Yesterday, I’m watching my local news. One of the stories covered is about an Atheist group here in Dallas. They started an ad campaign with a local theater promoting family with out god.
Today, I’m watching the news and guess who got their ad pulled? So yeah, good for you Texas, you never miss an opportunity to disappoint me. Fuckers!
Let me be clear. Even though I’m an Atheist, I’ve never been too fond of Atheist groups. To me, preachy Atheist are just as annoying as preachy Christians.
But still, this to me, just seems to be a slap in the face to the first amendment.
You mean Texas? Where this is actually in the state bill of rights?:
“Sec. 4. RELIGIOUS TESTS. No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.”
It’s dumb, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the First Amendment. The theater pulled the ad because they didn’t want the controversy. It’s annoying that we live in the world where this series of events took place, yes.
Although the images will be present on a billboard, so some will still see them.
Regarding the ads themselves, I don’t see anything preachy about them. A common perception of atheists on the part of the religious is that we’re degenerate immoral monsters, and the organization means these ads to combat that image. It’s kind of like the various efforts at gay visibility - demonstrating the extent to which members of this group are normal goes a long way.
Translation: “A privately owned theater exercised its first amendment rights, and I’m upset about that. People should be required to say things I agree with.”
Not a chance; nor will anything else that can’t be lumped in as the Judeo-Christian god. And they’d like to forbid the Jewish and Muslim versions if they thought they could get away with it, I’m sure.
No, it’s pretty damn correct. And simple. The theater exercised it’s free speech by not running an ad from a particular group. You think they should have continued to run that ad, and are thus upset that the theater is exercising its right to NOT speak.
You also don’t understand the first amendment or how freedom of speech works in general, which has been pointed out by other posters.
You’re right. I did make a gaffe with the first amendment thing.
I’m thinking maybe, just maybe if this were a Christian group wanting to put up these ads, the theater would have ran them. Their official stance is: “Oh we don’t run religious ads of any sort.” I’m sorry, but my BS meter just went off the dial. I think it’s a convenient excuse. Probably one used since they were lucky enough to not HAVE any religious ads in the past.
I make no claim that any rights or laws were broken. It would be nice to see a little less discrimination is all.
Contrary to your original post, I could care less if Christians wanted to run ads there.
Do you think the bigotry against Atheists this act displayed is contemptible? It wasn’t an ad for eating puppies and kicking babies. It was no different then the thousands of pro-Christian ads I’ve seen around here in Michigan. Except it’s for Atheists.
In light of all the Christian ads, why was this ad so bad? Why did the the theater feel the need to refuse it? Is Atheist money not green?
It doesn’t run afoul of the First Amendment, but damn if it isn’t depressing and contemptible.
It seems the theater thought the ad would be bad for business. So they don’t had the ad any more. The theater is not a gov’t entity, it’s privately run, and doesn’t have to take ads from anyone if it doesn’t feel like it. Would the OP be as upset if it had been a religious ad that was pulled?
Many establishments in the service industry have a policy of “no politics or religion”, because those are two subjects that are guaranteed to piss somebody off, regardless of how innocuous the message. Also, before accusing the theater of bigotry, remember that the theater did agree to run the ad and in fact ran the ad. Remember that - the theater did not refuse to run the ad. It’s only when they stopped running it that our OP got angry. Do you honestly expect them to run it indefinitely? Y’all are grasping at straws here in trying to find something to be angry about.
Besides, there is no double standard here. In his last post, Shakes mentions that the theater has not run any religious ads in the past. Let that sink in. The only ad that the theater has ever run touching on religion was an atheist ad. How the fuck is that bigotry against atheism?
I’d still think it was wrong. But no, my emotional investment would not be the same because I am not a Christian. That would be a battle best fought by a Christian.
Is that really what y’all have a problem with? That atheists didn’t get special treatment and are in fact treated the same as all other religious groups by the theater?
I’m agnostic, and I’d speak out for Atheist and Christian alike. It’s not a religious to me. It’s a freedom of thought and conscience issue. No one should be discriminated against because they crack their eggs on the wrong end, but they should live and respect others differing choice of egg cracking.