Below is an article that appeared in the Bozeman Chronicle. The subject of the article is connected to the day of service nonsense. My comments interspersed in bold.
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King, the black civil rights leader, was known for reaching across religious lines to work with Jews and Christian pastors of different denominations, Stedman said. But few know that one of King's closest advisors, Phillip Randolph, a black labor leader and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, where King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, was also an atheist (and a Socialist. But MLK didn't "reach across religious lines" with Randolph any more than he reached across political lines with him. Randolph was also a civil rights activist, and since they had a common cause, they joined up together. There was no grand tolerance on display. The two worked together on what they believed. All this is is an attempt to steer MLK's legacy into today's leftist agenda.).
Atheists are one of the most distrusted groups in America and live with a great stigma, Stedman said. (Mostly self-inflicted. Atheist as a whole are a disagreeable lot. Not content to embrace their own lack of belief, they feel the necessity to foist it on others, generally in the most mocking and disrespectful of ways.) People assume they're angry and want to tear down religion. (Which, of course, is largely true. The most popular atheists are men like Dawkins and Harris, who have written book after book mocking and tearing down religion. Atheists do not ostracize them, they embrace them, celebrate them, and regurgitate their vile pronouncements.) Polls find that Americans are less likely to vote for atheists than for Jews, Mormons or Muslims, and atheists are the ones parents least want their children to marry. (This makes sense. People who reject God tend to reject virtue, or at least, hold it in low regard.) Yet the ranks of non-believers are growing (well, no. Depending on the poll, per capita atheism is on the decline. But even if it were on the rise, a small increase can appear as a big percentage increase when atheists comprise 1-6% of the population.) especially among young people, he said. One in five Americans is not religiously affiliated (which is not the same thing as them being atheists. Lots of people of faith do not associate with churches, and the number is growing as they desert mainline denominations.).
Stedman said he grew up in a secular household in Minnesota, yet at age 11 when his parents split up, he joined a fundamentalist church. He eventually realized, however, that he was a gay man. He struggled to reconcile his sexual orientation with his religion.
He was at "the lowest of the low" points when his mother read his journal and stepped in to find him a progressive church where the pastor accepted him. Inspired, Stedman decided to become a pastor himself and went to college to study religion. He ultimately realized that while he valued the Christian community, he never connected with the beliefs, and that he was an atheist (Well, he must have connected with the beliefs on some level since he's partnering with a Christian ministry to help feed the poor.).
Working on hunger issues with his friend the Christian pastor, he said, "I call it service, he calls it ministry. Because we don't let our words get in the way, we are able to make a dent in hunger."
He quoted King on the importance of love and nonviolence. With violence, King said, you murder the hater, but you do not murder hatred. "Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that," King said.
Stedman said he has been challenged by believers who ask how he explains the origins of the universe. He answers that the question doesn't interest him much. "What concerns me most is, given that we're here, what do we do?" The answer for him is to promote justice, try to improve the world and "find ways to live together." (While very noble sounding, these values are arbitrary and meritless in the atheist universe. Why is suffering bad? Why is helping people good? On what basis are these value judgments made? Personal taste? Consensus? Faith? It is clear that Mr. Stedman has almost completely adopted Christian values. But he appears to be a very confused young man. He clearly misses the fact that he acts like a Christian as he leads his daily life helping others, but has a pagan life philosophy that contradicts his actions. No wonder he has this history. He's conflicted.)
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Here is a page from the Obama National Day of Service. As you can see, this is a government push for volunteerism. You will note that you register with the site and report your activities to the government.
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Reproduced here for fair use and discussion purposes.
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Atheists and people of religious faith can work together to build a better world despite their differences, activist and author Chris Stedman told a Bozeman audience Thursday at a Martin Luther King lecture. (I presume the speaker thinks that this does not naturally happen. Christians have for centuries created and ran hospitals, food banks, and charities. Christians have wrote the book on charity.
Stedman, the assistant humanist chaplain at Harvard University, spoke to more than 100 students and community members at Montana State University for the university's annual King lecture.
He recently wrote a book, "Faitheist: How An Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religions." It describes his personal journey in and out of faith, and how he came to work with a Christian pastor to fight hunger. In the Boston area, he said, they've provided meals for 70,000 hungry children (Here is a tacit admission that it is Christians who are caring for the poor, clothing the naked, and healing the sick.).
"What would happen if atheists and Christians could see themselves as necessary partners in making the world a better place?" Stedman asked. "What might we accomplish together?" (I find it interesting that Mr. Stedman is doing Christian things despite his atheism. And the is what he is doing. He adopted, whether consciously or unconsciously, Christian morality and values. He didn't follow the logical conclusions of lacking faith in god or gods. If he did, he would have to admit that the universe came into being as a result of unguided forces, and that we are nothing more than random assemblages of atoms with no meaning or purpose. The fact that some random assemblages of atoms require ingestion of other kinds of assemblages of atoms (food) carries no moral imperative for the honest atheist. His values are made up, or adopted from others. There is no way to ascertain their merit, for merit would not exist. The atheist lacks purpose, because their is no purpose in the universe.)
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Atheists and people of religious faith can work together to build a better world despite their differences, activist and author Chris Stedman told a Bozeman audience Thursday at a Martin Luther King lecture. (I presume the speaker thinks that this does not naturally happen. Christians have for centuries created and ran hospitals, food banks, and charities. Christians have wrote the book on charity.
Christian morality so permeates society that government has done its best to insert itself into the charity equation in an attempt to replace individual mercy with government programs. Unfortunately, it is succeeding in its objective, but failing in its mission. Atheists and others are late to the party, but I'm glad they finally arrived. Unfortunately, it is not without the implied denigration of Christians. ).
Stedman, the assistant humanist chaplain at Harvard University, spoke to more than 100 students and community members at Montana State University for the university's annual King lecture.
He recently wrote a book, "Faitheist: How An Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religions." It describes his personal journey in and out of faith, and how he came to work with a Christian pastor to fight hunger. In the Boston area, he said, they've provided meals for 70,000 hungry children (Here is a tacit admission that it is Christians who are caring for the poor, clothing the naked, and healing the sick.).
"What would happen if atheists and Christians could see themselves as necessary partners in making the world a better place?" Stedman asked. "What might we accomplish together?" (I find it interesting that Mr. Stedman is doing Christian things despite his atheism. And the is what he is doing. He adopted, whether consciously or unconsciously, Christian morality and values. He didn't follow the logical conclusions of lacking faith in god or gods. If he did, he would have to admit that the universe came into being as a result of unguided forces, and that we are nothing more than random assemblages of atoms with no meaning or purpose. The fact that some random assemblages of atoms require ingestion of other kinds of assemblages of atoms (food) carries no moral imperative for the honest atheist. His values are made up, or adopted from others. There is no way to ascertain their merit, for merit would not exist. The atheist lacks purpose, because their is no purpose in the universe.)
King, the black civil rights leader, was known for reaching across religious lines to work with Jews and Christian pastors of different denominations, Stedman said. But few know that one of King's closest advisors, Phillip Randolph, a black labor leader and organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, where King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, was also an atheist (and a Socialist. But MLK didn't "reach across religious lines" with Randolph any more than he reached across political lines with him. Randolph was also a civil rights activist, and since they had a common cause, they joined up together. There was no grand tolerance on display. The two worked together on what they believed. All this is is an attempt to steer MLK's legacy into today's leftist agenda.).
Atheists are one of the most distrusted groups in America and live with a great stigma, Stedman said. (Mostly self-inflicted. Atheist as a whole are a disagreeable lot. Not content to embrace their own lack of belief, they feel the necessity to foist it on others, generally in the most mocking and disrespectful of ways.) People assume they're angry and want to tear down religion. (Which, of course, is largely true. The most popular atheists are men like Dawkins and Harris, who have written book after book mocking and tearing down religion. Atheists do not ostracize them, they embrace them, celebrate them, and regurgitate their vile pronouncements.) Polls find that Americans are less likely to vote for atheists than for Jews, Mormons or Muslims, and atheists are the ones parents least want their children to marry. (This makes sense. People who reject God tend to reject virtue, or at least, hold it in low regard.) Yet the ranks of non-believers are growing (well, no. Depending on the poll, per capita atheism is on the decline. But even if it were on the rise, a small increase can appear as a big percentage increase when atheists comprise 1-6% of the population.) especially among young people, he said. One in five Americans is not religiously affiliated (which is not the same thing as them being atheists. Lots of people of faith do not associate with churches, and the number is growing as they desert mainline denominations.).
Stedman said he grew up in a secular household in Minnesota, yet at age 11 when his parents split up, he joined a fundamentalist church. He eventually realized, however, that he was a gay man. He struggled to reconcile his sexual orientation with his religion.
He was at "the lowest of the low" points when his mother read his journal and stepped in to find him a progressive church where the pastor accepted him. Inspired, Stedman decided to become a pastor himself and went to college to study religion. He ultimately realized that while he valued the Christian community, he never connected with the beliefs, and that he was an atheist (Well, he must have connected with the beliefs on some level since he's partnering with a Christian ministry to help feed the poor.).
Working on hunger issues with his friend the Christian pastor, he said, "I call it service, he calls it ministry. Because we don't let our words get in the way, we are able to make a dent in hunger."
He quoted King on the importance of love and nonviolence. With violence, King said, you murder the hater, but you do not murder hatred. "Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that," King said.
Stedman said he has been challenged by believers who ask how he explains the origins of the universe. He answers that the question doesn't interest him much. "What concerns me most is, given that we're here, what do we do?" The answer for him is to promote justice, try to improve the world and "find ways to live together." (While very noble sounding, these values are arbitrary and meritless in the atheist universe. Why is suffering bad? Why is helping people good? On what basis are these value judgments made? Personal taste? Consensus? Faith? It is clear that Mr. Stedman has almost completely adopted Christian values. But he appears to be a very confused young man. He clearly misses the fact that he acts like a Christian as he leads his daily life helping others, but has a pagan life philosophy that contradicts his actions. No wonder he has this history. He's conflicted.)
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Here is a page from the Obama National Day of Service. As you can see, this is a government push for volunteerism. You will note that you register with the site and report your activities to the government.
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