An event this coming Sunday is to be a first for the Democratic Party. At exactly two pm at the Denver Convention Center the Democratic party will kick off the only “inter-faith” service it’s ever played host to.
This gathering will include clergy of a variety of faiths, Democratic leaders, elected Democrats and community leaders. It’s alleged purpose is to “showcase our nominee, our strength, our diversity and our shared values”.
If it were merely a side event it’d be easy to ignore for the most part. It is, however, not a side event. It is the first official event of the convention itself and it’s not only a religious service, but one that actively excludes all non-theists from kicking off the week long celebration of Democratic diversity.
On July the second Ron Miller of the Secular Coalition sent Leah Daughtry, the Pentecostal minister running the convention this year, a letter addressing this. It was a pretty nice letter too. After expressing his concern Miller asks
Is this event open to Democrats who do not hold a god-belief? I assume your answer is yes, but I would be very interested to know how you plan to make the nontheist community feel welcomed. Without an inclusive plan you will make nontheistic Americans feel like second-class citizens at the convention.
Things were quit for a while, then Eric Gorski of the AP wrote an article wherein he explicitly implied that we atheists had attacked Daughtry. His exact words (cached version):
Daughtry, 44, was preparing for an Aug. 24 interfaith service that will open the Democrats’ gathering here — a first for a party that hasn’t always gotten God. Before her was an angry letter from a secularist group that wanted to know whether atheists would be on the podium.
Now it’s possible that’s exactly how Daughtry described it, but I’ve got my doubts. The common theme, especially in the media, is that we atheists are raving lunatics who snack on poor little theists for no reason whatsoever. They were just standing there, minding their own business when this pack of angry atheists just jumped ‘em. It’s like the wild wild west meets Bill Donahue’s severely altered reality.
Daughtry, whom Gorski apparently described as “befuddled“, said she’d get back with Miller. That was more than a month ago today. Daughtry’s apparently still befuddled. That didn’t stop a certain editor though. He might be many things, but befuddled isn’t one of them.
He got back with us via his newspaper under the heading “Dems dismiss the atheists. Why rude guests aren’t welcome“. As you can imagine it ain’t nothing but a big long ranting piece of bigotry which would provoke a well deserved firing if aimed at any other minority group in America besides atheists.
You see we atheists have “our panties in a twist” and are “fussing” yet again. Now what sexism and ageism have to do with atheist members of a political group taking part in an official function of that group is a post for another day, but our dear editor quickly moved on to acting like a bee climb up his pants and stung him right on his ass – several times in a row.
You’ve got your old “I don’t hate atheists as a group, I’ve just decided to tar and feather all atheists as rude fuckwits cause some individual atheists did something I didn’t like” paragraph or two, maybe three. No bigotry there buddy.
Dear editor then pulls the Hitler card. Yea, I know. He lost right there, but I do like his spin. You see, “Hitler imagined a world without Jews” and the FFRF “rented a billboard near the Colorado Convention Center that says: “Imagine No Religion”.” He’s not saying that, of course, but he is sayin’ something and damn you straight to the Christmas aisle of your nearest Hobby Lobby if you think that something is anything remotely bigoted towards atheists.
And oh yea, in a world without space daddies waiting around to whup our behinds with their cosmic belts there’d be no “Golden Rule” and the entire world would be “devoid of most charities, hospitals and great universities.” People in the paths of hurricanes would be left to suffer through it.
The survivors would end up on the streets cause no one would help them get back up on their feet. They’d have some company though cause we atheists ain’t that damned mean. Of course, most of their company would be the starving naked children we atheists cuss about on our way to Starbucks or wherever, but they’ll have company damnit! Misery and all that, ya know? Brought to you, of course, courtesy of every atheist on the planet.
And lest it go unsaid…
POL POT!
STALIN!
MAO!
And some dude from Albania named Enver Hoxha. Who’s he? Beats the crap out of me, but we’ll charitably assume that this Enver boy killed people and didn’t have the good sense to call it The American Way, blessed by the Jebus himself.
Again, to the Christmas aisle with your godless ass if you’re thinking that might be a bit on the bigoted side of things. All them guys were atheists ergo every atheist is a potential mass murderer. He’s just speaking truth to power, dig it?
And lets not forget that no theist in America has ever said or did anything that could remotely be construed as being bigoted towards atheists. Never. Wouldn’t dream of it. In fact, if we atheists quit acting like atheists and “act more like Christians and Jews”, we might get “better party invites”.
Act like a Christian? No, thanks. Bitching’s my speciality. I’ll leave the lying to the professionals. You might know one. They call themselves Christians and they like to hide behind Jews once they start a fight.
Comments on this entry are closed.