Tag: American Atheists

Free Speech, Garland, Texas, and Liberal Hypocrisy

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

islam-cartoonI began writing this daily blog in April of 2010. Since then, Gentle Reader, you and I have born witness to a lot of stupid, incomprehensible things, including the election of Barack Hussein Obama.

But, I digress…

As you know, if you haven’t been hiding under a rock, like those guys in the old Gieco Commercial, two Home-grown Jihadists attacked a “Draw Mohammed” Event in Garland, Texas, sponsored by anti- Islamic Activist Pamela Geller.

Thanks to the actions of a brave off-duty Traffic Cop, who was a Security Guard at the event, those two Followers of Mohammed are now surrounded by their 72 virgins…who all look like Rosie O’Donnell.

After the event, is when things began to get stupid.

Modern American Liberals, instead of being thankful that those at the event, including Geller herself, were not killed in a scene of carnage and mass murder, began to blame the actions of the two Radical Islamic Whackjobs on her.

According to these Liberals, our Constitutional Right to Free Speech does not include being able to impugn a violent pedophile, whose radical followers are presently decapitating Christians and Homosexuals in record numbers, during a bloody march across the Middle East, reminiscent of the Third Reich.

These same Liberals have nothing to say, when art exhibits, featuring blasphemous images, such as “Piss Christ” (a crucifix in a jar of urine) and Elephant Dung Virgin Mary (a portrait of the Virgin Mary smeared in Elephant Dung), intentionally attacking and desecrating the Christian Faith of 74% of Americans, are displayed in art galleries from coast to coast and ignorant Liberal Atheists post ugly meme after ugly meme on Facebook, savagely attacking the Faith of Our Fathers.

Why is it okay to impugn the faith of 74% of Americans, and not okay to impugn the faith of 1%?

Are Liberals scared of the radical followers of Mohammed?

Do Liberals resent Christianity and the overwhelming majority of Americans that much?

Even as the recent barbarous acts unfolded in France and the Radical Muslims of ISIS continued their genocidal jihad against Christians in Iraq, I continued to hear and read from some of this “Me, First Generation” that there is not any difference between American Christianity and Radical Islam. Quite frankly, that’s like saying that there’s no difference between Mister Rogers and Ted Bundy (look them up, children).

In Islam, the way to “walk with God and escape his judgement on that final day of judgment” is through ‘falah’, which means self-effort or positive achievement. The faithful must submit to God and follow all of his laws as found in the Koran. Judgment day in Islam involves some sort of measurement of what the believer has done wrong and what they have done right. And, even then, you might not be let into heaven if Allah decides you’re not good enough.

This is the direct opposite of Christianity.

According to the Bible, no man can ever be good enough to deserve God’s favor, to win God’s heaven, because from birth we have Free Will. This Free Will may cause us to reject God and live our lives our own way. That’s why it was necessary for Jesus Christ to die for our sins, covering us in His blood of the New Covenant.

God’s Word tells us that what we need is not ‘falah,’ but faith. To have faith in, to trust, to rely on Jesus and his death as as “the expiation for our sins”. Those who have been Saved by Jesus Christ can be sure that in the future God will welcome them into heaven with wide open arms, because they have been washed by His blood.

Islam and Christianity present two very different Deities, who may share some similarities, but who have different identities and ultimately different standards. To pretend they are the same is not only to be clueless of the faith of 74% of the citizens of this nation, but, to be ignorant of an integral part of our American Heritage, the legacy of Christian Faith, which our Founding Fathers bequeathed us.

Now, I am not saying that every Muslim is on a jihad against “the infidels”.

However…

When Christians become “radicalized”, we want to share the testimony of what God has done for us through His love, with everyone we meet. We get involved in our local church and we become better fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and American Citizens.

When Muslims become “radicalized”, they want to “kill the Infidels” in the name of “Allah the Merciful”.

In the case of the Chechen Muslim brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, their immersion into Radical Islam led them to “kill the infidels” that horrendous day.

In the case of the barbarians of al Qaeda, ISIS, and the rest of the Muslim Brotherhood, it has turned them into doppelgangers of the Nazi Butchers of Dachau.

For Liberals to deny that, and to refuse to identify Islamic Terrorism, when it rears its ugly head, is disingenuous at best, and just plain out-and-out lying at worst.

Additionally, to blame the actions of those two Radical Islamic Whackjobs in Garland, Texas on Pamela Geller exercising her Constitutional Right to Free Speech is downright stupid…bordering on traitorous.

Until He Comes,

KJ

American Christianity: The Catalyst Behind This “Grand Experiment”

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

American Christianity 2In their ongoing quest to rewrite history and remake this country into a Godless State, a small minority of pitiful, bitter, little creatures are demanding that Americans no longer acknowledge the hand of “Our Creator” in the Birth of our Nation and the forging of our Constitutional Republic and the Precious Gift He gave us of our American Freedom.

ChristianPost.com has the story…

A national atheist organization is demanding that the chancellor of Troy University in Alabama apologize for sending a 98-second video to students that says Democracy works in America not because of government enforcement or because people believe they’re accountable to society, but because they know they’re “accountable to God.”

“Atheists are overwhelmingly ethical and upstanding people. It is not true that religion is necessary to keep people from becoming criminals,” wrote Americans Atheists’ President David Silverman in an open letter sent to Jack Hawkins Jr. on New Year’s Eve. “In fact, in the United States, in states with the highest percentages of atheists, the murder rate is lower than average. In the most-religious states, the murder rate is higher than average.”

Silverman, who disagrees with the opinions shared in Hawkins’ email and video that was sent to staff and students, has called for the chancellor to give “a public apology to the student, and other atheists whom you have disparaged with the video you included in your email.”

“American Atheists will be hosting its annual national convention the first weekend in April at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis,” continued Silverman. “We invite you to attend any or all of the events to experience for yourself what atheism and atheists are like. We believe that personal experience helps fight ignorance so we invite you to be our special guest.”

At the center of the controversy is the YouTube video about democracy, which was posted by the J. Reuben Clark Law Society on March 5, 2014.

In the 98-second video, Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen states that American democracy works because of the strong religious component in American society.

Christensen cites remarks he received from a Chinese economist and Marxist whom he had befriended at Harvard.

“In your past most Americans attended a church or a synagogue every week and they were taught there by people who they respected,” said Christensen, quoting his unnamed friend.

“My friend went on to say that ‘Americans followed these rules because they had come to believe that they weren’t just accountable to society, they were accountable to God.'”

As of Friday, the video garnered over 484,000 views, more than 2,200 likes and 400 dislikes, as well as over 638 comments of varying opinions.

According to American Atheists, Hawkins’ email message to students and staff related to the video and provided a link to it.

“As we approach a new year I am reminded of the blessings we enjoy within a democracy which is the envy of the world,” wrote Hawkins. “For your pleasure — and as a reminder — I am sharing with you a 90 second video which speaks to America’s greatness and its vulnerability.”

Whether the American Atheists are actually serious in their ignorance, or they are simply trying to garner publicity for their upcoming convention in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, they couldn’t be more wrong, as to the role our Creator played and plays in this Grand Experiment, known as the United States of America.

From adherents.com:

There were 95 Senators and Representatives in the First Federal Congress. If one combines the total number of signatures on the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution with the non-signing Constitutional Convention delegates, and then adds to that sum the number of congressmen in the First Federal Congress, one obtains a total of 238 “slots” or “positions” in these groups which one can classify as “Founding Fathers” of the United States. Because 40 individuals had multiple roles (they signed multiple documents and/or also served in the First Federal Congress), there are 204 unique individuals in this group of “Founding Fathers.” These are the people who did one or more of the following:

– signed the Declaration of Independence
– signed the Articles of Confederation
– attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787
– signed the Constitution of the United States of America
– served as Senators in the First Federal Congress (1789-1791)
– served as U.S. Representatives in the First Federal Congress

The religious affiliations of these individuals are summarized below. Obviously this is a very restrictive set of names, and does not include everyone who could be considered an “American Founding Father.” But most of the major figures that people generally think of in this context are included using these criteria, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and more.

Religious Affiliation
of U.S. Founding Fathers		 # of
Founding
Fathers		 % of
Founding
Fathers
Episcopalian/Anglican 88 54.7%
Presbyterian 30 18.6%
Congregationalist 27 16.8%
Quaker 7 4.3%
Dutch Reformed/German Reformed 6 3.7%
Lutheran 5 3.1%
Catholic 3 1.9%
Huguenot 3 1.9%
Unitarian 3 1.9%
Methodist 2 1.2%
Calvinist 1 0.6%
unknown 43  %
TOTAL 204

Here are some quotes about God and Christianity from 3 Presidents of the United States, whom you might recognize:

John Quincy Adams

My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away [evade or object to]. . . . the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God.

The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes in the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures must hope that the religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth. Never since the foundation of the world have the prospects of mankind been more encouraging to that hope than they appear to be at the present time. And may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper till the Lord shall have made “bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” [Isaiah 52:10].

In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.

Thomas Jefferson

The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.

The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

George Washington

You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.

While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.

The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would… most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion.

Recently, a Gallup Poll showed that a little less than 3/4 of Americans proclaim Jesus Christ as their Personal Savior and half of Americans attend Religious Services on a regular basis.

While the American Atheists, under the rights granted to us by our Constitution, have every right to speak their mind, blackmail and intimidation of the Majority, is not a guaranteed right.

 Additionally, without being anchored on the Solid Rock, America would have been a failed experiment, assigned to the dustbin of history, years ago.

That still, small voice which resides within each one of us, has led Americans to do great things, in service to their country and the concept of American Freedom, as personified by Lady Liberty, standing so majestically in New York Harbor.

God gave us this nation, ensconced in the concept of “Liberty and Justice for all”.

By His Grace, we will keep it.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Cowardly Atheists Use a Child to Attack Christianity in New Billboard

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

atheismA man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell. – C.S. Lewis

This past week, a new billboard showed up in my hometown of Memphis. It immediately set tongues wagging in this Buckle of the Bible Belt.

And, not in a good way.

ChristianPost.com reports that

American Atheists President David Silverman has said that his group’s holiday billboards this year, with a message to “skip church” this Christmas, are aimed at atheists who are living with theists in mixed families and are under pressure to participate in religious activities.

“That little girl on the billboard symbolizes the atheists who go along to get along, attending and possibly tithing a church that preaches a religion in which they don’t believe, for no other reason than habit or familial pressure,” Silverman told The Christian Post in an email on Thursday.

“We are using these billboards to spur intra-family communication, because we believe the communication is desperately needed,” he asserted.

The billboards have gone up in Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, while a fifth billboard in Milwaukee is co-sponsored by the Southeast Wisconsin Freethinkers. Silverman said the ads were priced at approximately $20,000, which was paid for by donors.

The billboards, which feature a young girl writing a message to Santa Claus reading: “Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church! I’m too old for fairy tales,” have attracted various media attention.

While previous AA holiday billboards have been erected in notable urban areas, such as at Times Square in New York City, Silverman explained that this year’s ads are the first ones to be placed in residential areas.

“The target market is anyone old enough to read the board, understand the message, and realize that it rings true with them, which we figure is young teens and up,” Silverman told CP.

“Nobody seriously thinks little kids are reading billboards and having religious epiphanies from them, but older kids are statistically the most likely to be atheists, and we hope this billboard spurs them to talk about it with their parents,” he added.

The secular group’s press release on Monday noted that it was denied billboard advertising space in Jackson, Mississippi, because area lessors rejected the content of the ads. The AA president said that the group often experiences such problems, since billboard owners fear repercussions from Christian customers.

“Billboard owners have received death threats, and more often boycott threats, from Christians, just because they put up our ads,” he said. “In Salt Lake City, for example, none of the local billboard companies would do business with us for fear of losing other business. This is legal, but it’s not moral, and it’s a clear symptom of the bigotry atheists face from Christians on a regular basis, further emphasizing the need for communication and activism.”

When asked if there is any way to measure the success of billboard campaigns, Silverman said that, as a result of the media coverage, the group has seen “a huge uptick” in ticket sales for its upcoming national convention, set to take place in 2015 during Easter weekend in Memphis.

As for the number of atheists living in households where they cannot share their beliefs with close ones, Silverman pointed to a 2008 USA Today poll which showed that atheism has been growing across the U.S., including in the Bible Belt states. The survey found that close to 15 percent of Americans say they have no religion, which was up from 8 percent in 1990.

In reality, a 2012 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports that just 6% of the US population are atheists even though the number of religiously unaffiliated has grown since the USA Today Survey from 15% to just under 20%.

However, if you listen to radical Atheists, they will tell you that they are the most enlightened and intelligent human beings on this terrestrial ball.

And,, that they have nothing to be worried about from the 76% of Americans, like me, who proclaim Jesus Christ as their Personal Savior.

So, why are they coming out with this national billboard campaign, using a child as their spokesperson, in this Holy Season in which we honor and celebrating the arrival of the Son of God?

It is all a part of a pattern that has been going on for some time now.

For years, School Administrators have been attempting to block Christmas Songs which reference Christianity and the Triune God in any way from school programs.

Retail stores, who, in years past, joyfully wished customers a “Merry Christmas”, now instead, air commercials, which sing “That’s my kind of holiday.” and greet you in their stores with “Happy Holidays!”

So, why this full-blown attack on the Faith which our Founding Fathers wrote so eloquently about, and which has sustained this “shining city on a hill” through times of internal and external strife?

In other words, why are activist Atheists (and Progressives) so intent to either limit or completely eliminate Christianity’s influence on everyday American Life?

Why don’t they attack the political/religious ideology of Islam with the same fervor?

The answer to this question is simple: Cowards will always tell you whom they are afraid of. They will avoid them, like one avoids a child with Chicken Pox.

Additionally, they expect Christians to allow them to take control by “turning the other cheek.” Evidently, they never read the scriptures which describe Jesus running the “money lenders” out of the temple, overturning tables and expressing his righteous indignation in a way in which no one con mistake it for anything else.

Or, perhaps, it’s their overwhelming overestimation in their own intelligence, which results from ignoring the influence of the God of Abraham in their life.

So, what drives them in this “Unholy Crusade”?

Bitterness, emptiness, and an unfulfilled hungering in their soul which they cannot put a finger on, is the only explanation.

Otherwise, why would you fight so hard against the influence of and worship of Someone you don’t personally believe in?

Until He Comes,

KJ

American Atheists to Launch Their Own Television Channel

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

atheismDo you remember a woman named Madalyn Murray O’Hair?

Born in 1919 to a poor family in Pittsburgh, she was raised by church-going parents but claimed she became an atheist after reading the complete Bible in her early teen years. Madalyn Murray O’Hair became a household name when she contested the required moment of prayer and Bible reading in her son William’s Baltimore-area public school in 1960. The Supreme Court, then under Chief Justice Earl Warren, delivered its 8-1 verdict in favor of O’Hair on June 17, 1963, expanding an earlier school prayer decision in the 1962 Engel v. Vitale case. Murray v. Curlett, along with Abington v. Schempp, eliminated not only obligatory school prayer but also mandatory Bible readings in public schools.

Though the Schempp case got top billing, O’Hair quickly became a hero among secular Americans. “The Schempps did not want to be in the limelight,” O’Hair biographer and University of Missouri-Kansas City dean Bryan LeBeau told Beliefnet in a 2004 interview. “Madalyn walked right out to the front of the Supreme Court building, her son by her side, and grabbed the microphone from the press and insisted that this was a major case and she was responsible for it. She took credit and then went on to say that she wasn’t done, that she was going to go on and challenge all kinds of other church-state matters.”

Undeterred by the backlash (O’Hair received death threats and was the victim of vandalism long after the 1963 decision), O’Hair continued to insert herself into church and state legal battles as the country’s atheist-in-chief. “I am an Atheist,” she wrote in the “Why I Am an Atheist” pamphlet. “I am a bit more than that–an Atheist. I am, in fact, the Atheist. The Atheist who made Americans stop to take a little stock of their accepted values.”

Later in 1963, O’Hair founded American Atheists, which remains one of the most activist atheist groups in the U.S. today.

Back in the 1980s, when I was working for a national Cable Television Provider, one of my jobs was to run the syndicated show of the American Atheists, hosted by Madalyn Murray O’Hair. I found her to be a bitter old woman, who spent her life fighting against Someone whom she believed did not exist.

Now, the group she founded plans on taking things a step further.

The New York Daily News reports that

Believe it.

A New Jersey-based atheist group is starting the first on-demand TV channel dedicated to godlessness.

AtheistTV will be launching this summer with big plans to reach out to atheists, humanists, freethinkers, and folks who are looking for a way out of faith.

Members of American Atheists, the organization behind the endeavor, think it’s about time.

“There’s a glut of religious TV programming out there, from televangelists to Christmas specials,” spokesman Dave Muscato told The News. “But there’s no atheist channel. We wanted to fill that void.”

The American Atheists plan to launch their new TV channel this summer.

American Atheists already has a production studio at their national headquarters in Cranford, N.J., where they film their public access cable show “Atheist Viewpoint.” The show is in its 20th season and is distributed to 50 markets across the country.

AtheistTV will make use of content from their homegrown show, as well as their archive of footage from the past 50 years of its activist history. But they’re also seeking to join forces with other content providers—non-profit secular organizations such as the Richard Dawkins Foundation and atheist YouTube stars with big fan bases.

So, will this venture be successful, or will it be as unpopular as Air America and Al-Jazeera America?

According to a Pew Forum Survey, more than 13 million Americans are self-described atheists and agnostics, comprising less than 6% of the U.S. public.

I have never understood Atheists, especially the so-called activists among them.

Our Constitution provides for Freedom of Religion.

According to the Supreme Court, in their Ruling abolishing School Prayer, Atheism is a religion, which the Americans who embrace this nihilism are free to practice.

So, why are Atheist Activists continuously launching a full-blown attack on the Faith which our Founding Fathers wrote so eloquently about, and which has sustained this “shining city on a hill” through times of internal and external strife?

In other words, why are activist Atheists (and Progressives) so intent to either limit or completely eliminate Christianity’s influence on everyday American Life?

Why can’t they be content with their freedom to practice their own Religion?

Why don’t they attack the political/religious ideology of Islam with the same fervor?

The answer to this question is simple:  Cowards will always tell you whom they are afraid of. They will avoid them, like one avoids a child with Chicken Pox.

Additionally, they expect Christians to allow them to take control by “turning the other cheek.” Evidently, they never read the scriptures which describe Jesus running the “money lenders” out of the temple, overturning tables, and expressing his righteous indignation in a way in which no one could mistake it for anything else.

Or, perhaps, it’s the overwhelming overestimation in their own intelligence, which results from ignoring the influence of the God of Abraham in their life.

So, what drives them in this “Unholy Crusade”?

Bitterness, emptiness, and an unfulfilled hungering in their soul which they cannot put a finger on, is the only explanation.

Otherwise, why would you fight so hard against the influence of and worship of Someone you claim not to believe in?

Until He Comes,

KJ