I have two of the Winter Solstice Atheist in my office cubical. And its pretty common driving around western Washington to see people with Atheist bumper stickers.
Washington, especially Seattle -
The Land of Fruits and Nuts
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/390300_ornament03.html
Seattle ornament banned from White House Christmas treeWednesday, December 3, 2008
By REGINA HACKETT
P-I ART CRITIC
When Seattle artist Deborah Lawrence was asked to create an ornament for a holiday tree at the White House, nobody familiar with her work could have imagined she'd stick to snowmen, Santa Claus or Mount Rainier bathed in festive red, white and blue.
That Lawrence submitted an ornament with the words "Impeach Bush" on its surface is also no surprise, except to the people responsible for picking her.
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Photo courtesy Deborah Lawrence |
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Artist Deborah Lawrence holds the ornament that will not hang on the White House Christmas tree. |
The 9-inch ball Lawrence created is covered with swirly red and white stripes and features a picture of Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Seattle, who signed a House resolution to consider the impeachment of President George W. Bush. Tiny glued-on text on the ornament hails the impeachment resolution.
"I think it really is a shame and, quite frankly, not very much in the holiday spirit," first lady Laura Bush's spokeswoman, Sally McDonough, told The Associated Press.
McDonough said Tuesday that Lawrence's ornament was the only one of about 370 submitted for the White House tree that was rejected. Laura Bush had asked members of Congress to pick artists to decorate ornaments for the White House tree to showcase all 435 congressional districts.
Lawrence, 55, is pointedly political. She's anti-Iraq war, anti-torture, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-feminism, pro-diversity and pro-spreading-the-wealth. Those aren't just her personal opinions; those are the issues that fuel the paintings she collages with printed messages.
"Her work is all about social justice," said Catherine Person, who exhibits Lawrence's work at Person Gallery in Seattle. "She's the most political artist I know and the most political artist I represent by 100 miles. She's a firebrand. Her last show in September was completely devoted to anti-Bush statements."
McDermott, whose office was responsible for the selection of Lawrence...
LINK to the rest of the story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/390300_ornament03.html
This is a great opportunity to try some Alinsky-style street theater in the Rotunda of the state capitol. Hang your own sign showing graphic photos from societies like Stalinist Russia, the Cambodia of Pol Pot, and the China of Mao, making a clear link between their own secular, non-religious worldview and the killing and enslavement of those people. Mock the left by asking showing the efforts of Christian groups in places like Darfur and then pointedly asking about similar efforts by gay activitists, feminists, and Planned Parenthood.
And remember, always mock your opposition. Make them look like fools. Turn their words into jokes, and turn their pictures into caricatures.
Hang posters around the building stating, “Don’t impose your secular beliefs on me.” Accuse them of not being tolerant and not respecting diversity.
If you can, have some people claim to be so offended by the message’s attack on their belief that it is hate speech. Start filing the paperwork. Flood the state with complaints.
When you’re questioned, ask them what they’re so scared of.
The left has a history. It is a history of death, destruction, and despair. You’re only seeing a small expression of their desire for totalitarian control in Olympia. Fight back using the same strategies, not the same way of looking at the world. We can be conservatives and still use street theater and creative use of the media for our own purposes.
Good luck and God bless.
This was published very shortly after 9-11, before final death tolls were known.
Meanwhile, where are all the do-good Atheist hospitals? Atheist food banks?
The Lunatic Fringe
Raymond Rooney
How God brings good out of the midst of evil is one of the greatest testimonies of both His greatness and His goodness. No thing, event, or person is outside the capabilities of God to use in a way that will bring honor and glory to Himself and reaffirm to His people in particular, and the people of the world in general, His sovereignty and providence. Out of the rubble, horror, and calamity of the World Trade Center attack has come the reemergence of awareness by the American people of the reality and necessity of the God of our ancestors.
Since the attack, everywhere you look are storefront signs calling Americans to prayer, citing passages of Scripture, and appealing to God to bless our nation. From convenience stores, to fast food shops, to malls, and even larger industries and manufacturers, all are calling on Americans to pray and God to bless. The Friday after the attack I attended a local high school football game and before the contest began the school choir sang “God Bless America” and “Jesus Loves Me.” After that a local minister offered a prayer over the public address system and then the national anthem was played. No protests were heard. No complaints were turned in to the ACLU. Our President called the nation to a day of prayer and remembrance and while promising justice to the perpetrators of the attack continues to call on Americans to pray. The “7th inning stretch” on every televised professional baseball game I have seen of late has featured the singing of “God Bless America.” The Pledge of Allegiance has returned to the American public school and “one nation under God” has been recited by American schoolchildren with hands over hearts with pride and without fear or reservation. It took the deaths of nearly 6,000 people at the hands of evil men but Americans have remembered the God of our forefathers and are calling upon Him nearly in unison.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about all this is the rather deafening silence from all the civil libertarians and groups who have for so many years raised loud objections to the mixing of God and education and God and politics. Prayers led by students at graduation ceremonies or ball games are insidious violations of the separation of Church and State, they railed. The Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because it contains the word “God.” Religion has no place in the realm of politics and new terminology was created to ostensibly brand people who brought their faith in God to the table of political discussion and ideology: “right wing fundamentalists.” We were told how dangerous they were. People like Gary Bauer and Pat Robertson headed up this evil group and were trying to enslave America through the implementation of religious belief and practice. We were told how powerful and clever these people were when Hillary Clinton told the world that all her husband’s sexual and political problems were caused by a “vast right wing conspiracy.” Liberal pundits on talk shows on television and radio warned America daily of the dangers of right wing fundamentalists who wanted to have creationism taught alongside Darwinism, voluntary prayer put back into schools, and voting guides passed out at election time informing people of candidates’ stances on these and other issues.
It is precisely organizations like the ACLU, People for the American Way, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation who took the lead in bashing politically active and community oriented Christians calling us “the lunatic fringe” that are so amazingly quiet right now in the midst of a national resurgence of public expressions of both patriotism and religion. Why is this? The answer is obvious. Painfully so, to the aforementioned organizations. My understanding of a “lunatic fringe” is a group of people who constitute a small segment of the population who propose ideas that the vast majority of the populace finds not only untenable but ludicrous and dangerous. I think that since September 11th advocates of humanism and Church/State separation have found themselves to be in the rather uncomfortable position of being a tiny minority of people whose views have been revealed to be not only unscholarly but absurd and even dangerous. In effect, those who for years have made it their goal in life to rant and rave about the “right wing fundamentalists” have suddenly found out that it is they who are being judged by their fellow citizens to be a part of some wacko lunatic fringe. It is unfortunate that it took a national crisis to reveal what the true American way is but there is no doubt now that the vast majority of American citizens want and shall exercise the freedom we have to proclaim ourselves “one nation under God.” Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State fame has found out when push comes to shove Americans are united in their will to express their faith anywhere and anytime. School is not off limits to religious expression and neither is politics. And apparently, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has decided that the only freedom from religion the vast majority of Americans want is of the humanist kind.
These groups are silent now for two reasons. First, they all know it is in their best interests to lay low. Any shred of respectability and legitimacy they still cling to would evaporate instantly if they were to come forward propagating their anti-God, anti-religious agenda now. It would demonstrate just how far afield from the average American they truly are. They have been able to survive as long as they have because of apathy. As long as our boat wasn’t being rocked Americans were willing to listen to anything. Now that we have been attacked and thousands of lives have been lost the gravity of the situation has finally registered and our nation seems to be coming out of her religious slumber. We need God and are appealing to Him and are refusing to be restrained by “civil libertarians.”
However, a second and more telling reason for the silence from these groups is this. They have nothing to offer America in her time of crisis and need. They are morally and spiritually bankrupt. Their beliefs are such that they believe America’s political leadership should not call upon every citizen to pray to God for the families of those who lost loved ones on September 11. According to them our educators have no business leading America’s children in the Pledge of Allegiance. If the ideology they have been propounding for years is correct then more than 6,000 people died like animals, have been consigned to oblivion, and there is no hope of being reunited with them ever again. The only hope they can offer our children are statistical probabilities concerning the chance of being murdered by a terrorist. The circumstances in America have torn the shroud of legitimacy from their faces to reveal that they are morally and spiritually repugnant.
I wonder what it must be like to be on the way to work at the national office of People for the American Way or Americans United for Separation of Church and State? All the signs urging people to pray for our nation, reminding people of our national motto “In God We Trust,” newspaper articles and e-mails reminding all the schools and businesses across America to pause and recite the Pledge of Allegiance on a particular day and at a particular hour must really be bothersome. Do you suppose they instructed their children to protest or refuse to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance? Do they stop at all those businesses along the way to work to register their complaints about putting religious quips and quotes on their business signs? Are they calling up all the talk shows demanding an opportunity to excoriate Major League Baseball for playing “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch? No. They are hunkering down counting on the age-old saying, “this too shall pass.” They know better. After all...they would not like it at all if it were revealed and they were called what they always have been: “the lunatic fringe.”
Copyright © 2002 Raymond Rooney
Unedited redistribution authorized and encouraged.
Use of this material for profit is prohibited.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030308085302/http://www.forthefaith.com/lunatic.htm
