– April 25, 2006

Charlie Sheen Insults Atheists – Tells CBS Entertainment Show, “Anybody That Doesn’t Believe in God Hasn’t Looked Into the Eyes of Their Child.”

Popular film and television star CHARLIE SHEEN insulted Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists and other nonbelievers during a recent interview carried by the popular “Entertainment Tonight” (“ET”) program earlier this week.

Letters and e-mails to the CBS/Paramount network are needed now to ask that Mr. Sheen retract his statement that “Anybody that (sic) doesn’t believe in God hasn’t looked into the eyes of their child.

The comment was made during an interview with ET’s Mark Steins during a discussion of Sheen’s divorce proceeding with estranged wife Denise Richards. It is currently posted at et.tv.yahoo.com. Mr. Sheen described court papers filed by Ms. Richards as “baseless,” and told the audience about his two small children:

“They represent the real gifts and treasures of this life … Anybody that doesn’t believe in God hasn’t looked into the eyes of their child.”

While we appreciate Mr. Sheen’s stressful position in the midst of an emotional and acrimonious divorce proceeding, this does not excuse making a reckless and unsubstantiated statement which slurs millions of Americans during a popular television show. Imagine if he made this same comments about any other group – Jews, Blacks, Roman Catholics! This remark is unfair, and de-values the deep appreciation which many loving, caring Atheist and other non-believer parents feel for their children.

We need to ask Mr. Sheen to apologize for this ill-tempered statement!

WHAT YOU CAN DO…

AMERICAN ATHEISTS urges that letters be sent to Mr. Sheen and Leslie Moonves, the President and Chief Executive Officer of CBS corporation which controls the network and production company for “ET”/Entertainment Tonight. Send letters to:

Leslie Moonves,
51 West 52nd. Street
New York, NY 10019-6188

Letters should also be sent to Mr. Sheen:

Mr. Charlie Sheen
c/o “Two and a Half Men”
Warner Bros. Television
300 Television Plaza
Building 136, Room 226
Burbank, CA. 91522

• ALL of your communications about this issue should be polite and courteous! Be sure to include the quote made by Mr. Sheen, and ask for a reply to your letter! Be sure to sign your letters (provide a full name on your E-mails), complete with an address where you may be reached.
• Spread this Action Alert! Post to discussion boards, e-mail groups and web sites.
• Mobilize your local Atheist/Freethought/Humanist group! Urge others to participate in this campaign against the defamation and unfair stereotyping of nonbelievers!
• Share your letters with us! We’ll post them on this web site.

Letters

It's truly sad that Charlie Sheen said the awfully mean and hurtful comment "Anybody that doesn't believe in God hasn't looked into the eyes of a child." I hope no one at ET believed him.

Charlie probably wasn't meaning to insult millions of people with that statement, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He was probably intending to tell how beautiful children are, and we Atheists agree, children are beautiful. But you don't need a god-belief in order to recognize that. Charlie's statement sweepingly dumps shame on millions of us Atheists, all over the world. We simply don't deserve that kind of treatment.

Please consider letting your viewers know that you received some e-mails from Atheist parents who don't appreciate being insulted like that. Of course, any thinking person should understand the insult in that if they just take a moment to think about it.

If Charlie or anyone else would like to criticize our Atheistic lifestyles, fine, let them talk about the facts. But this was just an emotional slur without backing in reason or decency. Thank you for reading.

Joe Zamecki, Parent, Editor,
Atheist Community News
Atheist Community of Austin, Texas
http://atheist-community.org/library/newsletters/

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