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Ptah

(33,023 posts)
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 09:04 AM Feb 2019

Arizona Atheist Lawmaker Stands Up To Christian Bully

On Monday, February 11, Arizona State Rep. Athena Salman — an openly
atheist lawmaker — delivered a secular and inclusive invocation to start the
legislative session. Afterward, Republican State Rep. John Kavanagh asked
to speak and used his time to mock Salman's invocation by introducing
his special guest "God."

Rep. Salman did not back down. The next day she rose to protest the
denigration and belittlement of her invocation, calling attention to the
mockery of nonreligious people that has become routine in the Arizona state legislature.

We want to applaud Rep. Salman for her courage and determination.
Atheists, agnostics, humanists, and nonreligious Americans have every
right to serve as lawmakers and be afforded the same recognition and respect as their peers.

29 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Arizona Atheist Lawmaker Stands Up To Christian Bully (Original Post) Ptah Feb 2019 OP
Why are religious people usually the biggest dicks? RAB910 Feb 2019 #1
lol Cha Feb 2019 #3
They don't actually believe in their own beliefs. theaocp Feb 2019 #7
Putting "under God" in the pledge erlewyne Feb 2019 #15
+1000000! SammyWinstonJack Feb 2019 #9
They are Supremacists HAB911 Feb 2019 #14
So true. Duppers Feb 2019 #29
Change biggest to littlest and you have a winner. malachi Feb 2019 #20
Because the ones who believe the Holy Spirit lives within can do whatever and will sit by Jesus. TheBlackAdder Feb 2019 #23
Because most of them don't really believe on anything they were taught in religion class Perseus Feb 2019 #25
It's a purity thing... 2naSalit Feb 2019 #27
I noticed that God's good buddy didn't get much applause, but... TreasonousBastard Feb 2019 #2
Athena Salman Ptah Feb 2019 #4
Yet again LogicFirst Feb 2019 #5
Mr. Holy Roller is nothing but an Arrogant Prick fascisthunter Feb 2019 #6
The rollers do believe in freedumb of religion, as long as it's theirs. NoMoreRepugs Feb 2019 #8
Must be a pretty liberal district to elect her IronLionZion Feb 2019 #10
They believe they are eternally *annointed* by God & can go *and sin* some MORE. Texin Feb 2019 #11
We turn monsters into humans and humans into monsters angrychair Feb 2019 #12
excellent post... dhill926 Feb 2019 #19
Message auto-removed Name removed Feb 2019 #13
I disagree. AZ8theist Feb 2019 #16
I disagree. AZ8theist Feb 2019 #17
Unfortunately, I too live in Arizona... StarzGuy Feb 2019 #18
The weird part is that more people in AZ are atheist/agnostic people than Mormon LongtimeAZDem Feb 2019 #26
There isn't a true Christian on this planet, IMO DirtEdonE Feb 2019 #21
Bravo Rep Salman mountain grammy Feb 2019 #22
Thank you Rep. Salmon for your courage. BarbD Feb 2019 #24
BarbD, your post caught my attention. erlewyne Feb 2019 #28

theaocp

(4,235 posts)
7. They don't actually believe in their own beliefs.
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 10:39 AM
Feb 2019

Otherwise, this would roll off them like water meeting a duck's back. After all, who can fuck with eternal life? They all know it's bullshit, but they're cowardly sheep who go along to get along. I left that pen behind a long time ago. Never looked back.

 

Perseus

(4,341 posts)
25. Because most of them don't really believe on anything they were taught in religion class
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 12:12 PM
Feb 2019

or at church, they use religion as a "feel-good" pill, where they show up to church, they have communion, drink from a filthy wine cup where other people have put their mouth on, then walk back to their sit with a face of humility and sainthood to go home afterwards and think about how they will screw up people, how they can come up with ideas how to promote hate to all those people who do not look like him/her.

My kids went to catholic schools, even though I am an atheist, you would see all these people in church (I don't go to church, but one in a while I had to go because of the school), and you would see them walk on the hall towards communion making those repentant and holly faces, then go back to their sits with a "I am pure as an angel" face, then once mass was over they would gather outside in the parking lot to gossip about everyone they saw that morning. My wife once joined the group just to see what they were doing and could not believe the vile gossip going on, so my wife left the group but before she left she said to them "don't crucify me when I leave like you have done with the rest, be good Christians instead". Of course they never talked to my wife again, which was fine with us.

Why being an atheist did I send my kids to Catholic school? 1. It was not a religious-fanatic school. Did they go to church and teach religion? Yes, but the rest of the time it was normal life. 2. Because it is a great school academically. 3. Because they taught them good discipline, good studying skills. 4. The kids that went to that school, for the most part, were great. 5. Sports.

I am sure there are lot of good religious people on this board, but it is my own personal experience that most people who attend church and pretend to be good Christians are a bunch of hypocrites, they have found religion to be a cover of all their wrong doings and many feel it is a passport to be vile.

The church at that school during mass is pretty empty throughout the year, but come Easter, there is not one sit open, and I know the people who attend, of course there are a lot of good ones, but I know those who are not, and there are too many of them. Even the priest, who I call the "used car salesman" was selling the Iraq invasion before it happened...a priest using the pulpit for war propaganda, for the killing of innocent people...disgusting!

So...to answer your question...People use religion as a cover, you see it a lot with politicians. Evangelists have answered that question very well, it is about power, and the feel-good because I attended church, all the sins against humanity have been cleared. Are Hannity, Coulter, Ingram, Ryan, McConnell, Jordan, etc. religious? That should answer your question.

2naSalit

(86,502 posts)
27. It's a purity thing...
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 01:18 PM
Feb 2019

I can't get into it... they see themselves as better because they believe something others don't.

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)
2. I noticed that God's good buddy didn't get much applause, but...
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 09:21 AM
Feb 2019

did get some mocking jeers.

I would suggest that all good Christians review the Establishment Clause and the reasons the Founders included it.

Reasons that still apply in some places today.

Ptah

(33,023 posts)
4. Athena Salman
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 09:47 AM
Feb 2019

In 2018, Salman's legislation to provide unlimited feminine hygiene
products to incarcerated women was heard in an all-male committee.
As a result, a viral campaign to pressure immediate change ensued
leading to a policy change by the Arizona Department of Corrections
that increased the allotment of pads and for the first time included tampons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena_Salman#Positions

 

fascisthunter

(29,381 posts)
6. Mr. Holy Roller is nothing but an Arrogant Prick
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 10:32 AM
Feb 2019

Just imagine how he would have reacted if the majority there were Atheist. Enjoy your privilege but NEVER abuse it you asshole! Because someday you too may become a minority.

Texin

(2,594 posts)
11. They believe they are eternally *annointed* by God & can go *and sin* some MORE.
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 10:55 AM
Feb 2019

They've been "saved" and are therefore exempt for all their deplorable and blatantly un-Christian behavior forevermore. Their faux so-called "Christianity" is what made me turn my back on religion years and years ago, and I've now come to believe that there is no god that directs us, because a god of the universe would have drop kicked these repugnant, self-serving, self-righteous motherfuckers into a lava flow thousands of years ago.

angrychair

(8,685 posts)
12. We turn monsters into humans and humans into monsters
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 11:15 AM
Feb 2019

A person that is “openly atheist” is spoken of as a social oddity.
Yet religious organizations from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Catholic Church have, as a policy and a practice, hidden and/or protected child molesters and rapists for a hundred years and more but are still revered for their religious piety and values.


While atheists are perceived as the people that should be hidden in shame.


I’m “openly atheist” and I’m not ashamed. I’m proud.

Response to Ptah (Original post)

StarzGuy

(254 posts)
18. Unfortunately, I too live in Arizona...
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 11:24 AM
Feb 2019

… ever since graduating from ASU back in 1978. Not much has changed except what I'd call bashing atheist at all levels of government in this state. You just don't acknowledge your atheist views to anyone out of fear of retribution by others. I've kept a low profile not expounding on my views to anyone. It is truly chilling to live in a state and a country run by such religious nut jobs. The rebuke of science and the scientific method by politicians in Arizona has put a cloud over our educational institutions. Just consider how many so called "Private" schools so called "charter" schools have exploded here. These are cover words for religious indoctrination of school age children as well as the public at large.
JHC, there is even a religious university in the middle of Phoenix called Grand Canyon University who recently was reauthorized as a private, non profit institution that gets it a .edu designation. Heck, they were a for profit institution for years.
People surely have the right to worship invisible cloud beings way beyond the end of time and the edge of the known universe, but they should not be entitled to public tax revenues like these so called "charter" schools get. We now even see how too many of these owners simply rip off the public and enrich themselves and other family members and cronies then disappear with their millions in pocket.
Enough is enough.

 

DirtEdonE

(1,220 posts)
21. There isn't a true Christian on this planet, IMO
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 11:50 AM
Feb 2019

There are those who STRIVE to be true Christians but our current crop of pseudo-religious trump devil worshipers surely cannot be counted among their number.

Does the term "false prophets" ring a bell, you pseudo-Christian devil worshipers?

I think about as much of Christians these days as I do of the gop. That's not to take away from those striving, it's just that pseudo-Christian support has given us the likes of reagan, two bushes, and trump.

Such god-like figures to aspire to become for some. You will know them by their works. Just look at what they've done to America.

BarbD

(1,192 posts)
24. Thank you Rep. Salmon for your courage.
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 12:11 PM
Feb 2019

While attending parochial grade school, I witnessed the "christian" hysteria when "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. The priests and nuns celebrated this addition, but I stumbled over the words wondering why they were added. The whys kept multiplying through catholic college but it took another five years, marriage to a Protestant and disagreement over birth control to divorce myself from Catholicism. Took another 50 years to leave organized religion -- I liked to sing in the choir. The ah-ha moment came to me when I just couldn't sing my way through another passion of Christ.

Now at age 81, I find myself a contented humanist. Point being that when one is indoctrinated from an early age by family and society, it takes a lot of struggled thinking to arrive at the truth. It is also very lonely having ones family and friends shake their heads at my disbelief.

I applaud and celebrate anyone who has the courage to stand up for truth.

erlewyne

(1,115 posts)
28. BarbD, your post caught my attention.
Wed Feb 20, 2019, 06:24 PM
Feb 2019

I am ten years younger than you are and I remember when "Under God"
was added to the pledge so you must have already graduated? from
high school. In our public school we had to say the Lord's prayer and
the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.
I remember keeping my head down and looking out the corners of
my eyes at my classmates and wondering, do they really believe this
bullshit? I remember when Ike was president and they added "under God"
to the pledge. I was aghast, I believe I was in the 3rd grade. In '67 I
was in the army and bound for 'Nam but by a strange roll of the dice I
ended up in Germany.
I served and looked forward into joining a Veterans club for cheaper
beer now that I was a qualified veteran and old enough to drink. But I
could not sign up unless I was a Christian (or believed in some other god?).

Adding "under God" humanizes the great spook because he is already
there for us. Putting him in a pledge takes that away. The spook knows.

Thanks BarbD, now I feel better.

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