Jessica Ahlquist, you are a hero. You have stood up for all that is American. You are a true patriot and thoughtful human being. I’d be proud to be in a foxhole with you.
And those who called her names, the hateful brats (age had nothing to do with *that* term ) who encouraged physical harm to be done to her from behind anonymity, those who incompetently attempted to lie about the prayer banner being only “historical” assuming a stupidity from everyone else that was only resident in them; you are the worst examples of those who follow religion. You believe in Jesus and the Christian god, do you? Well, considering your actions, it seems you are more focused on emulating Peter when he denied this supposed “savior” those three times. Your god supposedly hates lies and liars. Your god says turn the other cheek. Your god supposedly says “love one another”. Let me guess, now that you are called to account for your behavior publically, you’ll crawl back to your god, demanding to be forgiven from that god that many of you have the termerity to claim that atheists assume is a vending machine. You’ll claim that you were doing it all for him like some psychotic stalker right out of Fatal Attraction.
But, I’m only focusing on the “good” parts of the bible. There’s plenty bigotry and hatred in there too. Just interpret it this way: love *only* one another, just like in some bratty high school clique (nice to see that you are emulating such “high” standards) , and screw anyone who differs with you. We have the bible advocating that non-believers be killed by believers; Old Testament and New (Luke 19 for those of you who are wondering). Both show a violent, petty, jealous god, a big powerful three year old.
That could explain it, “interpreting” the Bible to say that this god agrees with what *you* think. Why not? Everyone does it. It’s easy. But I know enough Christians to know that not all of them are so hateful. Seems like religion doesn’t make anyone a better person, only allows bad people to declare their meanness “God’s Will”, and each Christian’s god is just an inflated version of themselves. Good, bad, but no divine approval evident, only a very human desire to be “right”. Happily, the judge saw that the case had merit and ruled according to the laws of the US. It’s a shame that Ms. Ahlquist had to go through such a thing, but it is good that her actions showed just how Christianity and its “goodness” is often just a cheap veneer.
Now, I’m wondering, will the school board put up a banner that lauds being kind, helpful, friendly, good sportsmen without the religious references? Those qualities are not only found in Christians or guaranteed by belief in this particular religion, as the actions of so many Christians have underlined so well. Do they want their students to have such qualities no matter what? Or is it as it seems, that they only wanted their religion on display, nothing else?
Club Schadenfreude 