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Commentary Too - Jan 20, 2012 - Printable Version
- Proudly "Evil"
by S.K. Eleton - Theocracy Watch
Quick pop quiz. What state recently had a dispute over a prayer banner in a public high school, was sued by a young atheist, lost, and is now turning out en masse to harass, torment, threaten, and otherwise make life a living hell for a brave 16-year-old? If you guessed Alabama, you’re absolutely…wrong. If you guessed Mississippi, wrong again. Texas? No. And for everyone out there whispering Kansas, you’re still wrong. For those of you who’ve read ahead, looking up the answer without trying to figure out the question, you already know the answer is…Rhode Island. What, you say? Rhode Island? The state founded by Roger Williams? The state born and bred for the very purpose of religious tolerance, where tolerance found a warm nurturing home? No, of course not, it can’t be. S. K., you must have read your news wrong; it must have been Oklahoma, right? No. I read it right. I heard it right. I proudly stand behind Jessica Ahlquist, Cranston, Rhode Island, who has experienced more hatred and vitriol at 16 than most people will in their entire life. And yet, this girl, whom I had the pleasure of meeting late last year, stands tall (well, OK, she’s pretty petite, but give me a break, folks, it’s a metaphor!) and proud, and speaks with a soft courage that can inspire mediocre people to do great things. Not afraid to stand up for the Constitution, even in the face of vitriolic hatred and threats of death and/or rape, she can make a person proud to be an American, by demonstrating so clearly the spirit of those who fought to create a country conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal – and then battled some more to include women in that equation. Now, this one woman (I refuse to call her a girl; she has too much spirit and maturity to be so reduced) challenged the establishment of her town, and for her troubles, she has been called a ‘cunt’, a ‘twat’, has been threatened by her peers, and called an “evil little thing” by a state representative, Peter Palumbo (a Democrat, in case you’re wondering). Still, she faces her challengers bravely, and does not back down.
From the beginning, when she stood up in a meeting to discuss the prayer banner, Jessica was called a “witch” by the adults in her town. While such a statement could be quite amusing for those of us who do not believe in witches (and perhaps some actual witches, who do not feel the word is an insult), it quickly escalated into gratuitous abuse and name-calling of all sorts. Now, threats of violence have activated the police in the town, who are investigating some of the angry mob that accosted her on Twitter and Facebook, and in many cases felt confident enough about their righteousness to use their own names. One poster decided to post her address on line, and gloated how he’d like to be watching when she was “curb-stomped”. Others told her she should be ‘fucked’ with the banner. Many have been content with simply consigning her to hell, a threat most atheists such as Jessica find amusing, because it puts off until after death a punishment no one is sure will happen for a crime that no one can clearly define. Mostly, we just vaguely call it “sin”.
So, what was the actual dispute over, anyway? Well, quite simply, Cranston High School had a prayer banner hanging on their wall, a banner which began “Our Heavenly Father” and ended “Amen”. In between, there were some decent sentiments about being moral, kind, and helpful, but make no mistake about it, this was a prayer. Hanging in a public school. The judge, when confronted with a defense claiming this was not a prayer, but was just history and tradition, and good moral guidance, was able to see right through that, and went with well-established precedent which states that a public school can’t support a particular religion, or support religion at all, but must remain totally neutral in matters of religion. This did not, I repeat DID NOT, say that students couldn’t pray in school, or in their home, or on the street, or in the church, or anywhere else. It did not say that prayer was banished from any place that is public, but only that public officials and offices, such as schools, cannot show any favoritism toward religion over non-religion or over other religions. This was the only decision the judge could have come to that was in line with not only the US Constitution, but the Rhode Island Constitution, which is, if anything, much more explicit on religious freedom than the federal document. The decision wasn’t anti-Christian, the plaintiff wasn’t anti-Christian, it was merely a statement of American values and principles that we claim to believe in – freedom of conscience.
Let the shitstorm begin. Jessica has been taking it on the chin for standing up for all of us, whether atheist, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, Catholic, Hindu, Wicca, Rastafarian, Hare Krishna…I could go on with this all night, but you get the idea, right? So, this town is so enmeshed in “Christian” values that they felt it necessary to sling hatred and obscenity at a teenager who recognized what was right and showed that she had learned something in her Civics class. By rights, the school should be giving her accolades for putting to use what she had been taught, not threats for challenging the comfortable majority that believes democracy means you always get your way if you can get enough other bullies to back you up; no, in our democracy, there are certain rights that are retained by minorities, and these cannot be taken away, even by a vote of the majority. Let’s face it, Cranston, Jessica was right, and you should be proud to call her a Rhode Islander.
Hold on, this gets even more surreal. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (www.ffrf.org ), which last year had awarded Jessica a student activist award, decided to send her a dozen roses as a Congratulations for winning her case. Simple enough, right? Three florists in Cranston simply refused to deliver the flowers, one of them going so far as to say “I will not deliver to this person”. So, they contacted a florist in Warwick, RI, which agreed to deliver the flowers, but then called back and stated that because patrons were e-mailing and phoning, threatening to boycott his business, he also would not deliver the flowers. Eventually, the roses were delivered by a florist in nearby Connecticut, along with an extra dozen added by the florist shop with the note “Glimpse of Gaia fully supports our First Amendment and will not be bullied by those who do not. Here’s to you, Jessica Ahlquist.” Good for them. At least someone understands the famous words we are all so fond of mouthing…freedom of religion means freedom of religion for all, not just for the majority religion, and it’s time the majority religion learned that.
Unfair, you say? What about the nice, moderate Christians? Yes, what about them? That’s what I’d like to know, too. For the most part, Jessica is hearing from the hateful, non-moderate, violent Christians, and on the other side, from the hard-line secularists who have stood with her throughout the experience. Where are the moderate Christians? Well, I know where they are. I’ve seen them, and I’ve heard them. They’re bitching and moaning about the hatred spewed by the other Christians, and claiming they stand with Jessica – but they’re doing it on the atheist sites, by pointing it out to atheists who have dared to post these horrible things on their blogs. Yes, rather than wading into the Twitter fray, rather than giving Jessica a big “thumbs up” or “you go, girl” where she can gain a bit of comfort knowing that the moderate Christians are behind her, they’re stomping around on atheist sites bawling out atheists for being outraged by the behavior, and informing us that we just need to “read our Bible” and listen to a few “true Christians”, then we’ll understand the lover of Jesus and what God…and Christianity…is all about. I’m…underwhelmed.
Look, it’s your right to suggest I read the Bible (but don’t call me a liar when I tell you I have, and demonstrate that I can quote you chapter and verse through the book much better than you can). It’s your right to offer to witness to me (but don’t continue to insist I only need to listen to a ‘true Christian and feel the love’ after you’ve given me your 3000 word sermon, and I’ve thoughtfully explained to you that I don’t find it convincing). It’s your right to move around on atheist sites, and engage in discussion and debate with the regulars. I support you 100%. But one thing you might keep in mind: when you come around arguing this way on an atheist site that the hateful Christians haranguing a young woman elsewhere don’t represent true Christianity, I am reasonably sure it will appear to everyone else there that you care more about defending Christianity from the “mean” atheists than standing up for what you claim to believe in, the rights of Jessica Ahlquist to believe (or not believe) as she does, and that you care more about defending Christianity from the “mean” atheists than defending the Constitution from the “mean” Christians. This, I submit, is the face of Christianity that many of us see when we look across the sea of earnest, devout (or casual, apathetic) believers. It’s time for Christians to look honestly in the mirror, and recognize that this face of Christianity is the one we nearly always see, no matter what the issue, whenever there is the least challenge to the comfortable faith that so many wear so casually and with so little reflection. You want me to be impressed by your support for freedom? Stay off the atheist sites for a few minutes, and go out to Twitter to defend the Constitution. (Perhaps the problem is that people have read the Constitution about as thoroughly as the Bible; which is to say, for most people, not at all). If God is so great, he doesn’t need your help; the Constitution, on the other hand, has been taking a bit of a beating lately, and needs all the help it can get. Thank Flying Spaghetti Monster there are such brave, selfless people as Jessica Ahlquist.
Oh, and in case you think she was doing this for the money, as one school official claimed…she asked for $25 dollars, and that only because her lawyer recommended she do so.
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