Matthew 15:
23But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. 24But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. 27And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
Securlarists get some crumbs from the Obama administration, and the right wing wants to slap away even that measly portion.
Some conservative commentators are accusing the Obama administration of inviting “hate groups” into the White House by holding a meeting with a coalition of secularist and atheist groups.
Officials from the Justice and Health and Human Services departments met Friday with representatives of the Secular Coalition for America, an umbrella group that includes American Atheists and the Council for Secular Humanism. The coalition called it “the first time in history a presidential administration has met for a policy briefing with the American nontheist community.”
[...]
According to ABC News, three issues were on the agenda at the meeting: The use of “faith healing” on children, which the coalition describes as a form of “child abuse”; the “pervasive” religious atmosphere in the US military; and faith-based initiatives.
Wow, that some radical meeting of hate-mongers, isnt’ it?
A meeting, mind you, that the participants were under a gag order not to reveal the meat of, and a meeting that Barack Obama did not attend. The Friendly Athiest who did attend the meeting has this to say:
So what do we take away from all this? Will it do anything?
It’s tough to say. I think it’s important that the White House officials we met can now attach names and faces to our issues. They’re better educated about them and they can represent us a little better than before. On the flip side, they’re not the policy makers. They can only take what we say and make recommendations to the relevant personnel.
In the meantime, we have to keep fighting for our issues and we need more people discussing them. Still, this is the first time the White House has been willing to meet with atheists in such an official capacity and that’s a very positive step forward. So what did the officials say in regards to our statements? I can’t actually tell you.
[SCA Spokesperson] Paul Fidalgo… said he couldn’t offer any details about what Obama aides said in the meeting because of an agreement that their discussion be kept private.President Obama — as expected — did not make an appearance. …
Fidalgo said the went “very, very well” from the coalition’s perspective, that members were “encouraged by the reception we got today” and that they hope to be invited back for follow-up discussions.
I can, however, tell you what Catholic nutjob Bill Donohue had to say about the meeting:
People of faith, especially Christians, have good reason to wonder exactly where their interests lie with the Obama administration. Now we have the definitive answer. In an unprecedented move, leaders of a presidential administration are hosting some of the biggest anti-religious zealots in the nation.…If President Obama does not want to go to church, that is his business. But it is the business of the American people, most all of whom are believers, to know where the president and his administration stand with regards to their concerns. It is not likely that this outreach to anti-religious activists — many of whom would crush Christianity if they could — will do anything to calm the fears of people of faith. Indeed, it will only alienate them even further.It is important that the public learn of the contents of this meeting. We will do what we can to find out what happened.
Right… He had a crazy partner-in-crime, too. Right wing group In God We Trust’s Chairman Bishop Council Nedd:
“It is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit down with activists representing some of the most hate-filled, anti-religious groups in the nation,” says In God We Trust’s Chairman Bishop Council Nedd. … “President Obama seems to believe that it is a good idea to have a key senior aide plan political strategy with people who believe faith in God is a disease,” Nedd says. “Some of the people in this coalition believe the world would be better off with no Christians and no Jews and they aren’t shy about it. The fact that this meeting is happening at all is an affront to the vast majority of people of all faiths who believe in God.”
Umm… I promise you we did not plot ways to kill off all religious people. We ran out of time for that.
Also, there were a number of Humanistic Jews in our group. I think they might take offense to Nedd’s comments… as would anyone else with a heart.
There’s nothing hateful about our group. I doubt any of the right-wingers will listen, but one point all of our speakers made was that we were not looking for special treatment. We were there to support the right of all Americans to hold their religious beliefs — and reject them, too.
We were looking for religious neutrality coming from our government. We don’t want to be discriminated against. We don’t want children to be harmed because of their parent’s religious beliefs.
Those seem like statements anyone could get behind.
You would think so.
But no, true to form, Sean Hannity goes off the rails and gets it wrong, wrong, wrong. Can Bill O’Relly, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin be far behind?
