Caverdude

I received this e-mail (along with about 50 others) a couple of days ago:

> We called on God on 9-11 so what's wrong with him now?
>
> For those who have not heard, the bottlers/manufacturers of Dr. Pepper and
> their other products, have started a "new" can campaign. They are putting
> patriotic scenes on them. One, is the Empire State Bldg. with the pledge of
> allegiance...but... they left off the words..."under God." They felt it
> might "offend" some.
>
> I don't know about you, but as a Christian, I am boycotting their products!
> They said they didn't "have room" for those words, but yet they had room
> for indivisible" on the can! Please pass this along to others and see if we
> can get a message out to DR. Pepper ....if having "under God" on cans
> offends them, then they don't need our money with "in God we trust" on it
> !!!!
>
> PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ON TO YOUR FRIENDS!


After thinking about it for a while, I sent the following reply to everyone on the e-mail list. I can't wait to see what kind of hate mail I get. The reply I sent:


“Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.”
Thomas Jefferson

Great words. I do not have any problem with the removal of a phrase from the pledge that should not have been put there in the first place. If Pepsi wishes to put the ORIGINAL pledge on its products, then wonderful. I will buy Pepsi products by the case. Like Jefferson, I believe in Freedom of religion.
To everyone who also believes in what our Constitution stands for, please forward this message.

Sowthistle

As soon as I read that email, my Snopes detector went off. Here's the link:

<a href="http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/drpepper.htm" target="_blank">Snopes to the Rescue!!</a>

Just for yer info.

ST

[ August 03, 2002: Message edited by: Sowthistle ]</p>

banditoloco

Do you know when these new DP cans will be out? Are they out now? I usually don't drink much DP, but I'll drink to that!

Caverdude

Hey Sowthistle,
Thanks for the link!!! It gave me a good laugh. Actually, it is sad how so called religious people will use deceit to forward their agenda. By the way, I got my first reply today. One thing in it caught my attention, but I haven't had time to research it yet. Here is the relevant portion of the reply:

On three separate occasions, the Supreme Court has ruled that America is a Christian nation. The Court’s 1892 determination that ‘this is a Christian nation,’ was followed in 1931 by a subsequent ruling that Americans are a ‘Christian people’ and, again in 1952, when Justice William O. Douglas, writing for the Court, said that ‘we are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.’

Has anyone ever heard of this? I am not a lawyer, but I intend to try to find out where this tripe came from.

Buffman

I would guess that this is the 1892 case: (Added: It also contains a discussion of the 1931 case.)

<a href="http://members.tripod.com/~candst/trinity.htm" target="_blank">http://members.tripod.com/~candst/trinity.htm</a>

This may be the 1952 case:

<a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=US&vol=343&page=306" target="_blank">http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=US&vol=343&page=306</a>

You might find the others by looking through the rest of this URL and hyperlinking to the specific cases.

<a href="http://members.tripod.com/~candst/toc.htm" target="_blank">http://members.tripod.com/~candst/toc.htm</a>

[ August 04, 2002: Message edited by: Buffman ]</p>

Caverdude

Hey Buffman,
THANKS for the info. I will now attempt to research those topics and see just what the heck my "friend" was talking about. I live in Tennessee and am surrounded by people who want to turn this country into a Theocracy. It is an important battle to everyone who values freedom and freethought. I have just begun to fight!!!

Buffman

Domestic, religious, terrorism has been part and parcel of America since the beginning. Unfortunately, today, it has become very well organized, financed, trained, led and professional. It will be a very long war indeed. That is why I am convinced that our best weapon is obtaining the most honest, accurate, knowledge currently available. Often that means giving full credit for some of the Christian claims. However, we must guard against being deceived by words with double meanings and intentional omissions (half-truths).

Currently, the radical religious extremists are winning the war of words (the Propaganda War) because they have no hesitation about bearing false witness if it contributes to their religious dogma ends.

[ August 06, 2002: Message edited by: Buffman ]</p>

capsaicin67

Currently, the radical religious extremists are winning the war of words (the Propaganda War) because they have no hesitation about bearing false witness if it contributes to their religious dogma ends.

Amen, Brother Buffman. And because they control or influence the bulk of the media outlets for [dis]information. And they understand that if you say something often enough, and loudly enough, it becomes a truth even if it is not. And because they understand that academic and intellectual honesty are only a small part of swaying the herd----and that culture and entertainment hold far greater sway with the great unwashed masses.

Alonzo Fyfe

We are, in part, responsible for this.

Gay/lesbian rights groups showed statistically that the best counter-weapon to this type of propaganda was to simply let people know that somebody that they know is gay.

People who know somebody who is gay is much less susceptible to this type of propaganda than somebody who can accept it as a pure theological postulate and ignore the human element.

Once this was revealed, the gay/lesbian community adopted the practice of "outing".

Now, I am ethically against "outing". Eventually, the gay/lesbian community found that outing was not effective either -- because it drove people even deeper into the closet in order to protect their secret.

However, I am entirely in favor of encouraging people to let their atheism be known -- to friends and family members, members of whatever group one belongs to, neighbors. Because the more people who discover that they actually KNOW an atheist, the less effective this campaign will be.

There is no denying the cost -- but some people have paid a much higher cost already.

CaptainDave

Alonzo Fyfe wrote,

Yes, this is putting a face on the issue. It's one thing to consider an issue in an abstract way, quite another when it applies to someone you may count as a friend.