Sunday, September 6, 2009

Freedom From Religion?

With all the blogosphere hubub surrounding the recent advertisement in UU World for the Freedom From Religion organization, I couldn't help but take a look at the spread myself. While I wholeheartedly welcome humanist, even atheistic, perspectives, my issue with the advertisement derives from its rhetorical campaign not against God, but against religion itself. A Freedom From Theism or Freedom From Peeping Tom in the Sky organization would be welcomed by some in our denomination - which is fine. However, the notion of a religious magazine publicizing an organization committed, at least in name, to the eradication of religion seems at best counterintuitive, at worst ludicrous. 

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1 comment:

Robin Edgar said...

What about the notion of a religious organization, namely the Unitarian Universalists Association of Congregations, ordaining intolerant "fundamentalist atheists" as U*U clergy? That to me, to say nothing of others, seems at best counter-intuitive, definitely ludicrous, and at worst. . . well I will let you and other U*Us decide that. Personally, I firmly believe that ordaining anti-religious "fundamentalist atheists" as U*U ministers and the much broader toleration and condoning, if not active affirming and promoting, of anti-religious intolerance within the U*U World is a major contributing factor to why Unitarian*Universalism is "a tiny, declining, fringe religion" these days. . . I say the gig is up and it is high time that the UUA made it very clear that anti-religious intolerance and bigotry violates U*U principles and ideals and will no longer be tolerated in The U*U World. In fact I will soon be using this latest incident as a fulcrum to gain some leverage towards that achieving that end. . .