American Atheists doesn't want bigots
Hemant Mehta quotes David Silverman's article in the current issue of American Athiest:
"We must own the fact that some atheists can be bad people.
...
We must keep our tent as large as possible, but we will not include anyone who embraces bigotry or merely turns a blind eye to it.
...
If you are an atheist who believes that discrimination because of race, gender, or sexual orientation is sometimes acceptable, then we don’t want you.
We don’t want your membership, we don’t want your money, and we don’t want your support. Your cause is not our cause. American Atheists exists to eliminate bigotry against our community, so we will never tolerate bigotry from our community."
American Atheists used to be synonymous with Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who was pretty much the caricature of the angry atheist your parents warned you about. David Silverman has done some great work leading the group somewhere better.
(This comes with a backdrop of my disenchantment with how the CFI has gone since the removal of Paul Kurtz and the merger with the Dawkins Foundation.)
"We must own the fact that some atheists can be bad people.
...
We must keep our tent as large as possible, but we will not include anyone who embraces bigotry or merely turns a blind eye to it.
...
If you are an atheist who believes that discrimination because of race, gender, or sexual orientation is sometimes acceptable, then we don’t want you.
We don’t want your membership, we don’t want your money, and we don’t want your support. Your cause is not our cause. American Atheists exists to eliminate bigotry against our community, so we will never tolerate bigotry from our community."
American Atheists used to be synonymous with Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who was pretty much the caricature of the angry atheist your parents warned you about. David Silverman has done some great work leading the group somewhere better.
(This comes with a backdrop of my disenchantment with how the CFI has gone since the removal of Paul Kurtz and the merger with the Dawkins Foundation.)