[net.religion] Reply to Gary Samuelson on "Life in America"

tim@unc.UUCP (Tim Maroney) (10/10/83)

[ posted for Pamela Troy ]

Byron Howes' response to Gary Samuelson on my behalf pretty much said it
all, but there are a few things I would like to add.

	(From Gary Samuelson)
	Pamela Troy has written a scenario of "Life in a Judeo-Christian
	America."  I find it to be an imaginative piece of futuristic
	fiction.

Actually, it took little imagination.  Just a basic knowledge of history and
a grounding in the rhetoric of the religious right.

	Under present law, Christians do not have the same rights as secular
	humanists, atheists, agnostics, or even witches.

What, exactly, IS a secular humanist?  And how many atheists, agnostics, or
witches have their own television network, as born again Christians do?
Gee, I wish I were as persecuted as Christians are!  Or, as Tim (Maroney)
has said, how would the ancient Christians, who really WERE persecuted, feel
about your complaints?  You insult the suffering they endured by your
pretensions to martyrdom.

	It is illegal to pray in a public school.  (This may be technically 
	incorrect, but that is the way the general public perceives the law.)

If that is indeed the public's perception, it is because people like you
have been lying to them about what it meant ever since the Supreme Court
decision.  I have read countless tracts put out by the religious right which
conjure up images of cops wading in with truncheons every time some poor
tyke bows his head to say grace in the cafeteria.  Repeating a lie often
enough does not make it true, even if you convince a good number of people.

	In the job market, Christians are discriminated against if they 
	don't "play the game," which means lie, cheat, and steal like 
	everybody else....

	Now, as for what life will be like if the secular humanists gain all
	the power they want, no doubt the first thing they will do is
	put all Christians in mental institutions, since they are obviously
	irrational and a threat to society.

Come on, Gary.  Nowhere in my article did I say that all Christians were
irrational and a threat to society.  However, in the paragraph above, you
make it clear that you consider all non-Christians liars, cheats, and
thieves.  If this is an attitude shared by many other Christians, what are
we non-Christians to expect but unequal justice?

In my article, I made it clear that I wanted specific criticism.  I invite
you to take particular points and tell me where you disagree and how.  The
point of my article was that nobody seemed willing to answer my questions.
You have not answered them either.  How about it?

Pamela Troy