They’ve done it again. They’ve declared that the ordination of women is as heinous a crime as raping children, simultaneously minimizing the trauma of child-rape and maximizing the insult to women. I don’t know how they do it. The Catholic church is rich, they’ve got a lot of very smart people suckered into their dogma, and they’ve been the voice of religion in the West for one and half millennia. How can they be so godawful horrible at this?

And then I realized it’s the 21st century, they’ve got lots of money, so they probably have communications experts all over the place. As we all know, the one strategy they all have is to suck up to their audience and never make them uncomfortable with new ideas, so when the Pope or a cardinal consults them on some medieval brain-fart they just had, they encourage him and reassure him and avoid telling him that it’s really stupid, and presto, the poor dumb priests confidently announce it to a skeptical world.

And best of all, the PR experts then get to manage the blowback. It’s a perfect gig.

Enough. David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer who wandered the streets of New York in the 1970s, killing people in their cars, has a lot of new friends now: born again Christians. And he has turned into a shill for Jesus.

I think I’m feeling ill.

That’s some houseguest. The Pope invited himself to visit England, and asked the British government to pay for it — that takes some gall right there — and is now revealing that the bill for his visit will be at least £20 million. They’re dropping all that cash to fête a ringleader for child rapists…it makes no sense. What are people doing over there?

There ought to be a flat declaration that if he wants to visit England, he’s doing so as a private citizen — all costs to be paid by the Catholic church — and that there will also be no protection against being served any legal papers. He’s head of a criminal organization, and that shouldn’t warrant any special privileges.

In North Carolina, Christians defaced an atheist billboard. These things happen; there are always a few jerks in any movement who’ll go out and vandalize private property because they’re so sure they’re in the right that the laws don’t apply to them. Normally, the organizations and the sane people behind the movement will repudiate such actions — if it had been a Christian billboard (and there are many of those, I can tell you) that had been defaced (which I have never seen happen), I’d be deploring the action myself.

Unfortunately, sane people are in short supply on the side of Christianity. They do have Chrissy Satterfield, though.

Just when I start believing there is no hope for our country I get a little reminder from my God that all is not lost. It was reported June 29 that a billboard sign sponsored by a North Carolina atheist organization had been vandalized. The ad reads, “One Nation Indivisible.” It seems someone didn’t think the sign was an accurate depiction of our Pledge of Allegiance, so the vandals inserted “Under God” with spray paint – and I couldn’t be more relieved. It’s nice to know that I am not alone in my beliefs and that some people are still willing to stand on the right side of truth.

Never would I encourage vandalism, but in this case I think I’ll let it slide. Atheists have been vandalizing my beliefs for years, so it’s about time the shoe was on the other foot. When asked about the vandalism, William Warren, the spokesman for Charlotte Atheists and Agnostics, said, “It was done by one or two people off on their own who decided their only recourse was vandalism rather than having a conversation.” Hmm. That’s interesting, because the Charlotte Atheists and Agnostics felt its only recourse was to deliberately insult those who understand the importance of “Under God.” They probably figured that because the Bible teaches Christians to turn the other cheek, we’ll just take their abuse forever. We will only take so much before we stand up against our oppressors. Besides, I can’t count how many times an atheist and I have had a “conversation.” They’re not as calm and passive as Warren suggests.

Oh. “I’d never encourage vandalism, but <wink, wink> atheists deserve it.”

The brain of Chrissy is a broken and frightening thing. The North Carolina billboard is about as mild as we can get — it’s got a simple and even patriotic message about national union that simply uses a phrase from the pledge of allegiance, pointedly leaving out the 1950s addition of “under god”. Chrissy characterizes this as “abuse”, and that for someone to hold an opinion different from her own is “vandalizing her beliefs”. The atheists have apparently been sticking a spray can nozzle up her nostrils and scrawling graffiti on her brain…which if you think about it, actually explains a lot.

The whole article is a self-righteous exercise in justifying vandalism and encouraging others to continue the practice. It represents a rather worrying escalation of the conflict to the incitement to violent action against property, all wrapped in cowardly weasel words to maintain implausible deniability.

I would like to extend my deepest thanks to the man or woman responsible for this vandalism. I appreciate the action you took. Thank you for reminding me that I’m not alone. It took a lot of guts to do what you did – and the fact that you haven’t stepped forward to take credit makes you a hero. It shows everyone that you are more devoted to the message than you are to the spotlight. I encourage you to keep your cover. Don’t give the secular world a reason to call your name; instead, let them call for our God.

I also need to extend a thank-you to some people in Sacramento and Detroit. In February, 10 atheist billboards were defaced in the Golden State and a slew of atheist bus ads were vandalized in Detroit. My dose of honesty this week: I am not happy that vandalism seems to be the only way to get an atheist’s attention. I’m happy that I can count on other Christians to stand up for themselves and for Christians everywhere. It gives me hope.

We will not reciprocate. Atheists should not be faceless cowards who skulk along and deface private property, and we’re not going to call people who do such things “heroes”. What gives me hope is that atheists will continue to simply stand up, quietly speak the truth, and be good citizens.

We’ll let the Christians take the low road.