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My heart bleeds for this beautiful young woman. Her dad is a tough man, and I admire him standing his ground. Religion is the primary manifestation of evil.
I haven’t liked the interviewer since he openly attacked universal health care and the public option. It may just be me, but he seemed a little hostile towards the dad in this. Also, I live in Oklahoma, so . . . yes people really are that stupid around here.
Oklahoman atheist reporting in.
This is pretty much the norm, even in the big city. You don’t have to drive out to Hardesty to find this type of treatment.
The funny thing is, some Oklahomans consider Tulsa to be more “liberal” than OKC (which, even though I’m a native Tulsan, I find to be hilariously full of WRONG). And where the frak is Hardesty?
It’s in the panhandle, about 20 miles east of Guymon.
And Tulsa might really be a little more progressive… they do have, after all, the only AHA chapter in the state.
I didn’t get the sense the Stossel was being hostile. That’s his typical interview style. When he did some special on the 1st Amendment, he’d ask people questions like, “Yeah, but what if I don’t want to be offended by you? Don’t I have a right to that?” It’s basically his way of saying, “Here, I’ll give you a straw man to argue against so that you can say whatever you want right now.”
He’s a big time libertarian, so it’s not a surprise he would attack universal health care, but I’ve never seen him as a big fan of religion. I consider the fact that he’s even doing this story to be a sign of sympathy to the girl.
If what she’s saying is true, and I think it is, then that is truly disgusting.
They’re welcome to come over to the UK, where we couldn’t give a damn who you do or don’t worship. Because we’re the AWES0ME!!!!11111!!!1!!!!!111!!!!11!!
Know any good websites or sources about moving there?
I’ve asked my friend who came over here from the US. I’ll let you know if I get a reply.
The UK Border Agency website might help:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ukresidency/eligibility/
She suggested UK consulate:
http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/
sorry, failed at linking, in a rush.
Your point would have been made better if you’d spelled it this way:
4W3S0M3!!!!11111!!!1!!!!!111!!!!11!!
I hate to be a spelling nazi, but you forgot the terminating “LOL!!!”
An “eleventy-one!” would also not be out-of-line.
I’ve realised that I accidentaly spelled “teh” wrong and typed “the” instead. Sorry guys. I’ve let myself down.
Thanks for teh info!
“Students have a right to voluntarily pray.” They therefore also have a right to not pray. Why do the religious people only see one side of the “rights”?
Strength and good luck to this young lady and her family.
“This is a christian country and if you don’t like it, get out.”
Is there a dumber, more douche bag statement at our disposal?
But she was told to leave for nondiscriminatory reasons that had nothing to do with religion. That’s what those nice Christian people said.
Well christians don’t lie, I’m pretty sure if christians lied, god would have mentioned it in the bible.
Exactly.
Hardesty huh? Is there really such a place? This fine and upright young lady should come and play basketball in England, where anyone would be laughed out of town if anyone was foolhardy enough to suggest reciting the lord’s prayer before or after a game. England (thankfully) is a godless country – perhaps in 3 or 4 centuries America will catch up with us. Nick Clegg (the leader of our country’s third biggest political party is a confirmed atheist (see wikipedia). Could this ever happen in America?
Given that the third biggest party won’t even be involved in televised debates, yeah, sure, why not.
Ow, you do have a third party? Are ya sure?
I found it very hard to take the presenter seriously as he reminded me of Stephen Colbert in his “Channel 7 News” guise.
“In America where most everyone is a believer”
“Why are you an atheist?”
“IN fact, America’s an overwhelmingly faith-based nation.”
“You were late to practice every day.”
“She had threatened to kill a team member.”
Who IS that mustachioed quarterwit?
“This is a christian country and if you don’t like it get out” From a TEACHER!
What the HELL happened to separation of church and state? It was a *public* school, wasn’t it?
I hated to see her in tears, though focused hate could do it to many people. I think it takes some courage to try that in an Oklahoma small town — or maybe any small town. Lynden, Washington may have some good bakeries, but it is a bastion of that kind of hatred.
Typical loving christians, falsely accusing her of crimes, name-calling, telling her to leave the country. What fucking assholes!
I cannot imagine that a Jew would be treated the same way at that school, even though that makes no sense at all. I wonder how they justify that to themselves?
My best friend is Jewish and from Oklahoma. She’s froma burb of OKC – her family moved there from NYC when they started having children. She said that the teachers went out of their way to “make her feel accepted” by doing things like making everyone sing the dradle song after the Christmas carols, which of course does nothing but alienate a person by pointing out they are different from everyone else. She wasn’t super religious, but she had this obnoxious sweater with a colorful dradle on it that she said she used to wear just to make fun of them all. She thought they were hilarious.
I am an atheist that grew up in the Southern US mostly in Texas. Some Christians here who know you are an atheist don’t treat you that much different than anybody else. My father for example was a baptist minister and really wasn’t all that concerned with me being an atheist.
However I get the distinct impression from some Christians who know that I’m an atheist that I piss them off immensely. They don’t yell at me or say hateful things (although I have been told I am going to burn in hell on occasion) but they look at me as if I am a thief or a child molester. there body language is unmistakable. They look uncomfortable there is no humor in there voice and there responses to me are far shorter and terser that what is normal for them and they can’t wait to get away from me. I know that if the subject of belief ever comes up when I’m around them that that will be there cue for them to tell me what they really think about me.
There is a LOT of hostility towards non Christians in this part of the country. It isn’t always open or spoken about directly, but it does show up in other ways.
For example one of the ministers in the 20/20 report said something about kids standing up for there faith. Standing up to what? A town full of Christians? The persecution complex these people have is just incredible and the perceived threat to Christianity makes them invent counter social events to non Christian holidays. The church I attended as a kid now has “Hallow Him” events on Halloween. Sometimes they are called fall festivals. Why would they do that unless they feel threaten by Halloween? I can remember thirty years ago going to church for Halloween parties and no one would have given a damn if had shown up wearing devil horns and carrying a little red pitch fork. Everyone thought of it as a harmless fun holiday.
So what happened? Freethinkers started asking questions.
They point out logical problems with there theology.
They bring up facts about inconsistencies and violence in the scriptures that they had never noticed before.
They pointed out that virtually all of there sacred holidays were “stolen” from other cultures and are not exclusively “Christian” in there origin. Which is why they now have problems with the traditional holiday icons. Because Freethinkers showed that there cherished beliefs are no different than believing in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. When no one questioned the validity of Jesus then these icons were no threat to them and they were welcome diversions for the kids.
They think that they were the victims of unprovoked attacks by freethinkers. When in reality they put forth there belief by proselytizing and then complain when someone says they don’t agree.
If you expression an opinion in this case “witnessing” (proselytizing) you don’t get to claim that you are a victim of harassment if someone says they don’t agree because you are the one who brought it up in the first place.
With logic like that it isn’t hard to believe that a small town in Oklahoma now probably believes that one 13 year old atheist girl has made them the victim not her.
I don’t hide my atheism nor do I advertise it. I don’t look forward to a day when I have a confrontation with an self-righteous bible thumping nut job nor will I shy away from such a confrontation.
If some of what I wrote doesn’t make sense I apologize as I haven’t had much sleep and tend to preach when I’m tired. Hmmm, must have gotten that from my dad.
typical christian hypocrisy. ’nuff said about that.
if people want to be spiritual, it should be a personal, private undertaking. once the brainwashed organize, they simply become part of a corrupt, corrosive power structure. organized religion is deadly. history has proven that time and again.
Nicole, hopefully you’ll see this post, and all the comments and it will give you strength in the knowledge that the “whole US” isn’t like Hardesty. I’m an atheist, and I have many christian friends but I have never experienced this kind of bigotry. I know it exists, obviously, but please, please remember that your beliefs are equally valid and important. It’s insane how much vile hate is taught in the name of religion, the biggest hypocrisy of all is how unaccepting are those who say they don’t judge. You are a remarkable young woman.
That interviewer was a real jerk. I wonder if they got him on loan from Fox.
I’ve only watched half so far, but my favorite quote-
“I don’t really know what athiests believe… I know they don’t believe in a god that *I* believe in…”
um, yeah….
Damn shes smoken.
I recently read on Newsweek On-line the problem of population loss in rural America. The religious intolerance and anti-intellectualism of many rural Americans was not address. (This is also a problem in many urban housing projects) I have met many “refugees” from western Pennsylvia and West Virginia. Many would have loved to stay in the rural towns they were raised in, but because they were non-religious, gay, or had been tainted by the outside world because of education or world travel (that did not include being a missionary or joining the military) they were no longer welcome.
I once visited the Hill Country of western Texas. I talked to a friend about maybe moving there. She said the only safe place for an atheist in Texas was Austin.
I do respect this family for staying. Maybe through their actions, someday rural America will be more tolerate. Otherwise the brain drain will continue.
It should be noted that this video is a few years old, so the family might not be in this situation anymore. Still sucks that it happened, though.