Last week, the Springfield, Missouri newspaper News-Reader published an editorial describing events that took place during an anti-abortion rally and subsequent anti-anti-abortion rally, ostensibly orchestrated by the local chapter of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Because this is not true, and because News-Leader neglected to do any fact-checking, I am going to post the editorial in full, and the response-editorial by Springfield’s CoFSM Captain as well, for clarification.
Attack on pro-life display reveals intolerance
by Bradley FisherOn Oct. 1-2 a walk to Blair-Shannon Dining Hall had a different kind of scenery. Hundreds of miniature crosses lined the front lawn of the building. Members of Bears For Life, a pro-life student organization, stood with signs, while others continued to add grave markers to the sobering “child cemetery.” A poster reads: “50,000,000 dead since Roe v. Wade.” It was an uncommon scene, to be sure, but is sadly, far from the most disturbing spectacle of the day.
A few feet away, at the Bear Paw, the BIGALA (Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Association) was having its own event. Several members left their own meeting to go stomp down the tiny tombstones across the street. One young man threw himself on the ground, rolling over the memorial. The leader of the association, who apparently did not endorse this unfortunate display, chided the miscreants, but the damage was done.
That afternoon members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a group of atheists on campus, came out in full force, armed with coat hangers and signs offering “free abortions.” Pushing the envelope as usual, the group did their worst to upstage Bears For Life, who had, by the way, reserved the lawn in advance to peacefully protest. This is not free speech. This is despicable.
When did free speech stop being free expression and start being a sideshow for the impudent and obscene? Why must one fight for the floor, rail against shameless intimidation tactics, and compete with such disgusting outbursts from the opposition, just to have one’s voice heard? Bears For Life did not challenge the Spaghetti Monsters to a debate, nor were they antagonizing the BIGALA rally nearby. They wanted only to publicly gather and peacefully protest.
It seems to me The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and groups like them, who tout their ideology of tolerance and diversity, have deteriorated into the very close-minded bigots they propose to fight. Hardly champions of free speech, they cannot wait to shut up the other side, rushing to every Christian demonstration and conservative protest to make sure they are the ones that scream loudest. And I always thought silencing the opposition was just for fascists. Then again, maybe it is.
My question is, what are these people so afraid of? Why go to such vulgar and demeaning ends (self-respect and credibility are obviously nonissues among these circles) to keep someone else from making their point? Is your argument really so thin and your convictions so unfounded that the proclamations of pro-life demonstrators, should you allow them to speak, would expose you to be a mindless chattel of the far-left agenda?
People from the pro-choice side who are educated enough to know both sides and are able to defend their position without making a complete spectacle of themselves, must be horrified. This kind of tasteless misbehavior only discredits those who respect free speech no matter one’s political persuasion.
Perhaps it is that these anti-God, anti-faith groups really have nothing to say for their own positions. Beyond shocking the public, and intimidating other points of view with their offensive poster board idioms and tired mock-church routine, their purpose appears only to be a sideshow affront to the faith community and a hindrance to free speech.
I am not arguing that these organizations at fault be censored.
Rather I ask that when it comes to political discourse, they behave more like logical adults and less like insolent toddlers, refusing to take turns. After all, as Chomsky said, “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
Here is the counter-editorial which was published a few days later:
Group not involved in counter-protest
by Ryan Culbertson-FaegreThis is in response to Bradley Fisher’s editorial in (Wednesday’s) issue of the News-Leader. My name is Ryan Culbertson-Faegre, and I’m the official captain of the Missouri State University Chapter of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I’d just like to clear up a few points that seem to have escaped Bradley Fisher.
First, let me emphasize that the FSM is not an atheist organization. We are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, agnostics, atheists, humanists, deists, pagans and Wiccans. We are not against anyone’s god in any way. We are simply against hatred and dogmatism. We protest people who come to our campus and try to push their religions on other people. When campus evangelicals visit MSU, we take it upon ourselves to ensure that they do not harass passers-by and make them cry, as preachers like “Brother” Jed Smock have been known to do. If we cannot distract them with honest debate, and they shout over us, we occasionally resort to (often Dadaist) performance art in order to stop their verbal assault.
It’s also important to understand that the FSM did not stage a counter-protest on Wednesday. While some of our members, myself included, protested the Bears For Life’s display, we did so of our own volition. It was in no way an FSM event, nor was there any reason to believe that it was. I wish that Mr. Fisher had had the foresight to verify his facts before he published them.
Let’s move on and talk about what the Bears For Life were doing last Wednesday. They hung up blatantly and scientifically wrong signs next to their macabre little cemetery in an attempt to guilt, shame and scare young women. It was inappropriate and classless. However, they had the right to do it, and the protesters very poignantly avoided impeding their event in any way. We respect their right to express their views. This is America. However, in turn, we demand the right to speak our own minds. I believe that most of us were speaking out against the event because we believe that scaring women with false statistics and attempting to take their rights away is despicable.
Finally, let’s talk about the “Free Abortions” signs and the coat hangers. There was only one “Free Abortions” sign, and it was mine. However, Mr. Fisher neglected to mention the context. A friend of mine was holding a sign next to me that said “Overturn Roe V. Wade?” The sign was more than an attempt to crudely shock onlookers. As I explained to the Bears For Life and anyone else who cared to speak to me, I was demonstrating that the number of abortions in America would not go down if the procedure were illegalized. Instead, there would just be an increase in fatalities, as we see in other countries that have banned abortion. Since he took it out of context, however, I understand how Mr. Fisher could have mistaken the intent of the sign; I will try not to hold it against him. I only hope that the next time Bradley Fisher wishes to express his views about our organization, he takes the time to learn the facts.
| 
*shocked* OM(FMS)G
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When I read the first editorial, I was literally angry at my fellow pastafarians. It was sad to see that pastafarians too were giving up tolerance. But, when I read the second editorial, I remembered that the media, (especially when the writer is extremely Christian) is very innacurate when it comes to other religions. I found it offending when Mr. Fisher described FSMists as aetheists. This is just the sort of reason that for all of my school essays, I rant about the blatant stupidity of society. Also, my parenthesized note about being extremely Christian is not meant to be offensive in any way. I was just noting on the regular behaviour of those people.
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Some people….
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Excellent, well thought out retort Ryan. Good for you – on all counts!
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I notice some Pastafarians have added their voices already.
Sad thing thought – since the clarification was published, the paper have published another article on the subject peddling the same inaccuracied as the original, still calling the CoFSM a “radical leftist student group” and anti-Christian, which, as any Pastafarian knows is absolute nonsense on both counts.
The News-Leader still not got the hang of fact checking then…
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“There is no such thing as bad publicity.”
Don’t know who I’m quoting. Does anyone else know?
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Despite those who would condemn us for believing in something non-traditional, it’s wonderful to see that there are those, like Ryan, who are not only intelligent and caring, but who take the correct course of action when insulted. In my opinion FSM has the best followers anyone could ever ask for.
RAmen,
Chantal
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We must all remember that our religion is not a silly joke, and much like other religious folks, the church may be judged based on the actions of our members.
That being said, Fisher should not have assumed that it was a church activity. Unless they had FSM signs or pirate regalia, it was unfair of him to criticize our organization for anything that may have offended him.
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OH NOES!!! NOT THE MEDIA, TOO!! WHY FSM?! (drops to knees) WHY?!
:’(
$ sudo ./sigh -heavily
-”Capt’n Squints”
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I wouldn’t really consider it “Bad Press” when such an obviously conservative christian writer spews out a laughably hypocritical bag of tripe like this.
Really, if you just reverse everything he says, you wind up with something that sounds reasonable.
I’ll demonstrate:
Perhaps it is that these pro-God, pro-faith groups really have nothing to say for their own positions. Beyond shocking the public, and intimidating other points of view with their offensive poster board idioms and tired church routine, their purpose appears only to be a sideshow affront to the intellectual community and a hindrance to free speech.
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Wow, nice rebuttal. This organization shouldn’t take a stance on the issue, as long as the pro or anti abortion sides of the argument don’t invoke their deity as a reason to stop the practice for all citizens.
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Really, I’ve never seen or heard of a peaceful anti-abortion protest.
At the very least, there is that factor of intimidation and, usually, strong verbal abuse, which, to a pregnant woman going through hormonal changes, is likely going to be at least very stressful.
It boils down to freedom of choice. These people have no right to harass these people who, if they are going to an abortion clinic, are likely already under serious emotional/mental strain.
F them.
If they harassed my girlfriend, or my sister, I’d protest their face with a bat.
I’m 100% done playing nice with this kind of intolerant crap from these self-righteous hypocritical scumbags.
And this ridiculous writer? His slanderous pile of trash should be printed on Shit-Pancakes, and fed to him.
Gah! Damn these hypocrites really get under my skin!
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That is a low thing to do, thank you Ryan for putting this guy in his place.
RAmen
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You are completely correct Ryan. They did not have their facts straight. The average number of abortions a year is 1.3 million. Since 1973 that make 45.5 million abortions since Roe v Wade, not the 50 million of which they claim. I’m glad glad to see that FSM continues to be tolerant of other Americans’ opinons.
Here is an example of a tolerant opinion:
“I wouldn’t really consider it “Bad Press” when such an obviously conservative christian writer spews out a laughably hypocritical bag of tripe like this.”
Here is another example of a tolerant opinion:
“F them.
If they harassed my girlfriend, or my sister, I’d protest their face with a bat.
I’m 100% done playing nice with this kind of intolerant crap from these self-righteous hypocritical scumbags.
And this ridiculous writer? His slanderous pile of trash should be printed on Shit-Pancakes, and fed to him.
Gah! Damn these hypocrites really get under my skin!”
Also, I am glad to see that you are proactively organizing events such as http://www.venganza.org/2008/10/07/pz-myers-and-richard-carrier/
to bring in industry professionals to voice their opinions about the non-existance of dieties in certain religions. I hope it went well. Now, to avoid making FSM seem slanted against a certain religion, you should now organize events with industry professionals to attempt to disprove the beliefs of Muslims, Jews, agnostics, atheists, humanists, deists, pagans and Wiccans. I would dearly love to attend some of these events as well.
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butlerian jihad:
“I’d protest their face with a bat.” Lol
That guy is a total… well, to quote red dwarf; “A word has yet to be invented to describe how totally whateveritis you are, but you are one, and a total total one at that.”
He said that the protest-protesters were; “Pushing the envelope as usual”, “mindless”, guilty of “tasteless misbehavior”. Which of these can’t be applied to people who line up thousands of fake crosses outside an abortion centre full of young women? Disgusting. If i’d been there i’d have stomped those crosses too.
and then he even implied that we are facists. Can anyone take this guy seriously?
“This is not free speech. This is despicable.” No, it IS free speech, it’s still free speech if we don’t agree with you, you know. He had a whinge about us talking over the top of them and drowning out their point. So? That IS free speech; A thousand voices shouting. No one punched anyone. No one got arrested. It’s still free speech.
The pro-lifers need to have a huge collective unbunching of their panties.
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Cottura 5 Minuti, the quote “There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.” is credited to Irish author Brendan Behan.
RAmen
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Way to go, Ryan! I approve of your counter-protest and your defense of our church.
RAmen
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What are exactly defending anti-choice groups when say “Repeal Roe vs. Wade”? Death penalty for avortionists? Nuremberg trials for genocide masturbation? No. Sarah Palin has told that she doesn’t want any woman jailed for avortion. So, it sounds to me that the only point of all that issue is one of a culture war. Nobody minds on real suffering people.
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What a wonderfully thoughtful and articulate response to hate and lies. Just goes to show you how smart and sane Pastafarians truly are. Brilliant, Ryan! Good show.
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I myself am against abortion but for killing babies
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So Bradley Fisher, like so many others of his ilk, doesn’t support that bit of the holey bubble which commands “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness”
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“I’d protest their face with a bat.” Nice one, ButlerianJihad, though probably not necessary by Pastafarian ideals.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and admit that I consider myself a Christian. I’m a child of two biochemists who don’t see any conflict between science and Christianity, I think the Bible is a flawed book open to interpretation, and I’m happy to accept the unprovable parts of my beliefs under the banner of “faith;” nor will I dispute the unprovability of it… but I have stopped identifying myself as Christian.
Nowadays, in the US, whenever I see a symbol of Christianity, or read/hear someone state “I’m Christian,” my first reaction is not “Oh, goody, a follower of Christ’s message of love and tolerance.” No, it’s “Oh, great, another narrow-minded, brainwashed, anti-intellectual conservative who will automatically hate and exclude me from worship because God made me gay.”
I’m not ready to give up my spiritual beliefs, but I feel like “my” church has betrayed me. Just as extreme Islam has made westerners equate “Muslim” with “terrorist,” the word “Christian” has been co-opted by social & political terrorists. Where are all the “centrist” Christians who should be rising up against this identity theft?
Oh, wait, that’s me…chased out of the church by the witch-hunters–again.
Thanks for letting me rant–that felt almost as good as warm pasta & cold beer at a stripper’s convention.
RAmen!
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to Cottura 5 Minuti
The exact quote is, “There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.” It is attributed to Brendan Behan, who was an Irish author and dramatist who died in 1964.
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Another Pastafarian chiming in with a congratulation: Way to go, Captain Ryan! You represented us well with your coherent, intelligent and professional rebuttals, which looked better in contrast to the original editorial writer, who by the end was slipping into unprofessionality with ill-placed indignation. I am proud to be of the same religion as people like you.
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“the group did their worst to upstage Bears For Life, who had, by the way, reserved the lawn in advance to peacefully protest. This is not free speech. This is despicable.”
Biased much? I wouldn’t call setting up a fake tombstones labeled “child cemetery” to condemn and embarrass women who’ve gotten abortions peaceful.
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When a country is run by god, there is no free speech. Just ask Afghanistan. America is not Afghanistan, we are so much more evolved than that.
Saying a woman cannot kill her own unborn child (which in my opinion abortion is completely stupid anyway, since I don’t know why anyone would want to purposefully bring themself closer to being wiped from the gene pool, when there are many people out there who want to raise your child for you) is very much the same thing as saying “wear that f***ing Burka, B****!”
Too many people are only anti-abortion because they think Jesus would be anti-abortion.
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Be careful out there. I suspect traps are being set, and before long certain media will start trying to associate FSM to al qaeda.
Flartus, nice post. Thanks. And damn, Christianity (present company excluded) in this country has sure become a hateful religion. Until recently I just thought it was maybe a bit dumb, generally unhealthy, and, well, suboptimal for thinking persons. Now it (some exclusions apply) is becoming more and more indistinguishable from the extremist versions of Islam. I expect we’re going to have a real mess on out hands in the run-up to the next US presidential election.
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#14 Dom Says:
“you should now organize events with industry professionals to attempt to disprove the beliefs of Muslims, Jews, agnostics, atheists, humanists, deists, pagans and Wiccans. I would dearly love to attend some of these events as well.”
.
Got a list of the names of such groups deceitfully trying to circumvent the law and sneak their creationist religious propaganda, lies and dogma into science class under the guise of ID in an attempt to indoctrinate gullible students with their own narrow fund a mentalist beliefs?
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@Andrea post 25
To be fair it was an editorial which by definition is an opinion piece so he is allowed to be biased.
The man has his right to his opinion but he really should do his research before he badmouths us. I suspect he hates the Church and when he saw that some members of the counter protest were members he jumped at the chance to attack us.
I myself have confronted the so-called pro-life group on my campus but when I do it has nothing to do with my affiliation to the FSM. The fact is that I do not like the methods used by the group to intimidate women who are going through difficult times and I didn’t like it any more before I had even heard of the FSM.
Really, it’s a case of I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. I think those anti-woman protesters (oops I meant pro-life protesters) are wrong, and I will do anything I can to convince them to change, but in the end I will acknowledge that they do have the right to say it. The same goes for the jerk who wrote this editorial bashing the (mostly) good people I’ve come to know in the Church of the FSM.
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Good counter-editorial. I applaud you on your restraint.
Great tactic of Mr Fisher’s to insert phrases such as “50,000,000 dead since Roe v. Wade” without commenting on their (lack of) accuracy. Neutral reporting, ho!
Frodo be with you all.
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The right to free speech (which I don’t have, being a UK citizen), like all rights, needs to be balanced with its corresponding responsibility. If you don’t exercise your rights responsibly, you lose them.
I don’t think it is a responsible use of the right to free speech for anti-abortionists to intimidate women. Where I come from, if you intimidate women you go to jail.
It’s also irresponsible to abuse the right to free speech by publishing a biased and inaccurate editorial. A Bad Journalism award for Mr. Fisher, I think.
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Man, they’re still at it. Ryan Cooper, resident right-wing nut job, published a piece after Ryan Culbertson-Faegre’s that pretty much ignores his article.
I’m in the forums beating people down on it, and it seems at this point that not even the real crazies want to come out and play. I also have rebuttal letter submitted that I think they will print.
JT
http://jteberhard.blogspot.com
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Even if abortion becomes illegal… they will protest one thing after another until they get to condom factories… I mean, seriously, speaking from a history buff, I believe thoes same people will protest whatever stands in the way from their personal radical religious adgenda.
Radicals will always be around, but thanks to the internet, Harold and Kumar and bob dylan (just to name a few) religion isn’t the only “fun” thing to do anymore, and as Sigmund Freud once predicted that as civilization progresses, religion will disperse.
Just watch the movie Jesus Camp, good stuff…
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Well said, Flartus.
well said.
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Hi I like what I’ve read up to now and yes I do think your right but some time you got to shout about it “one voice in a world full of bull gets lost” I kinda shout at whats going on “having an upbringing with level headed people help” I on the other hand am the son of a cleaner but proud to be it. The world lives a lie and they call it a game dude.
you better see what I say before hand, I only have my own opinions on what I think, just I’d be happy to put a link on my pages, getting people to think out of the box is the hard part.
google me act2bmp
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I don’t know how it is there, but here in Brazil the best journalists are the unpartial ones. This is considered part of a journalist’s ethic behavior, at least here…
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Re: #22 Flartus,
Although you already heard this, great post. As you know, Pastafarians don’t really care what you believe as long as you don’t try to make us believe it, too. It is a shame that it has come to this, but so called, “Right thinking Christians” have always dictated how the rest of Americans are supposed to think and accept.
There is only one answer: More beer and strippers for us all.
RAmen
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Re: #29 Zane,
You said,”I think those anti-woman protesters (oops I meant pro-life protesters) are wrong…” I think you got that wrong. Those who would like to be known as “pro-life” are no such thing. They are, in fact, anti-choice.
I know many women who are personally against abortion, but who believe that it up to each woman to decide for herself, whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. Clearly, virtually no one is “pro-abortion.” To have an abortion is never an easy decision.
The tactic of the anti-choice radicals to try to paint those of us who respect women enough to let them control their own bodies as being “pro-abortion,” while at the same time calling themselves “pro-life,” should always be opposed. Please re-think your characterization of them.
RAmen
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Are we going to illegalize hangers too then?
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Thanks to Ryan or writing that! If you are going to publish something for other people to see you really should check your facts. What, did this guy just hear about it through the grape vine? If you get that many facts wrong you really must have no idea what you are talking about.
“…the number of abortions in America would not go down if the procedure were illegalized. Instead, there would just be an increase in fatalities, as we see in other countries that have banned abortion.” This is what I tell other people when I have a discussion about abortion. I, personally, probably would never be able to have one. I believe that I should have the right to choose though.
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> That afternoon members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti
> Monster, a group of atheists on campus
What did that guy mean when he said that? I am confused.
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it means that mr reported doesnt know what happened someone told him,… he got it wrong and neded up screwing everything up I hope he has already or is going to give a public apology to FSM for saying things that should be said….
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Thank you Captain Ryan for your wonderful and well thought out reply.
and #22, Flartus, Very well said indeed. There is plenty of beer and strippers up there for us too. : )
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I drink to you, Captain Ryan!
And a round for everyone who came here to comment.
Me thinks I be in good company.
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Wow, I can’t get over how blatantly this bigoted this editor is, even while condemning “a group of athiests on campus” on those same grounds! Not to mention, it’s appalling the cliched reputation atheism has. Of course, if you don’t believe in God (whoa, a Christian God, of course, and ESPECIALLY in America, apparently) you must automatically be working for the devil (which, coincidentally, atheists also do not believe in).
I don’t have a problem with theism at all, but I respectfully disagree with the premise of a god (aside from his noodliness). I do take offense to religion when its followers demonstrate such ugly traits, traits that are so far removed from the values their religions supposedly teach.
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I live in Springfield, MO and read the News-Leader occasionally. They’re notorious for getting the facts wrong, and not just in the editorials. But what do you expect from a rag that’s owned and run by a bunch of right-wing hypocrites?
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