KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The man accused of shooting dead two people and wounding seven others at a church apparently selected the congregation because of its liberal social stance, the city’s police chief said Monday.Chief Sterling Owen said police found a letter in the car of Jim Adkisson, who was tackled and held by members of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church after the Sunday morning attack.Owen said Adkisson was apparently frustrated over being out of work and had a “stated hatred of the liberal movement.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25872864/This reminds me of the Bible wars, when there was fighting in the streets over which version of Christianity to force on kids. An excerpt from http://www.atheists.org/publicschools/battle.html

“The road to secularization, however, was not free of difficulties or even violence. In 1844, for instance, at the urging of the local bishop, the Philadelphia school board permitted Roman Catholic children in the public schools to read from their own version of the Bible, the Douay Version. The American Protestant Association was outraged. Mass meetings were held, two Roman Catholic churches were burned, and the rioting was stopped only when the bishop ordered all his churches closed. At the church of St. Philip Neri several people were killed. The church was broken open and only the presence of the militia, the mayor and the governor prevented its being burned to the ground…”

It’s never good when people get killed, but we can be reminded from this incident just how much hate there is in Christianity (even towards other sects of Christianity), and more importantly, just how bad it can STILL get if one SECT OF religion is pushed from the government.

Today I, along with Dennis Horvitz, taped 4 episodes of the Atheist Viewpoint, two of which included my old friend and President of the Manhattan Bible Church, Pastor Bill Devlin. The other two were Snappy Answers (suggested on this board), and an episode on The Texas Bible Challenge and The Texas freethought convention. I think you’ll really like them.Tomorrow I am off to the NJ Humanist Summer event http://www.njhn.org , complete with wife, kid, and puppy. It’s a great summer weekend, and dammit, I deserve it.

Jesus comes down with a cost — it must have been one of those “mysterious ways” things.

A federal judge has awarded the American Civil Liberties Union more than $42,000 to cover attorneys fees and court costs associated with the organization’s fight to remove a portrait of Jesus from Slidell City Court.U.S. District Court Judge Ivan L.R. Lemelle ruled ruled in April that Slidell officials broke the law by hanging the Jesus portrait on the wall at the courthouse. The decision provided the ACLU with $1 in damages and allowed the organization to request reimbursement for the debt the ACLU incurred when it sued the court, Judge Jim Lamz, the city of Slidell and St. Tammany Parish in July 2007.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a First Amendment challenge to a Florida law that says students must get a parent’s permission to get out of a daily classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. But the court ruled that a part of the law requiring all “civilians” to stand during the pledge in schools is unconstitutional. Christine Frazier had brought suit on behalf of her son, Cameron, in 2005, when her son was in the 11th grade. A federal district judge agreed that the rule “robs the student of the right to make an independent decision whether to say the pledge.” On appeal, 11th Circuit Chief Judge J.L. Edmondson, Senior Judge James C. Hill and visiting 9th Circuit Senior Judge Arthur L. Alarc?n noted that the U.S. Supreme Court held over a half a century ago that local government authorities can’t compel a salute to the flag. But the panel said the Florida law protects parents’ constitutional rights to bring up their children as they see fit. “The State, in restricting the student’s freedom of speech, advances the protection of the constitutional rights of parents: an interest which the State may lawfully protect,” the panel said Wednesday. The panel warned that it considered only Frazier’s challenge to the law on its face and not whether it might be applied constitutionally to any particular student. On the question of standing during the pledge, the state acknowledged that students have a right to remain seated but had urged the court to read the requirement as applicable only to those students who don’t get a parent’s permission to not say the pledge. The 11th Circuit panel said that interpretation was too “improbable.”

I don’t quite get the latter, I guess it means the kids have to pledge allegiance unless they get parents permission to stop, but they can sit down in protest while they do it. I guess parents have rights over what a child says, but not his posture while he says it.

It irks me.It doesn’t hurt me, and it doesn’t cost me anything. It just irks me when hotels assume their patrons are Christian (or Mormon) and leave their god texts in the hotel rooms. It makes me feel — solidly second-class.The Borgata is equal-opportunity, and provides all sorts of religious reference materials on request, at the front desk, but nobody is assumed to be anything. I stay there when I can for that reason alone.Now this, from American Family Ass.

Parent company Accor Hotels decided to replace the Gideon Bibles with “intimacy kits.” For Accor, providing travelers with sexual paraphernalia is more important than the Bible. Accor Hotels owns several chains including: Motel 6, Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Mercure, Suitehotel, Ibis, All Seasons, Etap, Formule 1. While these chains are mostly located in Europe, Accor is expanding to many U.S. markets.

http://www.afa.net/emails/transform.asp?x=hotels_111407&m=11&y=2007&s=browserTalk it up. What do you think of Bibles in hotels. Should we try to help the trend? But how?

ATHEIST COMING OUT PARTYSATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2008 TO FEATURE KAGIN, MEHTA, PARAMORE & MORE!”It’s OK to not believe…” THE NATION’S first Atheist Coming Out Party will take place on Saturday, August 2, 2008. The event brings together a roster of national, regional and local groups including Students for Freethought (Ohio State University); American Atheists; Secular Student Alliance; Michigan Atheists; The Free Inquiry Group of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky; Central Ohioians for Rational Inquiry and others. Organizer Ashley Paramore says, “The goal is to be a networking opportunity for Atheists, Agnostics, Freethinkers, Humanists, Skeptics and everyone in-between!” The event invites “closeted” nonbelievers to meet other like-minded, non-religious people in a welcoming environment, and urge them to “come out.” “It’s OK not be believe in a god,” said Paramore. The speaker roster includes Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director for American Atheists and Freethought activist/blogger Hemant Mehta. There will be talks, literature tables and other activities. Visitors can bring popup information tents and literature. There will be a camping trip to Alum Creek following the Coming Out event. The venue is the Everal Barn, 60 N. Cleveland Avenue, Westerville Ohio 43081. (http://www.westerville.org/Default.aspx?tabid=113 ). More information can be found at http://healthyaddict.googlepages.com/home, or by E-mailing Ashley Paramore at ashley@secularstudents.org . WHAT: First Atheist “Coming Out Party.” WHEN: Saturday, August 2, 2008, 12:00 noon – 5:00 PM WHERE: Everal Barn, 60 N. Cleveland Avenue, Westerville Ohio 43081. (http://www.westerville.org/Default.aspx?tabid=113 ). WHO: Edwin Kagin, Hemant Mehta, Ashley Paramore & more! MORE INFO: http://healthyaddict.googlepages.com/home, or by E-mailing Ashley Paramore at ashley@secularstudents.org . (AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends the civil rights of Atheists and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church & state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.)

Have you come out? Still in? Never in? What’s your story?