Should we try harder next year?


The “DefendChristians” website has a poll to determine the Top Ten Anti-Christian Acts of 2011. There are a few truly despicable things in there: apparently, someone threw a firebomb at an elderly woman protesting a reproductive health clinic in Kalispell, an action I would unambiguously condemn, if it happened. Unfortunately, it seems to have been news only among the fanatical anti-abortion websites; I can’t find any mention on more reliable sources, and it’s peculiar anyway: a fire bomb was thrown at someone, and no one was hurt, and the demonstration went on anyway? That’s a rather pathetic effort.

I would have voted for that as a bad act, if there were any reasonable confirmation that it happened. But the rest…well here’s a sample.

  • Old Navy began sponsoring the pro-homosexual “It Get’s Better” campaign by giving proceeds from certain clothing to the campaign. The television and online campaign shows a variety of people living as homosexuals encouraging other’s to come out claiming “It Get’s Better,” and that there hopeful future for those who live as homosexuals.

  • A National Public Radio (NPR) official was caught on video making vicious anti-Christian remarks to persons who identified themselves as members of the Muslim Brotherhood who were promising millions of dollars to NPR. In the video, the NPR official called Evangelical Christians uneducated racists who hate and fear all foreigners.

  • Alabama Governor, Robert Buckley, spoke on Martin Luther King Day at the historic Dexter Ave Baptist Church in Montgomery, the church Dr. King pastored. In his remarks the Governor said, “Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.” The Jewish Anti-Defamation League falsely labeled this anti-Semitic.

  • A Christian bakery owner in Iowa was boycotted after she refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian’s couples “wedding.”

The most horrible anti-Christian oppression going on in the country right now is that homophobic/xenophobic Christians are being called out on their bigotry. And maybe some ineffective crank in Montana threw a flaming pop bottle at Christians demanding that women’s health be compromised.

We’re terrible at this pogrom business. And the Christians are really feeble, whiny martyrs.

Comments

  1. says

    A Christian bakery owner in Iowa was boycotted after she refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian’s couples “wedding.”

    Interesting. So christians are now against the idea of people boycotting businesses they disagree with? Or is it just that we’re not allowed to?

  2. chigau (this space for rent) says

    Maybe we™ should leave the Christians alone this year.
    Let’s go after the Jains. They’re usually too weak from hunger to whine.

  3. frankb says

    Wow, this country is really going down the drain when private citizens call attention to Christian bigotry. Oh, the humanity, think of the children! They actually claim intolerance is a virtue, but when someone is intolerant of them they cry.

  4. Art Vandelay says

    I love how they think oppression is being deprived of their rights to oppress. Actually…not even deprived of it. Just criticized for it. Ugh.

  5. jayarrrr says

    Hello Dispatch, send the WAHHHHHmbulance to the “DependsChristians” people. Their adult diapers are full.

    American Xians get their rocks off on being martyrs. Pastor gives them a cookie and allows them to sit on the Hypocrite’s Bench at service.

    I say we turn up the wick next year. show them what REAL persecution looks like.

  6. raven says

    I wouldn’t believe one word on that website without independent corroboration.

    Fundies always, always lie. It’s one of their 3 main sacraments.

    They are always circling stories among themselves on their websites and in email that aren’t true. Missing children are found drained of blood after satanic rituals. Proctor and Gamble is run by satanists. Someone somewhere raised someone who was dead. And on and on.

  7. HaggisForBrains says

    I’m going to report them to the Punctuation Police, for crimes against the apostrophe.

  8. Aquaria says

    Given that it was Montana, the “firebomb” was probably someone tossing out cigarette as xe drove by.

    Frickin’ drama queens.

  9. anteprepro says

    You forgot the teacher who was suspended for making anti-gay (“traditional marriage”) statements online.

    They also BAAW over not being allowed to violate church and state, over textbooks that speak of gays positively, over Apple rejecting an anti-gay app, over NBC taking “in god we trust” out of their pledge, over Obama declaring an LGBT pride month, and because police were mean to their protestors (pay no attention to the police beating OWS protestors behind the curtain). Some person/people threw bricks through the windows of a Christian school that was going to host an event called “The Truth about Homosexuality” by getting a speaker who authored a book called “The Pink Swastika” (And I only found that story “confirmed” on WND). They claim a man was fired because a co-worker attended one of his Bible studies (!?). And, finally, there’s a new TV show that will has characters that are Christian but hypocritical. So, yeah: of their 20 choices, at least 8 partially deal with “Christians should be allowed to hate gays without consequences, gays should never be allowed to present themselves positively”. And only a handful aren’t trivial bullshit. You can just feel all that Christian persecution.

  10. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    A homosexual campaign launched formal investigations by online companies into Christian organizations. The online money-transfer company, PayPal, bowed to the pressure of the anti-Christian group, and sent notices of investigations to Christian groups, freezing their accounts.

    I think I signed that petition. I feel so proud now.

  11. Drew Smith says

    I’m still trying to figure out how the Montana incident (assuming that it actually happened, as I can’t find it mentioned in any online Montana newspaper) was “anti-Christian”. Are they saying that only Christians protest against abortion? That the incident would not have happened if the protester was not a Christian?

  12. acronymjim says

    I notice they’re also soliciting suggestions for additions to the list. That’s potentially egregious given the apparent lack of an ombudsman.

    A “telltale heart” may expose any lies in the end. Or would if they had any shame.

  13. raven says

    I’m still trying to figure out how the Montana incident (assuming that it actually happened, as I can’t find it mentioned in any online Montana newspaper) was “anti-Christian”.

    I put some keywords into google and couldn’t find any independent corroboration.

    All the sites that reported it were fundie xian sites and they all referenced each other.

    It may not have even happened.

  14. anteprepro says

    Oh man, the comments:

    Hidden employment discrimination for any Bible beleivers not lining up politically to support the overthrow of our previous Judeo – Christian basis of law & order. Pornographers have been behind this as well as feminists flooding into churches to seduce pastors or replacing them with PC antiBible

    Yep. Feminists and pornographers, working together to make pastors come up with more politically correct versions of the Bible. That’s so plausible that I need no further comment.

    ANY TIME Christanity is bashed it NEEDS to be in the news ~ it happens daily somewhere in this country. Why? Because of spineless politicians and corrupted media and uninformed voters!!

    Christian bashing needs to be in the news, because it’s so common! Riiiight…

    In these last days the top 10 only scratches the surface.

    Who cares if these are pathetic excuses for persecution? Even though this appears to be the worst these people can cobble together, there must be worse, because THE END IS NIGH!

    I would certainly think so, wondering why any genuine Christian would not wholeheartedly support the work Dr. Cass and his staff does to promote the truth. Shame on those who come here for nothing but to criticize, condemn and find fault with those who love God and His message. May God open your blind eyes.

    Lying/distorting/whining for homophobic Jesus: Something every True Christian must support.

    One that quickly comes to mind and is quite recent is the Christian worker who was fired from Macy’s department store when this individual did the right thing and prevented a trans-gender male from entering the women’s changing room.

    Truly a martyr for a noble cause…

    RINOs and the entire left is anti-Christian and need to be made servants to those of us who have been consistent in our faith.

    Maybe ask God to give you the gift of enslaving the less consistent faithful for Christmas this year. I’m sure you’ll get it. When has God ever failed to give you what you want via his magical powers?

    It won’t be long–Jesus IS coming soon! So be brave, keep yore Faith, and look up! This world is not our Home.

    What about all those students (in both K-12, and at the university level) who were bullied for their Christian faith by thier gay activist teachers? You know that the new anti-bulling campaign led by Lady Gaga will offer no protection against the bullies like her.

    Preventing bullying is now bullying. Wow. Is every part of Christianity doublethink now?

  15. raven says

    Preventing bullying is now bullying. Wow. Is every part of Christianity doublethink now?

    Look at it on the bright side.

    The uglier and crazier the xians get, the less of them there are.

    US xianity is choking on its own hate, lies, hypocrisy, idiocy, and insanity. All we can do it cheer them on and laugh.

  16. bnimble says

    I found the incident, I think. From this article on Daily Inter Lake:

    Law enforcement officials are investigating two homemade explosive devices that were apparently thrown from a vehicle Thursday at two Kalispell locations, including one aimed at a pro-life prayer vigil.

    No one was injured, though the devices — made up of an unknown chemical, a plastic bottle and aluminum foil — did explode.

  17. kemist says

    American Xians get their rocks off on being martyrs.

    Well, as long as it entails no actual suffering. Or effort beyond feeling very, very, very outraged that other people don’t want to bend to their every whims.

    It’s quite dandy being a martyr when all it entails is sitting on your fat ass and complain about people being mean to you on your computer.

    It won’t be long–Jesus IS coming soon! So be brave, keep yore Faith, and look up! This world is not our Home.

    If this is so difficult for you to endure, why not be gone for your better world already ? Like, right now ?

    Other people need the food and oxygen you know.

  18. 'Tis Himself, OM. says

    What a bunch of whiners. A baker getting boycotted for bigotry and a clothing store chain supporting an anti-bullying campaign are hardly the same as being thrown to the lions in the Colosseum.

  19. Drew Smith says

    Ah, and I found the follow-up article (April 15) where the Kalispell police arrested three teenagers (two were 16, one was 15) for the incidents.

  20. says

    Christians are constantly being targeted with attacks.

    For example, when I worked at Fisher-Price these fundamentalist newsletters circulated the information that we at Fisher-Price were trying to turn children to the dark side by including the words “seek the devil” in a children’s cassette.

    Our story, of course, was that it was in fact the words “seek a double” in the recording of the old children’s rhyme “Jenny Jenkins”:
    http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/j003.html

    But they never fell for it. We’d gone back in time to plant that ancient ear-worm for nothing.

    And then of course there was the woman who called to complain that a star on a spinner in what is commonly called a “busy box” would sometimes end up upside-down, which is a “sign of the occult” and terrified her every time she walked into her daughter’s room and saw that in her crib.

    We ALMOST had that kid’s soul forever, but her mom was too bright for us.

  21. andylowry says

    “Get’s?” “GET’S?” What the hell does that even mean? Christianity must be stopped before it ruins my favorite language! :)

  22. andylowry says

    “Get’s?” “GET’S?” What the hell does that even mean? Christianity must be stopped before it ruins my favorite language!

  23. says

    According to this article:

    http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_4380619a-6710-11e0-8098-001cc4c002e0.html

    the teens arrested are suspected of throwing several of these devices, and only one was thrown in the direction of an anti-abortion protestor.

    Kalispell Police Department officers arrested two 16-year-old boys Wednesday and a 15-year-old boy Thursday.

    According to a release by the Kalispell Police Department, the youths have been linked to at least four of the explosives and are believed to have been responsible for others.

    So as bad as it was, the protestor did not seem to have been targeted because of her protest so much as because she made an easy target.

  24. Pierce R. Butler says

    From a Kalispell tv station:

    Mary Anne Hofmann says she heard an explosion behind her and turned around to discover a water bottle, that was on fire. No one was injured from the explosion and no one saw who threw the bomb or where it came from.

    The antichoicers seem to have worked about more indignation about the Kalispell cops not getting as excited as they were than about the purported incident in the first place.

  25. unclefrogy says

    if that is the root of the story of the fire bombing story that is pathetic! the only thing that I can think of that would explode being made of a plastic bottle and foil would involve CO2 which “does not burn” to say the least.

    but of course it is persecution to complain about the “righteous” god loving christian doing gods work of judging “sinners” and fighting the devils work. there is after all only one god? right?

    uncle frogy

  26. Retired Prodigy Bill says

    It’s a Christmas miracle! PZ says that atheists are no good at pogroms and not a single troll has mentioned Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot.

  27. Dr. Audley Z. Darkheart, liar and scoundrel says

    ‘Tis:
    Like I’ve said in the past, these Christer douches don’t give a fuck about other Christians who are actually suffering. Ten-to-one odds say that they’ve got no idea what, for instance, has been happening to the Copts in Egypt. But, hey, they’re prolly not real Christians anyway, right?

  28. kemist says

    Ten-to-one odds say that they’ve got no idea what, for instance, has been happening to the Copts in Egypt. But, hey, they’re prolly not real Christians anyway, right?

    Of course not.

    You can tell by the brown skin.

  29. ema says

    Hands up all those who are surprised that the “someone threw a firebomb at an elderly lady *because* she was taking part in the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil” story is a lie.

    Also, this is pure propaganda gold:

    Less than 24 hours later, the Thomas More Society — a Chicago-based pro-life law center — produced a press release stating attorneys would file a formal complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Helena office.

    The release called the incident a “vicious fire-bombing attack on a pro-lifer” and a case of domestic terrorism.

    (H/T for linked articles @ #18 and #25)

  30. Azkyroth says

    Yep. Feminists and pornographers, working together to make pastors come up with more politically correct versions of the Bible. That’s so plausible that I need no further comment.

    There is, of course, some overlap, but the fundafucks wouldn’t know that.

  31. says

    It’s too bad there’s no way to engage in mass kidnappings of fundies, and keep them on ice for a year or two. It would be interesting to see how the remainder would respond. Would they think it was actually the Rapture, or rationalise it away because they didn’t get sucked into the sky?

  32. jayarrrr says

    “This world is not our Home. ”

    Then fucking LEAVE, already. the sooner the better. Stop hanging around shitting in our nest, fouling the rest of us people’s air and water, all because the “Holy Fathership” is coming for you “real soon”. “Crunch all you want, JEEEBUS is comin’ REAL SOON to take us someplace better!”.

    Why wait? Google “suicide” if you need any helpful hints on how to leave now.

  33. Gregory Greenwood says

    We’re terrible at this pogrom business. And the Christians are really feeble, whiny martyrs.

    Well, it is still 2011. The concerned xians citizens over at DefendChristians still have time to add “PZ calling us whiny and being really mean about the quality of our martyrdom” to their list of awful trials and nigh-unbearable suffering that have afflicted the faithful this year…

  34. Stacy says

    Hands up all those who are surprised that the “someone threw a firebomb at an elderly lady *because* she was taking part in the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil” story is a lie.

    Also, this is pure propaganda gold:

    Less than 24 hours later, the Thomas More Society — a Chicago-based pro-life law center — produced a press release stating attorneys would file a formal complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Helena office.

    The release called the incident a “vicious fire-bombing attack on a pro-lifer” and a case of domestic terrorism

    And now some teenage kids who worked up a (mostly harmless) toilet bomb could be in very serious trouble, thanks to some whiners with a persecution complex and the ridiculous “War on Terror”.

  35. johnfreethinker says

    I am not a Christian anymore, and have a number of problems with Christianity and its followers. However, based on all the evidence of current events and religious/ ideological intents, Christianity is not our real enemy.

    In view of the widespread gang rapes and other crimes by Muslims in Western Europe, the ever-expanding Saudi-Wahhabi influence, the increase of violent crime in areas where Somali Muslims have settled, including the rape and forced prostitution of American young women, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s explicit plan to replace the US government with a caliphate: in view of all this, the clear and present danger is Islam. Whatever Christianity has done, or wants to do, Islam has done and is doing much worse.

    I could go on describing the atrocities of Islam, beside which the evils of Christianity pale. The worst indictment of Islam, in fact, is that while Christianity has become somewhat more humanistic through the centuries, the path of Mohammed has gotten ever more inhumane.

    You may not like these words, but you know they are true. When did a Christian kill his daughter for “honor”? When did any Christian “marry” a six year-old girl? When has any Christian flown an airplane into a skyscraper, shouting, “Jesus is Lord!”? Christianity is an irritation; Islam is a true enemy.

    This does raise a question. Since people on this site criticize Christianity all the time, and often in the harshest of language, why do you not attack our real enemy, Islam? I really want to know.

  36. raven says

    john the idiot troll:

    This does raise a question. Since people on this site criticize Christianity all the time, and often in the harshest of language, why do you not attack our real enemy, Islam? I really want to know.

    John, you are an idiot.

    There isn’t any difference between fundie Moslems or fundie xians.

    But the Moslems are over there, screwing up their society. The fundie xians are over here screwing up our society. I live here, not there. It’s as simple as that. If you had ever seen a map of the world, this would be clear to you.

    I’ve been getting death threats from theists for over a decade like many of us. Every single one was from xians. None were from Moslems. 2/3’s of all terrorist plots and attacks in the USA since 9/11 have involved right wingers and xian terrorists.

    John unable to read a map or count:

    However, based on all the evidence of current events and religious/ ideological intents, Christianity is not our real enemy.

    Got that wrong, moron. There are only around 3 million Moslems in the USA. There are 236 million xians. If you could count you would realize already what that means. The number of wild eyed brain dead xian terrorists and their supporters vastly outnumber the Moslems.

    Not all xians are future mass murder wannabes. Same goes for Moslems. A lot of them are over here to escape their own dysfunctional societies.

  37. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    I really want to know.

    I don’t know about others, but I was promised a cozy little town somewhere in the south of Spain after the world finally falls under their command.

  38. shouldbeworking says

    When was the last time a Christian priest or pastor raped a child? When was the last time a Christian murdered a doctor or a planted a bomb at a clinic?

  39. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    In view of the widespread gang rapes and other crimes by Muslims in Western Europe

    I would love to know how come I haven’t heard about these widespread gang rapes. Let me guess… a media conspiracy?

  40. shouldbeworking says

    Beatrice! Sounds like we will be neighbour’s under the new world order! I have a good recipe for sangria, come on over after you settle in!

  41. RFW says

    Evangelical Christians [are] uneducated racists who hate and fear all foreigners.

    Truer words were never spoken, except that the word “all foreigners” needs to be extended to include anyone with brown, yellow, or red skin, anyone not a fundie, anyone with a half-decent education, all scientists, anyone who eats curries, anyone under the age of thirty, anyone not 150 lbs overweight, anyone who doesn’t have a tizzy about same-sex sex, anyone who points out the corruption of fundie “clergy”, anyone who lives in New York, anyone who can read, and so on.

    I’m sure Pharyngulites can add to the list.

  42. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    shouldbeworking,

    Thank you for the invitation, I wouldn’t mind some good sangria. You know what, I’ll try to pull some strings so that your home gets passed over during the pillaging.

  43. No One says

    This does raise a question. Since people on this site criticize Christianity all the time, and often in the harshest of language, why do you not attack our real enemy, Islam? I really want to know.

    You have never seen an article on this website criticizing islam?

    Here is PZ Myers engaging with crackpot muslims directly:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msOlpj886H4

    Take the time and you will find plenty of posts and threads criticizing islam. You are wrong and so is the “only attack chritians” meme. And by the way I don’t believe that you are not a christian, I think you are lying.

  44. quidam says

    The ‘firebomb’ was a “Drano bottle bomb”

    Water and Drano in a water bottle – makes a bang. Yes it’s stupid kids stuff, not particularly dangerous, and as has been said, the teens had been throwing several of them around, anti-choice protesters were not singled out.

  45. Erp says

    @johnfreethinker – You obviously don’t know much history. Medieval Europe had many marriages of young girls and boys (some far younger than 6) though consummation wasn’t until later (e.g., 12, Margaret Beaufort seems to have been 13 when she had Henry Tudor [note Muhammad’s wife was also not 6 when the marriage was consummated {supposedly she was 9}]). Killing women (or men) for ‘dishonoring the family’ is not unknown among people calling themselves Christians (see “The libertine must die: sexual dishonor and the unwritten law in the nineteenth-century United States” Journal of Social History 23(1):27-44 by Robert M. Ireland; though the killing was usually of the male partner, the woman was generally made an outcast).

    As to the original site, it is an insult to those who receive real abuse. Restricting it just to Christians receiving abuse for being Christians would be those accused of apostasy in Iran and facing execution, massacres in Nigeria (Muslim on Christian and Christian on Muslim), unregistered religious groups being criminally prosecuted and certain Christian groups (among others) having trouble registering in Belarus (this perhaps due to the influence of the Orthodox Church).

  46. says

    So, as a feminist I should be off seducing pastors? Now I’m not entirely averse to this; since that one church that I occasionally go to for musical reasons? The priest there is hot! She’s got the sexy librarian thing going on.

  47. Rumtopf says

    Couldn’t help but look up the report of two preachers being shot… The police believe the shooting was spurred by a gang-related grudge. Oh exploitation.

    http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/street-preachers-killed-for-practicing-their-religion-activist-254151.html

    “We have spoken with numerous witnesses,” Boynton Beach Police Chief G. Matthew Immler said Friday, “as well as the suspect, and at this point we have no reason to believe that the victims’ religious activities or beliefs factored into the commission of this crime.”

    Mahoney, who heads the Christian Defense Coalition, says that his and similar organizations will fight to prove the two men died while exercising their right to free speech and declaring their religious faith.

    Mahoney, better known as the head of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, met with police before his press conference.

    “We are pleading with the city of Boynton Beach, do not sweep the faith issue under the carpet,” Mahoney said.

  48. imthegenieicandoanything says

    Dear Mr. #40 Freethinker,

    No criticism of Islam here?

    You must be both new here and unusually determined to see what you want to see to write something that stupid and incorrect!

    I doubt anyone here (what an extreme thing to say about THIS site and believe is true!) is willing to defend the idiocy that is Islam, much less ignore the atrocities done under its cover.

    That said, your comment reeks of wingnut Xianity posing as “objective criticism” – and there’s more than a hint of outright bigotry there as well.

    You wouldn’t be one of those people who lie for Jesus, would you? I mean, lying is the Second Commandment to the typical Xian.

    Why they do it so BADLY always puzzles me, though.

  49. Gregory Greenwood says

    johnfreethinker @ 40;

    However, based on all the evidence of current events and religious/ ideological intents, Christianity is not our real enemy.

    Tell that to the homosexual teenagers bullied to the point of committing suicide by homophobic christians. Tell it to the women who have difficulty accessing essential reproductive medical care because of predominantly christian anti-choice movements. Tell it to the atheists denied custody of their children by sole virtue of their atheism by a court system corrupted by puritanical christian ideology pertaining to the supposed evils of apostasy.

    In view of the widespread gang rapes and other crimes by Muslims in Western Europe…

    Citation needed.

    the ever-expanding Saudi-Wahhabi influence

    The spreading influence in some regions of one particular militant subtype of islamic ideology tells us nothing about the motivations or goals of the vast majority of muslims who are not part of that sect.

    …the increase of violent crime in areas where Somali Muslims have settled, including the rape and forced prostitution of American young women…

    Citation needed.

    …and the Muslim Brotherhood’s explicit plan to replace the US government with a caliphate…

    The impotent pipe-dreams of militants on the other side of the planet are hardly a compelling reason to throw American muslims under the bus. And once again, the pan-islamic caliphate brigade are a minority movement within islam – don’t conflate a fringe group of maniacs with the entire muslim population of the world.

    in view of all this, the clear and present danger is Islam.

    Islam is not the highly politically influential, dominionist religious group in the US with the power to warp politics and attempt to force their theological agenda on everybody else – christianity is. Just take a look at the Republican line up of presidential candidates; all those left in contention are varying shades of xian militant, homophobia and misogyny are partically manditory, most are delusional reality-deniers when it comes to evolutionary theory and AGW and are generally anti-intellectual on a perverse point of principle, and all intend to erode the seperation of church and state in pursuit of making a truth of the lie of ‘one nation under (their) god’.

    In the light of this, are you sure that it is islam that is the ‘clear and present danger’?

    Whatever Christianity has done, or wants to do, Islam has done and is doing much worse.

    The long, brutal and bloody history of christian pogroms and genocides would beg to differ.

    I could go on describing the atrocities of Islam, beside which the evils of Christianity pale. The worst indictment of Islam, in fact, is that while Christianity has become somewhat more humanistic through the centuries, the path of Mohammed has gotten ever more inhumane.

    Have you ever encountered the ideology of the fundamentalist, evangelical christians? It is pure, unadulterated hatred of basically everyone who isn’t a part of their own sect, every bit as reactionary as the islamist militants, and rooted in a very similar attitudes toward social issues. There really isn’t a whole lot to choose between the two groups – the only real difference is that the muslim extremists have more guns. Well, unless you count the large contingent of fundamentalist christians in the US military and various US employed PMCs, that is…

    You may not like these words, but you know they are true.

    No, we don’t. You have made a lot of (often grotesquely ahistorical) assertions, but have provided no evidence to back up your claims.

    When did a Christian kill his daughter for “honor”?

    Actually, that has been a common practice throughout much of the history of christianity. The bible itself mandates the murder of a disobedient child.

    When did any Christian “marry” a six year-old girl?

    Child marriage has a long history in christian cultures, especially among the aristocracy in relation to marriage alliances and the like.

    When has any Christian flown an airplane into a skyscraper, shouting, “Jesus is Lord!”?

    The vast majority of domestic terror plots in the US have a militant christian component, usually in the form of an ethno-nationalist ideology that places christian religion as supposedly central to the ‘true’ cultural identity of the US.

    This does raise a question. Since people on this site criticize Christianity all the time, and often in the harshest of language, why do you not attack our real enemy, Islam? I really want to know.

    I take it you are new here? PZ has posted many articles that critique islam, and the many barbarisms associasted with the practice of some variants of that religion, in very unambiguous terms. That christianity is addressed more often than islam is simply becuase christianity has a greater negative impact of the lives of US citizens than islam does.

    I am not a Christian anymore, and have a number of problems with Christianity and its followers.

    Really? This seems odd, given your penchant for Fatwa envy

  50. says

    Sounds like more true Scotsmen. When a bunch of Muslim thugs brutalize someone it’s because they’re Muslim. When Christian thugs do the same things, it’s because they’re thugs.

    Modern mainstream Christianity may or may not be tamer than mainstream Islam but if it is, it’s because societies are better educated, not because Christianity is inherently less violent. Look at some of Christianity’s greatest hits: The Crusades, The Inquisition, The Holocaust, Slavery. Then there are the lessor evils like Jonestown and Waco–to us it seems obvious that these were the results of mental illness, not Christian belief per se, but you can bet that Muslims see these events as clear evidence of the failure of Christianity.

  51. Ichthyic says

    based on all the evidence of current events and religious/ ideological intents, Christianity is not our real enemy.

    you’re right John, xianity is not the real enemy.

    the very concept of religion itself is the enemy.

    a tool of con men to sucker people out of their money and goods at best, a tool to incite extreme violence and wars at worst.

    it’s high time it all went away.

    all of it.

    I doubt you would find that solution acceptable though.

  52. Ichthyic says

    Modern mainstream Christianity may or may not be tamer than mainstream Islam but if it is, it’s because societies are better educated, not because Christianity is inherently less violent.

    it’s more than that.

    what you see in countries where xianity dominates, is that they are mostly SECULAR.

    with secular LAWS that people generally agree will govern their society.

    it’s when people give up on agreed upon secular laws, and turn to Imams or Priests to tell them what’s right and wrong, that’s when the shit hits the fan.

    You’re entirely right that the flavor of the religious dogma is irrelevant; it is just a means to an end.

    You see xians proclaiming it a good thing to remove the rights of out-groups in the US daily.

    Imagine what it would be like if we gave up on the idea of rule by secular law, and let these motherfuckers really have what they want?

    It would indeed be just as bad as any Islamic theocracy you can name or imagine.

  53. Midnight Rambler says

    Here’s the original source of the “firebomb” story, with a picture of the thing. You might notice that it looks kind of funny for a Molotov cocktail. That’s because, according to the actual news story on it, it consisted of “an unknown chemical, a plastic bottle and aluminum foil”. That makes it sound like an acid “bomb”, the kind that some prankster put in our college bathroom last year – the acid reacts with the aluminum to form a gas (probably chlorine), and explodes when the pressure is high enough.

    So the upshot is – the incident actually happened, but it was most likely some stupid kids looking for someone to scare. Note that there were two bombs thrown that day, only one at the anti-abortion group.

  54. josh says

    Wait, another “honor killings don’t happen in other religions” claim? Check out Hindus and Catholics.

    Glad to see “Islam is not the problem: theocracy’s the problem” in the rebuttals. There’s real danger of theocratic thuggery from religions other than Islam too, as PZ regularly documents.

  55. kraut says

    “Since people on this site criticize Christianity all the time, and often in the harshest of language, why do you not attack our real enemy, Islam? I really want to know.”

    Muslims in general are not the enemy in NA or of NA, the influence of fundy christianity in politics is, in the US as well in Canada.

    Just because Christians generally do not strictly follow the demands of Leviticus anymore, does not mean that shit is not in the unholy book. They just choose to ignore it until a fundy catering president might find it worthwhile to rewrite the law based on those stupidities.

    Islamists – especially the Saudi wahabis – are under special protection by your government, because, you know, the OIL…no, they are not enemies, they are actually quite lovely allies, especially when helping to kill demonstrators in Bahrein with US sourced weapons; meanwhile the same US scream abuse about Syria and helped to install a muslim regime in Libya.

    Don’t try to deflect from the real threat in and to NA, which definitely is not Islam. After all, the Taliban was helped – as usual – into the saddle by the US, your friendly supporter of all despots that are your bastards.

  56. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    Those are not honor killings, but let’s not forget people who follow the Pearls’ method of child rearing, or rather – training. Sometimes, those children don’t get out of it alive.

  57. johnfreethinker says

    First of all, I honor you for allowing me to speak here. Since some of you consider me a “troll”, whatever that means, I am glad you have not blocked me.

    Also I am glad to hear that PZ Myers’ blog occasionally mentions Islam in the otherwise unceasing rants against Christianity. OBTW, do not insult me by calling me, or implying that I am, a Christian. Jesus Christ, if he exists at all, can phallate me. That should settle the “xian” issue. I am an Aletheist and I worship only Truth.

    I will simply ignore the several personal insults such as “idiot”. They are or should be well beneath the conversational level of educated, civil people such as yourselves.

    Now as to all the multiculturist-style argumentation: it is essentially tu quoque, i.e, perhaps Muslims are guilty of these things, but so are Christians, your favorite enemy, Hindus, etc. Or as several have said, all religions are the enemy. That is, let us not single out Islam, no matter what the evidence says.

    Thus the back-handed defense of Islam by comparing it to other religions: shame on you. When I say, “When has any Christian flown an airplane into a tower/ killed his daughter for ‘honor’/ shot up a room full of his fellow soldiers, while shouting ‘Jesus is Lord!’/ engaged in gang rape in Jesus’ name, etc.”…

    When I say those things, Obviously I am referring to the present, to the now, this general time period, you know: the 20th and 21st centuries. I know very well what Christians did in the Middle Ages, but Muslims Are Still Doing The Same and in some cases, even worse. I already said that, but no one cared to notice.

    So let me repeat: whatever Christianity has done, Islam Still Does Perpetrate the Same Atrocities and some of its own, as well. You know what? I am getting tired of this. If anyone wants to learn the truth about Islam, or to discuss anything else, come on over to my place. FB John Freethinker.

  58. anubisprime says

    # 20

    ‘being thrown to the lions in the Colosseum’

    Thing is there is not a great deal of evidence to back that little jolly up!

    Folk were killed by animals of and on…some sources say criminals were killed during the lunch pause at the games…they were apparently all day affairs…but it was during fiesta time and there were not many that stayed for that particular entertainment.
    No baying crowds and the measure was a pragmatically inspired move…those condemned to death were done so in the cheapest most affective way.
    No idea if that was right…but certainly the story as contemporary xians like to whine is not in any way a definite reality…

    There were rumours that a few xians met their maker thus at the time…but it seems those xians so condemned were actually busted for other illegal acts that had the death penalty…not because they were actually xian per se!…in other words they were criminals.

    It seems such claims emanated from the 17th century when an xian guilty conscience made up the tale to excuse if not justify the fact that the amphitheatre was being pillaged for building material to rebuild St Peters.

    It would not surprise…

    It is a fact that in the 4th century, Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to become a Christian, had over 3000 Christians executed because their interpretation of the Bible did not agree with his.
    A number that dwarfs any subsequent claim of lion nom nom at the games!

    There is very little mention in any chronicles…almost zilch and what is there tends to the reporting of a rumour well after such practice was supposed to have stopped…but no actual lion v xian love fest with names or eye witness accounts !

    It is seemingly a xian fantasy…like so much else in their sad little lives…it would be impossible to declare it a total lie but it was obviously never anything like the preferred xian tale of intolerance they traditionally get all gooey eyed, damp knickered and dreamy over it is far more likely it is based on wishful thinking, lies and martyrdom complex…they like folk feeling sorry for them…and their rather childish delusion.

  59. Ms. Daisy Cutter says

    Kemist: ”…all it entails is sitting on your fat ass…”

    RFW: “…anyone not 150 lbs overweight…”

    Fatphobia is such a progressive ideal. Both of you are invited to enclose dead, rotting porcupines with your asses.

    John “Freethinker”:

    Obviously I am referring to the present, to the now, this general time period, you know: the 20th and 21st centuries.

    You were provided with barbarities that xtians have committed in recent years, you fuckstain. Most of which you probably don’t give a shit about because, hey, you’re almost certainly a straight, cisgendered man and the xtian fundies are a lot less likely to go after YOUR rights.

    Oh, and take your tone trolling and shove it up your ass, and plug it in there with a putrescent porcupine.

  60. Niki M says

    johnnotthinking:

    You whined about there being no opposition to Islam in this blog.

    You were given examples of how wrong you are about the opposition, and why Christianity is a more pressing threat to most of the people visiting this site.

    What the fuck are you whining about now?

    btw, you’re on the Internet. There’s no fucking excuse for the phrase “whatever that means” when I assume you have access to Google. Try looking up “troll”, “tone-troll”, and while you’re at it, “atheist opposition to Islam” (you can probably find some example right here on this very site if you bothered to look before JAQing off) and kindly fuck off.

  61. says

    Jeez. I just got chewed out by Chris Stedman on the HuffPo for being an evil anti-Islamic bigot, and now John Freethinker is whining that I never criticize Islam. So confused!

  62. opposablethumbs, que le pouce enragé mette les pouces says

    Also, Warren Jeffs (who is hardly unique, even if he’s unusual in actually having been tried, convicted and jailed for the statutory rape his religion smiles upon). Not exactly ancient history.

  63. ema says

    When I say, “When has any Christian … engaged in gang rape in Jesus’ name, etc.”…

    Please, perpetrating individual rapes is for puny Muslims. The Christian way is to legislate the extent of brutality, the state of some vaginal tissue, and religious belief required in order for a woman to be deemed a proper rape victim. Like so, from South Dakota legislator Bill Napoli in 2006:

    [A] rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. [A] virgin. [R]eligious. [P]lanned on saving her virginity until she was married. [B]rutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated.

  64. Niki M says

    When I say, “When has any Christian … engaged in gang rape in Jesus’ name, etc.”…

    Oh! ema, thank you for reminding me of this one quote of that moron.

    John, add “corrective rape” to your list of things to Google.

  65. raven says

    Those are not honor killings, but let’s not forget people who follow the Pearls’ method of child rearing, or rather – training. Sometimes, those children don’t get out of it alive.

    One of the fundie xian’s more charming rituals is human child sacrifice.

    Usually they kill them by withholding medical treatment. Sometimes, they torture them to death.

    There is no data about which method of sacrifice their Sky Monster deity prefers. But then again, the Sky Monster has been silent for a long time about everything.

  66. raven says

    John the lying idiot:

    engaged in gang rape in Jesus’ name, etc.”…

    The Serbs invented the modern version of mass rape as part of terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

    The Serbs are Xians.

    During the last Balkan wars not very long ago, the Serbs rounded up women from other ethnic groups, mostly Croats and Bosnian Moslems, and raped them en masse for days.

    The numbers here are huge, tens of thousands at least.

    Hey John-nonthinker. When did Moslems round up 6 million Jews and gas them to death in premeditated genocidal murder? Like the good xians of Germany did.

    I’m starting to see what John nonthinkers problem is. He is a crackpot, an anti-Moslem hater who obsessively rants and raves on message boards. Someone, not fully in contact with reality. Veruckt, crazy.

  67. raven says

    Rape in the Bosnian WarFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search

    Rape in the Bosnian war pertains to the characteristic elements of sexual abuse in the ethnic showdown between Serb, Croat and Bosniak fractions in the Bosnian war. While on a lesser scale, women of all ethnic groups were affected,

    more specifically, rape was used as a highly systematized instrument of war by Serb armed forces predominantly targeting women and girls of the Bosniak ethnic group for physical and moral destruction. Estimates of the numbers raped range from 20,000 to 50,000.[1][2]

    This has been referred to as “mass rape”,[3][4][5][6][7] particularly with regard to the coordinated use of rape as a weapon of war.[4][5][6][7][8]. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) declared that “systematic rape”, and “sexual enslavement” in time of war was a crime against humanity, second only to the war crime of genocide. The Kunarac case was the first time in judicial history anyone had been found guilty of these crimes.[4]

    “Estimates of the numbers raped range from 20,000 to 50,000.[1][2]”

    In terms of atrocities and crimes against humanity, xians are always at or near the top.

  68. Rev. BigDumbChimp says

    I am an Aletheist and I worship only Truth.

    You are a moron who feels the need to religionize something to feed an emotional hole with a pacifier.

  69. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Whenever I see “freethinker” in a nym, it is invariably a lie. JFT is just a typical Xian apologist without any godbotting, not a freethinker.

  70. carlie says

    Obviously I am referring to the present, to the now, this general time period, you know: the 20th and 21st centuries. I know very well what Christians did in the Middle Ages,

    So you entirely ignored Gregory Greenwood’s comment way back at #57, posted a full hour and a half before you made your comment, that said:

    Tell that to the homosexual teenagers bullied to the point of committing suicide by homophobic christians. Tell it to the women who have difficulty accessing essential reproductive medical care because of predominantly christian anti-choice movements. Tell it to the atheists denied custody of their children by sole virtue of their atheism by a court system corrupted by puritanical christian ideology pertaining to the supposed evils of apostasy.

    Because those are things that are happening right now. Or do women and gays and divorcees not count?

  71. says

    Not to mention Uganda and other countries are trying to enact “Christian Sharia” with US backed support.

    And the Lords Resistance Army which is notorious for using child soldiers, rape and controlling people through forced drug addiction.

    And the Christian terrorists that gun down children at a youth camp or plant bombs or curb stomp lesbians.

    And if we’re going to be technical the NeoNazis are an offshoot of Christianity and justify their hatred with their version of the genesis mythology.

  72. KG says

    johnfreethinker,

    It’s always odds-on that anyone adopting a nym of this kind will be some sort of fuckwit, and generally a bigot as well. You fit the pattern perfectly.

  73. Ms. Daisy Cutter says

    KG: It’s one of those “If you have to say it…” kinds of nyms.

    See also any name containing “Reason,” “Logic,” “Objective,” “Freedom,” “Patriot,” and the like.

  74. KG says

    Ms. Daisy Cutter,

    Yes, the only exception I can think of immediately is Truth Machine (who’s also posted here under another nym that I can’t recall), who could be a real shit, but was very sharp, and usually right.

  75. jalen441 says

    As a native son and current resident of Alabama, I feel obliged to mention that I don’t want our piece of shit governor to be my brother, and his name is Bentley, not Buckley. Seriously, fuck that guy.

  76. No One says

    johnfreethinker says:

    So let me repeat: whatever Christianity has done, Islam Still Does Perpetrate the Same Atrocities and some of its own, as well. You know what? I am getting tired of this. If anyone wants to learn the truth about Islam, or to discuss anything else, come on over to my place. FB John Freethinker.

    And you are a pompous ass. What the fuck makes you think you can teach me about the atrocities of islam? You can’t even spell fellatio correctly.

  77. Gregory Greenwood says

    carlie @ 80;

    So you entirely ignored Gregory Greenwood’s comment way back at #57, posted a full hour and a half before you made your comment…

    I think that actually reading other people’s comments and considering their relation to his own positions would cramp johnfreethinker’s style. It is really hard to get into the flow of being judgemental and self righteous when you have to stop all the time to read comments for comprehension. It is far easier to rail at the ever-compliant strawmen – the (ig)noble Busters of apologetics that, like their TV namesake, exist only to get burned/crushed/mangled but, unlike the intrepid world famous crash test dummy, do so for religion, not science…

    Because those are things that are happening right now. Or do women and gays and divorcees not count?

    Come now, since when have women, gays, atheists and divorcees ever counted in the eyes of xian apologists ‘Aletheists who worship only Truth'(TM)?

  78. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    andylowry #23:

    In re: “Get’s”

    Of course, the poor soul had just been in the process of examining provisions of an ancient, pre-rabbinical, Jewish divorce decree, repeatedly writing of the “get’s provisions,” and failed to make the easy transition from studying an ancient document for the insights aramaic marriage law could give to the marriage exclusion movement today.

    Or, maybe the fundie is a complete ass who rejects “knowing things” as uppity, god-questioning behavior and can’t be counted on to understand or correctly conjugate the single most common non-helping verb and 47th most common word in the english language (beating out “me” by 3 spaces). …

    …In a fucking press release.

    I suppose I have to leave it to you to make your decision.

  79. martinbadke says

    Often in these sort of things it brings me solice to see how little traffic the web site gets. All that moral outrage and it gets a few dozen comments across weeks. I look to the advisory board and see a nest of intellectual incest. The lot of them seem bigger by echoing the scraps of news stories any one finds. And last but not least, does nobody proof read pages?

  80. johnfreethinker says

    Really, I had expected a better showing from (otherwise) intellectually astute people such as yourselves. You see the folly of creationism; you understand the danger of faith-based thinking; you stand for reason versus religion; we should be best friends.

    How is it, then, that not once has any of you complimented or agreed with me? There is so much foul language directed toward me, I feel as though surrounded by adolescents whose hormonal content far exceeds their cranial capacity. I am sure you can do better; I know you can.

    Yet, and despite our essential agreement (I know you will correct me if I am wrong) that the Scientific Method is the Only Thing Keeping Us from the Dark Ages: nonetheless you will attack what I say. Moreover, you are particularly touchy about anything that smells of “spirituality”.

    And not one of you can contradict me when I say that terrorists are Muslims. By FBI statistics, 97% of the most wanted terrorists have Muslim names. Islam has caused more human suffering than any other ideology, right down to the 100+ people killed by Boko Haram over the Christmas weekend.

    But this reality somehow eludes you, yet you say that I did not spell phallate correctly. Who cares how I spelled it? The point is I am certainly not an “xian”. Nor am I an apologist for Jesus; but at least he was not a child molester like Mohammed.

    Ironically, the Muslims (disciples of Mohammed) you do not take seriously, would take my insult to their religion quite seriously. The number of times you attack Islam compared to Christianity is about the same as the number of actual Christian terrorists versus Islamic ones.

    This bizarre inversion of reality leads me to the conclusion that Christians are just safer targets than Muslims: more politically correct, and less likely to actually kill someone. The Muslims must love that self-deception.

    I have spent far too much time here; most you would agree with that. Anyone who wants to speak with me further is invited to FB John Freethinker.

  81. says

    How is it, then, that not once has any of you complimented or agreed with me?

    you want to be complimented for the dreck you spew on here regularly? O.o

    To sum things up:
    john doesn’t want women to have the same rights to bodily autonomy that other people have; he thinks “wigger” is a perfectly fine word to use; and he’s incapable of making coherent arguments against the dangers of Islam, instead resorting to Islamophobia and shit he pulled out of his ass.

    yeah, you’re one fine asshole with an impressively Christian perspective, for a non-Christian. That’s all the complimenting you deserve.

  82. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Really, I had expected a better showing from (otherwise) intellectually astute people such as yourselves.

    That statement alone shows you are far, far, from intellectually astute. Which would have required you to check the archives both here and at SB to determine whether your idiocy and bigotry would be welcomed. It is a loser ploy that insinuates you are the smartest kid on the block, and we should swallow all the drivel you post without questioning. We question everything, and especially newcomers with attitudes. Want to try again with “I am a Islamophobic bigot, I’m sorry, good-bye”

  83. stanton says

    We question everything, and especially newcomers with attitudes. Want to try again with “I am a Islamophobic bigot, I’m sorry, good-bye”

    I’ve pointed this out before, but, a bigoted tone-troll like johnfreethinger would sooner kill himself than admit that.

  84. says

    How is it, then, that not once has any of you complimented or agreed with me?

    Honey, we’re not your girlfriend or your mother. We don’t have to pat you on the head just because you’ve graced us with your odious bigoted presence – even less so when you’re just talking complete bullshit and pretending not to see anyone’s argument that doesn’t agree with you.

    And not one of you can contradict me when I say that terrorists are Muslims.

    So what the fuck would you call assholes who shoot abortion doctors, that Brevik asshole in Sweden, the OK city bomber, and assholes who gas trains and blow up bombs in their own home country who would never step one foot in a mosque? I mean, other than “assholes”?

    Terrorists are fucking terrorists.

    Please keep your ball and stay home, you illiterate ignorant waste of pixels. You’re not smart enough to play in this yard.

  85. says

    Really, I had expected a better showing from (otherwise) intellectually astute people such as yourselves. You see the folly of creationism; you understand the danger of faith-based thinking; you stand for reason versus religion; we should be best friends.

    How is it, then, that not once has any of you complimented or agreed with me?

    Going off the data you present in the first paragraph the most likely answer is that you are wrong.

  86. SallyStrange, Spawn of Cthulhu says

    I don’t understand why you crave the approval of people who have nothing but contempt for you, johnfreethinker. I got over that in 9th grade.

  87. janine says

    I have spent far too much time here; most you would agree with that. Anyone who wants to speak with me further is invited to FB John Freethinker.

    Just one question. Why did you choose such an ironic moniker?

  88. johnfreethinker says

    I am going, once again, to ignore the foul language and insults. I am going instead to speak on the epithet applied to me, “Islamophobic”. This implies I have an irrational fear/ hatred of Islam.

    Well, if you read history, the Qur’an, the blogs on this “religion”, you will find it very worthy of fear/hate. Rather than detail Islamic atrocities, which I know you will attempt to counter with Christian ones, I will simply challenge you, if you have the courage, to come to my FB John Freethinker and compare Islam to everything else.

    Call it a game. You will give a 21st-century example of non-Islamic religious atrocity (you may choose any or all other religions), and I will do the same for Islam, only. Then your turn to give any religion’s atrocity, and mine to give Islam’s. We will continue until one runs out of atrocities. You know in your heart who will run out first. Religions are atrocious, but Islam is the mother of atrocities. And that is before we start counting victims. I will consider a lack of response from you as cowardice, and forfeiture of the challenge. JFT

  89. Beatrice, anormalement indécente says

    “I’m going to ignore everything you said. Blah, blah, Islam is eeeevil, blah, balh, blah. If you don’t indulge me that will mean I’m right. Actually, whatever you say, it will mean I am right.”

  90. says

    We will continue until one runs out of atrocities. You know in your heart who will run out first.

    that’s precious. you’re very ignorant of how fucked up the world really is. I also note with amusement that even you realize that for your stupid trick to even remotely have a chance at working on someone, you have to limit your scope to a single decade.

  91. Ariaflame says

    Friedthinker, you seem to be missing a lot of points. As well as manners. Good manners for example dictate that you look up the conventions for a place and comply with them. Not bring your own in. So tone trolling? Fail. Definitely not appreciated here.

    I don’t believe that anyone is saying that Islam is any better than Christianity. But this post? This post is about Christianity and your attempts to derail it? Fail.

    If you are not against fundamentalists of any flavour that twist their creeds to justify acts of a despicable nature, then you are not on our side.

    And really? Lack of response is cowardice? What are you, twelve? I haven’t been dared since I was at school.

    And with all your worshipping of the Truth? Frankly I get very worried about people who feel the need to Capitalise Words. Facts are facts. They exist. Finding them out, and the way the universe works is a great and wonderful thing, but it is not something to be worshipped.

  92. says

    I am going instead to speak on the epithet applied to me, “Islamophobic”. This implies I have an irrational fear/ hatred of Islam.

    Well, if you read history, the Qur’an, the blogs on this “religion”, you will find it very worthy of fear/hate.

    so are many spiders; but the reflexive, excessive fear of them is still called arachnophobia. Islam is not inherently more dangerous than other systemic superstitions. And since unlike Christian fundamentalism it stands no chance at getting its hands on the largest military in the world, I’m less concerned about it than I am about fundie Christianity.

  93. Gregory Greenwood says

    I will consider a lack of response from you as cowardice, and forfeiture of the challenge. JFT

    A school-yard challenge? Isn’t that just adorable?