Friday, May 3, 2013
Do the Freedom From Religion Foundation & Atheists Have A Marketing Problem Or Diversity Problem
There is always the interesting question and debate among Christians. How much is your politics affected by religion and is how much is your Faith being polluted by politics.
I often wonder if the same question can be asked among some Atheists.
The above Ad ran in the Washington Post yesterday. See Friendly Atheist and his post FFRF Places Full-Page Anti-National Day of Prayer Ad in Washington Post
Now I will skip the interesting and selective use of case law in the advert. What leaped out to me was the HUGE BOLD PRINT OF DON'T LET THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT HIJACK OUR SECULAR CONSTITUTION .
Now I am not sure what the National Day of Prayer has to do with the Christian Right. I am not sure the " Christian Right " as we know know it was around in the " I like Ike days ". Also as the National Day of Prayer at my Courthouse square showed the participants were from a wide range of the theological and political backgrounds. I think that is the norm.
In terms of marketing from the Atheist and groups such as the FFRF the Religious Right is talked about a great deal. The Religious left or progressives not so much.
Not that I am complaining or would find that a great move as a Christian to say the least. But sometimes one gets the impression that Atheists pushing the agenda not only have problems with the Religious Right but the Right in general .
It might be not intentional , but I do wonder if how Atheist market their issues might turn off a good many atheist , agnostic conservatives and Libertarians people of no Faith .
It is popular and indeed very good politically if one is from the Atheist left to go after a Dallas Baptist preacher on his comments on Obama and Mitt Romney. However when the Nuns on the Bus and their various allies says a Christian CANNOT vote for Paul Ryan because of youthful Ayn Rand reading & possible Libertarian heresies its crickets.
I have seen little established Atheist Agnostic outrage on all the Church involvement , use of scripture, Vatican documents, U.S. Catholic and Protestant Church positions on the gun debate. In fact one of the more important Catholic publications in the United States now has as it's official position to REPEAL THE SECOND AMENDMENT. I find that curious.
Of course I realize it is more popular and PC to go after Pat Robertson than let us say Nuns on the Bus . THOUGH a few did point out that problem .
Again I am not sure this is intentional but its an interesting play on how one politics effects the orthodoxy of Faith or in this case No Faith.
In reality this has an effect on people of Faith and No Faith that should be raise some alarm bells since the rise of the nones as they say is on the rise.
For instance observe this Atheist treatment of First Amendment values on the College Campus. Contrast that to the position of F.I.R.E on this same issue . F.I.R.E by the way was in part founded by two Atheist and is now headed by one.
The problem the issue that F.I.R.E brings up are often off the radar of many Atheist groups that get the news and are in position of power. In effect is the Atheist faith in a way being held hostage to a certain political viewpoint .
On one hand there are many Atheist groups that raise the alarm bells on Christians to " control women's bodies ". The same fervor and devotion is not really shown to Christians that wish to "control your paycheck" through taxes .
Now to be clear I think RELIGION plays a needed role in issues from what should a wage mandated by law to immigration policy. I think Christian morality plays a role in that and needs to influence the public square.
However the point is rather if they mean too or not it does seem atheist appeals are selective on Christians in the public square.
Posted by James H at 5/03/2013 02:45:00 PM
Labels: politics
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1 comment:
Good post with good points. FFRF foundation recently co-sponsored a talk at LSU that was pretty much "why resurrection of Jesus couldn't have happened".
I thought, Look you can believe/argue that if you want. But what does that have to do with "freedom *from* religion"? My impression is that FFRF is not about its name so much as extermination of theistic religion and all influence thereof.
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