By: Maryam Namazie

Since 22 year old Imad Iddine Habib founded the Council of Ex-Muslims of Morocco (the first public atheist organisation in a country with Islam as the state religion), he has received numerous threats.

Morocco’s High Council of Ulemas (the highest government religious institution headed by the King) issued a fatwa decreeing the death penalty for Moroccans who leave Islam. Currently, under Morocco’s penal code, those who “impede or prevent worship” face imprisonment and fines.

The threats continue to escalate. Recently, Imad’s father has been interrogated by the secret service. He was told to tell Imad to stop his activities and that this would be the “last warning before they react”. Imad’s registered address has also been raided by security forces.

We, the undersigned, are extremely concerned about Imad’s safety and life and call on the Moroccan government to guarantee his security and respect freedom of expression and thought. Rather than prosecute freethinkers, the government should prosecute those who issue fatwas and death threats.

On 15 May we call for an International Imad Day in order to stand with and defend Imad.

He is all of us.

[For 15 May, add your name to the list below; send letters of protest to the Moroccan embassy in your country of residence; Tweet #Imad, #Atheist, #exMuslim; do an act of solidarity, including posting a photo of yourself holding a message like Imad has done (you can also email the photo toexmuslimcouncil@gmail.com); click “like” on the Council of Ex-Muslims of Morocco’s Facebook page and more.]

Signatories: (Add your name, description and or organisation, and country in the comments section below. The list will be updated regularly.)

A C Grayling, Philosopher, UK
Adam Brown, Co-Founder, Atheism Resource, USA
Adam Lee, Blogger, Daylight Atheism, USA
Adrian Rox, London Atheist Activist Group, UK
Afsaneh Vahdat, Spokesperson, Council of Ex-Muslims of Sweden, Sweden
Amanda Brown, We are Atheism, Atheism Resource and Atheists Giving Aid, USA
Amanda Sebestyen, Writer, UK
Anissa Helie, Algerian/French Activist, France
Annie Sugier, President, Ligue du Droit International des Femmes, France
Arifur Rahman, Bangladeshi Atheist Blogger, UK
Atheist Alliance International
Carlos A. Diaz, President, Atheist Alliance International, Argentina
Charlie Klendjian, Secretary, Lawyers’ Secular Society, UK
Christina Dahl, The Norwegian Heathen Society, Norway
Christopher Roche, Bath Atheists, Humanists and Secularists, UK
Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain
Council of Ex-Muslims of Germany
Daniel Fincke, Blogger, USA
Daniel Vrangsinn, President Misantrof ANTIRecords and Board Member of The Norwegian Heathen Society, Norway
David Nicholls, President, Atheist Foundation of Australia, Australia
David Silverman, President, American Atheists, USA
Dennis Penaluna, President, Nottingham Secular Society, UK
Djemila Benhabib, Writer and Politician, Canada
DPR Jones, The Magic Sandwich Show, USA
Dya Ahmad, Member of Youth Parliament in Iraq and Secretary of Student and Youth organisation in Iraq
Ed Brayton, Blogger, Freethoughtblogs, USA
Edwina Rogers, Executive Director, Secular Coalition for America, USA
Elia Tabesh, Activist, Sweden
Emily Dietle, Blogger, USA
Fabian van Langevelde, Board Member, Atheïstisch Verbond (Dutch Atheist Alliance), The Netherlands
Faisal Saeed Al-Mutar, Iraqi Founder of Global Secular Humanist Movement, USA
Farzana Hassan, Writer, Canada
Ghulam Mustafa Lakho, Advocate Supreme Court of Pakistan, Pakistan
Ginny Laag, London Atheist Activist Group, UK
Greta Christina, Writer and Blogger, USA
Harold Walter Kroto, Nobel Prize in Chemistry Winner, UK
Hasan Mahmud, Director, Muslim Canadian Congress
Helen Palmer, Chair, Central London Humanists Group, UK
Ibn Warraq, Writer, USA
Ibrahim Abdallah, Founder, Muslimish, USA
Jacek Tabisz, President, Polish Rationalist Society, Poland
Jacques Rousseau, South African Free Society Institute, South Africa
Jaya Gopal, Founder Chairman, Atheist Society of India, India
John Eade, Centre for Research on Multiculturalism and Migration, University of Roehampton, UK
John Perkins, President, Secular Party of Australia, Australia
Josh Kutchinsky, International Representative, Central London Humanists, UK
Kacem El Ghazzali, Moroccan Atheist Blogger and Human Rights Activist, Switzerland
Karl Karnadi, Indonesian Atheists, Founder, Indonesia
Kate Smurthwaite, Comedian, UK
Kazem Nikkhah, Political Activist, UK
Kylie Sturgess, Blogger, Token Skeptic, USA
Laura Guidetti, Marea Review, Italy
Leo Igwe, Nigerian Humanist Movement, Nigeria
Lloyd Newson, Director of DV8 Physical Theatre, UK
Louise Mailloux, Author and Secular Activist, Canada
Mano Singham, Scientist and Writer, USA
Marieme Helie Lucas, Algerian Sociologist and founder of Secularism is a Women’s Issue, France
Mark Embleton, President, Atheism UK, UK
Mary Devery, Historian and Human Rights Campaigner and Board Member of Terre des Femmes – Human Rights for Women e.V., Germany
Maryam Jamel, Organisation of Women’s Liberation of Iraq
Maryam Namazie, Fitnah, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, and One Law for All, UK
Massimo Redaelli, International Representative, Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti, Italy
Meredith Tax, Chair, Centre for Secular Space, USA
Mersedeh Ghaedi, Former Iranian Political Prisoner, UK
Michael Nugent, Chair, Atheist Ireland, Ireland
Mina Ahadi, Spokesperson, International Committee against Stoning, International Committee against Execution and Council of Ex-Muslims of Germany, Germany
Mohamed Mahmoud, Sudanese Academic, UK
Nadia El-Fani, Tunisian Filmmaker, France
Nahla Mahmoud, Sudanese Humanists Group, UK
Naser Khader, Danish-Syrian former Member of Parliament, Denmark
Nazanin Borumand, Council of Ex-Muslim of Germany, Germany
Ofe Mazy, leader of Service Workers Union of Iraq
Ophelia Benson, Blogger and Writer, USA
Peter Tatchell, Director, Peter Tatchell Foundation, UK
Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters, UK
PZ Myers, Blogger and Scientist, USA
Raffaele Carcano, Secretary, Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti, Italy
Rafiq Mahmoud, Activist, Indonesia
Rebecca Watson, Blogger, USA
Red Lee, Activist, UK
Reinout Zunderdorp, President, Humanist Historical Centre, The Netherlands
Richard Dawkins, Scientist, UK
Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director, American Humanist Association, USA
Russell Blackford, Writer and Philosopher, Australia
Samir Noory, Chair, Committee for Abolishing Capital Punishment in Iraq
Secularism is a Women’s Issue
Shelley Segal, Singer and Songwriter, Australia
Shishir Thadani, Writer, India
Siamak Bahari, Editor, Children First Now Persian Publication, Sweden
Siyavesh Lashgari, Editor of Bidary, USA
Sohaila Sharifi, Iranian Women’s Rights Campaigner, UK
Sonja Eggerick, President, International Humanist and Ethical Union, Belgium
Steve Chinn, General Secretary, Humanist Society Scotland, UK
Tarek Fatah, Writer, Canada
Tom Silvest, Activist and Atheist, Germany
Udo Schuklenk, Professor of Philosophy, Canada
Waleed Al-Husseini, Palestinian Blogger and Founder of Council of Ex-Muslims of France, France

Of course it is common knowledge that Christianity began as a goof perpetrated by the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce that got so far out of hand it ended up becoming the largest religion in the world. Right?  Well, actually, no that’s not what happened but if it had it would probably make more sense then the truth, which is murky and more then a little frustrating.  There is a pattern one finds in the growth of religions that is unmistakable and it goes like this: at some point a man comes along (it’s always a man, women who have serious work to do would never waste their time with this type of thing) who has insight into what I like the call The Big Everything.  His insights are always seen as unique and profound and perhaps they are to the primitive mind, certainly they’re profound enough for him to gather a nucleus of devotees who listen to him and follow him around.  Inevitably this man dies either through old age, sickness or assassination.  How he dies it beside the point.  What is significant is that after he dies those who were close to him decide they only they and they alone really understood his message and what it meant.  Eventually this is how you end up with an approved upon scripture, a hierarchy of priests/ministers/Imams to keep the franchise expanding, and a culture of devotion and obedience to the power-structure and it’s ordnances.
Let me digress for a moment.  As children we are all familiar with Superman.  We watched the various movies, cartoons, television shows and read the comics and on one occasion even saw him in a commercial with Jerry Seinfeld.  But few people understand that the character of Superman has been developed over many decades with vast changes.  When Superman was first introduced in 1938 as written by the late Jerry Siegel, he was bullet-proof, strong enough to lift a car (as seen on that first cover) and he could not fly but could leap tall buildings with a single bound .  But a few years later World War II broke out and it was decided that Superman was going to war, so now Superman is capable of withstanding artillery shells and he’s strong enough to lift a tank or punch through the side of a battleship…and he can fly.  By the 1950′s science fiction was never more popular, so now Superman was powerful enough to withstand death-rays and defeat aliens armed with unearthly technologies.  By the time Superman: The Movie came out in 1978, 40 years after he’d been first published, he was now virtually omnipotent.  Superman as portrayed by the late Christopher Reeve could easily withstand the vacuum of outer space, move the tectonic plates of the earth at will and fly fast enough to travel back in time.  How did we get from this working class hero in 1938 to this deity whose only downfall was kryptonite and increasingly inferior sequels?
Much the same way the exact same thing happened with Jesus Christ.  Paul, the artist formerly known as Saul, was the one who gave us the resurrected Jesus.  But his Jesus is essentially another version of the various Hebrew Prophets that one finds in large numbers in the Old Testament.  Paul does call Jesus ‘the son of God’, a title bestowed upon the various Kings of Israel but Paul meant that Jesus was favored by God.  Paul knows nothing about a virgin-born Jesus and never mentions the virgin birth in any of his letters.  he also doesn’t mention the Sermon on the Mount or The Lords Prayer.  Why?  One must conclude that when Paul was writing at the time such tropes didn’t exist yet because the Gospels didn’t exist yet.  That Jesus wasn’t to come until decades later in Mark, Matthew and Luke.  But clearly the authors of John were not satisfied to have a Jesus who was merely the offspring of God much like Hercules and Perseus was the offspring of Zeus.  So John’s gospel gives us a Jesus that is essentially God incarnated as a human being through a series of theological knots as impossible to untie as they are to understand…because they never were meant to be “understood”, merely believed.
We begin to see after awhile that the fiction Jesus was from the very beginning was a fiction built upon over many years just like the Superman of our own popular culture.  His journey from prophet to Messiah to son-of-god to God is pretty much right there for all to see.  That so many still fall for what is at bottom a bunch of old men topping one another with tall tails is perhaps the most disheartening aspect of all of this.  Ultimately what we have with Jesus is a vast scaffolding that surrounds no actual structure….truly it seems the cloths have no Emperor.

Let’s break this down a bit so you know what we mean:

Abortion: Michaelyn and I were charged with the task of helping Gov. Brownback to see the different between pro-choice, pro-killing babies, and pro-life.  We wanted him to realize that if he honestly was pro-life then he should also be pro-comprehensive sex education. By helping him realize that the “nones” and more specifically atheists are not “pro-killing babies” (I doubt anyone is) but rather “pro-making informed decisions”.  Women are capable of making a decision completely on their own.  By helping them [children] to understand what their options are meaning – birth control, facts about STIs rather than fear mongering, not just “here’s a condom GL”- and that the children being educated also need to understand the mental and emotional aspects of being sexually active.

Brownback’s response: He agreed mostly but said this is not something the Gov. has control over.  This needs to be taken up with the department of education for the state of Kansas.  He did give us the person’s contact information that we should speak to regarding this matter. He nodded in agreement that he understood what I was saying (unfortunately I talked too much and didn’t look over to Michaelyn to give her a chance to speak… sorry Michaelyn) and even intrigued when I added in the mental/emotional perspective but in the end said it was not his responsibility to take on this side of the debate but rather to continue to ensure life is protected.

Science Education: This is where Fred Heeren, a Christian who is also a scientist, uses his expertise to make a dent in Brownback’s “Teach the Controversy” policy.  Fred began by telling his story of how he used to be a YEC and now still has his faith in God but agrees with the leaders in his field, Paleontology, that Evolution is how our Earth came to be in its current form but that God started it. He continued with stating there is “no controversy amongst biologists, paleontologists, and other scientists within this field of expertise.” We tried to get Gov. Brownback to state whether or not he agreed with Fred but in his response I think you will get an understanding.

Brownback’s response: He agreed with Fred that Evolution could have been the mechanism God used in order to create the Earth.  He wouldn’t budge on the teaching of Creationism in public biology classrooms.  He said [paraphrasing] if need be we should add to the conversation and debate it; not subtract from it.  All religious viewpoints should be allowed alongside Creationism and every aspect should be presented and the child should be able to choose after that.

My comments on his response: Seriously?! We should take time away from learning SCIENCE during our SCIENCE class in order to throw around some religious ideas on the subject? This is NOT OK Gov. Brownback.  We need MORE separation.  Children go to class and trust the information that is being taught to them is the truth.  That FACTS are being told to them not thoughts a person has come up with and has never been verified. Abiogenesis is very different than Evolution. Please remember what the scientific process gives us and why it is such a trusted method. Empirical evidence, observable results, and repeatable experimentation should be elevated not diminished or belittled by saying religion should be mixed in. Give the students their BIO 101 class and a World Religions Class.  Teach Creationism from the religious viewpoint that it is derived from.  Remember, Governor Brownback, you represent the entire state of Kansas not just the Catholics.

Finishing his response: He actually told the person sitting in the meeting with us to look into the issue of BioTech and why Intel and other companies like them have not moved to KS. He is a supporter of Biotech and Stem Cell research so Fred hit this portion of his pro-science education speech on the head.

Atheists a seat at the table: Adam, Cole, and Michaelyn touched on these points.  Cole began with spitting out the statistics. 10% of the Kansas population is in the “nones” category.  A larger percentage of his constituency than Catholics and one of the largest minority groups as well.  Michaelyn added that the “millennials” or under 30’s are now at 30% “nones” and he needs to pay attention to this.  He needs to understand that the people who are now voting in this state do not agree with his current policies for Separation of Church and State, Science Education, Comprehensive Sex Education, Abortion, access to medical care, education funding, and so much more. Adam added bits of statistics here and there and did a great job of adding to the conversation at different points throughout the entire 30 min we were given with the Governor.

Brownback’s response: He said he has never given any particular group a mention during his speeches.  He has just never thought about it. After speaking with us he understands how being included would help for the state to start working together.  He wanted us to know that he really did appreciate us coming out and although he had some misconceptions of how we would act, what we would look like/be like, and what we would say he was now glad to have gone through with the meeting and will be happy to meet again in the future.  He even agreed to come out to a special “Town Meeting” with other “nones” in the Kansas City Metro Area.  To hear directly from this new constituency what direction we would like to see the state go and what we feel he can do to help.

My comments: All in all I felt the meeting went well.  He was responsive to our concerns, appeared to take the time to listen, and maintained a body language that was open-minded and interested in what we had to say. As we [liberal, progressive, atheists/"nones"] know, Brownback’s policies and ideas for what the state of Kansas “should be,” do not necessarily align with the majority of us in Kansas.  But, he is at least willing to listen and to me that is a giant step forward from where we were 10 years ago.

We must all remember to vote, stay active in our local governments (city, county, etc.), speak up when injustice occurs, and to stand together.  We may not agree all of the time on taxation or how the state uses it’s funding; but we do agree on issues involving Separation of Church and State.  We want every child to go to a public school, and to feel safe. Not made to feel ashamed for being different; whether that is religious differences, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. We must all be the change we want to see in our communities.  Live each and every day by example and show the world that it truly is “Ok, to be an atheist.”

Amanda Brown controlling the Senate

Fred Heeren gazing at the Senate Floor

Adam Brown speaking to the House of Representatives

From left to right: Fred Heeren, Michaelyn Everhart, Cole Morgan, Gov. Samuel Brownback, Adam Brown, and Amanda Brown

]]> http://www.weareatheism.com/governor-brownback-meets-with-atheists/feed/ 17 http://www.weareatheism.com/arrested-at-hospital-just-for-wanting-to-hold-his-partners-hand/ http://www.weareatheism.com/arrested-at-hospital-just-for-wanting-to-hold-his-partners-hand/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:42:14 +0000 Amanda Brown http://www.weareatheism.com/?p=2940 Help with medical and legal bills

I have spent every day of my life since I was 15 years old fighting for equal rights amongst ALL people let alone those who are attracted to the same sex.  My father, Roger Gorley, and his husband, Allen Mansell have been married for nearly 5 years.  They have shared a home together, purchased cars together, have all of their investments, and any other paperwork taken care of to be considered a real marriage under the law.  In the state of Missouri civil unions are not recognized but many same-sex couples go ahead and follow through with the paperwork and register it with the state so they can be recognized as a significant life partner to the other person in moments such as these and especially after the death of their loved one. My fathers did this.  They did all of the paperwork so something like what I’m about to tell you happened would never happen to them.

Allen has suffered from a variety of illnesses over his life but one in particular is severe depression. He has been dealing with this for over 20 years and has done an amazing job at it.  He has seen a psychiatrist regularly, maintained a well-paying job with the government, taken care of not only himself but his family members, and after making a big move from San Francisco back home to Lee’s Summit, MO he found the love of his life, Roger Gorley.

I remember when they met.  It was like an instant love connection and I was so happy for my dad. They had their ups and downs as any couple would but nothing outrageous. About 6 months ago Allen’s depression reached an all time low.  We didn’t know what to do.  The medications were no longer working and he wasn’t able to continue his job with the GSA. So he retired to focus on his health.  His psychiatrist thought that ECT would be the best solution for him since all other treatments had been exhausted and this has been found to be very effective among people with severe depression.  They agreed to try the treatments and Roger took off of work every other Wednesday to be with his partner while he went through this scary procedure twice a month.

Allen’s family has never understood his condition, his medical treatments, and why it takes the amount of medication it does in order for him to maintain his ability to live from day to day. So last week when his brother Joe, with his wife and kids, came down from Virginia to see him this is when the family noticed for the first time how bad his depression can be. Joe already understood this and let Allen deal with it in his own way.  He understood that his ECT, medications, and therapy sessions were out of whack due to the snow storm from way on back. (For those who do not understand ECT and how it works: Basically, you establish a schedule and if you deviate from that schedule in any way it can have catastrophic effects on the patient.  Electro-shock therapy is a delicate therapy and is still controversial amongst people in the psychiatric community). Allen was not acting out of sorts for Allen.  He was isolating, not wanting to be around people, and sleeping 10-14 hours a day.  Which is not uncommon for people suffering from severe depression.

Allen made sure over the past 20 years to NOT involve his family in his medical care.  NONE of them are on his HIPAA nor are any of them supposed to have any say over what happens to him medically. They have each been granted power of attorney over each other for medical decisions.  This information is not only ON FILE with Research Medical Center, they are well known at the hospital and throughout the city as a proud gay couple.  No one has ever had a problem until Tuesday 4/9/2012.

MONDAY 4/8/2013

Allen wasn’t doing very well.  He was sluggish, slurring his speech, and unable to remember what he was doing. He suffers from extreme night sweats and diabetes.  So when he sweats out majority of the water that’s in his body he will be dehydrated.  So we force him to drink water, gatorade, etc. throughout the day in order to ensure he can function.  Being diabetic doesn’t help.  It causes his sluggish-ness and makes him extremely tired.

Adam and I came over to the house to fix dinner, help my dad take care of Allen (by doing laundry, cleaning etc).  He wasn’t doing well for a normal person but he was doing alright for Allen. They had planned a trip to go to Amsterdam leaving at 3pm on 4/10 and coming back on 4/18.  They had hidden this information from Allen’s family until about a week ago. The family has not been supportive of their relationship and they have hidden their vacations before from the family because they always try to get in the middle and mess everything up. They had been planning this trip for months and were looking forward to being in a city that was 100% accepting of gay couples.  Where they could hold hands without getting strange looks, kiss each other in public, etc. At 9pm we left and they both were in bed asleep.

TUESDAY 4/9/2013

Allen and I spend the day together with my daughter at his house.  He was still sluggish and slurring his words but doing better than he was the day before. I gave him the necessary medicine he needed at the appropriate times and we set off to go to get his hair cut and grab some cat food.  He wanted to go and I didn’t see any reason not to.  He’s an adult and knows how hard to push himself.

So we went to his hair stylist and visited with them for about an hour and then spent about 30 min at the local Hy-Vee getting cat food.  His stylist noticed that he was observably slower and tired but after he explained what was going on they didn’t seem to concerned.

When we arrived at Allen and Roger’s home Lee, Allen’s brother who lives in town, was waiting at the front door.  The Lee’s Summit Police followed right behind us.  They were waiting for us to come home. Bombarded by 5 policemen Allen didn’t know what to do.  He was exhausted from our outing and we were planning on him taking a nap as soon as we got home. So he allowed the police, his brother Lee, sister Pat, and 4 Paramedics into the house.  It was utter chaos from the moment we opened our car doors.

Due to Allen’s state at that precise moment the police decided to take him to the hospital against his will stating he was a “danger to himself”.  I immediately called my father and told him to leave work and get to the hospital.  The paramedics and police were not listening to me they were listening to the brother and the sister.

The reason that listening to them was a big problem is because they have no idea what Allen’s medical conditions are, who his doctors are, and what hospital he is normally treated at.  Allen and all of his doctors are located at St. Luke’s in Lee’s Summit MO.  The ONLY reason he goes to Research Medical Center is for his ECT.  I told the police and paramedics this 3 times! Not only that I know his medical conditions and what he needs NOT his siblings. My father and his husband trust me with this information because they know I will fight for their rights to each other. That I will never allow something like this to happen if I can help it.  But when no one is listening no matter how hard you scream it will fall onto deaf ears.

After I pack up the house, my daughter, and arrange plans for someone to come and get her at the hospital because I have no idea how long I will need to be there we arrive all at the same time to see Allen received by the nursing staff and my Dad, Roger Gorley, follows him in along with Lee, Allen’s brother. This is when things started to get ugly.

Roger immediately rushed to Allen’s side, grabbed his hand, and reassured him everything will be ok.  He will handle everything.  He is in good hands and they will be going home as soon as possible. His brother Lee decided to say similar things but to also add in that he will not allow Roger to make these decisions and he will make sure everything is ok. Well that ignited the fire in my father that had been swelling up inside of him.  He said, “No you won’t! This is my husband.  I know what he wants and needs.  You are never around.  You need to leave.”

The nurse had had enough at this point and asked my father to leave.  He gave her a surprised look back and said “No I’m staying with my husband.” She responded with “I know who you two are.  You need to leave.” My father took this as she had treated Allen before, knew who my father was to him, and was making the decision that they didn’t have the right to one another as husband and husband. So instead of checking the file to see his power of attorney in his medical chart (they each have one for each other) she immediately called the police and had my father forcibly removed.

7pm CST

When the Kansas City Missouri Police Department arrived they asked my father to leave the room.  He said to them, “No.  This is my husband and I am going to stay with him.” The police considered that a violation of a direct order so they began to forcibly remove him from the room. My father held onto the rail of the gurney as well as his husbands hand with everything he had.  The police responded with brut and excessive force.  The office began karate chopping his wrist to get him to release the gurney.  Then they wrestled him to the ground forcefully enough to knock his glasses off of his face, his hearing aids out of his ears, and nearly break his wrist while they took him down.  To handcuff him they pushed a knee into his back and wrenched his wrists around.

It didn’t end there. The police changed his handcuffs 4 times! They assumed because he was a gay man that he was HIV+.  When they drew blood from accosting him in such a brutal manner they freaked out. One of the arresting officers was so offended by my father’s presence that he would not touch him with his bare hands. He wore gloves the entire time and to make matters even more humiliating he didn’t want his handcuffs back. He grabbed them with gloves on, then another layer of gloves pinched between his index finger and thumb as he handed them off to another officer.  The officer taking the handcuffs looked at him like he was crazy and just grabbed the handcuffs with no issue.

My father, Roger Gorley, is a kind compassionate man.  He doesn’t loose his temper, has never expressed violence in anger, and is so sweet he can’t even make threats to people properly.

It took 3 hours to process him through the system and get him bailed out of jail.  A $600 fine for disorderly conduct and trespassing and has a restraining order against him from the hospital saying he is not allowed to step foot back on the hospital grounds even to see his husband.

If anyone remembers back in 2010 when Obama made the new law across the board that same sex couples will be given the same rights as heterosexual ones when it came to visitation rights in the hospital you will know that this restraining order has no grounds and is completely illegal for the hospital to do.  But as of right now my father is not allowed to see his partner in the hospital who wants nothing more than to hold his partners hand and tell him everything will be ok.

Wednesday 4/10/2013

Fox 4 news came over to interview my dad.  He was exhausted.  He had to cancel their trip to Amsterdam and lost nearly $3,000 because the Hotel would not refund their money even though they just wanted to reschedule for a later date. Travelocity customer service did the best job they could to get him all of the money back and although the representatives that helped us do not speak for the company they wanted to make sure we understood they did not approve of what had happened and hoped this matter would get resolved quickly so they could go on their first trip overseas together.

My father was incredibly exhausted so other than contacting lawyers and doing this interview not much had changed.

Thrusday 4/11/2013

The story has gone viral. Huffington Post, ABC News, CNN, and so many more have picked up the story.  The ACLU is working with my father on a plan of action to see what we can do so they can be together again until Allen is let out of the hospital. He was offically admitted on Wednesday morning and is hopeful to getting out sometime Thursday, 4/11 or Friday, 4/12

Please contact Amanda Brown at 913-710-5665 for more information on the story as it develops.  Roger Gorley and Allen Mansell request that you respect their need for privacy and understand that in the end the only thing they want is equal rights under the law. The same protections and allowances that heterosexual couples receive.  We both know that if this had been a man and his wife this would not have happened the way it did.

Author’s sidenote

I want to make sure the entire public knows that what I have said is 100% the truth.  The hospital did not follow the steps they were supposed to in order to resolve this matter appropriately. The disregarded the patients HIPAA information as well as the power of attorney letter they have on file. Roger Gorley had signed off for many procedures at this hospital before this incident.  There was no reason it needed to escalate to this point where Roger was arrested. He has no criminal history of any kind and has never disregarded a direct order from a police officer until that day.  My father is an amazing man who has overcome many obstacles in his life and has finally found the man he wants to spend the rest of his life with.

We are all human beings.  We are all born the same way.  We should all have the same equal protections under the law regardless of sexual orientation. It is time America, to end this discrimination. It is time for every person to pursue happiness in whatever manner that person sees fit, as long as its safe, sane, and consensual there should be no problem. We are all capable of love. We are all in the pursuit of this at one point or another in our lives. If this was your partner would you have let go of their hand?

Update: 4/11/2013 4:20pm

According to Fox 4 News this is what Research Medical Center has released as a statement:

Research Medical Center says it can’t talk specifically about this case, but in a statement said:

We believe involving the family is an important part of the patient care process. And, the patient`s needs are always our first priority. When anyone becomes disruptive to providing the necessary patient care, we involve our security team to help calm the situation and to protect our patients and staff. If the situation continues to escalate, we have no choice but to request police assistance.

On Thursday, after the story received national attention, Research Medical Center reiterated that their priority is patient care. The following is a statement from Research Medical Center’s Denise Charpentier, VP of Marketing and Public Relations which said in part:

“Research Medical Center was one of the first hospitals in Kansas City to offer domestic partner benefits, which have been in place since 2005, and we have had a policy specifically acknowledging domestic partners’ visitation rights in place for years.

This was an issue of disruptive and belligerent behavior by the visitor that affected patient care.  The hospital’s response followed the same policies that would apply to any individual engaged in this behavior in a patient care setting and was not in any way related to the patient’s or the visitor’s sexual orientation or marital status. This visitor created a barrier for us to care for the patient. Attempts were made to deescalate the situation. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to involve security and the Kansas City MO Police Department.”

This is absolute and utter bullshit. They did NOT treat them as equals under the law.  My father was NOT the one being disruptive nor should have been the one arrested it was LEE, the brother. He is NOT on the HIPAA not does he have power of attorney.  That is my FATHER, Roger Gorley, and him alone.

With this recent information Roger is going to try to see his partner tonight. We will update you with more information as we receive it.

Update: 4/14/2013 1:00pm

We visited with Allen yesterday (my father is at the hospital right now) and he’s doing much better. The staff is treating him well and has given us visiting hours outside of the normal times, to keep things more private, although they still have to supervise visitation. Allen is quite upset that his brother acted the way he did and does NOT want his family to make legal decisions for him. He made it very clear to us and the State Health Department that he told the nurse that first night in the ER that Roger is his husband, has legal power of attorney, and didn’t want him to leave the room.

We have reason to believe his brother and sister have spoken to Social Services and are going to try and use “senior abuse” laws (even though Allen is only 46) to try and have him declared incompetent and seize my father’s right to make decisions with/for him. We will fight this… they will lose.

He’s doing well and is ready to come home. He wants to release his own statement, and will probably do a  few interviews, when he gets home and is rested. He will clear up some things for everyone and is happy that this situation, however difficult, has allowed people to have an important conversation about gay rights in this country. We appreciate everyone’s kind words and support. They have already racked up a few thousand dollars in medical bills from this (on top of having to cancel their trip to Amsterdam this week… non-refundable reservations). You can follow the link below or at the top of this blog if you feel moved to help (or just share it with your friends that can).

I got to see my father and Allen hug, kiss, and hold each other for several minutes at the hospital. I cried a little… they didn’t want to let each other go. They live a quiet life together and aren’t used to this much “noise” around them. They are ready to get back to their lives together with the family members that do love them. If you have questions that you’d like Roger or Allen to answer in a future press release, please email me directly at weareatheism@gmail.com, and we will do our best to get you responses.

To those that have empathized, thank you. To those that can’t seem to understand, I hope you find love someday like they have… maybe then you’ll understand people not recognizing your love and commitment and then you’ll finally get why my father refused to leave. The law is on his side. We are on his side. Justice will prevail.

 Where did all this superstition come from in the first place and why has it managed to hold on to this very hour even in the age of Iphones and Twitter?  No one can know with absolute certainty of course just how and where It all began, but we can make some pretty good guesses based on what we’ve gathered from Anthropology, Psychology, History and Archeology.  We know for example that primitive stone age people as far back as 100,000+ years ago buried their dead with items that belong to the deceased and that the ritual of cannibalism was sometimes part of this process.  Looking at the hunter-gatherer cultures that still exist today in Africa, Australia and North America we can get a very strong sense of what pre-historic society was probably like and how it later developed from the stone to bronze age and later the iron age of the Romans. 

Try to imagine for a moment what it must have been like living in that time.  Life was very simple and yet very hard.  Not a single modern convenience we now take for granted existed and would not exist for millennia.  Tribal peoples had absolutely no knowledge of how the world actually worked and how nature’s patterns could be both benign in their predictability (as with the sunrise) or terrible in it’s randomness (as with an earthquake).  For the earliest civilized people all that mattered was survival, and in the Darwinian Hell of the pre-historic world this cannot have been anything but difficult.  When a thunderstorm came a tribe had no idea what was happening, that it was merely a passing atmospheric phenomenon.  We all remember how thunder would frighten us when we were children because we didn’t understand what it was…and to them it was no different.

Doubtless on one such occasion the various tribal members asked the shaman (“Holy man”) what was happening and if anything could be done.  It’s a little too easy to imagine the shaman, faced with frightened people, saying: “Well…look, the Sky Spirit is merely expressing his anger for not showing proper respect and the only way to calm him down is to give him an offering.”  Naturally the people would be only too happy to offer up anything they have to stop the constant rain, thunder and lighting. “What must we sacrifice?” They would ask, and the shaman would say: “Well….everyone knows that Larry is the biggest asshole in the tribe.  He steals, he’s lazy, and he can’t keep his hands off our daughters….clearly we need to sacrifice Larry.  Once we do that the Sky Spirit should be appeased and that’ll be that.”  So the whole tribe grabs Larry, drags him out to a clearing and the shaman crushes his skull with a stone while others hold him down.

Unfortunately the next day the rain is still coming and the thunder is still booming and the tribe is still quaking in abject fear, so the shaman says, “I think we need to sacrifice Larry’s parents too….after all no one likes them and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree does it?”  So in a grizzly repeat of the previous day both of Larry’s parents get dragged out to the same location since now it’s considered ‘sacred’ and they too get their skulls crushed.  A few hours later the rain stops, the clouds brake, and this can only mean that the sacrifice worked.  Right?

Now the story I’ve told might sound like a fiction with little credibility until you consider that recently the oldest human sacrifice  dating some 5,500 years ago was discovered in the Sudan in a tomb containing three adults and high-quality clay pots that probably belonged to “Larry.”  That there are still people in large numbers who attribute floods and plagues to God’s displeasure is only an indication of how deep-rooted this kind of irrationalism really is.

Freud was correct when he asserted that belief in the supernatural was essentially a maladaptive coping mechanism that we have clearly outgrown and yet people still routinely engage in human sacrifice…but now it’s internal.  They sacrifice their Reason, their Intuition, and their Imaginations for faux truths and childish comforts instead of facing life on life’s terms. They do so out of unfounded fears based on ancient myths that could not be less relevant.  Only by banishing such primitive thinking can the human race finally move from Difficult Adolescence to a post-industrial Adulthood once and for all.

As promised, your money was split evenly between three of the non-profit organizations that are giving direct aid and scholarship funds.  We donated nearly $9,000 to the Newtown Memorial Fund.  This fund will go to the physical memorial being built, provide for the immediate assistance for ongoing needs of those affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, and to establish academic scholarships in the victims’ names for future generations of Newtown students.

Next, we donated a little over $8,000 to the My Sandy Hook Family Fund. This fund was set up by the parents of children who survived and other locals.  It will help with funeral costs, as well as ongoing living expenses such as food, mortgage payments, daycare, insurance and fuel until they are back on solid ground.

The third organization who received funds is the University of Connecticut Foundation for nearly $8,500.  This foundation set up a special scholarship entitled The Sandy Hook School Memorial Scholarship Fund which will help support the college costs for any siblings of those killed in the assault, the dependents of adults who also lost their lives, as well as students currently enrolled at the elementary school, who are accepted to attend the University.

Thank you so much for all of your hard work. Now they know we stand with them to resolve this tragedy, ensuring it will never happen again.

Noah Posner, Age 6 had a huge heart and he was so much fun, a little bit rambunctious, lots of spirit. He was really the light of the room.When his mother told him she loved him, Noah replied, “Not as much as I love you, Mom,” said his uncle, according to the AP. In another classroom, his twin sister, whom he called his best friend, survived the shooting. Along with their older sister, 8-year-old Sophia, the siblings were inseparable. “He was just a really lively, smart kid,” added his uncle. “He would have become a great man, I think. He would have grown up to be a great dad.”

Charlotte Bacon, age 6, was sweet, outgoing and full of energy. The pink dress and boots Charlotte wore to school Friday were purchased for the holidays, but after plenty of pleas, her mother finally let her daughter wear the ensemble to class. She even styled Charlotte’s red curly hair specially to celebrate the end of the week. “She was going to go some places in this world,” her uncle, John Hagen, of Nisswa, Minn., told Newsday. “This little girl could light up the room for anyone.”

Jack Pinto, age 6, first grader who loved baseball, basketball, wrestling, snow skiing, and football. When New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz took the field Dec. 16, Jack’s memory was honored on his game-day uniform. “Jack Pinto, My Hero,” the NFL player wrote on one of his cleats. “Jack Pinto This one is 4 U!” he wrote on his gloves. It’s a fitting remembrance – the family had considered burying the boy, a young Cruz fan, in the player’s No. 80 jersey. “My sincerest condolences to the entire Pinto family,” Cruz said. “My prayers are with you during this extremely difficult time.”

Olivia Engel’s favorit stuffed animal was a lamb and her favorite colors were pink and purple. This holiday season, Olivia was cast in the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church’s live nativity scene. “She was supposed to be an angel in the play,” Monsignor Robert Weiss told the mourners gathered in the church before Saturday’s production, according toReuters. “Now she’s an angel up in heaven.” Her smile lives on in the Facebook photographs that tell the story of a wide-eyed child who went boating with her family and told Santa what she wanted for Christmas. “Her only crime,” said a family friend, according to the AP, “is being a wiggly, smiley 6-year-old.”

Dylan Hockley, age 6, loved video games, jumping on a trampoline, watching movies and munching on garlic bread. Living in England for most of his life, Dylan and his family moved to Connecticut two years ago, his grandmother tells the Boston Herald. He loved playing video games, eating garlic bread and jumping on the trampoline with his older brother Jake. All dimples and big blue eyes, “he had the most mischievous little grin,” his grandmother adds. “To know him was to love him.”

Catherine Hubbard, Age 6. She had a passion for animals and a constant smile. The freckled-faced redhead is the niece of an employee at ABC News, which received a statement from the family expressing both grief and gratitude. “We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter,” said parents Jennifer and Matthew Hubbard, “and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have been affected by this tragedy. We ask that you continue to pray for us and the other families who have experienced loss in this tragedy.” 

Avielle Richman, 6, was happiest when she was on a horse.  Her trainer told the Connecticut Post that she would giggle when she trotted. ”Her smile could get her out of anything,” Avielle’s riding instructor, Annette Sullivan, told the Connecticut Post about the giggly girl who wore pink cowboy boots. She was about to lose her front tooth, Sullivan says, so Avielle happily showed off her wiggly-toothed grin. This Christmas, she asked for an Easy Bake Oven. “She wanted to be able to make her mom cookies,” 

Anne Marie Murphy, 52 year-old teacher died protecting her students.  She was found with Dylan in her arms.  At her funeral Mass, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said “Like him [Jesus], she has brought together a community, a nation, a world, now awed by her own life and death.  Like Jesus, Annie’s life and death brings light, truth, goodness, and love to a world often shrouded in darkness, evil, selfishness, and death.” For more info on Annie and her life click here.

Jessica Rekos, 6, loved everything about horses- horse movies, horse books, drawing horses, and writing stories about horses. This year, Jessica wanted cowgirl boots and a hat for Christmas. Her parents promised to get her a real one when she turned 10, reports the Wall Street Journal. “Jessica was our first born. She started our family, and she was our rock,” her family says. “We called her our little CEO for the way she carefully thought out and planned everything. We can’t imagine our life without her.” They add they’re “trying to help her brother Travis understand why he can’t play with his best friend.”

Victoria Soto, 27, she saved lives of 16 students by hiding them in the closet and putting her body between them and the shooter. She wasn’t just a teacher. She was a hero. She loved those students more than anything, and she didn’t call them her students, she called them her kids.

Lauren Rousseau, 30, a permanent substitute at Sandy Hook Elementary School teaching had been her dream since she was a kindergartener.

James Mattioli, nearly 7 years old, He was so much to the people in his life and will be forever missed. No matter the weather, James preferred shorts and T-shirts, his look not complete without a little hair gel. From baseball to basketball to swimming and arm-wrestling, he loved games, including the ones he’d play on his iPad. “I need to go outside, Mom,” he’d say. “I need fresh air”. When he wasn’t on the move, as day turned to night, he’d grab his brown fleece blanket and a pillow and snuggle up on the couch next to his mom.

Josephine Gay, 7, lived for the color purple and making other people happy each and every day of her life. She celebrated her 7th birthday on Dec. 11. Now, balloons hang on the mailboxes and gates near Josephine’s home, all in her favorite color: purple. She was the girl known for riding her bike and setting up a lemonade stand in summer. People called her Boo, reports the Register Citizen, after the girl in the movie Monsters, Inc.  

Rachel D’Avino, 29, a behavioral therapist who had just started working at Sandy Hook Elementary, was taken from her best friend who was going to propose with in the next couple of weeks.

Caroline Previdi, 6, had an infectious smile and a giving heart.  She loved to dance and draw. Last year around this time, Caroline broke her piggy bank so she could give her local priest money to buy Christmas presents for children who were less fortunate. On her own wish list: a camera, so she could take pictures of everyone, her grandfather tells PEOPLE, adding, “she was a bouncy kid.” Her older brother, Walker, also attended the school; during the shooting, he managed to escape from another classroom.

Benjamin Wheeler, 6, recently moved to Newtown in 2011 from NYC so he could grow up in a “quieter” place. He was fascinated by the subway and train system.  For Christmas he was going to receive the #7 train he rode to and from NYC, the train he loved the most.

Chase Kawalski, 6, had complete his first triathlon.  He had a passion for baseball and enjoyed attending his Cub Scouts meetings.

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6, was the daughter of a jazz musician.  She sang all over the house.  The family had recently moved to Sandy Hook from Canada due to its sparkling reputation.

Mary Sherlach, 56, Sandy Hook Elementary’s school psychologist, heard a “pop, pop, pop” sound around 9:30 a.m. She was shot to death after heading into the hall to find out what was happening.

Daniel Barden, 7. The image of Daniel that comes to mind for neighbor Peter Bernson is a very special, happy glimpse into the life of the first-grader: a laughing, brown-haired boy heading to the bus stop every morning atop his father’s shoulders. The youngest of three children, he was a familiar face at swim practice, among other activities. “This is a warm, loving family,” a co-worker of his mother, Jackie Barden, tells the AP. “The kids were the type of kids parents want their children to be around: warm and wonderful and caring and kind. This is heartbreaking.”

For the principal, teaching was a magical experience — literally. Last month, she donned a crown and sparkly dress to become the Sandy Hook Book Fairy to motivate first-graders to read. A friend told CNN she was “nice and very fun” but also “a tough lady in the right sort of sense.” Hochsprung died protecting children when the gunman opened fire in the main office.

Grace McDonnell, 7, ”A real little doll” is how a neighbor describes Grace, whom she’d see at the bus stop each morning, bound for a day of school. “It’s heartbreaking, just heartbreaking,” says neighbor Todd Werden. “It’s just unfathomable.” Her parents and older brother, Chris, Lynn and Jack McDonnell, reached out to share a statement in her memory. “We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from so many people. Our daughter Grace was the love and light of our family. Words cannot adequately express our sense of loss.”

Emilie Parker, age 6. Even at 6, Emilie had plenty to teach her younger sisters, like how to dance, how to laugh. Before her death, she was teaching her 4-year-old sister to read and her 3-year-old sister to craft. “They looked up to her,” said her father, according to the AP. “They looked up to her when they needed comfort. They’d run to Emilie for hugs and kisses.” The last time he saw his daughter that morning, she spoke to him in Portuguese, a language she was beginning to master. “She said she loved me, and I gave her a kiss,” he recalled, “and I was out the door.”

Nancy Lanza, 52, sometimes sat at a local bar and talked about her prized gun collection while sampling craft beers. The shooting’s first victim, she was killed by her son with one of her own guns before he continued on to the school. Divorced since 2008, she could be social and welcoming, a fan of jazz music, but also edgy and tense, reports the New York Times. She’s now a mystery. “Who were they?” asked one neighbor. “I’m sure we rang their door on Halloween.”

 We are all familiar with the story of Jesus as we are familiar with the story of King Arthur, Superman and Frodo Baggins.  What makes the story of Jesus problematic is that Christians have made the supreme error of confusing allegory with historical reality and thinking they are the same thing.  Of course we all know that Jesus was betrayed, arrested, tried and ultimately executed for being a tax-dodger and claiming to be a monarch (Luke 23:2), although He fudges that a little when he says “my Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).  We all know that he was executed for his crimes and that according to the various Gospels he came back from the dead (Mark 16:9) and then later flew away like Neo at the end of The Matrix (Luke 22:44-49).  One wonders if the Voyager spacecraft may yet spot him somewhere beyond the orbit of the recently demoted former planet Pluto.

Later Paul, the artist formerly known as Saul, informs us that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and raised on the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians: 3-4).  Notice that Paul insists that it is the authority of the written word here that he cites to back his story.  But there are problems with this.  First, what scriptures is he referring too?  When Paul’s letters were written, there were no Gospels in existence.  Only an oral tradition that would eventually yield the Gospels in several decades after Paul has himself been killed.  We cannot be certain that Paul even composed his letters in their entirety and it is likely the above passage is an interpolation edited later for consistency with the much later Gospels.

Now, all of this is extremely strange.  If one is a sincere Christian then one is forced to accept that the Omnipotent God of the Hebrew Old Testament was at some point trolling around ancient Judea looking for virgins (Matthew 1:18 & Luke 1:26-35).  A Christian must also be willing to believe, if I might paraphrase Bill Maher, that in fact the destiny of this child is nothing less than a predetermined suicide mission.  We understand that Jesus is supposed to die for the sins of the human race (Romans 4:25-5:2) but why couldn’t God simply decide to forgive peoples sins as he had apparently already been doing every Yom Kippur?  The life and death of the Biblical Jesus only makes any sense if one is willing to believe in a God who hungers for the blood of his own child and is willing to damn those who refuse to believe something that is, lets be honest, very difficult to believe in the first place.

Historically Jesus is a gigantic question mark.  He himself seems to have written nothing, and we cannot fix any date in his life including his birth.  His parents are an even bigger mystery. Where were they born?  Where were they buried? As one unsolved question piles atop another one is forced to conclude that the Biblical Jesus is clearly a literary invention as much as Homer’s Achilles or Jerry Siegel’s Superman.  It is up to all of us as freethinkers to challenge absurdities at every turn and demonstrate time and again that Jesus is in fact a mything person and always was.

Among Atheists, Agnostics, Free Thinkers & Secular Humanists I hear a great deal of cynicism regarding the “out” movement.  “Monotheism will never go away, Dan, it’s just too deeply engrained for us to ever hope for it to be illuminated.”  I myself cannot abide by such a view.  Let us consider for a moment just how far we have come to see how far we have to go.

Christianity established it’s hegemony when it became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th Century.  From that time on it stretched its tendrils as far East as Russia and as far West as the whole of the Americas, crushing all opposition and forcing millions to convert.  In the 16th Century Christianity was a fact of life so entrenched that almost no one even bothered to question it, for to do so was to court disaster in the form of legal sanctions so harsh that they often included the death penalty.  It has been estimated that between 1400 and 1700 alone in Europe some 100,000+ innocent women were burned as witches.  It can be argued that the absolute height of Christian power was in 1633 when the Inquisition forced Galileo to recant his view that the Earth orbits the Sun and not the other way around, a “crime” which earned Galileo no less than two years of house arrest.

Well, things have certainly changed since then haven’t they?

What passes for leadership in the Christian world often seems to be at best a pack of hateful charlatans with worse ethics that the Russian Mafia.  Since 2001 the Catholic Church has become a public relations nightmare consisting of the largest organ of the Christian faith being reduced to a Witness Protection Program for child-rapists.  In 2006 Pastor Ted Haggard, former head of the National Association of Evangelicals(NAE), an organization representing more than one million people, was forced to resign in disgrace after being exposed as a whore-mongering closeted homosexual with a penchant for street drugs.  Just this last week for the first time in more than 600 years a Pope resigned.  Of course he and the Vatican claim this do to health-issues, and absolutely nothing to do with the ongoing sexual scandals that have become the norm for the largest Christian denomination on earth.

As we look at the current state of Christianity and Monotheism as a whole we cannot help begin to see it now as a paper tiger.  A piñata whose vulnerability is now all too apparent.  When I was a teenager back in that dark period of American history known as “The Reagan Years” the only person who seemed to have the guts to attack the churches openly was the late comedian George Carlin (1937-2008).  Now in the 21st century the religious and their views are mocked openly and often by the likes of South Park, The Daily Show, The Onion, 30 Rock, Modern Family and countless other shows and comedians.  The Catholic Church, once capable of having heretics burned en masse, now cannot even silence a single one of its critics.  As their power continues to fade I cannot feel anything but hope for the future our children will inherit.  The disease may not be cured, but it is certainly in remission.

His short speech to the crowd who came out from around the world to see and hear his last speech as pope must have been severely disappointed. He gave a 2 min speech thanking everyone for showing up, worshipping him as pope, and he hopes the new pope will do a good job. He just turned and walked away as if this was not the big deal that it really was.  

I know everyone has an opinion on the pope and what he is doing by stepping down.  Saying that it proves there is no god when the only person who was supposed to have a direct line to the deity no longer wants that job.  He covered up hundreds of pedophiles within the catholic church and helped those offenders molest and rape more and more children by moving them around the country.  I’m happy he is leaving but we have to give him credit for the one good thing he did as pope: Condoms came back to Africa.  So I guess god is ok with the molestation of children but not ok with letting a virus run rampent in a country he has let run rampent for 30+ years.

Goodbye Pope Benedict XVI, you have given so much over the past few years.  The memes, the jokes, the easy to combat puritanical views on sex, your idiotic stance on same-sex marriage, your inability to see and understand the scientific method when it came to YOUR religion, and for being the voice of irrationality when your followers wanted answers. Your reign has been great and your replacement should be excited to try to clean up the mess that is the catholic church and its policies.

The following story is based on a TRUE event.  The names of the people involved have been changed to protect their identity.  YES… THIS IS 100% TRUE.

This happened to the 6 year old son of a friend of mine today (we’ll call him Zach):

“So this kid was discussing Jesus to my son at school. Zach told him that he didn’t believe in God. The boy told him the story about Jesus dying and coming back to life. Zach’s response? ‘Jesus is a zombie!?!?’ And the boy went further saying that Jesus helps those in need. Zach asked why Jesus wasn’t helping [them] (Mom got laid off for having students in a college course write about atheism), and the kid said only ‘special people’ get his help. Zach said it was apparently like Paranorman (the movie). The kid pushed Zach, called Zach the devil… Zach defended himself and gave the kid a black eye. Both kids were suspended.

As we were leaving, Zach asked the boy, “Where is your god now?”

The fight was just usually a one day suspension but Zach argued with his principal when she suggested that Zach respect others religious beliefs. He asked about those who don’t believe in the zombie guy and his god. She told him that people should respect others’ religions and that’s final. He told her she was wrong. So an extra day was put on Zach’s suspension.”

What was the punishment from his mom? Well, after explaining how violence doesn’t solve anything and that when something like this happens he should use his words instead of his fists.  But since he was defending himself, standing up to a bully, and defending his stance on Jesus she decided he would get an ice cream sundae!

Thoughts? In my opinion the principal should tell the other student that preaching belongs in church. She needs to respect Zach’s right to NOT be preached to at school.

What are Christian families thinking when they indoctrinate a child to the point of fighting violently for the cause?  Are they equating sword and stone with the bible and a non-believer? Maybe the violent imagery is starting to sink in earlier?  I remember growing up and being told to be a Christian Soldier.  My sword was my bible and my words were the stones; but if push came to shove (literally) then you should start attacking that person personally. I remember time and time again during church camps how much they pushed and pushed us to proselytize to each and every person and to not let up.  Even to the point where harassment was ok.  We were told to push our beliefs on the other person. This is what it can lead to.  I am proud of Zach for what he did and I think we should encourage our children to stand up for themselves (not violently) in the face of organized religion.  Reward our children for being intelligent, critical thinkers who enjoy life not constrained by the rules of organized religion. I’m glad my daughter will not have to suffer the shame and guilt I did growing up. And even more proud that this little boy is part of the catalyst for change.

UPDATE: 2/21/2013

The Christian child’s parents made their child apologize to Zach.  They t

old his parents that their child shouldn’t have pushed Zach and that they would talk to the principal to ensure equal punishment since both children fought and it was their child that didn’t respect a person’s beliefs or lack thereof.

Also Zach’s mother approached the Super Intendent of the school to take off the extra day of suspension for her son.  She made sure to report what the principal had said and that the principal needs to be reprimanded in this matter so it doesn’t occur again. In the end Zach had the extra day taken off and had a great day with his Mom.