RE: Atheist Douches Object to Gospel Music at MLK Celebration
February 10, 2018 at 9:39 am
(This post was last modified: February 10, 2018 at 11:08 am by vulcanlogician.)
(February 10, 2018 at 4:22 am)CapnAwesome Wrote: If it's just gospel music, I'm fine with that. It's the "and religious messages " that I'd need more information on. Christians always misportray what atheist groups are complaining about, so I don't know why this instance would be any different. It's easy to throw in MLKs name as a cover to avoid criticism for what your real agenda is. If it were just a speech or program about MLK with a little gospel music, that seems fine. If it's really a religious program with a little MLK thrown in to set up an attack like this, that's obviously wrong on a number of levels. MLK himself was against prayer in public school. This is his comments on the supreme court decision on prayer in public school.
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So is this really about gospel music? I doubt it. It also seems like MLK comes down on the side of the atheists in this one.
(February 10, 2018 at 6:14 am)Grandizer Wrote: Gospel music is specifically Christian music, not to mention all this talk about faith and God and Jesus. In a place where this shit isn't supposed to happen. Yeah, no, sorry, I'm with the FFRF on this one.
Y'know, I am all for taking religion out of the public sphere. On the issue of prayer in school, I'm like Rambo with a grenade launcher. That shit ain't happening. On placing monuments of the Ten Commandments in front of courthouses, I'm against it. I do not tolerate public religious displays/monuments or any attempt to funnel public funds toward religious indoctrination.
What I think is important here, though, is context. Assuming the article wasn't being misleading, we have two things going on at this event:
1) Gospel music being played in the background.
2) "Numerous speakers made reference to God and Jesus" in their speeches
This doesn't bother me. If there were a public event commemorating George Harrison, I would have no problem with music being played that endorsed Hinduism, nor would I have a problem with certain figures making mention of Bhakti yoga or reincarnation in their speeches. This would be appropriate.
I've known atheist music artists who made use of Christian symbolism in their songs in order to make a point that had nothing to do with religion. Expression is a funny thing, and if we invite people to speak at public events, we have to allow that their personal beliefs will find their way into their speeches on occasion. We'd need a Nazi censor reading all speeches beforehand to prevent this from ever happening. We ought not allow overt, one-sided religious favoritism at public events, but neither should we try to purge public events of all religious expression.
This is what secularism is really about. It's not just about stopping subtle attempts at indoctrination (though this is part of it, when the situation calls for it). It's also about allowing a plurality of messages (whether they be Christian, Jewish, Satanist, or anti-theist) to be permitted in the public arena, and, yes, even at publically funded events.
As I said before, context matters. If a speaker went beyond simple mention of his/her faith and took time to endorse one religious view over another, this is a problem. Otherwise, I think (in the interests of secularism) we ought to permit benign mention of God or religion in certain public contexts.
