A California city’s annual Christmas display would have taken on a much different tone this year had city officials not called the entire event off. An outspoken atheist vowed to set up camp alongside the nativity scenes and spread his apparently nihilistic view of the season.
The same man organized a takeover of the event in 2011, which resulted in nearly all of the displays being manned by atheists calling Christianity a myth and offering a tribute to such gods as the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Rather than get involved in the brouhaha that would inevitably result, local leaders decided to cancel the program several churches had worked incredibly hard to coordinate. The congregations have since obtained legal counsel and plan to sue the city for violating their freedom of speech.
The head of the committee behind the suit called this decision “a sad, sad commentary on the attitudes of the day,” explaining the elaborate display is now in seek of a home, “something like our Savior had to hunt for a place to be born because the world was not interested.”
One prominent atheist spokesperson explained the thought process behind ambushing existing Christmas programs. ”In recent years, the tactic of many in the atheist community has been if you can’t beat them, join them,” he said. “If these church groups insist that these public spaces are going to be dominated by a Christian message, we’ll just get in the game—and that changes everything.”
Atheists, like homosexuals and other groups, have become far more vocal in recent years. These small minorities are wielding greater and greater control over the free expression of those with whom they disagree. A recent study showing the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans has grown by 33 percent in the last five years and suggests that this trend is only going to increase.
Another leader in the atheist movement warned the faithful that non-believers “have muscle and we’re flexing it,” telling them to “ignore our numbers at your peril.”
The atheist population seems eager to find injustice where there is none, but I do admire their commitment to their cause. If the community of believers in America had the courage to stand up and say, “Ignore our numbers at your peril,” I believe we would see a decrease of incidents like this that gradually abridges our rights.
B. Christopher Agee founded The Informed Conservative in 2011. Like his Facebook page for engaging, relevant conservative content daily.
Photo Credit: chooyushing (Creative Commons)
Please share this post with your friends and comment below. If you haven’t already, take a moment to sign up for our free newsletter above and friend us on Twitter and Facebook to get real time updates.
Follow @WestJournalism
Loading ...
Yes, I think the day of turn the other cheek should be over. All it takes is one sick minded hate filled IDIOT to make a whole city run scared? Why is everyone so spineless these days? The same thing happens with the head Atheist in Washington! People are scared to death to speak out! It still makes no sense to me!
No wonder we are in the shape we’re in today we’re all a bunch of spineless whiners!
We’ve just let the scum of the world take over our whole lives and say nothing! What is wrong with people today?
The whole World is going to HELL!
JoAnn you are 100% right, and if we don’t stand up for ourselves; what will happen when Islam really tries to take over this country? I shudder to consider it.
We just need to find out where they live and then make their lives a living hell until they move away to Iran where no-one believes in God.
well that is clearly the christian thing to do, as an atheist and an anti theist i thank you for helping my side win.
btw iran is a theocracy (ruled by religious leaders) they just dont beileve in the same god as you do
have a good day
haven’t atheists heard of LIVE AND LET LIVE? what possible harm comes to an atheist when Christians express Christ’s birth??// NONE!!! Theya re simply nasty , ugly, don’t anyone to be allowed to express anything that doesn’t fall into loine with their sad little lives.
What I would like to do to these hate mongers would probably land me in jail. They call it “murder”. But here goes anyway: You stand in front of a Christian display and spout your vitriolic B.S. saying it is your “right”, then I am going to exercise my right to shut your filthy mouth any damn way I can. A baseball bat comes to mind here. Failing that we can up the anti considerably.
IF YOU DON’T LIKE A CHRISTMAS DISPLAY, STAY THE HELL HOME OR DON’T LOOK AT IT A–HOLE!!!
Too many true patriots gave their all for the right of people to worship as they please. When I was in Korea, my fellow servicemen prayed that we could have just a small token of Christmas to look at. Even a limb from a “pine” tree looked damn good to us.
So far as I am concerned, athiests are the scum of the earth. I even hold them lower than the “muzzies” and that’s pretty low.
I agree. These low lifes, the loud mouthed atheists baah-sterds, should be confronted directly when they deny decent Christian people their constitutional right of free speech during this annual time of high holy days and if necessary force used to silence them. They can go to hell now or later, their choice.
See what you don’t seem to grasp is that atheists do not believe in heaven or hell, we don’t believe in your god or any god. See the separation of church and state is at play here, as well as free speech. You can have your free speech as long as I get mine too. That means if the city lets the christians set up a display then they have to let the atheists set up one too.
As for Koreavet – and you wanting to “murder” or beat someone with a baseball bat —– I enjoy thinking about the fact that your “prince of peace” has taught you so well.
Enjoy your holiday, it has no effect on me, but do not throw your religious displays on public property and expect me not to react. If you want to do it on church property go right ahead, i can’t stop you.
no one is denying anyone’s right to freespeech .
your right to speak is not infringed on when others speak out against you, this is their freespeech right as well, the city cancled the event is not infringing on freespeech , i would bet the event violates separation of church and state, but more over you still have the right to speak whether or tnot the city provides a proverbial microphone or not.
it seems this page need comments approved for moderation, this type of moderation is not an infringement of freespeech as this page is not actually a public page but rather owned and operated by individuals who are not the government. freedom of speech has to do with the government silencing others and not with individuals censoring others.
When are we going to get enough of these idiots and stand our ground? They may not know it but God is watching them and he will punish them.
demoraphic polling shows between 18-29 25% are non-theists,…. given that as a whole the us population is 79% christian my guess is 99% have heard just that, yet non-theism remains……perhaps you need a different tactic?
So much of what is going on in our Country are from people who want their 15 minutes of fame. We have a man playing the part of ‘president’ – why not people wanting attention for what ever reason that they can ‘dream up’ to get attention?
the world is changing, there once was a time when everyone you knew looked like you sounded like you, thought like you believed what you believe….. those days are gone. now i hear some talk about their freedom of speech being violated because one man cares to speak his mind, i even noticed a post above suggesting forcibly quieting those who dont believe. i thought we fought a war of independence in part over that isssue? its called freedom of speech, what does it give you freedome from? government censorship. this man has every right to do what he has done it is perfectly legal and guess what, if you care to counter protest , that is your right,
“IF YOU DON’T LIKE A CHRISTMAS DISPLAY, STAY THE HELL HOME OR DON’T LOOK AT IT A–HOLE!!!” and if you dont like this so called “a-hole” then stay at home or dont pay attention to him
now i am not telling you to stay at home or dont pay attention, just trying to illustrate he has every right to be offended as much as you do, that is what freedom of speech is
…. it is not that an atheist hijacked a city, it is that christians have ben foisted from the reigns of power that religion should not have hold of, and now no one holds the reigns.
now seeing all the fundies that have posted before you reply answer this question, had this been a islamic display on public land and the protester a christian, what would your reply have been?
i am asking for consistancy, i am asking for fairness, i am asking for a level playing field, if your religions is right then why do you need to try and tilt the playing field in your favor???? is that the only way you can win???