If You’re Up Early on Saturday Morning…

Hemant-

I’ll speak for myself, though I don’t think I’m alone here. To avoid mixed messages, those of us who support the donations (such as myself) still believe that is, as one person I spoke to called it, “a bigoted, science denying church that causes real world problems for a lot of people. Showing them any compassion is too much. They put themselves in a position to be hated. While I condemn the vandalism as an immature act, there should be no mixing of signals that this organization deserves mockery and derision, not compassion.”

Please keep the signals from being mixed when you go on Fox–we do not support churches. This gesture should serve to distance our community from the vandalism, and nothing more.

-John

It’s a Trap!

Please keep the signals from being mixed when you go on Fox–we do not support churches. This gesture should serve to distance our community from the vandalism, and nothing more.

I think that a variety of motivations are at play in those supporting the gesture. I personally would not recommend Hemant saying “We only did this to distance ourselves from the vandalism” because that sounds calculated and cynical. Many people did it because they think it’s the right thing to do and because they wanted to overwhelm the negative actions of a few morons who would be identified with the community with positive ones. I do agree that it would be good (especially given the ex-gay ministry of one of the churches) if Hemant could stress that this was done in spite of us most certainly not sharing their beliefs.

On the other hand, this being Fox & Friends, we don’t yet know if Hemant will be given space to express himself fully. Let’s remember in advance; Math teacher, not Senator.

Fox and Friends DON’T hat atheists. Unless they do anything none christian. I’m sure they’ll be as respectful to you as they were with the Ebay story.

So early! I’ll check it out when the inevitable posting of the video gets put up later.

I agree with the assessment “it’s a trap”

I’ve always understood the point being to show that the wider atheist community is against the use of vandalism and violence to promote a viewpoint. To suggest it means you’re supporting a church is to wildly misconstrue the intent.

How we should handle disagreements is to talk about them, not deface each other’s property. Offering to help clean the defacement is in no way an affirmation of the beliefs of those that own or use the property, it’s just being neighborly. I think those that don’t understand that really need a civility check-up. It’s really unfortunate that there are people on both sides that seem to be unwilling to put down the verbal swords to clean up after the clowns.

Hemant,

I hope this goes well.

But if the hosts try to twist things, make sure to have some examples of recent cases where FreeThinking billboards were vandalized. I’m sure an email to ffrf would yield some very quick examples from the last year.

I remember one in Wisconsin that was vandalized near a Christian College that was reported on. I’d just have them ready, just in case those hosts get all preachy as they so often are prone to do on FOX.

will there be anyway for us lot over the pond to watch it?

(Hemant says: I hope someone will get a video capture of the segment)

My worry is that they’ll portray it as pandering, and only being concerned with our image, not the underlying good will. I mean, without something to give us morality, where could we possibly get it from? Right?

“So Hemant, do you admit that this was a case of guilty conscience? You felt the need to cover expenses because you know that most atheists need good press to cover up their vile lifestyles?” Asks the attractive bigot…

¡Es una trampa!

You play like you prepare.

Please, prepare for FOX.

I’m always up early. I’ll try to remember to watch. Just keep things positive and it should go fine.

It’s a trap!

This is going to end badly. I hope you like fast-paced fallacy recognition, Hemant. And remember, no one knows who really did this. There’s no proof it was an atheist, and even if it was that has no reflection upon other atheists.

Hemant, I hope you can clarify that you only speak for yourself and those that support what you are doing. Atheists don’t organize around non-belief. It’s all about free thought and the right of independent conscience. You could say it’s the real American value that seems to be overlooked by most religions.

I suspect that Hemant will do fine.

Well, as long as he stays away for the eating babies jokes of which he was once so fond.

I hope you’ll be able to post a link to the video. I’m curious to see how Fox spins this. Good luck, Hemant.

They’re going to paint you as a fool.

They salivate over a story of an atheist doing something wrong, and they need to bring an atheist on their show to beat down in front of their enraged elderly Christian audience. And you’re not white! That’s good meat for them in this situation!

Better watch out, I’m serious. I’d cancel.

Blonde mannequin: “Next up on Faux and Friends: A token atheist who raised money to defray the cost of cleaning up graffiti mocking Christianity. Mr. Mehta, before we go into details, can you please tell us why you atheists hate Gawd and Baby Jesus?”

Hemant: “We don’t hate–”

Creepy wax figure with immovable hair: “But The FSM is often used by atheists to mock religious belief and you felt it was right to come forward and remedy the actions of someone obviously anti-Christian.”

Hemant: “We don’t know the person who did this was an atheist. All over the country atheist and secular billboards have been defaced–”

Another blonde mannequin with frosted lipstick: “Billboards are one thing. A house of worship is another. This was a hate crime, not just vandalism. So, again, why do atheists hate Gawd?”

Fair and balanced. Right. The chance of changing Faux Nooz viewers’ hearts? Pretty slim.

Were CNN, msnbc or Wendy Williams uninterested in an interview?

In other news, developmentally challenged gays kicked out of a KY public pool. Told by employee “it’s our pool” who then told them the Bible gave him the authority to remove them. But that poor, poor church and its pray-the-gay-away ministry.
/sigh

Ugh, setting my DVR to record Fox is something I NEVER thought my remote would do. Make me glad I did it Hemant!

On a less snarky note and to build on what Hugh said above: if they ask about atheist morality, I suggest pointing out that ALL Christians cherry pick Biblical passages that simply support their own personal ideas of morality (and prejudices) and ignore the rest.

Whether they admit it, they make the moral decisions, not the Bible. I hope they let you make a single point without interrupting.

Give ’em…er…hell? You’re going to kick ass, Hemant. You know what you need to do. I don’t doubt you for a second.
Awww…damn! I just thought about what this is going to do to my Tivo Suggestions. Thumbs down, thumbs down, thumbs down!

I agree. It’s a trap.

It’s a trap!

The Young Turks covered the story. Well done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5akrlAW_oik

I watched the news coverage of this story and was a bit annoyed by: [Rod Kirk, the director of facilities for Westside Church. “But the bottom line is that God is the one that’s going to get revenge — we aren’t.”] Yes it was wrong what they (the vandals) did but I can’t support in anyway (financial or with labor) an organization that believes in revenge (amongst the many other things I disagree with).

Okay, move along now, no prejudice to be seen here.

I’ll DVR this tomorrow and suspect that Hemant will be treated well; could be wrong. However, for some here the Fox and Friends crew probably can do no right tomorrow short of praising him for leading them to embrace atheism, or at the the noodley goodness of the FSM.

Although I missed the beginning, I filmed it with my iPhone and published it to YouTube. You can see it at the following link.