From the Support Damon facebook group (which Damon’s brother is updating):
“This may sound like a petty update but Damon’s parent’s (my parents as well, obviously) threw his possessions outside on their front porch and they have left town on “vacation.” They won’t answer our calls. Currently the only thing missing is his Playstation 3 (that he bought with his own money). I hope that it will turn up. We’re still trying to contact the parents about it.”
Such Christian love. Thank goodness Damon has his siblings (he’s moving in with his brother in Texas) and the outpouring of the atheist community (which has already raised over $9000 in scholarships for him).
Disgusting when someone’s imaginary friend is more important than their own child.
What horrible people.
It sounds odd, but the type of crazy can really matter. I live in the Catholic part of Louisiana and that injects just enough diversity (the Catholic schools here have the best evolution curriculum) to keep things on an even keel. Up where Damon is, half the parishes are dry and nearly all the kids who are successful have left the area. It’s a really economically depressed area…contiguous with the impoverished areas of southern Arkansas and most of Mississippi. Things just get really scary overall when you go about halfway up the state.
Poor dude. This is supposed to be an awesome time for him. He’s getting out of the kid prison called high school and looking forward to the exciting future that he has, but instead…this. Where is the hearting. Sheez.
What kind of parents would do that to their child?! He’s their own flesh and blood!
Every day think I can’t get more disgusted with religion.Spoiler alert: I am disappointed every day.
Actually, asonge touches on the very point I’ve been mulling over for the last 24 hours: “The good ones all get out”. Damon has gotten lots of support on his choice to GTFO of there, but as far as I’ve seen, not one person has said, you know, I support him on that, but, if he took the even braver (and more dangerous) road of choosing to stay there and exist as a 24-7-365, living breathing reproach to the community, I’d support him in that, too.Because, while his community may have turned against him, the fact remains that it’s still HIS community, too. He has every right to leave, but he also has every right to stay. And if he leaves, he also has every right to stay in contact, monitor what goes on in his former hometown, how it treats his friends still living there, and use newfound net-fame as a tool to shine an unflattering spotlight on it.I’ve been thinking about seeing if he’ll friend me on FB, just to pass him that message. I think I’ll go do that now..
wow, what a petty, cruel thing to do to a kid. good thing at least that he’s an adult and had already made plans to move out, but such cruelty from parents always hurts
If you think that’s bad, guess what they would’ve done if he’d been gay, too.
Too shocked to be outraged, WTF are they thinking?
If I had a “community” that shitty, I’d ditch it and find a new one. I certainly wouldn’t claim such a waste of atoms as mine.
that may not be all that feasable, he has a brother in texas to stay with…having a roof is a pretty overriding concern for most folks, he was kicked out of his parents, just graduated highschool, chances are he doesn’t have much if any housing oppritunities otherwise. plus, I’ve no issue with someone wanting to leave a community where you get death threats simply for wanting to uphold the constitution and have a fair and equal graduation for all. personally I don’t generally think that the more dangerous and confrontational route is always, or even usually, the correct course…there are other ways to combat things, and other, better, times to fight…personally, I think the best fight for athiesm he could do is dedicate himself to his higher education, and later speak from a broader more informed more scientific position, rather than being one young target of religious fanaticism.
I think he’s doing the right thing by leaving. A community like that has no right to survive, and hopefully it will disintegrate into irrelevance rather than have a lasting impact on future generations.
I’ve thought exactly the same thing. If atheists completely abandon a place, then they’re just passing the problems along to the next generation of atheists. Damon is fortunate that he has the option of leaving. A lot of people don’t have that option, especially Bastrop High School students who are still a year or two or three away from graduation.
there’s heroism and then there’s senseless martyrdom
I can’t even imagine how that must feel.And bastards better give him his damn PS3 back.
there was some comment about a pastor speaking out against the threats but still full of the common “we are such an oppressed marginalized religion, everyone’s always been out to get us…” kinda tone…it’s somewhat amazing when you can claim to be the dominant religion of our time, and yet still also claim to be the oppressed minority in the same breath. but it made me think…whatever happened to guys like Mr. Rogers, who specifically went out of his way to NEVER bring up religion in his show even though he was a Reverend, because he did not want to exclude ANY children? he never had any question about what was more important, there was never any “crisis of faith” where he felt obligated to bring religion into his children program…
I miss Mr. Rogers.
Well, in the OT it would have called for stoning… but I digress. It’s very sad.
It’s better to let all that hatred go. I’ve had problems with my extended family (mother and sister) and it feels so good to purge that hatred from my life. I wish Damon the best in his new life in Texas and hope that the future is bright for him!
This is very sad and quite disappointing. I actually just graduated today from a Catholic highschool in Houston, Texas and I am on his side (I’m a pastafarian! R’Amen.) His parents should be ashamed but frankly its good that he is leaving that town. Texas has better schools and is actually more liberal then some people think (especially Austin!) Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that he has such a compassionate brother and I hope his life is better here. Welcome to the Lone Star State!
This is just another sign of people who claim to lead Christian lives. I started to wake up to the truth of life and ‘faith’ when I was 14 years old. My stepfather (former, he’s in the bighouse until next year. He’s served his whole freaking sentence!) was molesting me at the time, and I was taught all of my childhood to “Trust in God, pray, and he’ll solve all of your problems. He must’ve been to busy or just didn’t give a flying flip. I spoke put myself, and an aunt totally supported me through the entire process. So, to all of you ppl who knock on my door or ask me ‘have you found Jesus and let him into your heart?’ Let me answer all of you now, KEEP YOUR BLIND, PREDJUDICED BRAINWASHING TO YOURSELVES! Atheists and freethinkers, stand up and make your voices heard.
The worst my parents did was threaten not to come to my wedding. …Oh and try to give my wife (then fiancee) a lecture on what Christianity is, because she, the poor dear, hadn’t ever been a Christian and didn’t know what it meant to be moral.Bad? Yes. But they did come to the wedding, and we even got a half-apology from my father (“Sorry I put my foot in my mouth.”) I know it’s not much, but trust me: for them, it’s impressive. Don’t know what they’d have done had I told them this at a point in my life when they had more control over me, like when I was in high school and just about to go to college… I benefited a lot, it would seem, by not saying anything until I was independent enough that they couldn’t actually do anything.This kid, obviously, is not in that situation at all. And I commend him for having the guts to take his stand at his age and with the family he has. It’s courage, frankly, that I just wouldn’t have had.Good luck, kid, wherever you end up.
Louisiana must be a scary damn place if Texas is a step up.
My collective response to all the replies: Please note I didn’t say I thought he was making the wrong choice (in fact, if I was asked directly what I thought the one best choice was, I’d say exactly what he is doing – getting out).My point is, too often advice comes in the form of “you should do X”. Personally, I can’t stand that type of advice, because I find it’s about the least helpful kind of advice one can get. No reasons, no supporting informaton, no alternative choices, simply “do X”.He’s escaping. That deserves support. He’s getting help from his brother, and a bunch of outsiders on the net helping him from afar. That deserves support too. He’s also got like-minded friends still left in that community, both in and out of the closet. Whether by choice or not, they’re staying. Agreed, that’s likely a harder choice than the one he’s made. True, their circumstances are different (as far as I know, no one’s directly threatened them, and their parents haven’t locked the door behind them). But at least one is an “out” atheist in a town that is openly contemptuous of atheists. Regardless, it’s their choice to stay, and, I think, a choice that also deserves support.Put another way, extreme community harassment such as this is illegal (the school-prayer issue aside, making death threats is most certainly illegal), and it’s mostly irrelevant whether a) the victim successfully flees the situation, b) has no choice and can’t escape it, or c) stands right where they are and says “FU, threaten me all you want, I’m not moving”. In all these cases, it’s still harassment, and (IMO) deserves substantive legal action.Excuse the behavior with even the slightest hint of “well, why doesn’t the victim just leave?”, and communities like this can claim the right to purge the “undesireables” and “purify” their communities. A right I, for one, say they don’t have.Beyond the legal, my hope for the situation is that he doesn’t forget the friends that are still there, and does however much or little he can to help them from afar, as others (most especially including his brother) helped him from afar.
Don’t be too harsh on them.They need to pay tithes to the Church in order not to go to Hell for their wayward son. And everyone knows how hard it is to make ends meet in this economy, so I think they can be forgiven for hocking the kid’s Playstation. It’s not like he can use it, anyway, when he’s living in a cardboard box under a bridge somewhere.
Tim Otis hit it out of the park. Success after persecution would be the ultimate revenge.
Now that’s just uncalled for. Y’all. Yeehaw. Cowboy hat. Uhm.Okra?
Damon’s parents may legally be responsible for him, even if he doesn’t live with them, for things like college tuition and health care coverage. I wonder if anyone is helping him get at least that much from them.
If he was gay it’s even money they would have sent him to “reorientation camp.”
Being a former born-again type I know how these nutters think. Chances are, Damon will NEVER get his PS3 back because the parents have decided that it was that “demon” of a device that “shipwrecked his faith” in the first place.Yeah. Demon inanimate objects and mechanical and electronic devices. It makes my brain hurt!