American Atheists Missouri

An Atheist civil rights group today called upon a columnist for a popular conservative web site to reconsider and retract her comments that those defacing an Atheist billboard in North Carolina are “my kind of vandals.”

Chrissy Satterfield, who writes for the WorldNetDaily.com site, was describing a billboard erected by secularists that was defaced last month. The advertisement read “One Nation Indivisible,” referring to the wording in the original Pledge of Allegiance. Congress added “Under God” in the mid-1950s. Vandals spray painted “Under God” on the billboard, an act which has spurred a debate over free speech and the role of government in promoting religion.

In her WND column titled “My Kind of Vandals,” Ms. Satterfield wrote: “Never would I encourage vandalism, but in this case I think I’ll let it slide…” She then accused local Atheists of “insulting Christians” and then declared: “I would like to extend my deepest thanks to the man or woman responsible for this vandalism….”

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, urged Ms. Satterfield to reconsider her intemperate remarks and to condemn any and all acts that threaten free expression.

“It’s one thing to disagree with what other people — Atheists or Muslims or Christians — are saying, but endorsing violence and incivility in the form of vandalism crosses an important line. When people are intimidated by physical violence for politely (or strongly) stating their views, the First Amendment rights of everyone in our society are threatened.

“As a working journalist Ms. Satterfield should know this. Writers have often paid a high price for expressing their views, and it is important that we condemn all attempts to silence or bully any social or political statement. Ms. Satterfield’s credibility is undercut by her own words, since she declared she’d ‘never encourage vandalism,’ but then openly encouraged it in the same column. How would she respond if a hacker invaded her column and inserted words there expressing the opposite of her opinion?”

Dave Silverman, Vice President and Communications Director for American Atheists, asked: “How would Chrissy feel if Atheists gleefully defended vandalism of churches or religious billboards?”

“You can’t have one standard for religious messages and another for those expressed by Atheists and secularists,” said Silverman. “If religious people disagree with the message on our billboards, perhaps they should put up their own advertisements. And if their billboards are defaced, American Atheists will be the first to emphatically condemn such cowardly intimidation.”

AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.
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