"Atheist Demands are Unconstitutional", or "An Idiot's Rant."

[Auggie]

Editorial in the local paper:

Once again, I am hearing about a town being forced by some atheist or civil rights organization to remove a cross from Christmas decorations because it supposedly violates the Constitution or separation of church and state.

I am totally sick of these demands by those who choose to live a secular life and deny Christians their right to display the symbols of their religious beliefs.

Our country was founded on our Judeo-Christian principals and heritage. To confirm this, just look at the money in your pocket. It clearly states, "In God We Trust."

snip

It is time to face the fact that the anti-Christian, anti-Christmas crowd, who cling to their hatred of religion, are violating the Constitution and its First Amendment, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Here's the best part:

Their protests against the Christmas observances are so strong that they have become a form of religion for them. For them to believe there is absolutely no God or supreme being and that the world just sort of came together accidentally is actually a form of religion — a belief system.

Idiocy continues: http://napavalleyregister.com/news/opinion/mailbag/atheist-demands-are-unconstitutional/article_fa8d7dd2-3e7d-11e2-b709-0019bb2963f4.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Funny, religious people are perfectly free to display the symbols of their beliefs....

just do it on their own church or private property, not on publicly owned land.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. +1000

This is just what I wanted to say......except that I would have started the rant with "those fuckwads".

[mr blur]

2. !!

[onager]

4. No kidding. We need some of those...

...old Soviet-era Russian Irony Meters. Those things were cast iron and impossible to break.

I heard a rumor they were all sold to China, melted down, and made into a giant crucifix that will soon decorate City Hall in Branson, Missouri. Just to annoy the uppity atheists. (Since you're in the UK, you may not know about Branson. It's a mix of Las Vegas, Nashville and a white-trash meth-head's vision of the Baptist heaven. In other words, Branson is what all of America would look like if the South had won the Civil War.)

Even more off-topic - for some reason, I was reminded of all this by the taxicabs in Alexandria, Egypt, in which I spent many moments of asphyxiation and sheer terror. Most of the cabs were Russian Ladas, equipped with a giant, knee-cracking Breshnev-era iron taxi meter under the dashboard.

[Rob H.]

3. Good grief

If the atheists and secular civil rights groups are upset about some insignificant amount of taxes that go to Christian icons, then I must speak to the amount of my tax dollars that go to support “so-called art” that defiles my Christian beliefs, such as suspending a cross or crucifix in a jar of urine.

If Ms. Preston really cares about how her tax dollars are spent, she should Google "parsonage exemption," an unconstitutional tax deduction that costs American taxpayers possibly as much as $71 billion each and every year, versus the National Endowment for the Arts' request of $146.255 million for fiscal year 2012. (Why, the NEA's request is a scandalous 2.1 percent of what the parsonage exemption costs! Quickly, make way to the fainting couch!)

Study challenges tax exemption for religious organizations
By Kimberly Winston, Religion News Service

...snip...

(Ryan) Cragun (an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Tampa) and his co-authors — Stephanie Yeager and Desmond Vega — examined federal tax exemption laws, and some state and local laws, specifically in their home state of Florida. They conclude:

• States bypass an estimated $26.2 billion per year by not requiring religious institutions to pay property taxes.

• Capital gains tax exemptions for religious institutions may be as much as $41 million a year.

• U.S. clergy may claim as much as $1.2 billion in tax exemptions annually via the parsonage allowance.

But Cragun, who specializes in the sociological study of religion, said the article is not a call to completely revoke the tax-exempt status of religious organizations. Rather, he would suggest tax exemptions only for nonprofit organizations — religious or secular — whose services the government would have to supply if those organizations disappeared.

Damn those atheists for wanting everyone to play by the same rules!!11!!!1!

[Mr.Bill]

5. Atheism is a religion

like baldness is a hair color.

[Auggie]

7. Excellent!

[beam me up scottie]

8. Welcome to Christmas in my world.

I have to hear this garbage (and worse) every year at bf's family gathering.

I would never have come out as an atheist to these troglodytes but bf blew my cover and now they WAIT for me.

Because I love Mr. Bmus I now arrive pre-sedated.

Excuse me while I take some more of this special cough medicine...

[progressoid]

10. pre-sedated...

Yeah, I've done that a few times too.

[beam me up scottie]

13. Half the grandkids usually show up baked.

Lucky bastards.

[AlbertCat]

9. Again?

These people learn NOTHING. They just seem to have given up on understanding anything and parrot whatever they've been told.

The country was not founded on Judeo/Christian principles. Do they not know that a Christian country in 1776 had a king who's family was appointed to rule by god? Could the USA be more the opposite? "In god we trust" was added in the 1950's because of scary commies.

No one has made any laws prohibiting their free speech. The may display little baby Jesus on a Jungle Gym if they want.... on their own property, not public property.

And of course

Atheism is a religion like:

Bald is a hair color
Off is a TV channel
Abstinence is a sexual position
etc.

[sakabatou]

11. Well, this person doesn't know anything

Nothing about history
Nothing about our Constitution
Nothing about what religion means

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. Treaty of Tripoli.

Ratified Unanimously by Congress and signed by noted anarchist bombthrowing President John Adams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_tripoli