Prominent Atheist Offers to Raise Funds for Beaten Ohio Pastor

[rug]

October 26, 2013
By: Heather Clark

CHICAGO – A prominent atheist blogger is offering to raise funds for the medical bills of an Ohio pastor that was beaten this past Sunday by a self-described ‘militant atheist.’

As previously reported, Pastor Norman Hayes of Bridge Community Church in North Hampton says that following Sunday’s church service, James Maxie, 28, and his girlfriend came to talk to him. When Hayes asked the woman if she was being abused, the man reportedly became angry and punched him to the floor.

“He was very, very upset that I’d even suggest that he would hurt her,” Hayes told the Dayton Daily News. “Then he turned around and hurt me very badly.”

Police Chief Jarrod Campbell remarked to the publication that he has rarely seen “an incident this brutal.”

http://christiannews.net/2013/10/26/prominent-atheist-offers-to-raise-funds-for-beaten-ohio-pastor/

Prior story:

http://christiannews.net/2013/10/24/ohio-pastor-viciously-beaten-by-militant-atheist/

Here's Hermant in his own words:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/10/25/this-is-how-we-can-help-the-pastor-who-was-attacked-by-a-militant-atheist/

[kestrel91316]

1. Next time he needs to have a PRIVATE conversation with a woman he thinks is being abused,

instead of asking in front of a suspected abuser.

He's lucky he lived to tell about it.

[rug]

2. Well, that's not really the point here, is it?

I assume you do not agree he should have been assaulted.

But that's only an assumption.

[edhopper]

6. I am surprised by your response.

If the Pastor has any experience or knowledge of this type of situation, he would know that an abuse victim is very reluctant to speak in front of her abuser and can often lead to more abuse afterward. Every cop on the beat knows this. No, of course the Pastor doesn't deserve the beating, but he also did not handle this properly.

[rug]

7. It is the response to this that is the story here, not the Pastor's clumsiness.

Check out the comments of the donors.

http://www.gofundme.com/pastornormfund

[edhopper]

8. Okay

I think the snarky bit was uncalled for though.
Though the story was about the atheist helping out the Pastor. kestral was making a valid point.
I also think that Metha makes a good point that this has little to do with atheism, "militant" or otherwise. But an abusive criminal.
If the man was a Christian or a Jew, would the headline say "Militant Jew attacks Pastor"?

[rug]

9. Nonbelief has as little to do with this assault as belief does with pedophilia.

[edhopper]

11. True

My take on the Church pedophilia scandal (you brought it up) is that it was a problem of the Institution of the Catholic Church. Celibacy might be a factor in the Priests proclivity, but it was the cover up and shuttling of the guilty Priests around that really was the main part of it.
Other than the "belief" by the Vatican that it must protect itself above any harm to the children, it is more a indictment of the organization in organized religion than beliefs.

[rug]

12. No argument there.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Did atheists circle wagons, move this guy to a new location, and hide the attack so new

people exposed to him would have no idea he is a violent criminal?

Because that's what the Catholic Church did for pedophile priests.

[rug]

14. Did anyone assault or molest due to belief or nonbelief?

That's what the topic is.

Nice try.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Did anyone here accuse the priests of molesting BECAUSE of their belief?

I know a lot of apologists would like the subject to be that, but the subject of outrage is usually, or nearly always the church's response to the incidents.

[rug]

16. Did anyone here accuse the atheist of assaulting the pastor BECAUSE of his nonbelief?

That is not the topic.

Of course, if you'd rather discuss the evils of the RCC in this thread instead of a humane response to this incident, be my guest.

[AtheistCrusader]

18. In this case, the career criminal's religion isn't really relevant.

[rug]

20. In most cases, the religion of the criminal is irrelevant.

[AtheistCrusader]

21. I agree.

I STRONGLY agree in fact.

However, it becomes relevant when it is the primary motive in, for instance, an attack or vandalism (not evident here), or in the case of the priest misconduct with children, when the associated enterprise (the catholic church in that instance) attempts to cover for it.

Similar criticism can be levied at some of the prominent atheists around the sexism issue that is dogging Dawkins.

[okasha]

30. As I'm sure you know,

one of the first things an abuser does in a relationship is isolate his victim. It might not have been possible for the pastor to see the woman privately without bringing further abuse down on her. It might also be that the pastor thought the relatively "public" venue would afford some protection to the victim and himself. He took a gamble and lost on that one.

[xfundy]

3. Apparently the flock is saying "NO."

Recently there was another event, not sure whether it was atheists or gays who were trying to help and were turned away by the "christians" who were outraged the 'unsaved' or 'libruls' or whatever were attempting to help.

Not that surprising, unfortunately. I've always supported gay groups who stepped in and tried to help (feed children/adults/help homeless, etc) but lately it's amazing to see how hateful the 'christians' are, apparently attempting to 'own' whatever issue they're helping with. PR is more important to them than actually doing anything.

[rug]

4. That was the Spartanburg, SC soup kitchen.

Last edited Sat Oct 26, 2013, 10:18 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/121898741

BTW, his church has raised nearly $4,000, although there's no way of telling how much of it came thanks to Hermant.

http://www.gofundme.com/pastornormfund

Edit: There's a running tally of donors and comments on the right side of the page. I only went back a few pages but predominantly the donors describe themselves as atheists, secularists or humanists. Quite a few say they're there from Hermant's blog.

[xfundy]

5. Yes, thank you.

What the closed-minded want to get away from is that everyone has to be somewhere and if we don't share the planet (country, city, etc) we all die.

[cbayer]

10. Where do you get that idea? Are you just generalizing from another story or do you

have any evidence that they are declining his help?

This is a good story about a positive action being taken by an atheist blogger in support of a pastor. It's exactly the kind of thing I would like to see more of.

[hrmjustin]

17. The pastor and all involved are in my prayers.

[cleanhippie]

19. Everything will be turn out just fine then.

Had you decided to do something constructive instead who knows what might have happened.

[hrmjustin]

22. What are you going to do?

[cleanhippie]

23. The same exact thing you did.

Read about it, have some thoughts about it, and move on.

IOW, nothing at all.

[hrmjustin]

24. I am sure they are happy for the prayers.

[cleanhippie]

25. Yeah, I'm sure that atheists are happy to know you prayed for them.

You keep up the good work!

[hrmjustin]

26. I will my friend!

[cleanhippie]

27. I'm sure you will!

[hrmjustin]

28. .

[backscatter712]

29. Speaking as an atheist, this kind of violent attack is not cool.

I think I speak for the vast, vast majority of atheists and agnostics in this country when I condemn such violence.

[dimbear]

31. Pastor's son reports that............

“My dad just wanted to say thanks and that it means a lot. This isn’t about theology, it’s about humanity and how we treat each other.” – Andy Hayes, who’s pastor father was beaten up by a self-described “militant atheist,” after atheists contributed more than $5,000 for a recovery fund for the Rev. Norman Hayes.

********
dimbear:
That's the whole statement. Thumbs up as far as I'm concerned. Well, except it should be 'whose.'