seebs

That had nothing to do with faith, or lack thereof; it had to do with the sheer abject stupidity of trying to *coerce* people into *pledging* something.

I'm entirely with him on this one. Coerced "pledges" aren't worth the paper they're printed on - and they're spoken.

Mike Rosoft

>Everyone in the goddamn stadium stands up to sing "God Bless America", too. And you CAN'T tell
>me that I'm the only Atheist in Shea Stadium.

The atheists are singing "Godless America" instead.


Mike Rosoft

[ May 24, 2002: Message edited by: Mike Rosoft ]</p>

seebs

Uhm.

The *what* stadium?

I think that, if you can refer to a stadium as a "goddamn" stadium, you can probably survive an equally-meaningless series of words designed to give people warm fuzzies.

Don't we all?

Oresta

No highjack intended here, but...
The purpose of public funding of the arts is to make the arts more accessible to the the public. We may cavil about what gets funded for an exhibition, but the Huamanities and Arts Endowments, bith at national and state levels averall had a positive and profound influence in their fields.

The arts are always the first to get cut when budgets are tight. Ventura's call on this may not have been a hard one for him; but it won't damage his standing. Few constituents, alas, would give priority to the arts - even in the schools.

DieToDeath

LIES!!! ALL LIES!!

And I think it's a good thing to take the "Lord's" Name in vain now and then.

Toto

"goddamn" is a term of emotion, not intended as a call for Zeus or some other fictional character to actually smite the stadium or open up the earth beneath it.

Are you saying that "God Bless America" is equally theologically insignificant? Does this trivialize the Christian God? (I certainly hope so.)

seebs

I'd say that they're equally theologically significant. As a Christian, I don't say "goddamn" much, because it strikes me as trivializing. On the other hand, yes, I'd say that groups including non-believers singing "God Bless America" is pretty trivializing. As such, I'd rather prefer it weren't treated as socially mandatory. The God I believe in is not "praised" when people are socially expected to sing things they don't believe.

You're welcome to sing, or not sing, whatever you want. I just think it's silly to see one usage as intrusive, and the other as commonplace.

crazyfingers

Besides that, it's unconstitutional for the Govt. to tell people what to think. Supreme court ruled in 1943.

By the way seebs, welcome. It's good to see you here.

seebs

It's also wrong for Christians to try to impose their beliefs on Government. Christ said so in around 30AD.

Hey, you must be the crazyfingers who showed up on CF a while back, huh? Cool to meet people I know.

Allkholollick

Alas, the article was part of someone else's collection. Though I could spend time going through my collection of "educational material" for further research.


I agree.