, in the form of a conversation with his younger son, who at the time was a sophomore at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. His son complained about being unduly pressured by other cadets and academy leaders to give up his Jewish faith and become a Christian.

Weinstein, a 1977 Air Force academy graduate who served in Judge Advocate General Corps for 10 years and also did a stint in the Reagan White House, said he’d look into it. He thought it could be resolved with a few phone calls.

But as he probed, he began to see evidence of what seemed to be U.S.-sanctioned proseltyzation not only at the academy, but throughout the Air Force and in all branches of the military. Locally, he said he’s event received complaints from Travis Air Force Base, though he would not detail them.

Now the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been in contact with more than 7,500 active-duty military members with similar complaints. Weinstein estimates that “96 percent” of those complaints come from other Christians.

“We’re at war, with the fundamentalist Christians pitted against the nonfundamentalist Christian brothers and sisters,” he says. “This is a national security threat internally every bit as much as that which is now challenging our country externally by a resurgent Taliban and al Qaida.”

The threat isn’t just to individual service members’ ability to practice their chosen faith - or nonfaith, as in the case of an avowed atheist whose opportunity for a promotional interview was rescinded, allegedly because he declined to participate in Christian prayers, according to a lawsuit recently filed by the foundation.

And it’s not just that “combat troops refusing to accept their commanders’ biblical world view are sent on more dangerous assignments,” or that “commanders are censoring movies,” so that troops are having trouble obtaining “Lord of the Rings” or Harry Potter DVDs, as Weinstein has been told by service members.

So much for the claim that atheists and other religious minorities aren’t actually put in harm’s way by the discrimination they experience.

The threat to national security comes when American Humvees are “driven through Iraqi cities playing, in Arabic, Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life,” or when company commanders are allowed to hand out tracts in Iraq depicting Christians going to heaven and Muslims going to hell, as alleged by a soldier who contacted Weinstein. Such actions serve to fuel the belief in Muslim countries that they are engaged in another holy war, and that this time, the Christian crusade is being led by the U.S. military.

But I thought they hated us for our freedoms. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the hostile religious behavior of the occupying forces. (Of course when Christian missionaries behave in similar ways and face violent backlash they call it “persecution” rather than face the reality that antagonistic behavior has repercussions.)

Needless to say, the US Military has far to go in bringing its Evangelical strain under control and making the environment safe and equal for people of all beliefs and non-beliefs. Fortunately the MRFF seems to be launching a formidable counterattack on the religious bullies. It will be worth keeping an eye on the situation to see how it pans out.

 

The Southern Poverty Law Center is asking you to put yourself on the map as taking a stand against hate. There are currently 888 recognized hate groups in the US, an increase of 48% since 2000. The more we speak out, the greater our chances of putting a stop to them. I’m on the map. Will you join me?

So says Allison Aldrich of the Collegiate Times. All Aldrich succeeds in doing is exposing her ignorance of and bigotry towards atheists/atheism, which is sadly all too common.

Lately this age-old question has become a topic brought up by those who have read Christopher Hitchens’ emotionally-charged book, “God is Not Great.” Perhaps they have addressed this subject in philosophy or religion classes. Rather than try to tackle the question of God’s existence in a thousand-word article, I’ll focus my attention on those atheists who try to defend the essence of morality in an atheist culture.

When asking an atheist what motive they have for choosing good over evil, for being nice to others, and/or for maintaining good character, I often hear one of two responses. Either it’s because they worry about consequences of the law (jail time, fines, etc.), or because it makes them “feel good” when they do the “right” thing. Where exactly does this idea of “right” come from? Who decides what the “right” thing is? Is it from societal norms and the government? Is it from an innate feeling in each individual?

The notion of doing what is right to avoid the consequences of the law is very much like doing good to avoid going to hell. Funny how Christians think atheists are evil for the former, but don’t consider themselves unworthy for the latter. Doing what is right to “feel good about oneself” is not specific to atheists. Religious people of all stripes do it too, and they do it to please their deity, or to look good in front of their church peers, to get tax exemptions, etc. So why are atheists being scorned for it?

I myself do what is right because it’s the right thing to do. How do we (whether we’re atheists or not) learn what is the right thing to do? The same way anybody else does. We’re taught it. We don’t need to be told that some spirit in the sky is going to punish us for doing evil, or reward us for doing good in order to get us to comply. What we need to learn is the Ethic of Reciprocity, which is found in nearly all religions and outside religion as well–in philosophy and in human nature.

 

Surely it can’t be societal norms or government regulation that determines whether behavior is acceptable. Those who believe in that line of reasoning would have to argue in favor of slavery during America’s founding and women’s limited rights up until recently. Also, it couldn’t possibly be one’s personal definition of what is acceptable. I for one wouldn’t want to give that privilege to people who might think it personally acceptable to steal or lie in order to improve their lot.

Actually, it was the Bible that was used to support slavery and subjugation of women. Until about 50 years ago it was used by those who fought against interracial marriage. There are those even today who use it to keep women subordinate to men and from being clergy in the church. How Aldrich can seriously suggest that atheists would be the ones arguing in favor of subjugating women and blacks is astounding to me given the clear evidence to the contrary.

 

Some human cultures of other parts of the globe suggest strongly that we do not come hard-wired from the factory with feelings of good will toward others. Mass murder has too often reared an ugly head with no apparent religion having been taught. It seems more likely that the suggestion of God causes deeper thinking in directions of wrong and right. Without a higher being, there could be no guarantee of consequences for our actions. No consequences would result in chaos and anarchy.

On the contrary, belief and religion have been used to justify some of the most heinous acts in history. The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, slavery, hatred of LGBTs and more. Belief and religion allow people to behave horribly towards others in the name of doing God’s Work. They can feel self-righteous while engaging in the most abominable behavior towards their fellow man because a holy book or clergy person said it should be so.

 

Where do most people get this sense of right and wrong? I believe that it comes from a set of natural, universal standards that have been refined since the beginning of human existence. This set of standards, which is often called the “Laws of Human Nature,” has to have originated somewhere. These agreements between humans allow us to differentiate between what is right and wrong and it appears obvious that there is intelligent design behind these universally-held beliefs.

In my opinion, the idea of a moral compass, one that has been shown to surpass that which is merely “good for the community,” is also evidence that a higher power has provided us with that compass. In an example from Denish D’Souza’s book “What’s so Great about Christianity,” he describes the idea of morality based on evolution and natural selection. The problem with basing morality on this, however, is that it gives no explanation for truly altruistic acts. What good is it, evolutionary-wise, for men to give up their seats for older women on the bus?

There is no “intelligent designer” behind it, but again the ethic of reciprocity. Parents and other caregivers teach that we should do to others as we wish others to do to us. We also learn through experience that we don’t like to have bad things done to us and therefore (presumably) we decide that we won’t do such things to others. No spirit in the sky who will reward/punish us after death is necessary. Yes there is a legal system required for those who prove incapable of sticking to the rules, but the mystical one hasn’t proven any more effective considering how many religious people are (at least) as unethical as the ones they cast stones at.

 

As C.S. Lewis explained in his book “Mere Christianity,” the instincts we have for personal and group survival do not lead to the kind of morality our world holds as an ideal. If people are walking in their neighborhoods and come upon a house on fire, their first instincts might be to find safety. They might then think it important to try to save the people inside. However, it is only after a third voice enters their heads, their conscience, that they will probably conclude that it is their moral obligation to risk their personal safety in an attempt to save whoever might be in that house. A good question might be why would an atheist make any attempt to save a life if placed in such a circumstance?

…..

Besides, who would know if the passerby neglected the situation? Only the person who has failed to act would know to a level of certainty — and if there is no God watching, why would the atheist care? After all, there are no rules or laws that mandate that we must risk our own lives to save others, save those greater laws that seem to come from a belief in a higher being. If there is no God, then why bother to save lives at all? In such a god-free environment, humans would be seen as a dime a dozen — beans on a beanstalk, random creations of a chemical brew, accidental, often inconvenient, and nothing special. We could walk by a bleeding homeless man without a pause. We could even smile or laugh at a starving child. In a godless world, we could ask, “so what,” and “why not?”

First of all, atheists have consciences just like believers do. It’s obvious that some ignorant, bigoted believers think a person has to believe in God to have a conscience and that atheists don’t care about anybody but themselves. They’re dead wrong.

Second, the atheist has the same motivation for saving people from a burning building as does the believer–minus the desire to impress their deity. The atheist wishes to save fellow human beings from being harmed/killed. Again, it’s the ethic of reciprocity.

What continues to mystify me is the notion Aldrich puts forth, which I’ve seen before, that without belief in a deity humans are worthless collections of chemicals and matter. What a narrow and demeaning viewpoint some have that it’s only through a deity that humans have any kind of value. I’ve never met an atheist who thinks the way Aldrich suggests, and I myself think humans are inherently valuable and amazing, though entirely from natural origins.

 

Our tolerance for differences of opinion is established by God, not man. These rights are held high along with freedom of speech and the others articulated by our founders.

I think Aldrich misspoke there. It should be that intolerance for difference of opinion is established by God. Hence bigotry and hate-crimes toward those of different religions, atheists, LGBTs, and countless others both now and throughout history.

 

God help us if atheists ever get the upper hand because then our rights would be only as firm as one man’s opinion, or one mob’s passions, and we would be as likely to lose our rights forever, as to gain new ones.

Much like our Constitutional rights and laws seem to be in constant flux thanks to those who want to wage war over them based on their differing interpretations of the Bible and Christian dogma? Like the way discrimination was written into state constitutions for the first time in history over the past four years because of peoples’ “deeply held religious beliefs”? Yet Aldrich claims that under atheists peoples rights would be in constant danger?

I again contend Aldrich knows nothing of atheists or atheism and speaks from a position of pure bigotry. She’d be wise to educate herself before writing another article on the topic.

 

Addendum. A comment has arrived. Ezekiel said:

what the —-? Aldrich is clearly delusional. This is such a stupid repetitive trope among believers, I don’t even know what to do with it. Just a week ago, I told my father that I was atheist (and not agnostic) to which he said: “Too bad”. This is a man who has no religious dogma, but still felt as though “you can’t see the beauty of the world if you’re atheist” to which I replied to him that I felt that religious belief is selfish, needing to justify the beauty of the world with some over-arching force, needing to explain away all the precious precious randomness of it all. I’m not sure if I got through to him, but I definitely hope that he’ll think again before he says that atheists don’t see the beauty around them. At least he doesn’t think we’re all cannibalistic baby-eaters, as Aldrich apparently does.

I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve heard it so many times I’ve tired of defending myself against it, but I continue to do it because I loathe the idea of people spreading such audacious falsehoods like that. Sadly I’ve heard your father’s belief that atheists are incapable of seeing beauty in things. Sometimes it’s a simple misperception, and others it appears to be quite malicious. In both cases it is very wrong. Can anybody look at this picture of the double rainbow that appeared outside my home last night and tell me it wasn’t beautiful?

Although atheists consider the source of the world and universe to be natural, they do indeed find great beauty and joy in it. And they tend to be just as ethical as their religious counterparts. It’s only because of the bigotries of others that it seems otherwise. Thank you for reading and commenting!

Another comment arrived. Ebon said:

Why is it, the people who talk about the Founders desire that Christianity get preferential treatment have never actually read what the Founders bloody wrote on the subject?

Ah, hold on, answered my own question there. It works like a sort of wish fulfillment. The would-be theocrat simply assumes that anyone they admire must have held the same views as themselves.

There’s that, of course. There’s also the notion that if the Founding Fathers formed the United States as a “Christian Nation” then nobody dare mess with that. They just assume that people will blindly accept their revisionist form of history, and sadly all too many people do.

 

There is a seemingly universal response from Christians, directed at atheism. It concerns the USSR and Stalin’s purges, often it also involves Nazi Germany and Hitler. Of course, the fact that the USSR was a totalitarian state and that Hitler made so many vague and contradictory statements that it’s impossible to say what, if anything, he actually believed, always escapes such people. They did evil because they were atheists, no other reason.

The irony, of course, is that by those standards, there has never been a Christian society anywhere ever. Those societies which loudly proclaimed their faith tended to act in ways that modern Christians would disavow.

I suspect that in the end, what caused the problems of those societies was less which faith, if any, they followed and more the attempt to impose their choice of faith (or lack thereof) on the masses.

Ah, yes. The Hitler/Stalin/Mao canard that gets thrown out in a knee-jerk fashion any time an atheist brings up the horrors perpetrated by people in the name of religion. What they never seem to realize is that Stalin and Mao, though atheists, committed their atrocities in the name of political ideologies and not in the name of atheism. Hitler was not even an atheist but a Catholic and he used many religious themes in his regime so it’s ludicrous to claim he acted in the name of atheism.

You’re absolutely right that there never has been a “Christian society”, and it’s likely there never will be. Even if an entire nation were comprised solely of Christians it would be impossible for it to be a truly Christian society thanks to the myriad Biblical interpretations, church sects, etc. Even now we have continual fighting amongst the various groups about which ones are and are not “real” Christians. There can only be a society that contains people who are Christians, not a Christian Society.

Thank you for reading and for your comments!

So sayeth the RRRW anyway. They’re up in arms over the recent threats by “Islamic Activists” to sue a Dutch newspaper over Muhammad cartoons.

Robert Spencer, a leading critic of Islam, believes a group of Islamic activists may successfully shut down freespeech in Denmark if they follow through on their threat to sue nearly 20 Danish newspapers and magazines for republishing pictures of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

In February Denmark’s leading newspapers reprinted one of the 12 original cartoons of Muhammad that were printed in 2005. The papers said the reprint, which occurred after Danish police uncovered a plot to kill the cartoonist, was meant to promote free speech. Now Islamic activists plan to file lawsuits in Jordanian courts because the country’s penal code says publicly slandering religious figures is an offense that carries up to three years in prison.

Robert Spencer is director of Jihad Watch, a project of the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He does not believe the Jordanian courts can enforce the lawsuits’ penalties, but he thinks they could serve to intimidate some in the West who do not understand what is at stake.

“[T]he effect they want is to chill free speech in the West,” Spencer notes. He believes it could happen because “Western officials in general don’t understand what is at stake here.”…

That’s a mighty interesting perspective Spencer has. The lawsuit against the papers is an assault on free speech? I wonder what Mr. Spencer would think of the following, then.

Man sued library for $20K after sons found book on lesbian sex. Claimed, “God was speaking to my heart that day and helped me find the words that proved successful in removing this book from the shelf.”…

“Any effort to reinstate the book will be met with legal action and protests from the Christian community,” Adams wrote in the e-mail.

…..

The book, by Felice Newman, is a sex guide deemed suitable for all public libraries, according to the Library Journal, which the Bentonville library uses to decide what to place on its shelves.

Christian parent groups in eight states have lobbied to remove “Harry Potter” from classroom readings and warned other parents about the books’ occult themes and fantastic, often gruesome imagery.

In a form dated May 28, 2007, Sherrie Sawyer, who is a teaching assistant at Sugarland Elementary, wrote in a complaint to her principal: “I object to the homosexual theme of this book (”And Tango Makes Three”). The two male penguins are described as acting like a male and female penguin. The zookeeper says, ‘They must be in love.’” It isn’t clear whether Sawyer’s children attend Sugarland, and a call to Sawyer, of Leesburg, seeking comment about the case Monday afternoon hasn’t been returned.

A few weeks later on June 6, the initial review committee consisting of a school parent, a Horizon Elementary librarian, and a Sugarland Elementary teacher unanimously decided that “And Tango Makes Three” should remain in general circulation at the school.

On June 12, Angela Robinson, principal of Sugarland Elementary, wrote a letter to Sawyer stating her agreement with the committee’s recommendation.

Sawyer –- who signed her letter “concerned parent and assistant teacher” — appealed the committee’s decision in a letter to Superintendent Hatrick on Sept. 18, 2007. She wrote: “I believe the intent of the book is to implant the homosexual idea into the minds of children as an acceptable lifestyle to all.”

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which most recently protested a picture of Britney Spears sitting provocatively in a priest’s lap — the image appears in her new album, Blackout — takes this issue a little more seriously. The anti-defamation group accuses the film of “selling atheism to kids” and has produced its own booklet in response, “The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked,” which it’s been distributing to churches and other Christian groups.

The evangelical-activist group Focus on the Family, which plans to release a statement about the film early next week, says it’s in agreement with Christian leaders and organizations on the issue. Adam Holz, associate editor of Focus on the Family’s Plugged In magazine, told MTV News he fears the movie would “plant seeds” to “ultimately encourage some fans to reject God.”

American Family Association (AFA) has launched a boycott of Ford Motor Company because of Ford’s support for the homosexual marriage movement. Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of AFA, said that the organization has emailed an announcement of the boycott to their more than 2.2 million online supporters.

“From redefining family to include homosexual marriage, to giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to support homosexual groups and their agenda, to forcing managers to attend diversity training on how to promote the acceptance of homosexuality, to sponsoring a ‘commitment (marriage) ceremony,’ to sponsoring Gay Pride Parades, Ford leads the way,” Wildmon said.

AFA asks for boycott because of Target’s anti-Christmas stance

In an effort to get Target to include “Christmas” in their in-store promotions and retail advertising for next year’s (2006) season, we wrote Chairman Robert Ulrich. We told Chairman Ulrich that we knew it was too late to change his in-store promotions and retail advertising for this year. We asked him if Target would assure us that the company would make Christmas an integral part of their promotions and advertising next year.

We told Chairman Ulrich that if Target would honor our request, we would encourage our supporters and others to shop at Target. But we also said that if he refused, or did not respond, we would ask our supporters to boycott Target.

How did Chairman Ulrich respond to our request? He did not respond at all! Chairman Ulrich sent a clear message—Target will continue to ban “Christmas.”

Would you join us in a boycott of Target, and forward this to friends and family asking them to do the same? Yes, there are other companies which refuse to use Christmas. But if Target gets the message and their sales go down—every other national retailer will also get the message! Then we can expect some big changes in their promotion and advertising next year.

Funny how it’s all so different when it’s Christians engaging in the bullying and censorship. Then it’s not a tragedy. Then it’s not an assault on free speech. They’re protecting their delicate children from knowing that gay people exist. They’re preventing the possibility that even one Christian mind might be lost to the horrors of atheism. They’re ensuring that their deeply held religious beliefs will be respected by others.

RRRW Christians, Hypocrisy is thy name.

A teacher at Capistrano Valley High School is the defendant in a lawsuit alleging he has made numerous anti-Christian statements to students.

Chad Farnan, a sophomore at Capistrano Valley High School, claims his Advanced Placement European history teacher, James Corbett, made hostile remarks toward Christianity. The Christian student cites an incident from last December when Corbett stated that conservatives do not want women to avoid pregnancies because that interferes with God’s work. In another statement, recorded by Farnan, the teacher claimed that when people put on their “Jesus glasses,” they cannot see the truth.

Jennifer Monk is with Advocates for Faith and Freedom, which is representing Farnan. She agrees with the judge who denied the school’s motion to dismiss the case. “At stake really is a Christian student’s rights to go to public school and be able to express their faith and hold their faith without being discriminated against in the classroom,” she argues.

…..

“These are anti-Christian diatribes by this teacher pretty much almost every day in class,” says the attorney. In addition to the comments about “Jesus glasses,” says Monk, “he’s said things like ‘Aristotle argued that there has to be a god. Of course, that’s nonsense.’”

Here’s where we have the problematic issue and the seeming double standard. Christians want to speak their mind about what they see as the truth in class, but they don’t want opposing views presented to them–that’s always “persecution”. Funny how if they say gays or atheists are evil, that’s “the truth”, but if someone says Christianity is false or a fairy tale–that being something they truly believe–then that is considered anti-Christian persecution. Sorry, but you guys can’t have it both ways.

Now of course I support this lawsuit as I do the lawsuits of those who go to court over religious people preaching hatred in schools towards LGBT people or those of other religions. I just wanted to point this case out so maybe some believers might just understand where we’re coming from when we demand they stop pushing their anti-LGBT, anti-atheist, ant-Islam, anti-Jewish, etc. opinions on us. If we’re to be tolerant of you, you must offer the same courtesy to us.

The Southern Poverty Law Center observed a disturbing trend between 2000 and 2007. There was a 48% increase in the number of Hate Groups in the United States. They attribute this astonishing rise largely to the ongoing debate over immigration.

The latest annual count by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) found that the number of hate groups operating in America rose to 888 last year, up 5% from 844 groups in 2006. That capped an increase of 48% since 2000 — a hike from 602 groups attributable to the exploitation by hate groups of the continuing debate about immigration. And it comes on top of some 300 other anti-immigration groups, about half listed by SPLC as “nativist extremist,” formed in the last three years.

At the same time, FBI statistics suggested that there was a 35% rise in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2006. Experts believe that such crimes are typically carried out by people who think they are attacking immigrants.

Although there were some signs that nativist hatred may be starting to abate, you wouldn’t know that by listening to the furious rants of many groups. “America is being destroyed from within by a modern version of Genghis Khan’s army,” the Emigration Party of Nevada, listed by the SPLC as a hate group, said. The group’s leader, Don Pauly, wants to send government “sniper teams” to the border and forcibly sterilize Mexican women after a first child.

…..

Promoting such theories, coupled with a history of ties to white supremacist groups and ideology, is what caused the Southern Poverty Law Center to add a major anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), to its list of hate groups last year. FAIR has also promulgated the theory that Mexico is involved in a secret plot to “reconquer” the American Southwest.

“You need to understand that WE ARE AT WAR RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA,” is the way another nativist group, the Nebraska-based United Citizens of America, put it. “We are being invaded by a foreign country and we are being betrayed from within. Our government, from top to bottom, is being controlled by global elites. They have infiltrated our government at ALL levels.”

These people sound eerily similar to the average fundamentalist Christian. Their perceived threat(s) might be different, but their pattern of thinking and plan of action is essentially the same.

Here’s a more detailed look at several sectors of the radical right:

NEO-NAZIS
Neo-Nazi groups
While the number of neo-Nazi group chapters increased over the course of 2007 from 191 to 207, this rise was largely due to a shake-up within the National Socialist Movement (NSM). Although the NSM remains the largest neo-Nazi organization in the country, with 73 chapters in 34 states (down from 81 chapters in 36 states in late 2006), it suffered a mass exodus of high-profile members last year, most of whom quickly either founded new chapters of rival neo-Nazi groups or established their own new spin-offs.

…..

Two former powerhouses of the neo-Nazi scene, Aryan Nations and the National Alliance, were in states of more or less suspended animation last year. Aryan Nations still exists but is barely active. In early 2007, two of the group’s leaders, Clark Patterson and Jonathan Williams, quit to form a new Christian Identity group called the United Church of YHVH after complaining that Aryan Nations had forgotten its roots in Identity, a theology that says people of color are soulless non-humans and Jews are biologically descended from Satan.

…..

Finally, the National Vanguard looks to be all but finished. Its leader, Kevin Alfred Strom, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and is facing up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in April.

RACIST SKINHEADS
Racist Skinhead groups
Racist skinhead gangs, or “crews,” are unstable and often transient by nature, making them difficult to track. However, over the course of 2007, it was possible to identify 90 racist skinhead outfits operating in the United States, up from 78 in 2006. Five of the new chapters are reactivated or recently established divisions of Hammerskin Nation (HSN), a once-mighty coalition of skinhead crews whose power waned earlier in this decade but is now clearly resurging. In addition to the five new domestic chapters, HSN also now claims active crews in at least 10 foreign countries, including Australia, Hungary and Switzerland.

Last September, the leaders of HSN and the Vinlander Social Club, a rival skinhead coalition in the Midwest, unexpectedly announced they had reached a peace agreement, ending a blood feud of nearly 10 years. The following month, Hammerskin Nation celebrated its 20th anniversary at Hammerfest 2007, a hate rock festival held near Portland, Ore., and hosted by the Northwest Hammerskins, a regional affiliate of HSN. The Portland-based, neo-Nazi skinhead gang Volksfront provided security. Members of the neo-Nazi group White Revolution and the white nationalist organization Women for Aryan Unity were in attendance. One of the speakers was Michael Lawrence, a prominent member of the Confederate Hammerskins, another HSN affiliate, and the founder of the Christian Guard, a major Christian Identity organization.

KU KLUX KLAN
Ku Klux Klan groups
Although most Ku Klux Klan factions continued to exploit the roiling national immigration debate in 2007 by holding anti-”illegal alien” rallies (rather than their more typical “anti-black crime” fare), last year was a relatively quiet one for the KKK. The number of Klan chapters dropped to 155 last year from 165 in 2006, marking the second straight year of decline after five years of rapid growth.

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BLACK SEPARATISTS
Black Separatist groups
The death last May of black separatist cult leader Yahweh ben Yahweh (born Hulon Mitchell) coincided with the ongoing rebirth of his Nation of Yahweh, a notorious religious sect that has preached violence against “white devils.” Nearly 500 Nation of Yahweh members, many of them conspicuously flaunting material wealth in the form of expensive cars and jewelry, attended the funeral of Yahweh ben Yahweh, who shortly before his death was released from parole after serving 11 years of an 18-year sentence on federal conspiracy charges related to 14 murders committed in South Florida in the 1980s.

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The New Black Panther Party, a racist group unrelated to the original Black Panthers, was also highly active in 2007. Although Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz was barred from entering Canada last May because of his radical ideology, Shabazz did successfully organize a major rally for a black hate crime victim in West Virginia, made a public show of force in Jena, La., and held an Atlanta “Black Power Summit” last October that was attended by about 100 party members from across the country.

But wait, there’s more. I’m sure my LGBT readers will recognize this next group.

Other events of importance on the radical right included the emergence of Watchmen on the Walls, an international and incredibly virulent anti-gay organization with strong ties to Latvia. The organization has gained a foothold in the United States among Russian-speaking Slavic immigrants on the West Coast, holding a major conference in Lynnwood, Wash., in October.

Yes, good old Watchmen on the Walls. I’m very familiar with those homophobic and anti-Semitic hate-mongers.

Needless to say the significant increase in hate groups is disturbing. I can’t help but think the RRRW government we’ve had for the past seven years has helped contribute to this increase. The nationalistic, racist, homophobic attitudes they’ve instilled have created a perfect breeding ground for these groups to flourish. Sadly I don’t know if the trend will be reversed, or how long it may take.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation attempted to rent billboards in Grand Rapids, MI, as part of their Beware Dogma campaign. They were turned down.

“This is new, that a billboard company is censoring us,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The Madison, Wis.-based group, dedicated to the separation of church and state, bills itself as North America’s largest group of atheists and agnostics with 12,000 supporters.

The billboard with the words “Beware of Dogma” and the group’s Web address has been used around the country, she said.

Gaylor said CBS Outdoor Advertising in Grand Rapids declined to rent a billboard to Freeedom From Religion, telling her it had been through controversy in the past and community reaction would force the billboard down within a day. She is working with other area firms, she said, but their locations are not her first choice.

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The billboard has been placed in such cities as Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta as well as in Chambersburg, Pa., where it “created a firestorm,” Gaylor said. “The billboard company badmouthed us, but took our money and put it up.”…

“Community reaction would force the billboard down within a day”? How violent a community reaction did they previously experience that would cause them to turn down legitimate business? Or do they just consider atheist customers less important than their other customers? I get the impression that it’s a little bit of both.

As to the billboards I’m perplexed over the controversy. Churches and religious organizations put up billboards routinely with no opposition from atheists. Yet when atheists, in the interests of free speech, attempt to put their own billboards there’s a virulent backlash. Is it that believers cannot stand opposing views, or that they’re afraid minds might be opened?

I get the impression that it’s a little bit of both.

For most of us the horrors of The Holocaust are something we experience in history classes, movies and television shows. For one young Pennsylvania man it was much more than that. His grandfather, who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz, gave him a first-hand account of the events. Now anti-Semitic hatred has been visited on the young man himself, in the form of a violent attack.

“He told me stories about the Holocaust, but I thought I’d never have to live through a hate crime,” said the student, who suffered a broken nose and a fractured orbital bone in the attack. “I never thought I’d have to deal with a hate crime.”

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Four Temple students were suspended by the university last week and the attack was strongly condemned by school president Ann Weaver Hart, who wrote: “Hate crimes will not be tolerated by Temple University.”

The four suspects - Michael Walsh, 20, of Florham Park, N.J.; David Scott, 20, and Steven Scott, 19, two brothers from Willow Grove, Montgomery County; and Bryan Pediero, 19, of East Brunswick, N.J. - turned themselves into Philadelphia police on Wednesday and yesterday to face the music, police said.

The four were charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment of another person, ethnic intimidation and criminal conspiracy, police spokeswoman Officer Christine O’Brien said.

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Temple police have video of the incident in front of Alpha Epsilon Pi house on North Broad Street near Norris, cops said.

The 23-year-old victim and his 22-year-old friend had emerged from the Owl’s Nest Pizza shop around 1:30 a.m. and were swarmed by a group of young men, police said.

The victim remembers that seven males walked up to him and his friend, who is not a Temple student.

“You f—ing Jews! You f—ing [Jewish epithet]!” are the chants he remembers from that early Friday morning.

“Are you part of this f—ing Jewish fraternity?” at least one asked.

They punched him in the face, he remembers.

When his grandfather heard about the attack, “he cried,” the young man said.

Since the beating, the victim said he walks around in fear - scared that he’ll be a victim of a hate crime again. *

It is my fervent hope that the perpetrators get the maximum possible sentences for what they have done. The notion that dislike of another person allows one to cause harm to them is one that I find particularly abhorrent.

To the victim and his grandfather I offer my deepest condolences. This should never have happened, and if I had my way it never would have.

That’s Christianity Or Else, the prevailing attitude of today’s military. The creeping Christian extremist takeover of the US military has made the news in recent years. For example, in October 2005 the Air Force was compelled after a lawsuit to withdraw its policy of allowing chaplains to aggressively evangelize non-Christian service members.

WASHINGTON — The Air Force has withdrawn from use by its chaplain service a code of ethics that endorsed evangelizing military service members who are not affiliated with a religion.

The move, disclosed by Air Force officials yesterday, followed a lawsuit by a Jewish graduate of the Air Force Academy, Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque. He said senior officers and cadets illegally imposed Christianity on others at the school.

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Jennifer Stephens, an Air Force spokeswoman, said the code of ethics was withdrawn for further review on Aug. 10. She did not say why, but stressed it was separate from a code of ethics written by the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces, a private organization that provides chaplains. Its code also says military chaplains reserve the right to evangelize those who are not affiliated with any religious faith, but Stephens said the Air Force ”has no authority over the statements of that organization.”

Last week, Mary L. Walker, the Air Force’s top lawyer, wrote in a letter to Weinstein’s attorney that an Air Force chaplain service document ”might have been understood to represent such a policy statement” on evangelizing, but the document was withdrawn from use. Stephens said Walker was referring to the Air Force code of ethics statement.

Weinstein filed his suit last week in federal court in New Mexico. Among the evidence he cited was a July 12 New York Times article that quoted Air Force deputy chief of chaplains Brigadier General Cecil R. Richardson as saying, ”We will not proselytize, but we reserve the right to evangelize the unchurched.”

The Air Force’s participation in a three-day evangelical event in Georgia last May raised Constitutional questions according to Americans United.

The event is being hosted by Task Force Patriot USA, as well as LifeWay Christian Stores, the publishing house of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), and Holman Bible Outreach International.

According to Task Force Patriot USA’s Web site, the organization exists “for the purpose of sharing the fullness of life in Jesus Christ with all U.S. military, military veterans and families,” and “Christ is our Commander-in-Chief.” The group’s logo is a shield centered with a Christian cross with its sides bracketed by an American flag and Christian flag.

The May 26-28 event at Stone Mountain Park is billed as a “Salute To The Troops, Memorial Day Celebration,” but the program includes a Christian worship service and heavy emphasis on evangelical outreach.

The event will feature hourly flyovers by Air Force Jets, including B-2 stealth bombers, parachute jumps by the U.S. Army’s Silver Wings Parachute Jump Team and speeches from top military and former military officials and evangelical Christian preachers, including the former SBC president, Bobby Welch.

An events schedule from Task Force Patriot USA’s Web site lists as speakers military officials, such as U.S. Air Force Major Brian “Jethro” Neal, a B-2 pilot, who is to give his personal “testimony” during a worship service that is to feature a B-2 flyover.

A few months later the Military Religious Freedom Foundation had to take the Pentagon to task. Apparently the Pentagon had planned to send American soldiers in Iraq “freedom packages”.

What were the packages to contain? Not body armor or home-baked cookies. Rather, they held Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and the apocalyptic computer game “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” (derived from the series of post-Rapture novels), in which “soldiers for Christ” hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers.

The packages were put together by a fundamentalist Christian ministry called Operation Straight Up, or OSU. Headed by former kickboxer Jonathan Spinks, OSU is an official member of the Defense Department’s “America Supports You” program. The group has staged a number of Christian-themed shows at military bases, featuring athletes, strongmen and actor-turned-evangelist Stephen Baldwin. But thanks in part to the support of the Pentagon, Operation Straight Up has now begun focusing on Iraq, where, according to its website (on pages taken down last week), it planned an entertainment tour called the “Military Crusade.”

Apparently the wonks at the Pentagon forgot that Muslims tend to bristle at the word “crusade” and thought that what the Iraq war lacked was a dose of end-times theology.

In the end, the Defense Department realized the folly of participating in any Operation Straight Up crusade. But the episode is just another example of increasingly disturbing, and indeed unconstitutional, relationships being forged between the U.S. military and private evangelical groups.

The MRFF finally laid it all out with a lawsuit (actually a wave of lawsuits) that definitively alleged that Christianity is mandatory in the US military.

INFLUENCE OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST & APOCALYPTIC CHRISTIAN RIGHT IN THE US MILITARY

1. Uncovered preliminary evidence that top Pentagon officials who appeared in the Christian Embassy video, the subject of a Pentagon Inspector General’s report, may have lied in their testimony to the inspector general.

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3. Documented the apocalyptic theological views of the US Army’s new head of chaplains, Douglas L. Carver.

4. Discovered that, in 2005, the Pentagon invited evangelist Dave Kistler into the Pentagon, along with ministry volunteers who brought Kistler’s ministry PA system, to give two consecutive sermons in the Pentagon courtyard at lunch while Pentagon employees were eating their lunch. The Pentagon’s head chaplain called this “cutting edge evangelism”.

5. Uncovered a pattern of Christian nationalist public events held last summer, across the US (details to be released in upcoming MRFF lawsuits) which featured Pentagon endorsements of various kinds violating DoD regulations on the endorsement of religious groups.

6. Investigated alallegations of anti-Semitism at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. That research, in turn, led to the exposure of an egregious anti-semitic incident at Fort Stewart in Georgia.

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8. In general, conducted an unprecedented survey into the influence of the Christian right in the US military, that we’ll soon be publishing, provisionally under the title “The MRFF report” (stay tuned). Never before has anyone attempted even a remotely comprehensive survey of this research area. Jeffrey Scahill’s book on Blackwater was a fine piece of work… But, this is more central still - Blackwater is big, but the Pentagon is truly vast, and the work Chris and I have done, for MRFF, has demonstrated an extent of influence never before recognized.

But the Christian extremism and intolerance has yet to end. Case in point,Jeremy Hall.

Remember the story about the soldier in Iraq who tried to organize an atheist group at his camp and had the first meeting broken up by an officer? His name is Jeremy Hall and he is now suing the Pentagon, backed by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. And it looks like that was not the only incident where officers mistreated him because of his atheism:

“Immediately after plaintiff made it known he would decline to join hands and pray, he was confronted, in the presence of other military personnel, by the senior ranking … staff sergeant who asked plaintiff why he did not want to pray, whereupon plaintiff explained because he is an atheist,” says the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to Truthout. “The staff sergeant asked plaintiff what an atheist is and plaintiff responded it meant that he (plaintiff) did not believe in God. This response caused the staff sergeant to tell plaintiff that he would have to sit elsewhere for the Thanksgiving dinner. Nonetheless, plaintiff sat at the table in silence and finished his meal.”

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Moreover, the complaint alleges that on August 7, when Hall received permission by an Army chaplain to organize a meeting of other soldiers who shared his atheist beliefs, his supervisor, Army Major Paul Welborne, broke up the gathering and threatened to retaliate against the soldier by charging him with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The complaint also alleges that Welborne vowed to block Hall’s reenlistment in the Army if the atheist group continued to meet - a violation of Hall’s First Amendment rights under the Constitution. Welborne is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Things have gone from bad to worse for Spc. Hall since then.

TOPEKA, Kan. - A soldier claimed Wednesday that his promotion was blocked because he had claimed in a lawsuit that the Army was violating his right to be an atheist.
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Attorneys for Spc. Jeremy Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation refiled the federal lawsuit Wednesday in Kansas City, Kan., and added a complaint alleging that the blocked promotion was in response to the legal action.

The suit was filed in September but dropped last month so the new allegations could be included. Among the defendants are Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

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According to the lawsuit, Hall was counseled by his platoon sergeant after being informed that his promotion was blocked. He says the sergeant explained that Hall would be “unable to put aside his personal convictions and pray with his troops” and would have trouble bonding with them if promoted to a leadership position.

Hall responded that religion is not a requirement of leadership, even though the sergeant wondered how he had rights if atheism wasn’t a religion. Hall said atheism is protected under the Army’s chaplain’s manual.

“It shouldn’t matter if one is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or atheist,” said Pedro Irigonegaray, an attorney whose firm filed the lawsuit. “In the military, all are equal and to be considered equal.”

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Hall’s attorneys say Fort Riley has permitted a culture promoting Christianity and anti-Islamic sentiment, including posters quoting conservative columnist Ann Coulter and sale of a book, “A Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam,” at the post exchange.

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If I had my druthers I’d do this. Given that the military is hell-bent on discriminating so strongly against not only gay people but non-Christians, I would advocate for anybody who fell into that category to simply not enlist or get out at their earliest opportunity. The military is already hurting for recruits regardless of whatever monetary bonuses and other incentives they offer. Imagine how much more they’d suffer if their candidate pool dropped by the number of gay and non-Christian people that would be choosing not to participate in their discriminatory organization.

Of course I know my fantasy is impractical for a number of reasons. There are a variety of reasons non-Christians and gay individuals choose to serve in the military despite the bigotries they face. Nonetheless I can envision a mass boycott if for no other reason than for my own personal satisfaction.

But, of course, legal and advocacy organizations will keep up the good fight to end the bigotry against non-Christians so that all may serve openly and equally. As it should be.

 

Granted, the religion the woman in question was practicing, that of giant teapot worship, is definitely unusual. But she was jailed for it–which qualifies as genuine persecution. American RRRW Christians have nothing on this woman.

Kamariah Ali, a 57 year old former teacher, was arrested in 2005 when the government of the Muslim majority country demolished the two storey high sacred tea pot and other infrastructure of the “heretical” Sky Kingdom cult.

For the eccentric sect, which emphasised ecumenical dialogue between religions, the tea pot symbolized the purity of water and “love pouring from heaven”.

But in Malaysia, despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of worship, born Muslims such as Mrs Ali are forbidden from converting to other religions.

Born Muslims? Nobody is born a Muslim. Nor or they born a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. There’s a reason that Christian parents typically have Christian children, Muslim parents have Muslim children and so on, and so on. It’s because parents tend to indoctrinate their children into their own religion. It’s only if the parents choose not to have the child taught any religion, or to have the child be brought up in a different religion, that the results will vary.

Passing sentence, the Sharia judge Mohammed Abdullah said: “The court is not convinced that the accused has repented and is willing to abandon any teachings contrary to Islam. I pray God will open the doors of your heart, Kamariah.”

Mrs Ali has already been jailed once for apostasy, for 20 months in 1992.

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The population is divided between Hindus of Indian origin, Christian and Buddhist ethnic Chinese and a narrow majority of ethnic Malays who are legally deemed Muslim by birth and whose interests the government is sworn to protect.

It doesn’t seem that Mrs. Ali wishes to comply with the law, and I can’t say I blame her. The government obviously thinks it can force people to adhere to a particular religion via threats and punishments. No doubt in some cases they get people to comply, if not in their hearts and minds then at least through appearances. Mrs. Ali’s religion may be illogical but she’s standing up to thugs who want only to make her trade it for another illogical religion. I’ll give her credit for at least standing up for what she believes in, if for nothing else.