Wait, another Christian leader of a fringe “church” in Florida did something that’s getting national attention?
Something in that water…
You’ve already heard this by now, but “Pastor Mike” Stahl posted on his now-privatized blog — a year ago — that all atheists ought to be placed on a registry to make it easier for Christians to both proselytize to them and stay the hell away from them and their businesses. (Which sounds like a contradiction, but who are we to question sound Christian logic?)
This is what he wrote:
Brothers and Sisters , I have been seriously considering forming a ( Christian ) grassroots type of organization to be named “The Christian National Registry of Atheists” or something similar . I mean , think about it . There are already National Registrys for convicted sex offenders , ex-convicts , terrorist cells , hate groups like the KKK , skinheads , radical Islamists , etc..
This type of “National Registry” would merely be for information purposes . To inform the public of KNOWN ( i.e., self-admitted) atheists . For example , let’s say you live in Colorado Springs , Colorado , you could simply scroll down ( from the I-Net site /Blog ) I would have , to the State of Colorado , and then when you see “Colorado Springs” , you will see the names of all the self-admitted atheist(s) who live there ( e.g., if an atheist’s name happened to be “Phil Small” ) . The individual’s physical address , and other known personal information would NOT be disclosed ( though , perhaps a photo could be ) .
Now , many (especially the atheists ) , may ask “Why do this , what’s the purpose ?” Duhhh , Mr. Atheist , for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net – to INFORM the public ! I mean , in the City of Miramar , Florida , where I live , the population is approx. 109,000 . My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists ! Perhaps we may actually know some . In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism . Or perhaps they are radical atheists , whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh’s , in that case , if they are business owners , we would encourage all our Christian friends , as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be “feeding” Satan .
Frankly , I don’t see why anyone would oppose this idea – including the atheists themselves ( unless of course , they’re actually ashamed of their atheist religion , and would prefer to stay in the ‘closet.’ ) .
A couple days ago, that blog post earned a second life online and spread like crazy — Stahl quickly privatized his blog and Facebook page. I don’t know if he shut down his public pastorstahl@aol.com email address.
Some courage coming from a guy who wants our names and beliefs to be made public, but it shows you how deranged his religion has made him. (Case in point: He still uses AOL.)
Incidentally, atheists already make themselves know publicly — with location — on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and a variety of other places. I don’t know what more he wants… a Google map with “atheist markers” everywhere?
I dispatched a couple readers in his area to see if they could make contact with him for an interview… no luck yet.
You know, there’s a reason so many atheists are afraid of coming out publicly and it’s because Christians like Stahl treat us as targets. I know a lot of Christians want you to think he’s a crazy extremists who doesn’t represent the faith, but most of what he says isn’t unusual — a *lot* of evangelical churches follow some form of his suggestions already; they’re just not as blunt about it.
Like when they teach members how to proselytize to non-Christians. (I wouldn’t be surprised if they had specific atheists in mind during lessons.) There’s no attempt to befriend us or actually understand where we’re coming from — it’s only about converting us at all costs. Just because they don’t have an “official” list of atheists doesn’t mean they’re not acting on an imaginary one.
Many churches also have Christian business directories — they want to make sure members are avoiding non-Christian-owned businesses as much as possible. To create a list of businesses to avoid (because they’re run by non-Christians) is just the flip side of that.
He lumps atheists together with the KKK and sex-offenders — but it’s not the first time a pastor has referred to atheists as evil or Satanic. This particular instance was just incredibly specific.
If anyone ever created a National Registry of Atheists, though, I’m sure Stahl would be shocked at how long the list is. I’m sure he thinks “admitted atheists” are few and far between but there are millions of us in this country who don’t believe in god and who aren’t afraid to say so.
We’re gaining in number.
Christians who think the way Stahl does? They’re fading fast.
