This Post Makes Christians Look Good… and They Totally Deserve It

I think the Churches may have the ability to give away money at will, something we may not be able to, because they have a stable, solid, tight-knit community that’s basically devoted to both helping people and following the word of God – even if it means only being nice for the sake of ‘helping someone understand God’s love due to their current bitterness’. Perhaps that’s what keeps them going, and why Churches can be there for all of those public events and charity organizations. Christians no doubt outnumber Atheists, so if we wanted a, ‘Church’, we’d be outnumbered probably 10 to 1, and out ability to help in large scale could only come from either help over the interwebs, or by rallying people from a larger area – not something that can easily be done at the drop of a hat. We may be somewhat of a community, but just about every city has a community of what’s probably thousands, versus… well, a much smaller number, especially when you factor in other Faiths. We’re not in especially great numbers – something only time will (hopefully) help.

I thought the punchline was going to be that they offered to take up his lawsuit for him where he is leaving off…

I do not think it is a good idea to raise money for individuals.  It will foster a popularity contest among those who can make their plight widely known to the public.  Instead, I advocate universal health care via a type of government program.

Well we were here this time. Not in huge dollar amounts, but the fundraising has been going on for 4 days now. The Atheist Community was there for Patrick and continues to be. 

Can I ask the Atheists here in response to this post (which displays towards Christians exactly the same kudos which in my personal experience is reciprocated in the opposite direction) – what then is the main agenda for Atheists? I ask because in my experience it has been to counter what is seen as a perceived destructive nature of religion generally, where in the post here and in the following comments, it’s clear that everyone, from both camps, believed that doing this simple thing for a man in need was a good thing to do. Who cares why?

Jesus shocked many of his followers by saying that he would deny knowledge of any person who failed to help a person in their desperation, with no reference to creed. Christianity has its misrepresentations as I’m sure Atheism also does, but ultimately we all seem to want the same thing – for real compassion to be the defining characteristic of our humanity. Let’s all just live together in peace and good happiness stuff.

I knew of his lawsuit and threats and thought how sad it was
for him to be so bitter toward Christians,” Jessica Crye, of Athens,
said. “I thought he must have never felt the love of God through
Christians. I also thought about how scary that must be.”Why is this person making such a leap that the Atheist is bitter against Christians?  I really can’t stand the attitude that you don’t know love unless it is Jesus love. 

Remember when the Stiefel Freethought Foundation, which, among other things, provides financial support to atheist groups, made a matching grant offer of $250,000 to the American Cancer Society? The Cancer Society turned the Foundation down. The Society knew that, in accepting a donation from an athiest-affiliated group, it would risk losing donations from religious folks and religious institutions across the country. Can’t have an athiest group appear in a charitable light: it might damage the narrative that only religious people are capable of charity and self-sacrifice. 🙁

If you are receiving a Social Security check, you have Medicare at minimum, and it probably covers 80% of the surgery, and certainly the exam.   

 Fuck right off, please. Many Americans detest that we have a system that lets people down like this. Many of us are politically active to change that. Many of us also donate and work to pick up the slack when people are in need.  None of us have the power to unilaterally impose a system that would make this sort of grassroots social support unnecessary.  And I suspect most of us don’t need to be told how brutal we are.

Remind me again how much 20% of $30,000+ is… I forget.

I imagine it would be rather large when compared to say.. a monthly social security check.

Should we also sing the praises of all the great Catholic work being done in Africa, you know, the condemnation of birth control and condoms and such?
Pardon me for being a cynic, I’ve actually done work with the Baptist Brotherhood after hurricane Katrina, and I know that everything they do has at least two purposes, one of which is the furthering of their sect. 400 bucks buys some pretty good P.R. in this case, even, disappointingly, with popular atheist blogger(s).
I just noticed your **Update** but I’m posting this anyway because I’m all grumpy and shit this morning.

In the absence of government programs (on that point I completely agree with you) this is the only means for some people to get the care they need.

hahah, i kept hoping for that, too. Alas, disappointed though not surprised, once again.

I just went to the website provided in the update and it states that he
has decided not to have the surgery, as it is too expensive in the U.S.
($20,000).  After a quick google search, I found a couple hospitals in
Mexico that perform this surgery for less than $3,000. It would seem the surgery could be performed there for a fraction of the cost, even if you figure in airfare and hotel accommodations.  Just an idea.

http://www.health-tourism.com/retinal-detachment-surgery/mexico/

It’s such a shame that it has come to this for so many US citizens.

However “good” it may look, they’re ultimately doing it in order to proseltyze, to show him the “love of Jesus.” How condescending is that!? However, you’re spot on Hemant. Where were the atheists to take care of their own? 

IMHO, in the US, anyway, it is to live in equality, both legally and culturally, with our fellow (religious) citizens. It’s hard to “live together in peace and good happiness” when you feel like a second class citizen…

Medicare, Medicaid and Medi-Cal can be really helpful, but I don’t think that their there for everyone who puts the effort into it.  There’s a lot of gaps-especially along the boarder of having too much to qualify but not enough to get good coverage.  For the year I was on unemployment, I had too much in assets to qualify for these programs (I had $3000+ in the bank and I owned my car)–but thankfully Healthy families program covered my son.   Contractors,temp workers, part time laborors aren’t required to be covered by their employers.  Self-employed people also struggle with insurance. I’ve had many friends who have fallen into this category–My mom while teaching C++ at Devry, my friend who taught pre-k, myself when I was temping right out of college.
Even the fully employed with health insurance struggle with medical costs – I can’t recall the number right now, but a sizable portion of the people who filled bankruptcy due to medical costs were people with insurance.  My parents ended up losing their home when my dad got brain cancer–even though he had health insurance at the time.  (Even though he also received help from his church).
It would be bittersweet to point out where we weren’t taking advantage of easily available medical programs, but looking back we did look and fight for health coverage that simply was not there for us.   It is there for some people, sometimes, but not for everyone and all needs.

Yeah, that’s more than a little weird. Some Christians help him out financially when he has a need, so he buys a star for the nativity he’s been fighting against because it’s clearly unconstitutional? Something frankly doesn’t smell right about this story.

 I somewhat agree with you, but I do care why someone is doing a good deed. If the only reason is because he thinks a supernatural being is watching, then he hasn’t figured out why the difference between good and evil is important. He really hasn’t grown up.

Some of the most egregious lies about atheists are probably projections by people  who only do good works because they believe a god is watching. I actually hope such folks continue to believe, if that’s all that’s keeping them from bank robbery and pedophilia.

You won’t find one main agenda universal to all atheists, but here is mine: I want us to determine goodness through observation, not superstition.

 It’s even better when you know the system was created specifically to rip people off — that it was marketed as such to the then-president of the United States, who shrugged and couldn’t care less — and people still defend it to this day as the Best Medical System in the World.

Huh, that’s cheap.  Does that include facilities and other services such as anaesthesia, recovery, etc?

Isn’t there something in their bible about advertising your generosity?

Where were the atheists to take care of their own? Your question sounds bizarre to me. I think it’d be better to ask: where were the fellow humans to take care of their own? Or perhaps, why didn’t government healthcare take care of this? (we already covered this extensively in other comments)

In more civilized countries you do’nt even have to think about the paperwork. A surgery like this one would cost less than 150$…

I sympathize with the guys condition, but he is probably not the best
representative for atheism:
http://atheistexperience.blogspot.de/2008/07/patrick-greene-checks-in.html

It really depends on the state where you live. Where I am, if you don’t have children under 18, you do not qualify for any kind of medical coverage beyond 3 prescriptions per month with a $20 each copay. Medicare obviously helps out, but you have to be old enough or disabled to qualify. 

 I’ve been around the block a few times and have spent some time working overseas as well. I’m more than aware of the reputation that we Americans have, thanks.
I might add that our reputation is well deserved. As we are a constitutional republic and elect our government, then who else should the rest of the world blame for our issues? Space aliens?
In regards to this:
“…I think the guy just took it the wrong way.”
Yes, and that’s why I responded to his comment the way that I did.

“The Christians here did this to show God’s love…”
Your god could have just prevented the retinal detachment from happening in the first place. Of course, that would be too fucking easy.
“Praying for all who are involved with this blog tonight!! :)”
What specifically are you praying for? What do you wish to happen? 
So…you have a wish for all involved on this blog tonight and you appeal to your deity to grant you this special request. You must be special to have the confidence that an all-knowing, all-powerful being will change his cosmic plans just for you.

Sounds to me when he saw 5000 people protest his action it put it into perspective exactlly what it was he was doing and the people he was affecting.It might be a legal point he was making,not that i belive it was why the law was made or in the spirit of the law,but remember,you can be 100% right and still be wrong.That is why the churches response in the natural would have been to say ,”serves him right”,instead they showed a better way.This has been a win/win,well done everyone.

My,somone needs a hug.xxx

You do have to worry about eventual governmental collapse along with near zero rates of private savings to cover the continued needs. In other words you have to worry about governmental economic incentives causing individual errors to cluster and be exposed in one large mess. Of course the US system is a very long way down this path too and has been for a long time. Well actually you don’t have to “worry” if you are a leftist who doesn’t understand any of this. Eventually you run out of other people’s money in the “civilized” world.

Had they removed the nativity scene and donated money then they would have looked good. I donated $100 with no religious strings attached so he can pursue his own beliefs without worrying about his health. I did NOT identify my own personal religious beliefs to attach to this donation. The point isn’t to make a religion “look good”. I don’t expect him to pursue his lawsuit either. He is in no financial or health condition to do so.

I view the Christian behavior here the same way I view the use of mobster money to put on fireworks displays. The have used the real power of government to institute true privileges for their beliefs, and a token amount of $400 contributed by their entire community isn’t getting them off the hook for their criminal behavior.

Churches like to give money to people. Especially when it makes them look good, or when they can use it to bribe people to their cause.

True story. Recently My dad heard a story from someone in our little rural community about how a man and his wife had shown up at a church one Sunday. After the service a few members of the congregation approached them to welcome them to church. They struck up a conversation and soon learned that the couple had been through some hard times. The man had been in jail and they were having trouble making ends meet. So they took up a collection and gave them $50.

Of course it turns out that this was the guy who had broken into my parents home and stolen their cameras, stereo, and computer with a year’s worth of pictures of my daughter that we can never replace. My mom and 3-year-old daughter arrived while he was leaving the home, endangering them. When the cops caught him, he confessed but refused to tell where my parents’ items were. That’s why he had been in jail.

But it’s all okay because he loves Jesus too. I’d like to think skeptics would have been a little smarter.

As a non-theist Jain, I agree that we should strive to act compassionately towards others, regardless of our own beliefs, and applaud those who do so.

The issue here is not so much their fundraising, but their explanation for their actions. The person quoted in the article claims that planned lawsuit was derived from a sense of “bitterness” and his personal deficiencies, rather than a principled stand based on the Constitution. He has now decided not to pursue the lawsuit, but his legal concerns surely are still valid.

My agenda here is not political here. I can only speak from my heart. My intention was not to hurt you in any way, and nothing you post here makes me the least bit upset at you or anyone else. I really do care for you as a person, and will still pray for you. You asked me to answer your question. You asked two, and I will do my best.

“What specifically are you praying for?”

I am specifically praying for you, the person I am exchanging posts with – you have identified yourself as “The Godless Monster”. I am praying that God would reach into your life and touch your heart and show you His love. I am praying that, even though I am far from perfect, I can write something that demonstrates His love.

“What do you wish to happen?”
I wish that you would know that there is a real God who loves you. So much that He sent His Son to die on a cross and rise from the dead for you. I wish that you would turn to Him and become a Christian.
Mr. Godless Monster, I truly do care about you and wouldn’t have taken the time to respond if I didn’t. I have no political, social or any other agenda in writing this other than to let you know that God really does love you, and I really care for you as a fellow human being.

That is what makes our country great because people helping people, and not government helping people. This is what parts us from the rest of the world. While others awaiting for their mommy governmnt to take care of them, while here (USA) people rely on people.

Perhaps you and the rest of the world can see that Americans take care of their own.

If any of you voted republican then you have no right to complain.

Oops. Matthew 6:1-4

“The more important cause of filing suit”? More important than keeping this man from going blind? Nice reasoning, athiest. You’re a great representative. The law says people can express their faith anytime, anywhere they want, with NO restrictions. Again, NO restrictions; as in, no laws restricting the FREE expression of religion. You might want to actually read the laws before you pretend you are standing up for any of them. No part of the U.S. has adopted an official religion, and no American is forced to read the bible or other religious book. No American is forced to pray or forced to participate in any religious practice. A nativity scene, the ten commandments, a bible; these things don’t come to life and force you to do anything. But, they are a part of history and a huge part of the founding of the U.S. and her success. You militant athiests who’s big picture is the elimination of churches and making religion a crime are only creating more and more religious fanatics, something neither side wants. The nativity scene is a celebration of a positive event. All through history, people have tried to celebrate the positive message the bible gives them; that everyone is equally precious, regardless of race, religion, non-religion, wealth, health, etc.; that every human should treat every other human like they want to be treated themselves. I admit it’s a fact that people have always misinterpreted and cherry picked phrases out of the bible to justify crimes and atrocities, and non-believers do this to blame God believers every thing bad that has ever happened. The bible literally codemns over and over the very things non-believers claim by a single phrase or a misdefined word that it promotes, and that hipocrates, fanatics, and  evil people carrying unopened bibles have used to justify atrocities and oppression against other humans. These Christians stepped up to help someone in need, despite the fact he means to do them harm and eliminate their freedom. Countries have banned churches and punished religion already. Should we copy China, Viet Nam, North Korea, the former Soviet Union states, Cuba, Mexico, too many third world suffering countries to list, or just hope a dictator arises and decides for us. Or should we all adopt one belief, athiest or theist, and ban and punish all others: like the fine countries I already mentioned, any athiest only country I haven’t mentioned, or any Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Catholic, shaman, voodoo, or one-belief country where they persecute any other belief. The bible says we shouldn’t force one belief on everyone, so does our Constitution. They both say we should allow everyone to choose for themself and no one is better or worse. Why don’t athiests at least follow the Constitution which, for some reason they love to tout while they try to outlaw seemingly only Christians from practicing faith? Almost all athiests I’ve heard or read speak up, between bashing God and the bible, claim there is no God. Even though athiests go out of their way to bash God and those who have faith in Him, they claim there is no God. It’s not a belief that there’s no God, there just isn’t one you say. Fine, who’s forcing you to admit God is real? Who’s forcing you to pray, display a cross, or carry a bible? Who’s taking you to court or complainig to the gov’t because you say there is no such thing as [insert something or someone here]? No one forces their belief down your throat, like I constantly here people whine. Yet you are constantly trying to force your non-belief or whatever you call it down everyone elses. Why can’t you let every one choose for themselves, like you get to choose atheism. Why bash God, there is no God right? Why bash the bible, it’s moot, because there is no God. Right? Humans are to blame for all bad things, that’ s something an athiest and a believer will always agree on. Stop trying to prohibit people from improving their life by their faith or helping others regardless of faith. Why get all crazy over a nativity scene or anything else like that on display? You say there is no God. You’re free to put up a display of nothing right next to the nativity scene. Instead of spending so much time and money putting up websites, billboards,and traveling to conventions just to bash the bible and God; making people spend their money on lawyers and their time in court; why don’t you save your time and money over something you claim doesn’t exist and try doing something productive with it. Why do you force Christians to waste so much time and money on things like lawsuits when they they could’ve used it on something productive, like giving this poor fellow more money for his eyes? Athiests sue schools, hospitals, churches, police and fire depts., local-city-state and federal agencies, public and private groups,businesses, stores, YMCA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Red Cross, Salvation Army, many other charities, adoption agencies, insurance companies, the list goes on and on. How many millions or perhaps billions of dollors in attorneys fees and wages have atheists made people spend on lawsuits when that time and money could have spent where it was meant, serving people? Is that human? Is that reasonable? Is that the character that”free thought” leads you to? The weird thing about this is that you do it over something you claim doesn’t even exist. Why do you do it? Because you insist on cramming your way down EVERYONE’S throat. Sorry, I admit I stole your whine. In this case though, it’s finally true. The strangest and, frankly, the creepiest thing about your agenda is that you do it over something that doesn’t exist, as you assert. Every athiest I’ve ever heard or read speak up insults people of faith, it seems to tell others if they become a believer you will insult them relentlessly. It seems to also tell people’ if you join us you too can insult believers and make yourself feel better than them’.  You create your own websites, and you stalk Christian websites in order to call Christians insane, claim they are supestitious or believe in myths or fairy tales, and in many cases to say they hope all die a horrible death. Maybe that last part is the exception and not the rule for atheists, but I read it quite often. The first two accusations seem almost unanimous among atheists. I’m not insane, nor are almost all Christians I’ve  met or heard of. I’m sure one is here and there, we’re all people. It happens. I have never heard of one who is superstitious or believes in fairy tales and myths. The bible pretty much warns against that. A lot of Christians have faith in God and just don’t need to find a certain number of evidences as proof. I’ve done tons of research into secular documents that corroborate the bible, as well as archaeolgy and science. I’ve read about thousands of people who’ve seen Heaven or Hell and come back, mostly they had been to Heaven. A lot are children, and they meet brothers, sisters, or other relatives and describe them perfectly, even though they’ve never been told about them. I’ve read about thousands more people who’ve seen impossible things. Unmovable things being moved to save someone. Tumors, unsurvivable injuries, and fatal diseases completely heal after treatment totally fails. Many times people are seconds from death. I’ve read about countless people who have been dead for minutes and even hours come back to life. No vital signs, sometimes under water or buried or even crushed with most or all organs destroyed. I’ve seenpersonally a speeding truck go full bore into a wall with a person there. They were frozen with fear, they didn’t budge. The truck flew into the person as I watched. Nothing happened for a few seconds. Then the person walked right out of there unhurt. I went to look and there was no space between the wall and the truck. You couldn’t have pulled a dollar bill out of there.  Iknow a child who told someone a relative had just been in his room and told him he had died and he loves him. He told the little boy he’d see him in Heaven someday. It was several hours after that the man was found dead. He was healthy and not old. The boy was told about 5 days later. I have a relative who had something weighing thousands of pounds fall on him. His teenage sister and his mom lifted it completely up and off of him. Millions of people give up drugs, alcohol, smoking, crime, and perversions when they ask for God’s help. People who never knew Him, hated Him, or just said there is no God. Some ask for His help right away, some wait years trying everything else; rehab, patches, counseling, free thinking, reason, science, the universe, rationality, and blaming religion. What if those millions of people hadn’t given up these things? I’m sorry for getting preachy, I just need to make a point. You say there is no God, I can’t make you say different. But the horrible thing is, outspoken atheists want to make everyones choice for them. Bash the bible and God so that people who know nothing about either hate both just because you show them a word here or a phrase there. A cherry-picked word or phrase which in modern times has a horrible meaning doesn’t some up the bible’s hundreds of thousands of words. It’s fine for you, but their life is their’s. They’ll die someday, what if they discover they’re wrong? What if everything doesn’t go black and then they are thrown in the dirt? What if it is horrible, unbearable? You’re alright with forcing someone else to cross their fingers. If a Christian died and foumd out they are wrong, they lose nothing. They cease to exist. Millions of people have gone on and come back. The point I wanted to make earlier is I know God is real for sure. I’ve seen proof in my life and others’. I’ve seen proof in the world everywhere, in science in historical writing, in thousand of people’s testimonies. I’ll read about them forever and never scratch the surface. Many are atheists who were saved by God from something or just opened their eyes and minds and did research. I’m not preaching to anyone. Your life is yours. I’m just saying how  about letting others decide for themselves whether gambling on on a possible horrible outcome is worth it? Anyway,  why do people spend so much time and money on something they say doesn’t exist? Is that sanity? “Such and such doesn’t exist, yet I’m gonna create websites to trash people and sue people to force them to not have the right to discover the truth for themselves. Wow!

 Mommy government IS the people!

Keep running on the hamster wheel.

Awww… you want free education with that! What about welfare? Keep running on the hamster wheel, and let us know how that goes for you welfare lovers.

These left wing nuts welfare lovers are not aware of the hamster wheel that they are running on.