Christian Right Activist Bends Over Backwards Trying to Defend Anti-Atheist Discrimination

[Capt. Obvious]

For the past month, we’ve been following the saga of a California school district that refused to inform students about a handful of scholarships offered by atheist organizations, even though scholarships from religious groups were readily available to kids.

Now, if you’re Christian activist (and Colorado state legislator) Gordon Klingenschmitt, how do you tell people about that story without admitting atheists are being discriminated against? After all, it would poke a massive hole in the Christian Persecution bubble.

....

“To advertise atheist scholarships to all of the Christian students or the Jewish students or even the homosexual students,” he said, “to say that everyone should be able to get this money if you just renounce your faith, that, to me, is itself unconstitutional. There is no place for atheist recruiters to come into your schools and recruit children to violate their parent’s religion.”

Offering Christian scholarships, on the other hand, is totally acceptable because the majority of students in public school are Christians, Klingenschmitt said, and so “for an opportunity to be offered to a Christian child that, if they write an essay about God that they should get Christian scholarship money, that’s not bribery. They’re keeping their own religion … You’re reinforcing what the parents want their kid’s faith to be. This is a parental rights issue.”

....

Patheos

[trotsky]

1. Wow, I think *I* just pulled a muscle from those gymnastics. n/t

[Capt. Obvious]

3. I want to see him carried off by Bela Karolyi

[trotsky]

4. +100 for awesome cultural reference. n/t

[Capt. Obvious]

2. Original story

http://www.democraticunderground.com/123050919

[mr blur]

5. Well, he's very big on parents' rights to have their prejudices propped up -

their parent’s religion.

what the parents want their kid’s faith to be

Students' rights and needs? Who cares, right?
Got to keep churning out the bigots.

[Curmudgeoness]

6. That one line made me gasp too.

"what the parents want their kid's faith to be".

Oy vey. I think that I threw up a little.

[rurallib]

7. especially at the age when kids are getting scholarships they are adults

and the parents desire on religious preference should not be operable. Let the students make their own choices.