scoobysnack Wrote:Simon Moon Wrote:Maybe you are not quit aware of what the FFRF does. They are a national organization, not an international one.
Their main purpose is to protect separation of church and state, and to protect the Constitutional rights of non-theists.
The only religious group in the US with the power to inflict their unConstitutional, religion based laws on the US are Christians.
They don't seem to care about preserving rights of Christians that much though. Yes though I don't follow them that much, although they are located in my city, Madison WI. What about the Jews for example? I don't see atheist targeting Jews all that much. Not that I want to start the thread in that direction, and maybe it's from my limited experience but seems to be more directed at Christians. For example, I read the opinion pieces in the newspaper from the heads of the FFRF on Christian holidays talking about the need to get away from them, but don't seem to see them talking about Islam or Judaism in that context. Not that I follow FFRF that closely at all, so I'm sure there are instances.
Do you think a child should be able to bring a bible, torah, or koran to public school to read, even if they are not sharing it with others? Do you think Christians should be allowed to give out Christmas cards to their friends at school? What about Jehovahs witnesses who don't celebrate holidays, or even birthdays? Should we accommodate their beliefs and not mention birthdays in the workplace? We had to stop having holiday and birthday celebrations at work to accommodate one Jehovah's witness in my dept to make it inclusive. Instead we had random parties. Do you as an atheist get upset during holidays?
Although preserving the rights of Christians isn't in the FFRF's charter, anymore than it's in the NAACP's; I'd be interested in learning what rights Christians have lost in the USA. As far as I can tell, they've only had some of their special privileges diminished.
What have the Jews done in the USA to violate separation of religion and government that the FFRF should be addressing? No Jewish holiday is also a federal holiday. The FFRF is about preserving separation of religion and government, they don't care what holidays you celebrate as long as you're not involving the government in them.
Children should be able to and are able to bring their religious texts to school to read; provided they don't do it in such a way that it is disruptive. Students should be able to and are able to give whatever kind of cards they want to at school that aren't otherwise in violation of school policy (regarding language or whatever). It's a different matter for teachers who are government paid authority figures with a captive audience of other people's children.
JWs don't have to be protected from hearing about birthdays in the workplace, unless it's done with an intent to harass them. However, a business may choose to be sensitive to their situation.
Holidays don't upset me in the slightest, though the annual 'War on Christmas' coverage amuses me. I hear now it's started up on Easter (some chocolate company sold chocolate bunnies without putting 'Easter' on the box).
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.