(atheist) Nicole Smalkowski interview on 20/20

[Synnical]

Run time: 09:29 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H48tFhpwD74   Posted on YouTube: May 13, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 15, 2007 By DU Member: Synnical Views on DU: 2778

 
Background:

Discrimination Against Atheists Topic Of ABC Program

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=857714&mesg_id=857714

[Synnical]

1. The Black Sheep of Hardesty

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3164811&page=1

By JOHN STOSSEL, SYLVIA JOHNSON, and LYNN REDMOND
May 11, 2007

Three years ago the Smalkowski family moved to an 80-acre ranch in Oklahoma, and Nicole Smalkowski, who was 13 years old at the time, was excited about it.

"We have a whole bunch of land that's ours, you can walk on it, you can camp on your own land." Nicole said. She looked forward to playing sports at her new high school.

Nicole is a remarkable athlete, and when school started she became the only girl to play on the boys' football team. The boys accepted her, she said, because she kept up with them.

Then came basketball season, and at the first game, everything changed -- because after the game the girls gathered to recite the Lord's Prayer.

From the Church to the Basketball Court

Nicole said, "I didn't think they had religion in sports. But when it came to basketball they would pray before and after practices. They would pray during games. And you know, praying was a tradition for them and that is what they said."

Even the opposing basketball team joined in -- from the stands, school officials bowed their heads.

"You could see that all of the teachers that work at the school, the administration had their heads bowed and were saying the Lord's Prayer with the kids. Coach has his head bowed. It's a thing that everyone does," Nicole said.

This was a very uncomfortable situation for Nicole, who has been an atheist all her life.

"I wouldn't do it because it's disrespectful to me. I think it's disrespectful to them. Why would they want an atheist in their circle saying the Lord's Prayer? I mean, if I was a Jew or Muslim or Hindu, I would have a problem with that prayer.

[Synnical]

2. Comments at the ABC Website:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/comments?type=story&id=3164811

[Warpy]

5. Wow, what fine examples of Christian charity there

Where did these people get the idea that bullying, bigotry and battery were all Christian values? Since they're the ones doing all three, where do they get off saying they're the ones being persecuted?

I wish there was a way to sue some of these televangelists and wingnut preachers for religious malpractice. The climate they created in this country is scary.

[rurallib]

7. Wow! looks like the xians are not very tolerant

could say many things here but let me just say, the day I finally realized that religion was just tales of magic was one of the happiest days of my life. It was like crawling out from under 6 feet of horseshit.

[Synnical]

8. I feel you - FREEDOM!

Ingersoll's Vow

When I became convinced that the Universe is natural--that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world--not even in infinite space. I was free--free to think, to express my thoughts--free to live to my own ideal--free to live for myself and those I loved--free to use all my faculties, all my senses--free to spread imagination's wings--free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope--free to judge and determine for myself--free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past--free from popes and priests--free from all the "called" and "set apart"--free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies--free from the fear of eternal pain--free from the winged monsters of the night--free from devils, ghosts, and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought--no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings--no chains for my limbs--no lashes for my back--no fires for my flesh--no master's frown or threat--no following another's steps- -no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.

And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain--for the freedom of labor and thought--to those who fell in the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains--to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs--to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn--to those by fire consumed--to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still. Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)

[go west young man]

3. That's one cool young lady and one super cool dad.

More power to them.

[Speck Tater]

4. I had the same experience 40 years ago in the U.S. Airforce.

How is it that people who call themselves "Christians" can ignore the teachings of Jesus and become so filled with hate?

[rurallib]

6. Almost stopped it when I saw Stossel

but it was actually a decent report. Go Nicole Smalkowski! May you be our first atheist president.

[Nevernose]

9. Same here. Keep going,

and, Stossel bedamned, it was a good report.

[progressoid]

12. Me too. I kept waiting for him to bleat out, "give me a break"

[60TrenchesGone]

13. I give Stossel a break because he's a libertarian

As a hardcore libertarian Stossel doesn't agree with many of my leftwing economic ideas but is far more outspoken about social freedoms, particularly free speech and religion, than most are willing to do on broadcast TV. At least he has no love for the rightwing religious crazies who want to infest every aspect of our culture like the Taliban and is willing to expose them.

Personally, as an atheist, this news story was really sad. I wish the parents had never moved to that town and had just remained near a metropolitan area.

[adnelson60087]

10. As a high school science teacher

I am ashamed of the administrators of that school. How dare they treat a student in such a fashion? It breaks my heart to say it, but this might be one of the few times I'd endorse home-schooling for a child who would otherwise be stuck in that Inferno of hatred and intolerance. And the substitute teacher who says "we have good christian kids here....", I'd say that was a big part of the problem.

[Random_Australian]

11. This is something awful.

There is nothing more I have to say.

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. What the FUCK is Staffel... er, Stossel doing arguing with the girl

and her father?

"Why are you an atheist?"

Would he ask a Baptist why they're a Baptist?

That has NO place in a program that purports to be news. None.

[Az]

16. I suspect

he was trying to give her a path to give voice to her position. Atheism is not well publicized in this nation you may have noticed. Considering that Stossel is an atheist himself I don't think he was trying to disagree with her or her father.

[Redstone]

15. Ten bucks says it's more of a case of the corn-fed farm girls in that town being jealous

of a pretty, shapely, smart girl coming to town, and getting the attention of the boys in that school...and of course the lecherous old bastards who run things being, well, you know,...you know how those "religious" old white men usually turn out to actually BE, don't you?

Redstone