TN: Wilson County Fair bends, will give atheists discount

[Synnical]

Hey, score one for us!

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080815/NEWS01/808150411/1005

Church bulletin offer favored Christians

By BOB SMIETANA • Staff Writer • August 15, 2008

Atheists and other non-Christians can get a discount at Sunday's God & Country Day at the Wilson County Fair, thanks to the efforts of local atheists.

Until this week, fair officials were offering a church bulletin discount only to Christian groups attending during the annual God & Country Day. But after local atheists complained, fair officials extended the discount to believers of all faiths and nonbelievers alike.

. . .

"The thing that I am most proud about our country is that we have the right to believe or not to believe," Schwartz said. His organization and American Atheists Inc., believed the exclusive church bulletin discount illegally promoted Christianity.

To resolve the controversy, fair organizers decided to offer a $2 discount to any fairgoer who presents a bulletin from a church or other religious service, or a printout from a religious or secular group's Web page. General admission is normally $7 for adults and $5 for kids, ages 6-12.

Wilson County Promotions board member Cheryl Lewis, who organized the God & Country Day, disputes any claims of discrimination. She said the event was first held in 2002, in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and has received broad community support.

Very nice article continues at link.

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[onager]

1. Thanks! And she had to sneak this in...

According to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life...only 1.6 percent of Americans surveyed claimed to be atheists.

I'm already getting crackpot emails talking about "the tyranny of the 1/6 percent minority!!!"

Interview with John Green of the Pew Forum, who shows that the naked "1.6 percent" is misleading. Unfortunately, he was being interviewed by the rock-stupid Gwen Ifill:

GWEN IFILL: And what about non-believers? When they say they don't believe or that they're atheists, do they mean that they believe this doesn't exist at all? Or is that they are -- have different definitions?

(Ar-r-r-r-g-h! WTF kind of question is that? And this person is supposed to be one of our best "journalists?")

JOHN GREEN: Well, in our report, we looked at what we call the unaffiliated. Those are people that told us that they were not connected in any way to organized religion.

The unaffiliated are a large group. They make up about one-sixth of the adult population, but they're internally diverse. Some are atheists that are committed to the notion that there is no God. Others are agnostics. They believe you can't really know.

And some of them are what you might call the spiritual, but religious, people who may pray, may have religious beliefs, but are not involved in any kind of religious institution.

Oh, check this out! The "Center for Moral Liberalism" is also blasting those 1.6 percent of atheists. I think this "Center" is a shill group for the Mormons, but am not sure:

http://centerformoralliberalism.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/federer-tyranny-of-the-atheist-minority/

[Kolesar]

2. and they indulge themselves by calling us the "Democrat Party"

Somehow telegraphing their childish hate.

The site's staff includes Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan and a bunch of Newsmax.com pinheads. If they were Mormon, I expect they would have used the term LDS in that article. Mormon is often used as pejorative and they don't favor it.