NO Daniel, very unlikely! The Americans United for Separation of Church and State play a very important role in holding creeping theocracy at bay. Anytime there is any mingling of a secular function with a scared venue that event should be opposed to protect the rights of those that don't accept your superstitions. The payment to the church alone is violation enough. Unless the venue can be comple...more

NO Daniel, very unlikely! The Americans United for Separation of Church and State play a very important role in holding creeping theocracy at bay. Anytime there is any mingling of a secular function with a scared venue that event should be opposed to protect the rights of those that don't accept your superstitions. The payment to the church alone is violation enough. Unless the venue can be completely denuded of religious icons it should never be considered. One wonders what other transgressions could be exposed in communities like this. NO, the vigilance of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State is not hateful but really the actions of real Modern Patriots, much closer to the Founding Fathers than Glenn Beck will every be!less

The attitude exhibited by the FRC and many of the supporting posters here that their particular interpretation of the Xian mythology makes being attracted to same-sex carnal pleasures somehow a justification for less than equal rights is bigotry based to superstitions. You use a mythical story to impose civil restrictions on access to rights. protections and tax-breaks afforded to those who copula...more

The attitude exhibited by the FRC and many of the supporting posters here that their particular interpretation of the Xian mythology makes being attracted to same-sex carnal pleasures somehow a justification for less than equal rights is bigotry based to superstitions. You use a mythical story to impose civil restrictions on access to rights. protections and tax-breaks afforded to those who copulate in your preferred manner. I don't see how in the world you can squirm away from that not being defined as bigotry.

Even among the various sub-sets of adherents to your religion there is not agreement on treatment of homosexuals, the anti-gay position becoming a fanatic's view to most. And to the 20% and raising among us, the atheists, agnostics, wiccans and wackos, that do NOT subscribe to the Sky Ghost myth and attendant restrictions on behavior that y'all call SIN, all of your reasoning falls on deft ears.less

It seems to me [a godless heathen] that this is an argument about "My Good is better than your Good". That knowing Good is reliant on accepting the message of rewards & punishments from a mythical Sky Ghost is absurd at it's very core. People make behavioral decisions without the guides from superstitions all the time that don't have negative outcomes. As a godless anti-theist my judgments, beh...more

It seems to me [a godless heathen] that this is an argument about "My Good is better than your Good". That knowing Good is reliant on accepting the message of rewards & punishments from a mythical Sky Ghost is absurd at it's very core. People make behavioral decisions without the guides from superstitions all the time that don't have negative outcomes.

As a godless anti-theist my judgments, behaviors and actions are controlled by my personal philosophy that I refer to as Situational Ethics. There is no such thing as absolute Good or Evil, just what works for the best outcome in any given moment in time and space balanced by social norms and the rights of others.less

Atheism is not a religion, atheism is not a belief. For the majority of atheists, atheism is not the a prior assumption that there is no God. Atheism is not an article of faith, adhered to regardless of what evidence does or does not support it. Our atheism is not the absolute, 100 percent, unshakable certainty that there is no God. For me atheism is a provisional conclusion, based on careful r...more

Atheism is not a religion, atheism is not a belief. For the majority of atheists, atheism is not the a prior assumption that there is no God. Atheism is not an article of faith, adhered to regardless of what evidence does or does not support it. Our atheism is not the absolute, 100 percent, unshakable certainty that there is no God.

For me atheism is a provisional conclusion, based on careful reasoning and on the best available evidence I have. Atheism is the conclusion that the God hypothesis is unsupported by any good evidence, and that unless I see better evidence, I am going to assume that God does not exist. If I see better evidence, I'll change my mind.less

Believer - Separate is not equal, so that the only way to achieve parity is to end "marriage" as a secular contract and use only domestic unions regardless of the participants gender to give those thousand plus rights to households of all sexual identities. If Marriage must be defined by it's relation to a religious tradition then it needs to become as baptism, a ritual with no civil secular im...more

Believer - Separate is not equal, so that the only way to achieve parity is to end "marriage" as a secular contract and use only domestic unions regardless of the participants gender to give those thousand plus rights to households of all sexual identities.

If Marriage must be defined by it's relation to a religious tradition then it needs to become as baptism, a ritual with no civil secular implications. Baptism has no bearing on citizenship so if marriage is to be a religiously defined ceremony it needs to be keep only to churches and not be recognized by civil government for rights and tax breaks.

It's either marriage for all or none to be equal.less

It is with immense regret that I must admit that the Phelps Family Hate Squad does have constitutional protection to offend and should be allowed. I don't want my rights to offend Xians curtailed with the kind of precedent that success in this suit would establish. However I do think Xians ought to sue the Phelps for slandering their good name, calling Westboro a church is an act of fraud.

Doesn't Baptist just mean one who use the baptism process in their ceremonies? I mean in the most literal sense of the word?

DP, all of the court cases regarding display of the 10 Commandments are about courthouse and other government buildings. The ACLU would likely protect displaying 10 Cs in an ART MUSEUM. The different proposes of display and context of the venue would make so much difference. In fact, the 10 Cs appear in art in many public venues. EXAMPLE: The Story of the Recorded Word, four large panels by Edward...more

DP, all of the court cases regarding display of the 10 Commandments are about courthouse and other government buildings. The ACLU would likely protect displaying 10 Cs in an ART MUSEUM. The different proposes of display and context of the venue would make so much difference. In fact, the 10 Cs appear in art in many public venues. EXAMPLE: The Story of the Recorded Word, four large panels by Edward Laning, in the McGraw Rotunda of the New York Public Library Main Branch. There you'll find Moses descending Mt Sinai with 10 Cs.

As with beauty, Offense is in the eye of the beholder. I haven't seen the piece but I could understand how in the context of the theme, Jesus getting a BJ is appropriate. So I as a beholder might not find this art offensive.less

As "In God We Trust" was really added to the Pledge to convey the message that we were not godless Communists in the early days of the Cold War. So as a motto it really has only a fifty year history against the 400 yr cultural history [colony to present] of America. Throughout the history of our national culture there has always been conflict around the role of theocracy in our democracy. The New ...more

As "In God We Trust" was really added to the Pledge to convey the message that we were not godless Communists in the early days of the Cold War. So as a motto it really has only a fifty year history against the 400 yr cultural history [colony to present] of America. Throughout the history of our national culture there has always been conflict around the role of theocracy in our democracy. The New England Colony was in some areas at certain times a theocracy and some members of that group supported theocracy as a destiny for America as early as 1670s [see Mather & Bacon's Rebellion], other colonists fought against the role of religionists in political determinations. The Deists that were the driving force in the transformation of the colonies into an independent nation certainly wouldn't have supported a blanket statement like "In God We Trust" in their defination or the Bill of Rights would have been much different.

So it seems to me a very poor choice for a motto for this country and as it is added only in 1950s should always come with a footnote: "Adopted in emotional response to perceived threat of Soviet Union during Cold War" -less