"Christian Nation" chain letter just sent to everyone at my workplace
Offline Good grief;
This email was just sent to everyone at my work by one of our most outspoken sales guys:
Dear Friends,
As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride. . ."we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, . . ..." As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation. To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be.
I hope that each of you will do what I'm doing now--send your concerns, written simply and sincerely, to the Christians on your email list. With God's help, and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation!
Please pray for our nation!
I had no choice but to respond to everyone with this:
Whoa, what?!
Sorry, but this really needs to be corrected!
Our forefathers fought for the FREEDOM OF RELIGION, not to be a Christian nation -- This is a very, very big difference. This is a country where you can come and enjoy the freedom to practice whatever faith you want, or to practice none at all. This is why separation of church and state is so very important to our constitution; If there's not, and the government establishes a bias towards one faith in particular (which it already has), this fundamental right faces the risk of being wiped out. Many of our founding fathers were secularists who understood this principle very well; it is the only way to ensure true religious freedom under a governing body.
Try to keep in mind, that whatever religion you happen to believe can generally be contributed to what your parents believed, and/or where you were born geographically. People need to learn to not take it personally if someone else has a different belief system; That's when beliefs can become dangerous. Even though the US has a Christian majority (~70%); the other 30% of the population cannot be ignored. This diversity is what makes the country special. Like it or not, this nation has been - and still is - a group of many different belief structures.
Just my $.02
I kept my reply as "P.C." as I could, but holy shit! People believe this shit! THAT scares the hell out of me. It's this ignorance that perpetuates this intolerant ideology. I could have dropped the bomb that I happen to be an atheist, but I really don't want to commit social suicide (I live in the "panis region" of the bible belt here in Missouri).
After seeing Bill Maher's "Religulous" this weekend (which was great), I have to say, I am all for the removal of religion from the world... As he says, it's necessary for our survival, as we have now the capability of self-fufilling these crazy prophecies (end times).
- Login to post comments
Does your company have some sort of policy he could get in trouble for violating since he did this on company time and I'm assuming on a company computer?
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
LOL!
Well, techincally, yes, our company handbook basically tries to discourage discussion of religion or politics during company time - but everyone here (including our CEO) disregards that. I think it would only be an issue, if someone made it an issue. I definitely don't want to make it one, as I've already spoken out. In fact, I hope this actually opens the eyes of some of these sheep. I'm the ONLY person here that doesn't go to any church. Most people here go to the very same one. I'm definitely the black sheep, and by speaking out like this, I may have already comitted social suicide.
Someone else just responded with this:
To which I replied:
Some people have already commented back, infering a general "discomfort" of my opinions... They consider it a debate (which it is), but really, it's pretty one-sided in terms of who is logically correct
Shame you're too nice to engage in a battle of wits with unarmed foes.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
Yeah, I'm too nice... but I do think I've responded intelligently, without coming off harsh, or giving away my (lack of) belief. I just hope to spark some thought in these folks heads. I'm sure most of them right now are reading my responses, and saying to themselves "He's just a young liberal nut." In reality though, I haven't said anything that is false. They can try and prove me wrong. I'd like to see someone come back with more conforming bullshit to help back their position... I'll probably get something about the Pledge of Alligience mentioning the word "God", or something stupid, or how Muslims threaten the security of our world. Keep in mind, I work with primarily Catholic, small town folk. Everyone knows everyone else.
They're probably too stupid to know that "under god" wasn't added to the pledge until the 1950s. Here's a good one about it:
Is_America_a_Christian_Nation?
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Palin was definitely too ignorant to know that. The thing is, HOW did it get approved by congress? I suppose "god" is nondescript, but they capitalize the word "God" - which refers to the Christian god, does it not? Otherwise they would have used Allah, or any of the others... I know the Knights of Columbus were the ones campeigning for the addition, but I just baffles me as to how...
The one thing that will probably offend people is that you said that if someone believes X, they shouldn't be allowed to vote. While I agree with your sentiments, that's just not how voting works. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what you believe for you to be able to vote. I can imagine some Christians being offended by your comment.
Wonderist on Facebook — Support the idea of wonderism by 'liking' the Wonderism page — or join the open Wonderism group to take part in the discussion!
Gnu Atheism Facebook group — All gnu-friendly RRS members welcome (including Luminon!) — Try something gnu!
It got added due to McCarthyism and the association of Atheism with Communism.
Well, I wasn't referring to anything "Christian" specific when I made the comment; What I was referring to, was that if people honestly believed that Obama was a terrorist, or had a secret agenda to convert everyone to Islam, then they really shouldn't have the right to vote, as their judgement is obviously impaired by their intollerance and prejudices. These beliefs are just based on ignorance, and have no factual basis in reality (much like religion). I say that with full awareness that they DO have the right to vote... I just wish they wouldn't. Their ill-informed opinion is not only dangerous, but it has a way of spreading (via these emails) and infecting gullible, but otherwise good-intentioned people.
I wonder what will they reply now. But why do I bother, i shouldn't expect anything very intelligent. But try harder, convincing one fundie is an act worth a medal.
While I'm no expert, I know the bible far better than most, yet I can't seem to find a verse about establishing a representative democrasy. Also, how many of the founding fathers weren't orthodox xians?
"I've yet to witness circumstance successfully manipulated through the babbling of ritualistic nonsense to an imaginary deity." -- me (josh)
If god can do anything, can he make a hot dog so big even he can't eat all of it?
The following URL doesn't give a number of Christian vs non-christian members of the founding fathers, but it does list some quotes from some (Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin, Allen, and Paine).
www.skeptically.org/thinkersonreligion/id9.html
duplicate
I don't agree with " ratting " on someone over an email they sent at work, so long as the email does not threaten or humiliate someone else. I wouldn't want to get a fellow employee sanctioned and I wouldn't want to unknowingly, through my complaint, have management respond by cracking down hard on everyone who sends emails during work hours.
Lastly, I had no idea, until recently, that Atheists living in America are reviled and feared. In Canada, no one gives a crap who you pray to or don't pray to.
You never hear God mentioned in Politics and when you do, everyone has a good laugh, the media tear the politician apart and that's the last you hear about it. Our PM used to say, ' God Bless Canada' at the end of his speeches. He stopped doing that a long time ago. We have our vote today ( federal election) and not once did the name of God ( any God for that matter) come up in the last 4 weeks of campaigning.
It's odd that the American economy is dis-integrating, yet the average American is still more concerned about which God the Presidential candidates pray to and what Obama's middle name is!
I've noticed that Canada is much more secular than most contries. Yes, here in the US, people want to know what god their candidates pray to -and if they differ (or don't have a god), then you can bet that person won't be voting for that candidate. Very fucking stupid, yes. An agnostic or atheist candidate would never stand a chance of getting elected in this country - not counting the fact that many of our founding fathers were "deists" that didn't subscribe to any religion (just the idea that there may have been a supernatural creator that didn't intervene in human affairs).
This is why Obama is running into so many of these nuts that claim he's an "A-rab terrorist!" and a "Muslim". In fact, I just responded to another email chain letter - this time, it was sent to my personal email from a friend of mine. It of course, was spreading the same BS disinfo about Obama as all the rest. The fact is, the cons in this country believe this shit, and base their vote on it. I'm so afraid for my two children...
Teach them correctly and teach them that the economy works on a global scale and that they have the freedom to live anywhere in the world (assuming their visas get approved). After all myself being Canadian I have had the privilege of living in various countries before settling back in Canada, I just like the people here, although France did have a nice cushy health care system
ryandinan
Watch your back.
People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.
Well, we never WERE a Christian nation, but I get what Obama was trying to say...it was used out of context here.
I love how they quoted Obama. Like how desperate are these people that they need to take random political quotes to prove their points?
*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*
"Those believers who are sophisticated enough to understand the paradox have found exciting ways to bend logic into pretzel shapes in order to defend the indefensible." - Hamby