In an update to my previous entry, "Freedom to Celebrate", I recently found out that the City of Green Bay was not responsible for the Nativity scene. In fact, a citizen petitioned City Hall to allow the Nativity scene to be displayed. Does this change any of your opinions on the issue? Does this make City Hall more in the wrong or more in the right?
On a side note, I find it interesting that when issues such as these come up, it is only atheists who protest. Not Christians (protesting other religions, of course), Jews, Muslims, even Pagans, Wiccans, or any other recognized religion. It is almost always self-proclaimed atheists. I point this out to ask the ProgressiveU community why this is. I don't understand. If displayed a Nativity scene at Christmas does not affect a Jew's celebration of Hanukkah, how does the same thing affect an atheist's ability to not celebrate?
I'm offended by the phrase "recognized religion." So a religion has to be recognized to be worth anything? Who gets to "recognize" these religions? Can I worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster and be a member of a "recognized" religion?
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
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You're wrong. When Jews ask to put up a menorah in an area, it is the CHRISTIANS who complain most vocally. Even if there is a Christian symbol put up right next to the menorah. Alternatively, rather than allowing the Jews to put up a menorah, administrators will take down all displays, which was not the intent of the Jews in the first place.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
Okay, I'll give you that. It doesn't happen too much where I am from, so I don't have a lot of experience with protests regarding symbols of non-Christian religions.
However, from my experience with Christian symbols on display, it is people who identify themselves as atheists (in the letters they write or the interviews they give) who are complaining the most vocally.
It's an observation, not an attack. Unfortunately in the Progressive U community the line between the two is often mistakenly blurred.
Would you care to answer my last question? No one else has yet.
No this does not change my opinion. I knew the facts when I responded the first time. And one of those facts that still remains is that the city was wrong for refusing to allow anything save the Nativity scene to go up once the Pentacle was damaged. They should have allowed them all or none of them. Period.
On a side note, it's not just atheists and it's rather narrow minded of you to ignore the reality in order to point the finger at atheists in regard to this issue when in this particular case Christians were the ones having a conniption about the Pentacle. I find it offensive that you ignore that fact in order to rant against atheists. And for the record, no I'm not atheist.
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Soar high and laugh on the wind
~Fallon~
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."- Thoreau
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It wasn't a rant against atheists. I could certainly write a rant, if you would like to see what a real rant against atheists would look like. Some of my best friends are atheists. On that note, some are Jews and some are Christians. I am not a person who blindly discriminates based on one characteristic of a person. People of any belief can do good, and people of any belief can do wrong.
I guess I should have specified that based on my experience (mostly the letters to my local paper in regards to the Green Bay event), the people who complain the most also identify themselves as atheists. I hadn't read a single letter from a self-proclaimed Christian complaining about the Pentacle. So I apologize if that offended you. I form opinions based on my experience, however those opinions are always flexible and I will have to look into complaints about the Pentacle. Thank you for enlightening me.
No one has answered my last question. Would you care to?
I personally wish that people would understand that our Constitution grants freedom OF religion, not FROM religion. There is a difference.