{"id":2933,"date":"2012-10-16T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-16T16:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=2933"},"modified":"2012-10-16T12:32:44","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T16:32:44","slug":"new-flash-atheists-hate-romney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/10\/16\/new-flash-atheists-hate-romney\/","title":{"rendered":"News Flash: Atheists Hate Romney"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Following on my post last night on \u201cWhy We Need More Religion in Politics, Not Less<\/a>,\u201d I received word this morning that atheists hate Romney. \u00a0I\u2019m just shocked and flabbergasted by this news.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Even Homer couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, we were all waiting with bated breath this morning for the Secular Coalition for America to release\u00a0its candidate scorecard<\/a> for the 2012 Presidential contest \u2014 and the huge gobsmacking facepalm-inducing stunner here is that Mitt Romney has received a failing grade! \u00a0Whether you regard this as a stain upon his reputation or a badge of honor will large depend on whether you agree with the Secular Coalition. \u00a0They awarded an \u201cA\u201d if the candidate consistently agrees with the Secular Coalition viewpoint, and an \u201cF\u201d if he or she does not.<\/p>\n

For \u201cstance on faith-based initiatives,\u201d for instance, the question is whether the candidate believes that the government can make religious organizations eligible on an equal footing with non-religious organizations for government funds to deliver essential, non-religious goods and services. \u00a0Romney was given an F, naturally, and Obama was given a C, since he sorta-kinda believes that religious organizations can receive government grants to help them deliver social services, even though his faith-based office is at least half-political. \u00a0On \u201cdiscrimination by religious organizations receiving taxpayer funding,\u201d the question is whether those organizations can make hiring decisions on the basis of their religious beliefs. \u00a0It\u2019s \u201cdiscrimination,\u201d according to the Secular Coalition, for a Catholic charity that receives taxpayer funds to give food to the homeless to insist that a Catholic run the charity.<\/p>\n

Obama and Romney show the widest divergence on \u201crecognition of the US as a secular nation\u201d (apparently Romney prefers a theocracy), \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d (apparently Romney believes that we should have a state church) and \u201cuse of religious beliefs to determine public health care policy.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s unconscionable, really, that basic beliefs about right and wrong should influence health-care legislation.<\/p>\n

For your entertainment value, the scorecard is below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Secular Coalition of America has released its candidate scorecard for 2012 and, to the absolute astonishment of absolutely nobody, Romney receives a failing grade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,289,677],"tags":[1322,92,1351,1325,185,1360],"class_list":["post-2933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-2012","category-mitt-romney","category-obamacare","tag-atheism","tag-atheist","tag-barack-obama","tag-election-2012","tag-faith-and-politics","tag-mitt-romney"],"yoast_head":"\nNews Flash: Atheists Hate Romney - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Secular Coalition of America has released its candidate scorecard for 2012 and, to the absolute astonishment of absolutely nobody, Romney receives a failing grade.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2012\/10\/16\/new-flash-atheists-hate-romney\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"News Flash: Atheists Hate Romney - 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