Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: hate groups in the White House

According to some notorious hate groups, the Obama administration is meeting with hate groups:

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." (Daniel Tencer, Raw Story)

The complainants are the usual line-up of KKK-flavored religious fanatics like the always-off-his-meds whacko Bill Donohue of the Catholic League (who makes regular appearances in this space; here, here, here). According to this Defender of Pedophiles:

"People of faith, especially Christians, have good reason to wonder exactly where their interests lie with the Obama administration," Donohue said in a statement. "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."

Hahahaha. Religiously unaffiliated, agnostic or atheist comprise an estimated 16% of the world's population, behind Islam at 21% but ahead of Hinduism at 14%. In the US the number is about 13%. There are almost four times as many who declare themselves secular or non-religious as Jewish, twice as many as Pentecostals, about half the number as Baptists.

Unprecented? Maybe. Because Bill Donohue's definition of hate is saying there is no God and Jesus is not His Son or anyone who champions the separation of Church and State. Little Billy would never consider any of these guys purveyors of hate:

For the period April 2001 through June 2006, Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Emeritus James Dobson visited the White House 24 times; 10 of those visits were to President Bush.

Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition, made an astonishing 50 visits to the White House starting on February 1, 2001, and continuing through March 16, 2008. Six of those visits were to President Bush.

The late Jerry Falwell, of Jerry Falwell Ministries, made eight visits to the White House between May 2001 and September 2004. Three of those visits were to President Bush. (Raw Story)

No administration should need to speak to secularists or adherents of any religion. But since the doors have been flung wide to the Billy Donohues, it's nice that the anti-Donohues can get in once in a while.

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Thats the way the right works. They want to accuse their opponents of doing what they are guilty of before someone could accuse them. So, they'd better call atheists a hate group before any of their we-want-to-keep-beating-gays-legal groups get accused of anything.

Little Billy would never consider any of these guys purveyors of hate:

He absolutely would, because they're not Catholic. I don't think he'd say it out loud, though.

(Standard disclaimer: I don't have a blog, the link in my name leads nowhere; I just need to pretend so I can comment on Pharyngula.)

By David MarjanoviÄ (not verified) on 28 Feb 2010 #permalink

... some of the biggest anti-religious zealots in the nation.

Aw c'mon, Donohue. You gotta save some rhetoric for the big White House dinner in honor of FFRF, the Four Horsemen, AA, Myers, and me.

By Pierce R. Butler (not verified) on 28 Feb 2010 #permalink

@David:

you can leave the URL field empty when posting a comment. :-)

Frankly, I was a bit offended at this too - note that Obama didn't taint himself by attending.

Donohue will take whatever allies he can get - some time back he "allied" with Glenn Greenwald on some rant of Greenwald's (I think having to do with something stupid McCain said during the campaign, but I could be mistaken).

Felix: Effect Measure uses optional sign-in. If one is already signed in, as I am from elsewhere, that gets used. Hence, I've filled in none of the name, email, or url fields to post.

By Uncle Glenny (not verified) on 28 Feb 2010 #permalink

Hahahaha. Religiously unaffiliated, agnostic or atheist comprise an estimated 16% of the world's population, behind Islam at 21% but ahead of Hinduism at 14%. In the US the number is about 13%.

Not sure where you are getting your numbers. I believe the US areligious comprise 24% of the population. My source is ARIS 2008. This is by lumping the Deists in with the atheists and agnostics.

Deists don't bother me. Most of them don't feel like fighting in a religious war because their god(s) whatever their names are demand that they do something that no one knows about. Or try to sneak their nonexistent mythology into kid's science classes.

This makes the areligious at 72 million people about equal to the Catholics and in the top three sects if the areligious were a sect. Take that Donohue, you idiot. Donohue is just a professional bigot for the RCC.

The actual situation might even be worse for the cultists. Only about 25-35% of xians attend church. A lot of them are likely to be box checkers on surveys.

Donohue must not be sleeping too well these days.

The scandals of the RCC really put a dent in their membership, attendance, and collection of that valuable commodity that churches run on, money.

There is a huge gap between the heirarchy and the members, who by and large pay no attention to the priests any more.

According to the ARIS surveys, the three fastest growing religions in the US are, Islam, Wicca, and the Nones. I'm waiting for Donohue to figure it out and attack the Moslems and the pagans next. It should be fun.

Key detail to note: the meeting was NOT with President Obama, but high-caliber presidential flunkies; and it was not at the White House, but at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street. In contrast, Jewish, Mormon, and other religious leaders have been able to meet with the President himself in the White House. So, the religious are screaming about "special treatment" when it's not even equal treatment.

It sure beats 2000-2008 when the PNAC hate group was the White House.
O/T, but I've a question about ECMO personnel vs ventilator personnel, training. A recent small Swine Flu UK study noted tentatively, 16% more ARDS patients survive on expensive ECMO vs moderately expensive ventilator treatment. Presumably because ventilators stress lungs.
A curriculum notes ECMOs would be performed by perfusionists whereas ventilators require a Respiratory Therapist level of education. The former is two years on top of a 4-5 (I assume) yr degree, whereas the latter is 2-3 yrs of community college (I think). So for surge purposes where personnel and everything else is scarce, will it always be better to go with the cheaper level of education assuming surge pre/post-pandemic training is always easier with a community college degree vs collage degrees? This is sticking tubes in the body vs tubes in the throat. Would R+D ever make the ECMO option user-friendly? I was amazed to learn some States already have cheap equipment surge plans. What is stopping general procurement, the bloodsucking health insurance companies?

By Phillip Huggan (not verified) on 06 Mar 2010 #permalink