Why Is an Atheist High School Student Getting Vicious Death Threats?

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Greta Christina

Why Is an Atheist High School Student Getting Vicious Death Threats?
Her state representative has called the student "evil" and she has been threatened with violence, rape and death. What gives?

January 18, 2012 |


If you take away just two things from the story about atheist high school student Jessica Ahlquist, and the court case she won last week to have a prayer banner taken out of her public school, let it be these:

1. The ruling in this case was entirely unsurprising. It is 100 percent in line with unambiguous legal precedent, established and re-established over many decades, exemplifying a basic principle of constitutional law.
2. As a result of this lawsuit, Jessica Ahlquist is now being bullied, ostracized and threatened with violence in her community. She has been called "evil" in public by her state representative, and is being targeted with multiple threats of violence, rape and death.

Which leads one to wonder: What the hell is going on here?

Let's get #1 out of the way first. This court decision -- that as a public school in the United States, Cranston High School West cannot promote religion, either any particular religion or the idea of religion in general -- is, in any legal sense, entirely non-controversial. In ruling after ruling, for decades now, this principle has been made eminently clear. There have, of course, been some genuinely controversial court cases recently about separation of church and state, which examined previously untested questions and established new legal precedent. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/belief/153803/why_is_an_atheist_high_school_student_getting_vicious_death_threats/

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Well, Jeez, what's a good Christian to do?

They're just Defending the Faith.


You know--like the Spanish Inquisition did.

[texshelters]

17. Excellent comparison

Kudos

[dmallind]

2. The answer is in the question as any atheist can tell you

Don't even need to file a lawsuit. Just being an open atheist is enough to expect death threats. Feel the Christian lurrvve (and yes it is always Christians. I had an atheist TV show for a while and was a board member of a largish atheist organization, tasked in part with responding to web queries. Of all the rather impressive list of threats I encountered, none came from minority religions - even the boogyman Muslims).

[ZombieHorde]

3. Religious hatred against nonbelievers is not just a few bad apples.

It is extremely common in the US.

[TigerToMany]

4. I agree

I've been atheist since high school and it didn't really seem to matter what religion the kids were. There were Protestant, Catholic, and Muslim kids who would put aside their differences for one period a day to "hate the atheists". And the administration often did nothing about it.

Strangely, the Jewish kids would leave me alone and even stuck up for me, even if they were somewhat religious. Of course sometimes they were in the same boat as I was in so we ended up watching each other's backs.

[City Lights]

7. Yup.

Both of my kids have experienced it.

[The Wizard]

13. The Christian Taliban

is more widespread than anyone imagines.

[HockeyMom]

5. Kids, tell your parents you want to go to PAROCHIAL school

Then you can see pictures of Jesus all over. You will even be able to have teacher lead prayers before EVERY CLASS!!!!! You will be very happy THERE.

Leave the public schools for those kids, and PARENTS, who don't want their children to have any of this.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Here we go with how badly 'Christians' are persecuted by the horrible atheists.

[bemildred]

8. Because all that TV-Xtian stuff about love and peace is just bullshit. nt

[texshelters]

18. MLK was a Christian

and he wasn't such a bad person.

Too bad Christianity is ruined by those other "Christians".

PTxS

[AlbertCat]

26. Too bad Christianity is ruined by those other "Christians".

Well then, the "good" Christians need to get out there and defend her against the "bad" ones that are "ruining" the perception of their faith.

So, good Christians.... march onward!



(crickets..... as usual)





This "My religion (even if it's the same one)is better than yours yours" crap is the source of ll this.... and much much more. I don't see the difference.

[LanternWaste]

42. I imagine if I did that.

"the "good" Christians need to get out there and defend her against the "bad" ones that are "ruining" the perception of their faith..."

I imagine if I did that, many people who disagreed with my position would allege that I'm "forcing my religion down their throats..."

[texshelters]

51. Sure

but the point was that not all Christians are hateful bigots; I prefer Christians who don't care what your faith is.

I'm a "super agnostic", by the way.

PTxS

[bemildred]

27. That's why I put "TV-Xtian".

I'm just talking about the hucksters on TV, who peddle hate and greed in hte name of Jesus, but not, for example, MLK Jr. or Bruce Cockburn or many others, who make an honest and positive contribution.

[Nikia]

9. I agree that this is very bad but I don't think that things like this are limited to religion

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/02/07/694467/-Indian-Mascots-Death-Threats-to-a-15-yr-old-%282x-Updated%29
For some reason, people seem to lose their minds when they feel that "their traditions" are threatened. They forget that public school is supposed to be for everyone. In any case, threatened or actual violence is never appropriate towards someone who speaks out against the discriminatory "tradition".I hope that they find these people and punish them.

[sarcasmo]

10. Religious insanity at work. A perfect Planet would be with no religion at all.

[Scuba]

11. Remember, atheists worship the Devil and spend all their time trying to recruit Christians ...

... to the dark side.

[Politicalboi]

35. No, that's the gays

I thought it was us gays who did the recruiting, and worshiped the Devil. LOL!

[FedUp_Queer]

40. I was going to say...

How dare they work our side of the street.

[Armin-A]

46. imagine a gay atheist....

it would be a borderline superhero of the devil

[byronius]

12. I'd like to believe this is death-throes, but we'll be dealing with this for some time to come.

Strangely, I have never experienced this personally. Most Believers I know don't proselytize or judge, probably because they have doubts about the whole thing as well. For a lot of folks, it's just a social ritual.

[haele]

14. I think the anonymity of the internet and social media adds to it.

People will say the most vile and hurtful things casually if they think no one would be able to hold them responsible - that is, no one standing next to them or in physical proximity will be able to point out how evil or hypocritical they are to their face.
They don't care if someone comes up to them two or three days later and gets in their face about it - they can just come up with all sorts of excuses or denials then. It can be blown off, because more than likely, they've forgotten about their manufactured outrage and emotional puffery.
They just don't want to have physical witnessess, because that "looks bad" that they could be that out of control and animalistic. And there's the possibility of a tactile response right at that moment.

Haele

[byronius]

19. You're absolutely right about that.

[jeff47]

32. It really depends where you live

Christians in say, southern California do not feel as empowered. Their religion is not absolutely dominant there, so they've had to come to terms with the idea that other people will believe something else.

Christians in say, the Carolinas feel like they are truly the chosen people. And those who oppose their obvious superiority are demon-spawn and should be treated as such. We're talking about an environment where the religious argument is over which Southern Baptist denomination is right, not which religion is right. So an Atheist or any other non-Christian is waaaaaay out of mainstream.

(Picking two parts of the country I happen to have spent a lot of time living in)

[byronius]

41. Makes sense. I remember feeling the hair stand up on the back of my neck anytime I go near Texas.

My birthplace, and yet I feel like an absolute automatic fugitive.

California! Yeeeeeeeahhh!

[Neoma]

15. And this is in Rhode Island?

I would have figured Texas or something.

[AlbertCat]

25. I would have figured Texas or something.

Why?

Oh yeah.... that myth that the South is more prejudice than the rest of the country.

Pu-leeze!


Of course we on the Southern East Coast look down our noses at TX. Cowboys and long horns are not Southern. We ride English...


(That was a joke, y'know. There's no :irony: emoticon, is there?)

[Neoma]

28. I'm from the south.

Whatever dude.

[FedUp_Queer]

16. Odd...

I checked out what Jesus said about nonbelievers and found...nothing. I did find the parable of the last judgment where he says that God will judge people based upon how they treated the poor, naked and hungry.

[dimbear]

29. Let me help you a bit with Christian doctrine. It's heartwarming.

Revelation 21:8

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."

Like so many parts of Revelation, it's not clear whether the speaker is God himself, an angel, or Jesus, but that's certainly Christian doctrine plain as day.

[Gore1FL]

30. I'm not sure if Revelations counts

As it was written by a cave dwelling, Rome-hating, Daniel plagiarizing, agitator with a political agenda.

[FedUp_Queer]

38. As I said...

Jesus never uttered those words. The Book of Revelation is apocalyptic literature addressed to a group of scared, persecuted people who feared for their lives. It is addressed to a specific situation in a specific time. Those who don't understand apocalyptic literature wrongly understand it. Given your post, I would surmise you don't understand it. What Gore1FL said is right, too.

[dimbear]

44. "Given your post, I would surmise you don't understand it."

I am surprised to learn that the New Testament is no longer considered to contain Christian doctrine.

[FedUp_Queer]

47. The prosecution rests.

[bemildred]

48. The scriptures do not contain any of the various Xtian creeds or doctrines.

(I.e. Nicene creed, Arian creed, there are many, all different.) Dogma derives from the various conclaves and conventions held to do that (derive an agreed dogma). It is true that the creeds are supposed to interpret and elucidate the scriptures, but they do not agree, and it is easy to see that the scriptures contradict themselves if taken literally.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed

http://www.scribd.com/doc/207892/The-Arian-Eusebian-Creeds

[Fearless]

20. You go girl! n/t

[valerief]

21. I guess 'turning the other cheek' means death threats. nt

[xocet]

22. Here is her state representative, Peter Palumbo (D???-RI) calling her "an evil little thing"....

DePetro: "In studio with us, Representative Peter Palumbo. Good morning, Representative Palumbo."
Rep. Palumbo: "Good morning, John."
DePetro: "So proud."
Rep. Palumbo: "So proud."
DePetro: "Oh, what she's been through!" (background Palumbo: "So proud.&quot
Rep. Palumbo: "What an evil little thing! Poor thing. She's...and it's not her fault. She's being...She's being train...trained to be like that."
DePetro: "You think she's an evil little thing!"
Rep. Palumbo: "Well, I think she's being coerced by evil people."

http://630wpro.com/Article.asp?id=2371375&spid=18074

Here the representative's contact information:

Representative Peter G. Palumbo

Chair, House Rules Committee
Secretary, House Corporations Committee
Secretary, House Oversight Committee

Peter G. Palumbo (Democrat- District 16, Cranston) was born on March 27, 1961.

...

CONTACT INFORMATION:
67 Kearney Street
Cranston, RI 02920
[phone]

(http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/palumbo/Biography.html)

[FedUp_Queer]

39. Just goes to show...

Being a "D" is a guarantee of nothing.

[cbrer]

23. Am I naive?

Isn't this the way religious fundamentalists operate? Isn't religion responsible for 90%+ of the torture and murder historically speaking? Isn't this the legacy of the Bush administration? Isn't logic and reason jettisoned in favor of the "holy" path?

[Zoeisright]

50. Yes, that is exactly the way they operate.

Their "faith" is so weak and thin that any, ANY threat against it makes them insanely vicious and violent. That is why they're all so angry. It's really sick.

[AlbertCat]

24. What the hell is going on here?

The usual.

[Ceridwen]

31. I'm fueled

Just for being atheist?? I remember when I was in high school, I was the Pagan Renaissance girl in mostly black and always accused of being a satanist.... wait.. I still am and I'm staying this way! once a Witch always a Witch!. I've had my share of inquisitions from the fundamentalists. I don't let it bother me because I know these things are just symptoms of an evermore massive and ongoing problem! Something/someone is teaching them and that one thing is the TV and who's behind it all? They only fuel my energy with complete rage............
Something needs to give! The inquisitions must stop!

[mwrguy]

33. TCB

Typical christian behavior.

[GETPLANING]

34. Jesus was probably a really nice person

but christians are not like Jesus

[provis99]

36. the Jesus in the Bible was kind of a demented asshole.

"He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned to hell"
-Mark 16: 15-16

[2pooped2pop]

37. If we've learned anything from the Westboro

group, it's that God Hates. Apparently more than gays too. I must ask though, what God do they worship? I know, I know. It's the smity (smitey?) one. Right?

[hack89]

43. The irony is that RI has a higher percentage of self-identified liberals than any other state.

They are the epitome of a pro-union Democratic State.

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/politics/poll%3A-ri-most-liberal-state-in-us

Which just goes to show how geographically intertwined liberals and conservatives are and why everything at every level gets bogged down in partisan mud slinging.

[Odin2005]

45. Given how much we are hated even by so-called "progressives" I'm not suprised.

[Zoeisright]

49. Because "Christ"ians are some of the worst people on the planet.

I went to public school as a kid, then transferred to a parochial school when we moved. The parochial school kids were meaner than dog shit. I was never bullied at the public school, but those "Christ"ian kids made my life hell.

I haven't been in a church for 30 years, and I will never go again. Seeing those cruel people sitting there being blessed was too much for me. Love your neighbor my ass.

[RussBLib]

52. Jessica will receive $44K+ for college

...from the American Humanist Association and other freethinkers who are proud of her and are showing their support. I think it was the "Friendly Atheist" who started the fund drive on her behalf.

I understand that Jessica will be one of the featured speakers at the "Reason Rally" in D.C. on March 24 (unless some rabid Christian kills her first for casting doubt on their religion).

Hopefully many of you who support Jessica will try and make it to the Rally.

Freethinkers unite!!