Posted on 12/01/2005 7:13:41 AM PST by Andyman
A lawsuit against memorial crosses is set to be filed Thursday by a group that feels they violate the separation of church and state.
Three Utah atheists, backed by a national organization based in Texas, are filing suit against the state for allowing crosses to be erected in honor of highway patrol troopers, who have died in the line of duty.
Richard Andrews said, "I feel the same way a Jew might feel if you put a state symbol on a swastika"
According to the UHP Association, a support group for troopers and their families, many fallen troopers' relatives consider the memorial crosses just as important as the tombstones that mark their graves.
Sgt. Todd Royce of the UHP Association told ABC 4 News, "It's a sense of pride, I think. It's a... kind of a sacred feeling."
The atheists suggest the association could honor the troopers with a non-denominational symbol.
Don't forget the humanistic/atheistic influences in this nation alone which has resulted in the slaughter of 45 million babies.
LOL
Most Germans during the period 1933-1945 were most certainly not atheists. Even now, in Germany, you're registered by default in a religion and have to go to some lengths to convince them you're an atheist and should not be paying the Church tax.
We have a winner! I knew someone would defend these pantywaist whackos sooner or later.
I say the symbol should be determined by the families of each of the troopers. If they were Christian, a cross, any other religion or no religion, whatever symbol the FAMILY finds appropriate.
As always, they lay it bare for all to see.
>> While I agree with you on the idiocy of Mr. Andrews' statement, as a point of fact, the National Socialists in Germany were not atheists. <<
I think an anti-Christian nihilist fits reasonably in the broader term, "atheist." I know many atheists dispute that definition, but I think such dispute fits into the fallacy, "No-one in my group can do anything wrong, because if they do something wrong, they are not in my group." It's akin to Protestants disavowing the Christianity of the Crusaders. (Although the Crusaders saved Christianity, but I won't get into that argument.)
I also recognize that atheists have tried to argue that Hitler was a Christian. It's plain he tried to convince ignorant, nominal Christians that his ideology had commonality with theirs, but this would be like calling Mohammed a Jew. Hitler's anti-Christian comments are numerous enough, as well as comments stating the necessity for such deceptions, that they can be easily dismissed.
I suggest Christians stop using the state to bully non-Christians.
This is the United States, not Iran.
Why is it you do not answer anyone questioning your obvious BS? At last count 5 of us have called you on this and you seem to have run away.
good grief.
You're confused. The state has no right to the free exercise of religion. That would be the same as establishing religion which is prohibited by the first amendment.
Is the State imposing a cross against the wishes of the family?
No, it is not.
Your statement is therefore a non sequitur.
You are a prime example of someone that has twisted the original intent and meaning of the Constitution into something that the Drafters would have considered totally ridiculous.
In the XVIII Century, an example of an "establishment of religion" was the fact that Royal Navy officers were required to swear an oath in support of the Church of England and the fact that the Church of England, but no other Church, was financed by State taxes. Catholics in Britain were denied full citizenship rights solely by the virtue of their religion.......Thus the need for such a thing as the Catholic Emancipation Act which was put through Parliament in 1829.
Such practices are what what the Drafters of the First Amendment intended to abolish with the words:
"....shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."
Individuals such as yourself have now perverted those words to mean that the State must not tolerate any religious expression within the public domain.
If that were the case, then the Chaplain Corps of the U.S. Armed Forces would clearly be unconstitutional.
If the State allows a cross memorial for Officer O'Reilly, a Star of David memorial for Officer Goldberg, a Crescent memorial for Officer Ali, a Tree of Life memorial for Officer Treehugger and a secular memorial for Officer Atheist, then that is exactly what the Drafters of the First Amendment intended.
Your attempts to outlaw religious symbols on public property as an expression of the faith of individual citizens is exactly what the First Amendment prohibited in the "free exercise" clause.
>> Most Germans during the period 1933-1945 were most certainly not atheists. <<
Didn't suggest most Germans *were* atheist. Just like most Russians weren't. I was referring to the leadership. See my previous post about that issue.
>> Even now, in Germany, you're registered by default in a religion and have to go to some lengths to convince them you're an atheist and should not be paying the Church tax. <<
Even if you've never been baptised? How do they decide which religion to assign you to?
HItler was a Catholic. He never renounced it, and was never excommunicated.
Even if you've never been baptised? How do they decide which religion to assign you to?
I think they decide from the religion your family had. When I lived there, several of the people in my research group described the considerable lengths they had to go to, to convince the authorities they were in fact atheists.
Bristish propaganda poster from 1942 or so. Can you locate the actual statement? I can't.
It will be interesting to see if the people fight back...
These militant atheists idiots make me sick and piss me the hell off. I'm so sick and damned tired of their crap and their fagget buddies crap being shovelled down my throat on a daily bases. It's not making me more tolerant, it's pissing me off to no end. I have a feeling its doing the same thing to a lot of people and the back lash will be a mother.
How about a rotting turkey leg in honor of the atheists?
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