NEW YORK — Retired hedge fund titan Robert Wilson lost his faith in God years ago, yet he believes in Catholic schools and gave $5.6 million to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York this summer.It’s the latest of many gifts from Wilson to the city’s Catholic hierarchy and educators, this one aimed at funding the Catholic Alumni Partnership, a program he founded that helps elementary schools track down their 750,000 alumni and recruit them as donors.
“Most of what the Catholic schools teach are the three R’s,’’ said Wilson, 83, referring to reading, writing and arithmetic. “And they do it better than the union-controlled inner-city schools.’’
While clearly an anti-union move, and not a pro-religion move, this donation demonstrates wrong thinking. He could have given the money to charter schools or any of the other major causes which don’t subject children to recruitment, hate, divisiveness, prejudice, or worse. He could have even started his own endowment, complete with staff, which would grant scholarships to needy kids or money to needy schools. Instead, he supported the richest and most corrupt organization on the planet with his donation.
The effect of this donation will be very small — they will use the money to call more people to ask for money. What a waste. With a 5M donation, American Atheists could have helped the country progress. Now, his money will help the country stagnate.
sorry Dave…..I dont get you on this one….this seems like a generous guy with good reasons…..
unfortunately the catholics have a lot of infrastructure in place….and if the money helps those that need it….good for this atheist…..
I would rather see posts about how we shouldnt be supporting Israel….f the jesus dirt
Dave…you’re entire life has been so “anti” everything, that you can’t even recognize a noble cause.
It’s about placing the education of kids ABOVE one’s personal agenda. Something AA has never done. AA has proven time and time again that they view the “myth” more important then education.
Here we have the real reason why Dave and AA are upset…once again, thinking of themselves, placing their own selfish agenda above the needs and welfare of trapped inner city kids…
you’re=your
It is his money to give,David just as you pointed out in another post the muslims have a legal right to build their ground zero mosque.Funny how the freedoms we enjoy even take for granted often cause us alot of discomfort.After all the sex abuse scandal hard to believe an atheist would donate to catholic schools but given the condition of many urban public schools maybe not so much a suprise.My hat is off to teachers in urban public schools they come face to face with our social decay.
Facts:
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It’s his money to spend as he likes.
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We have the right to criticize him in public for wasting it on a Catholic madrassa.
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The government DOES NOT have the legal right to do anything about it, just like in the mosque case.
If there were no charter schools in the area, I can easily see why the guy gave money to the Catholic schools. Starting up a charter school is a lot more work than just getting a group together and going “Hey, lets do this.” At least this way he has an immediate impact.
Of course, you can also bring up the fact that had he given the money to the inner city schools that it would have a much greater impact. The tight resources are what make teaching in an inner city so difficult (well, part of it, anyway). Since catholic schools frequently have entrance exams, they weed out their undesirables – those with poor grades and lower-than-perfect ambition.
But help is help, good for this guy for refuting that atheists don’t contribute charitably.
Agree 100% about the entrance exams and tuition screening out the worst performers. You always hear private schools boasting about their higher grades when the only kids they accept are the ones with good grades and wealthy parents. They expel any kid who fails or has behavioral problems, sending them back to the public schools. This keeps the private schools stats up and the public schools stats down. It’s a sales technique.
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Disagree 100% about religious schools being charity. Do you consider Pakistani madrassas to be charity? Hundreds of millions of Muslims do, just as hundreds of millions of Christians worldwide think their own religious indoctrination camps are charitable.
So, just because he doesn’t trust the inner city “union” schools, he’d rather those children be forced to remain in underfunded squalor with no real ability to afford a charter school, and gives the money instead to an overfunded religious school initiative?
… What?
I personally attended a Catholic school in the 1980′s from kindergarten through 7th grade when I begged my parents to take me out. The 3 R’s line is baloney. Religion (not comparative religion, Catholic religion as Truth) is taught as a subject that is more important than reading, math, science, and history. Science and history were gutted of anything the church deemed embarrassing. When I entered public schools in the middle of 7th grade, it was the first I ever heard of Galileo, the Inquisition, the 100 years war, Pizarro, Cortes, indulgences and papal corruption, papal complicity in the holocaust, or evolution. We were taught that the US was founded as a Christian country and the teaching emphasized the alleged conversion of Indians, not the Trail of Tears or other genocidal acts.
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At least I was never raped.
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This “charitable gift” will be applied towards strategically propagandizing the children of the wealthy and influential. As such, it deserves criticism. I doubt this guy’s an atheist if he found this brainwashing operation to be a more important than the work of Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, etc. There are hundreds of educational outreach charities. Why did he promote Catholic propaganda instead?
the donation aside… I really can’t stand when people say the three Rs. Especially when the subject is about educational centers. Reading Writing and Arithmetic clearly only have one R, and two phonetic Rs. Why not call it RAW knowledge instead?
And on topic, even though he gave the money to a catholic school system. Anytime someone donates money to a school to help further education, it should be commended.
So would you commend it if a religious group raised so much money they completely replaced public schools? Is it commendable when Muslims give money to madrassas in Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia that teach extremism? What if the KKK wanted to set up their own separate school system?
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I’m guessing that the type of school matters, not just any school.
He can support whichever groups he wants, but Dave is right, this donation only helps the wealthiest and most harmful religious group in human history.
Also how did he amass his fortune without ever looking at the news? Either that or he doesn’t mind funding organized pedophilia.
Yes he has an absolute right to harm humanity in this way. And we Atheists, and especially ex-Catholics like me have an absolute right to criticize his action.
It’s a good thing that we don’t claim that Atheism comes with a guarantee of any particular morality.
I’d like to send him a copy of my book about the harm I received at the hands of the Catholic Church, but alas I still need a publisher…
The catholic church does not advocate child rape,torture,genocide,slavery.How can you condemn the church for violations of church law,teaching by individuals.Traditional Christian churchs believe in the golden rule unlike islam,judaism whose teachings are filled with violence.
Dirty money for a dirty gawd. If this guy’s an athiest, I’ll eat my hat.
Does anybody make chocolate hats?
Give your money to the Freedom From Religion Foundation as I do. They actually get things done and they do it wihtout a Jewish and pro Zionist bias.