Godless Leafleting - Opinions Requested

Occasionally, after leaving a grocery store, shopping mall, restaurant, etc., I sometimes see a leaflet underneath the windshield wiper of my car advertising a store, restaurant, local business, or whatever. I recall sometimes seeing advertisement for churches and, on one occasion, after leaving a gym I noticed a leaflet advertising a competitor’s gym.

What are the implications if I placed a leaflet similar to my sign, with my email and phone number on it under the windshield wiper of cars in church parking lots during Sunday service?

Some issues to think about are: -

• What if I wrote to the church prior to doing this and informed them of my intentions and/or asked permission?
• What if I placed these leaflets on cars in business parking lots next to churches during Sunday worship? (I notice that due to the limited parking space in the church lots, people spill over into neighboring business parking lots.)
• What if I placed these leaflets on cars in both church parking lots and neighboring non church parking lots such as shopping malls, etc.?
• What if I placed these leaflets on cars in the parking lots of religious meetings such as conference centers, festivals, stadiums, etc.,
• What if I placed these leaflets on cars in the parking lots of religious meetings/rallies such as an anti-gay marriage demonstration or an anti abortion protests?

Also, what are the legal implications of: -

• If (or should I say “when”) the people throw the leaflet on the ground, am I liable for littering? (What if I contact the church or organization and offer to clean up the litter myself?)
• Is being on a church parking lot without permission trespassing?
• Is touching someone’s car without permission against the law in any way?
• From a purely business perspective, could my atheism or simply the presence of an atheist discourage people to attend that particular church, so therefore I’d be liable in a court of law for adversely affecting the church’s cash flow?
• Would it make a difference if I gave a bunch of kids $10 each to put the leaflets on the cars for me? (Other than child labor laws, tax evasion, and the inevitable headline, “atheist exploitation and ‘abuse’ of children”.)

These questions lie on the fringe of First Amendment rights, social acceptability, and the local city laws so I can understand their subjectivity.

Doug

P.S. There’s a youtube video of an ex-priest that did something similar at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioIayArNWt4.

Move Along! Move Along!

I was outside The Healing Place Church, (formally know as the Trinity Christian Center), in Baton Rough this Sunday. The mega church has an estimated congregation of just under 8,000 and it's spectacular! (I have no idea how much it cost to build but I would estimate many tens of millions of dollars.) Check out the web site at http://www.healingplacechurch.org/. Its configuration is also excellent for my needs in that the only two exits are very close together. So my sign, “Hello I’m an Atheists. Do you have any questions for me?” placed just opposite the exits was viewable to everyone leaving the grounds.

I had quite a few people talk to me and, after I bombarded them with more logic, reason, rationality, critical thinking, etc., than they’ve probably ever had in their life, I was informed on several occasions that Jesus still loves me. (Ahhhh.) For the first time, I even got given a bible!

But, alas, as always, I was told to “move along” by the police yet again. There was public road works opposite the exits so, I was asked to leave “for my own safety”. I did converse with the police officer, (who incidentally was very respectful), and asked the obvious question of is my safety the real issue here or is it the message? And of course, I got the usual reply that it was nothing to do with the message.

As I’m over an hours drive away, I have a challenge to anyone in the Baton Rouge area, Christians and atheists alike. How about partaking of a science experiment and standing in the “dangerous construction zone” on Highland Road next Sunday (they also have a service Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m.) and let me know how long your there before you get moved along… “for your own safety”. I’m willing to bet quite a few Hail Marys that you’ll be standing there ‘till the second coming of Christ.

Because of the title ‘Move Along, Move Along, here’s the video of the All American Rejects. I love a song that starts out with the sarcastic lyric, “Go ahead as you waste your days with thinking”. Yes, what ever you do, don’t think!

But Only God (and Craig Venter) Can Make a Tree

Joyce Kilmer. 1886–1918

Trees

I THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree;

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet Earth's flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God (and Craig Venter) can make a tree.

Check out my new video about Craig Venter’s manufacture of the first synthetic life and the impact it should have on religious belief.

News Flash – God can now “drive out the inhabitants of the valley”, BECAUSE of their “Chariots of Iron”

Judges 1:19 And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

While trying to “Spread the Word of Reason” this Sunday, June 6^th, outside the New Covenant Presbyterian Church of Mandeville, 4375 Highway 22, in Mandeville, Louisiana, god cast me out because I have a ‘car’.

As always, I was approached by the Louisiana police and told that my car was parked illegally. This time I was “inhibiting the flow of traffic” by “blocking the driveway”. I was actually parked in the entry road of the First American Bank parking lot… on Sunday? There wasn’t actually a “flow” or even “traffic” as I never saw anyone pass me.

I asked the police officers that maybe the reason they were there wasn’t anything at all to do with my “parking violation”, but maybe it had just a little bit to do with the message? Of course, they denied it. I asked them if they were just passing by and saw me “parked illegally” and they said no. They did tell me that someone had called in to make the complaint. (Hmm? In the interest of science, I think I’ll park my wife’s car in the exact same place and see how many minutes; hours; days; weeks; it takes for someone to make a complaint.) After coaxing them further by implying that they weren’t really being honest with me or even themselves, they put an end to the conversation by telling me that “they were not here to debate with me”. Oh well.

I’ve therefore had a revelation that maybe, after a couple of thousand years, god’s figured out how to drive out the inhabitants of the valley even though they have a chariot of iron. Therefore, next time I’m going to just sit there on an aluminum fold out chair holding my sign. Hopefully god hasn’t figured out how to drive out chairs of aluminum. Even though he knows how to drive out the First Amendment.

Every single church I’ve been ‘godless evangelizing’ outside seems to suddenly have a fascination with safe parking! I knew religion was obsessed with other issues such as, say, sexual oppression. “Problems” such as homosexuality, sex before marriage, non-missionary position, contraception as opposed to abstinence only education, circumcision, and masturbation. But this obsession with ‘parking safety’ is a new one for me.

Texans for Truthful Text Books Rally

You may be interested in some pictures I took of the Texans for Truthful Text Books Rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol in Austin. Here’s a video of the event. http://atheists.org/events/Texas_Rally

Fun was had by all, both atheists and theists alike. Also, the god’s complied as the weather was perfect. It stated raining after the event was over. There were many great speakers. (The one’s I have pictured are Kathleen Johnson, American Atheists VP and Military Director), Aime Parsons, Director of Camp Quest, and Texas School Board Candidate, and, of Course, Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists.)

Matt Dillahaunty, of the Atheist Experience was there and they recorder a TV show directly after the event. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6978489 Well, it wasn’t directly after the even because a lot of us (and I mean a LOT of us) stopped by a pub, the Dog and Duck and watched the show there.

My personal thoughts were that Austin is a beautiful capitol, apart from abominations like the Board of Education and this specific monument (pictured) outside the capitol building, (of wich four of the ten “commandments” are unconstitutional, and one is just stupid!) Also, the Austin atheist community has to be one of the best, if not the best, in the country. The friendliness, community, and sheer number of events that they have organized for freethinkers are comparable to any church.

Is my Godless Evangelism too Close to Fred Phelps-ism?

It like your comments on whether my Godless Evangelism has gone too far. My weekend activities ended up with a couple of very angry Catholic Priests calling the police.

I’m interested in social psychology, especially when it involves religion. I’m hoping to start an MA in the subject at an online university that may eventually lead to a Ph.D. I’m specifically interested in why religious belief has a free pass in society. My theory is that just as genes are analogous to memes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme as biological and cultural replicators, the biological phenomena known as ‘allelopathy’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allelopathy, where plants emit toxins that inhibit the growth of other plants, religion emits ‘toxins’ into the cultural system that ‘inhibit the growth’ of reason by making it ‘uncomfortable’ to dismiss or even question the irrational beliefs.

Anyway, I thought I’d do a social experiment where I ‘plant a seed’ of atheism in ‘soil’ where, one would have thought, it had no chance to ‘grow’. That’s outside a Church after Sunday morning worship.

I made up a sign that said “Hello, I’m and Atheist. Do you have any questions for me?” I had it fit over the roof of my car for three reasons. One is that I thought it looked less intimidating than me holding a sign. http://friendlyatheist.com/2009/02/26/atheist-proselytizing-it-leads-to-boobies/boobies/ The second is that I knew I would be around people that were getting into their cars and I wanted to look as much like them as possible. (I also dressed in my ‘Sunday best’.) The third reason was because I wanted to show off my license plate with my phone number. http://friendlyatheist.com/2009/07/01/an-atheist-license-plate-story-with-a-happy-ending/

My criteria for selecting a church were primarily the size and lavishness of the structure and its subsequent popularity. Secondly, finding a location to park my car and display the sign that was both visually accessible to the congregation, and also legal. I knew parking on the church property was defiantly not appropriate. This turned out to be a more difficult task than one would imagine. However, I found a few, The New Covenant Presbyterian Church, and The Pentecostals of Mandeville.

However, I decided to start with the largest Catholic Church in my community Mary Queen of Peace Church. (Also, due to the recent actions of the Pope, I have a special ‘fondness’ for the Catholic religion.)

I sent the following email to the Pastor, Rev. Ronald L. Calkins and copied Msgr. William Bilinsky, http://www.maryqueenofpeace.org/contact.html : -

Pastor Calkins

I’m an atheist. www.godlessevangelist.com. I’d like to give the people that visit your church the opportunity to hear the alternate point of view

I’m planning on standing outside your church after Sunday mass with a sign that says, “Hello, I’m and Atheist. Do you have any questions for me?” I also have some business cards with contact information and tracts to hand out to anyone that would take them.

I’d like to ask your advice on where I can stand and park my car so I’m not seeming too assertive or violating any laws.

If you would like to meet me prior to the event, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks,

Doug

Doug Stewart

Home: (985) 792-7229

Cell: (504) 676-0536

To his credit, he did get back to me: -

Mr. Stewart,

I have received your e-mail. You are not welcome to be on the church property for the purposes of handing out literature or espousing your views.

Father Ronald Calkins

(Maybe I could have worded my email better but I had no intension of standing or parking on church property.)

I parked my car on the side of the road near the exit of the church’s parking lot. I was acknowledged by, I would guess, the majority of people leaving. Some honked their horns; some slowed down to stare at me and did the sign of the cross on their bodies; and some just waved. I didn’t witness any angry behavior… And then the Priests came out.

Two Priests confronted me, Ronald Calkins and William Bilinsky, (I think), together with two church officials in plain clothes. Ronald Calkins said abruptly, “We want you to leave”. My immediate thought was that there were many things that I ‘want’ as well. (Being massaged with exotic oils by the Los Angeles Laker Cheer Leaders sprang to mind, but I didn’t think that reply would have been appropriate – Besides, they never return my calls.) I, as politely as possible, replied with something like, “well, I’m here because I’m concerned about the power of religion in this country”. (Next time, I’ll remember to record any conversations.) With that, Calkins demeanor changed to what I can only explain as extreme anxiety, frustration and even anger. He’d obviously never experienced such outright disobedience. So much so that he seemed to back off in despair. Bilinsky then took over and said that I can’t be where I was because I was “causing an obstruction”. I agreed with him and asked if there was anywhere he could recommend I park my car. His repeated reply, together with that of Calkins was to just “go away”, “why can’t you go away”, “just go away”. They said it so often that I didn’t even have an opportunity to reply.

Note: This is evidence for the memetic allelopathy of religious belief in culture. Not even the religious leaders themselves know why it exists or how it works; just that society should never confront religion. Why shouldn’t society confront religion? I don’t know, it’s just that society should never confront religion. (Repeat ad infinitum) In the very rare event that religion is confronted, the only defense mechanism is to repeatedly ask that religion not be confronted. (?!?!?!?!)

I was then given the ‘ultimatum’ that if I didn’t “just go away” they would call the police. I agreed. The police car came almost immediately. The officer asked me to stay with my car and spoke to the church officials first. He was with them for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then all the church officials returned to the church and the police officer, who was very congenial and understanding explained to me that even though I wasn’t causing an obstruction, the hard shoulder was reserved for broken down vehicles and I should move, which of course I had no problem with. He even pointed out that if I just pulled forward about 50 feet I could park in the lot of the neighboring business. He also said that he explained to the Priests that I had every right to display a sigh that said just about anything. (Wow! A cop that understands the First Amendment – What a concept!) He took my driving license and returned to his car to run my ID which took what seemed to be nearly half an hour! However, that was a good thing because having a police presence together with a couple of priests and a small crown meant that I had my sign seen by even more people.

My question to you is, am I no better than the Westboro Baptist Church ‘God Hates Fags’ members? I did try to make my sign as civil and unassertive as possible. And I couldn’t have been any more polite. Do you think this is a positive, negative, or neutral reflection on atheism in general? Should I do it again? If so, should I rotate churches and religious denominations? Should I be in a more person-to-person location, like parked in a neighboring lot in order to encourage discussion?

Not meaning to have the arrogance of over exaggerating my actions, but I do believe that there are parallels with the Greensboro Sit-In during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensboro_sit-ins (There are differences in that unlike the Sit-Ins wanted to share the restaurant with white people, I don’t want to ‘share worship’, I want to shine the light of reason on their belief systems to undermine, if not completely irradiate, their supernatural belief.) Note that the four protesters were not heroes to all African Americans. One black woman, a dishwasher behind the counter was heard shouting that they were “stupid, ignorant . . . rabble-rousers, and troublemakers.” (Probably because they risked her loosing her job.) Am I similarly at fault?

P.S. If anyone’s under the impression that evangelizing isn’t imbedded in religious doctrine, I took this picture (see Photo 8) on the exit of a Pentecostal church’s parking lot. I’m thinking of standing next to it with my sign in an attempt to get people to missionize me. Waddya think?

Doug Stewart – “Political Lobbyist”… Eh?

I recently visited Washington DC to attend the ‘Civic Days at the Capital’ event put on by the Center For Inquiry’s Office of Public Policy. The Center for Inquiry advocates for science, reason, freedom of inquiry and humanist values and the Office of Public Policy hosts Civic Days to bring non-believers, secular humanists, and skeptics from across America to Washington DC to engage in citizen lobbying on important issues, and also to have a little fun!

I flew in to DC the afternoon of Saturday April 24^th and met that evening with all the CFI staff over pizza, salad and beer. Matt Sapara, CFI Policy Analyst gave a Welcome to DC presentation, and the Director of Public Policy, Toni Van Pelt gave us an overview of the lobbying we were to be doing the following Tuesday. An added bonus was that a friend I met in New Orleans, Sean Faircloth, the Executive Director of the Secular Coalition for America was in attendance. Sean was the guest of honor at the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association’s 10^th Anniversary Banquet last year.

The following Sunday and Monday were packed full of things to do. With interesting presentations by people such as Maggie Garrett of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Marissa Brown from the Alliance for Justice, and Dr. Stu Jordan, CFI’s Science Adviser. CFI also had ‘real live politicians’ come speak to us like Doug Crandall, Director of Legislative Affairs for the US Forest Service and now Acting USDA Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations for the Obama Administration, who told us how Washington really works. (The quote, “There are two things you will never wish to watch: the making of sausage and the making of legislation”, is really true.) Also, the very charismatic, likable, and advocate for church~state separation, Congressman Brian Baird, (D-WA) http://baird.house.gov/ talked about The Importance of Citizen Involvement in Government.

But that was just the half of it. CFI organized a tour at the Smithsonian Museum Hall of Human Origins where I got to meet all my distant cousins, my favorite being ‘Lucy’, otherwise know as Australopithecus Afarensis. It had been about 3.2 million years so we had a lot to catch up on. This was followed by an exhibition in honor of Charles Darwin called The Evolution of Evolution that focused on the significant role that Darwin’s theory has played in explaining and unifying all the biological sciences. The last “museum” I visited was the Creation “Museum” in Kentucky. (I apologize.) Believe me, the science, evidence, reason, and absence of the supernatural in explaining our history was refreshing to say the least.

A very entertaining walking tour was provided by Steve C. Lowe, a Director of the Washington Area Secular Humanists (WASH) on ‘The Great Agnostic’ Robert G. Ingersoll. He was the best-known orator and a political speechmaker of 19th-century America on subjects such as politics, ethics, human freedom, and he spoke against slavery and opposed the Religious Right of his day. Part of the tour involved reciting some of Ingersoll’s quotes. My favorite was “Is there an intelligent man or woman now in the world who believes in the Garden of Eden story? If you find any man who believes it, strike his forehead and you will hear an echo. Something is for rent.” Information about the walking tour can be found at http://www.ingersoll.wash.org/.

There was also a guided tour of the Capitol Building, which included both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate. It was quite awe inspiring.

The Monday evening culminated with a formal dinner attended by Dr. R. Elisabeth 'Liz' Cornwell, Executive Director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. http://richarddawkinsfoundation.%20org/foundation,RDFRSstaff.

Tuesday April 27^th was lobbying day! CFI had previously instructed us on how to set up appointments with the Legislative Offices of our choice. I chose Congressman Steve Scalise, representing the 1^st District of Louisiana, (Northshore, where I live), and Louisiana Senator David Vitter. David Vitter’s office never even acknowledged my emails and voice mails, (hmm?), but I did get an appointment with Scalise’s Legislative Assistant, Caitlin Songy. Assisted by CFI’s Matt Separa we discussed a number of issues, starting with the Louisiana Science Education Act, something dear to my heart, which allows school teachers to teach creationism along side evolution in schools. I tried to point out the national embarrassment that this Bill spotlights on Louisiana. I was told that this was a gubernatorial issue, but I did ask that my impression be conveyed to the Congressman. Other issues ranged from the Faith Based Initiatives to repealing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy concerning gays in the military. Congressman Scalise has a 100% ‘pro family’ (read ‘pro religion’) voting record, so there is little or no hope of budging his opinion. However, being able to vent my point of view so close to his ear gave me a real sense of achievement.

However, I would say that the highlight of the visit was when I went to the National Archives Building to see the actual Constitution of the United States of America. I approached the Bill of Rights and, leaning over the casing (you’re not allowed to touch the glass), I put on my reading glasses and read out loud, slowly and clearly the complete First Amendment. It bought a tear to my eye. I now have personal proof that it exists! This is in spite of legislation such as that for the engraving of “In God We Trust” at the Capitol Visitor Center. (See Photo 7.) In July 2009, the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved a resolution (Senate by voice vote and in the House by 410-8) to compel the Office of the Architect of the U.S. Capitol to prominently engrave this religious motto at a cost of about $50,000 of tax payers money. In addition to being discriminatory against me, it’s in direct violation of those ten tortured words, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. Maybe the politicians in Washington should do as I did and read them?