New letter{s} to editor....{July 21/05} and a personal note...{Christian fundamentalists persecution complex}

So,the other day someone had a letter they wrote to the editor of the "Brandon Sun" newspaper complaining about how Christians were under attack lately in Brandons paper and the city, and that we should return to teaching children the Lords prayer,etc,etc....as well they were offended by a teacher in a nearby city{Winkler,Manitoba} whom wants their public schools to get w/the times and quit propogandizing the Christian faith before all others in the schools{this teacher by the way happens to themselves be a Christian}.

So, I emailed a response, and it was published in todays paper{July 21/05; "Brandon Sun"}.
Here it is:


"CHRISTIANS NOT UNDER ATTACK, FUNDAMENTALISM IS."
In response to the letter from the Fouillards{July 20}, Christians are'nt under attack!
Myself and others dooing this alleged "attacking" have little to no issues with reasonable moderate/liberal Christians and Christianity. It is fundamentalism we are attacking and the fact that it seeks unfair influence over the political and social moral spheres and takes advantage of the needy,ignorant, and uninformed.
That and the favoritism our mayor has been showing to evangelical fundamentalists and to monotheists, as well as his prejudice towards those religions/philosophies he thinks are "against the grain" or "anti-religious"{when in reality it is the fundamentalist Christians who are anti-religious against any belief or unbelief that is not theirs.}.
That prayer group meeting in our gov't offices, for example, used the offices to pray against gays and gay marriage. Many gays are Christians{liberals and moderates mainly}. They are beeing told by fundamentalists seeking to subvert secular law that they don't deserve equality under the Charter because they think thier God has a special pet peeve against homosexuality.
Now, had this group been praying for racial segregation in these offices, would we be so tolerant and sympathetic to them?No!
Like the fundamentalist Islamic faith- which too easily breeeds extremism,oppression,intolerance,prejudice,irrational and unneeded psychollogical fear,guilt neuroses and dangerous mindsets against the rest of the world and it's viewpoints-this is dangerous!
We are defending the world against the attacks and false prejudiced information of these evangelical/fundamentalist Christians and their version of their faith.
It is not Christianity/Christians in general we are attacking. It is fundamentalism and it's unsafe excess influence. Of course they assume that only orthodox/fundamentalist/evangelical Christianity is the true version of this faith and that this faith is the only truly moral/good religion.
Go ahead and say the lords Prayer- no one is saying you can't. Just don't try to enforce it in our schools
and political landscapes. the way you phrased itseems to be a wish to see the Lords prayer become common in such spheres again.
Don't assume that saying the lords prayer is better than people who say other prayers to other gods/goddesses or who don't pray at all.
Plenty of atheists,agnostics,deists and other faithless freethinkers don't pray and don't teach their children too, yet they live examplary lives and raise children who also do.
By the way, the Winkler situation is a concern of a fellow Christian who just believes that all religions and non-religions should be treated equally and that public schools should not be playing favourites with one particular faith or one intrpretation of it. That teacher does their religion a service with this battle, kudos to him.
I repeat, it is not Christians in general beeing attacked, it is fundamentalism as it lives and exists to attack everyone and everything else.
This is merely self-defense.
Peace to you

Bill Baker
Brandon.

END OF LETTER.


And here is another letter from another reader that is also a response to that couples letter.

MAYOR MUST REPRESENT ALL PEOPLE, WITHOUR PREJUDICE.
I would like to take a minute to respond to the Christians under attack letter to the editor{July 20} and others who have no problem with city hall as a prayer centre.
First of all, anyone holding any elected position has neither the right,legally or ethically, to use public space to endorse anyones beliefs.
Secondly, to use that office to officially ask for monies is also unethical. It may be fine for those who believe in God to see his actions as well-intended, but suppose he were Muslim,Hindi,jewish,or any other belief. Would you then hold the Mayor im such high regard?
The problem is that an elected official is given his appointment to represent all the people without prejudice.
What if I wanted to hold a social in his worships office to pay for my grandfathers hip surgery? Is this OK? What if someone wanted to sacrifice a goat as people in the Santarea religion to help your cause? Can they use the Mayors office too?
I suggest to you that there are far superior ways to help society than to pray for someone or something. The first of those things is to protect our democratic rights from those who seek to infringe on them.

Derrick Campbell
Brandon


END OF LETTER.


Here's the deal folks. when I first invaded the prayer meeting in the Mayors office last month and there was about a week of public outcry from the Brandon Sun paper and some citizens in the Brandon Sun, it later died down. Though I continued my personal crusade behi ind the scenes; attending bethel church to silently but in full view protest all this crap they and the Mayor were dooing, I also had been protestign alone outside city hall with a sign-though eventually for the last few weeks I had been going to their prayer meetings in the City hall and protesting there{including verbally and loudly}, last time I went about a week and a half ago the prayer group told me to leave, I said that they'd have to get someone else[the authorities or something] to make me, cause I was staying,. A coupe of themleft the room and made a phone call or two then returned and they held their meeting, as I verbally protested one of them allmost throttled me{so much for the love of god/jesus eh? LoL!!!}. I left early as I had an appointment elsewhere. I few days later the cops visited me at my home and told me that if I went back there I'd be arrested! LoL!!! [so I have'nt returned].
I though the issue was fading away in the city, but apparently I really woke a sleeping giant up because a few days ago the Brandon Sun publisher did a article on how the Mayor recently solicited donations from local businessess for Calvary Temple church's youth "glimpse" program[to sent youth on a mexican missionary trip} and rebuked him for that and many of the other favours he's been dooing for localevangelical groups. Then a day or two later more letters-including this one whining of christiasn beeing persecutedand then mine and this other guys.

I've started a culture war over religion here in Brandon, I could'ne be more beeming w/pride and sense of accomplishment!

Hail reason.

In Reason:
The very irreverand Bill Baker

Of faith{absolutism},mental illness, and child abuse!!!

The time to stop kissing ass has come!

We whom know the facts need to in our every day life start calling Absolutist/revealed/fundamentalist faith/religion what it is;
like schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder,depression,multiple personality disorder, arachnaphobia{phobias in general},etc, we need to call it{absolutist/fundy faith} a psychological/mental disorder. There is no real difference between it and those whom claim to see or hear people or entities or voices,Zeus,flying pink elephants,etc, and things that are not there.

Like phobias such as arachnaphobia,etc. Absolutist faiths are also disturbing phobias and even worse. They believe and proclaim to the world that unless everyone converts to their biased, archaic, limiting, unhealthy views of the Universe,Theology,and so-called morality, that they will all burn in eternal hellfire w/no hopeof repreive from it; done so by the decree of a suppoedly loving Creator father{male} whom see fit to make sure his Creations/Children are tortured eternally.

Because of this, these people whom claim to live by faith, are, by proxy, living in a horrible state of phobia/fear that most people are going to this hell and need to be evangelized; that there are fallen angels/evil demigods/demons around every corner making sure that everyone worships other versions of deity or none at all, making sure that everyone stay in a perpetual state of "sin"{many of these so-called "sins" beeing harmless and even healthy parts of our nature as human animals; which can be demontratably proven by science,psychology,sociology,etc,etc,etc}, yes, these demons are everywhere, so...whatch out{nothing keeps the masses under the thumb of a system or of rulers better than fear}.

What's worse, these mentally disturbed masses and individuals are legally allowed and even encouraged to raise their children{and by association-our children} to have the same disorders and phobias; it's tiume to start calling this what it is-CHILD ABUSE!
If parents were raising their children from birth w/fear that literally around every corner was a murderer, or that Freddy Kruegers were haunting their dreamsn and that if they were killed in their sleep they'd die in real life, if they trained them to believe that Frank Sinatra was watching over them; we'd either label them "nuts" or "child abusers" or both.
That children are taught from birth to fear imaginary devils,demons, and eternal hell, and that the only way to be protected and spared is to worship the god{s}/ess{es} that lurk in their parents psyche or that are the most favoured and/or propagated for the longest period of time in their particular culture and/or geographical location; and that all those whom worship other god{s}/ess{es} here or elswhere, now or in the past, no matter how loving/just/ethical those people are, that they are headed for that childs parents/religions/cultures version of afterlife torture for all eternity with no hope for reprieve from it; and that they must go out of their way in life to try to evangelize them all and convince them all of their wicked beliefs/or non-beliefs{somehow it's ok for these competing absolutist faiths to prejudge each other,everyone else, and even variuos so-called "heretical" sects of their own religion; but it is taboo for us to speak against thier dangerous,unhealthy, prejudiced,willfully ignorant archaic delusions}, to convince others to worship the god that luks in thier parents brains or in their partcicular culture or spend an eternity raosting in a afterlife torture at the decree of that god.

Folks this IS "child abuse", lets admit it and do something about it!!!

Folks this whole thing IS a seriuos "psychological disorder", lets admit it and do something about it!!!

We must stop making concessions for them; we must stop making absolutist/fundamentalist faith{s} untouchable, a taboo to speak against in such a way.
If someone was teaching false ideas about racial equalityor false ideas about nulcear physsics,etc, would we sit back and say "oh, that's ok if these people beileve this; if they think it's true-it's true forthem"?-NO OLF COURSE NOT! Why then is faith so taboo to counter and even expose??? Why are we so afraid of it and those that propogate absolutist faiths?
They don't afford us the same courtesy, nor dothey afford fields of knowledge and evidences the proper regard{unless it supports something about the existence of one of the places or individuals,etc, in their so-called holy books;when it does the contrary they just resort to circular logic and "gods ways our not our ways; gods ways are mysteriuos; do not lean on thy own understanding; etc"-of course, WHICH god is the TRUE one then??? People,it is nonsensical their arguments!}; hey accuse our lives and beliefs/unbeliefs ALL THE TIME- the very core of their archaic doctrines is based on such prejudgement,bias, and accusations based in their ancient founders ignorance and bias and fears. For thousands of years these absolutist faiths negative consequences have far outweighed the few positive contributions they have made{which could have been reached via pure "reasoning" and evidences; and in fact have been further perfected upon by such}.

Ages ago, these absolutist faiths "may" have served a usefulpurpose in that stage of evolution/development and for some sort of order in their ancient,ignorant[said not rudely, but just as a statement of fact} societys; but they can mostly only be harmful to us in this age of profression,knowledge, and reason.

It is my opinion as a man of reason that it is high time we{at the very least} label these things as "psychological/mental disorders" and "child abuse"; and that we slowly start to implment programs and policiesthat require such people to get help{even if we have to pay for it financially in the beginning as tax payers}psychologically and maybe from medications{if required}; maybe not by "force", but by on a massive societal level speak against their ideas and start to make it mandatory that they leaRN the facts{that means, NO CHRISTIAN/FAITH-BASED SCHOOLSOR COLLEGES; THAT MEANS NO BEEING ALLOWED TO HOMESCHOOL FOR THEM,ETC}.
Certainly we need to stop favouring and showing such tolerance to their ideas of their ancient predecesors; and stoppaying lip service tothem and especially their leaders such as popes and evangelists,etc.{ie: John Paul, Billy Graham,etc}, and also their media propaganda{icluding christian rock music, christian t.v.s hows and movies and books,entertainment; such as the "Left Behind" series and "Passion of the Christ"; they should be allowed to share those ideas and make that propaganda yes, but not given as mush coverage and favour by the non-faith based media and govts,etc}.

Most importantly we need to put legal restrictions on allowing parents to indoctrinate children from birth through entire life{if you've been raised such yourself and have broken free, you know how painful the break away from these myths and fears can be} w/these dangerous ideas, CHILD ABUSE! Would we be so lenient towards parents whom riase their children as racial supremacists, I bet most would'nt be, sowhy so w/spiritual/moral superiority base don archaic biases that hold little relevance for the modern and progressing world? Yes, they should be legally alowed to believe as they believe and to express their beleif through the press,media, and public spheres{but we should also be ridiculing them and these ideas at every turn; as the saying goes-"that which is proposed w/out evidence can be dismissed w/out evidence"}, but be required,possibly by law to not indoctrinate their children; they should be allowed to teach their children about their "personal" beliefs, but then also required to teach them about every other beleif and unbeleif and not to subvert them or forcethem to believe the same thing as them; they should be required to teach their children to be unbiased{at threat of legal fine or something}, so that their children{and our children whom associate w/them and their children} can later makea more informed and more personal choice for what they wish to believe or not to believe. It's only fair; just as we are working to eliminate racial prejudice and bias, sowe should do w/this.

We need to TAX CHURCHES/SYNAGOGUES/MOSQUES/ETC, we need to STOP ALLOWING FAITH-BASED CHARITIES which BRIBE the needy and ignorant, and use their needs to prosalatyze them to do so! We must make it illegalfor representatives of these faiths to go door to door w/pamphlets and preaching; and we must always protest when we see one particular absolutist faith beeing promoted before and above allthe othersand before/above relatvist faiths/philosophies/beliefs and unbeliefs.

We must stop deluding ourselves into thinking that their beliefs are ok and/or harmless; their absolutist/fundamentalist/literalist beliefs don't hurt just themselves, but their children and their childrens children,etc, they hurt our children and our childrens children,us,democracy; on alllevels,legally,ethically,psychologically,etc.

Their beliefs, by their "core nature" are intolerant/prejudiced; why should we continue to abuse and misuse the noble word/idea of tolerance and continue to give them and their myths the power,wealth,influence that these mental disorders have over their lives,our lives, our laws and ideas, and more importantly theirs and our children and childrens children,etc.?

We must write our govts and professional scientists,psychologists,law/policy makers;protest,petition,etc, about this ,the most important{or at least one of the most important} issues facing the world.

If we don't do this, or at least start calling these things/people what they are-"psychollogical disorders/psychollogically disturbed" and "Child abuse" and "Phobias"; we don't do so then at our own peril and treat and expense of reason,evidences,progress,peace, and our own minds. To give them the wealth,power,and influence that we do, the social and political influence that we do, is done possibly as a threat and to our own,our childrens and their childrens,etc,long-term peril, and to the peril of our ever-evolving and progressing species{as well as the Terra firma/earth and all inhabiting it}.

The even worse thing is how much favour and praise the secular/non-absolutist world stupidly heapson these people and their leaders.One only need look at the amount of honor given to the Pope and Billy Graham by the ass-kissing secular groups and individuals,govts, and media{like afforementioned in this post},etc; THIS MUST END!!! WE MUST NOT ENCOURAGE THEIR DANGEROUS ARCHAIC DELUSIONS, BIASES AND FEARS!!! The govt,media,etc, must be rebuked and held accountable for encouraging it/them.

This is a challenge to asll those whom know I'm correct about this, to stop kissing ass and to stop beeing politically correct and misusing that noble ideal of "tolerance" to help these mental disturbances, abuses, and dangerous absolutist viruses to spread and mutate; I have found in my protestations and polemic arguments that many people agree but are to chicken shit to step up to the plate and be counted amongst the reasonable and progressing, there are only a few whom do so, but those that read their books,writings,etc, and yet are too afraid to at least{in the very least} speak the truth that these things are what I have just labelled them; now is the time to stand be counted friends; are we going to continue to allow the un/anti-reasonable, the superstitious,the PREjudgiced, the blindly traditional herd, the absolutist/fundamentalist/literalist faithists/faiths to continue to railroad over us and to rape the worlds progress,unity/peace, and progression???
Where are our guts, our convictions? Where are the faithless heroes? Where are the reasonable ultra liberal faithists{in other words; symbolic and relativist philosophers} and the balanced faitless, how come to many are afraid to expose these people and their beliefs for what they are?

P.S. Absolute faith/ists and personal/subjective/relativist philosophy based on reason and evidences, and logical propositions rhat don't run directly contrary to those realities; SHOULD NOT be confused with/for one another. But I am calling those ultra liberal faithists to stand up and quit kissing the ass of the absolutists. For "relativist" "liberal/moderate"{ultra} faith, though in my opinion stilla bit of a delusion, is/are still held by "reason" and sciences{etc} based people and should not be confused w/the dangerous absolutists faiths.
HOWEVER.... I personally hold this tolerance towards them, if it can be proven to me that they are a threat or as much a threat as the absolutists, then perhaps I will altar my opinion someday, but for now-I hold that they are for the most part=harmless,and maybe even helpful{on a "symbolic/metaphorical" level}.

p.p.s. a note to "strong" atheists{not just regular/personal atheists; which are ok and their conclusions-ok}; your absolute claims about the Universe/creatorology,spirituality,etc; is also somewhat absurd, given how little we still knowe about our vast multi-verse; I'm not calling for the same revolt againmst you and your views as I am of absolutist faithists; but my fear is that someday we may have to, for that "absolutism"may someday be a threat as well.

In Reason:
The very irreverand Bill Baker