Atheist lawsuit demonstrates hypocrisy

According to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a militant atheist group from Madison, WI, atheists have a right never to be offended by anything religious… and the rest of us have a right to adjust our lives to ensure that we don’t harm their dainty sensibilities.  Sounds fair.

Here is the sequence of events that recently took place involving the FFRF:

• Jessica Ahlquist, a 16 year old student and atheist in Rhode Island, sued her school district over a banner that she found overly religious and offensive.  FFRF supported her effort but wasn’t involved in the lawsuit.  Earlier this month, District Court Judge Ronald Lagueux ruled in Ms. Ahlquist’s favor that the banner had to be removed.
• The FFRF tried to send Ahlquist flowers to congratulate her on her victory, but three florists refused to take the order.  The atheist group is now planning to sue the florists.

These folks are adamant when it comes to their belief in this mythical idea of Freedom from Religion.  But when it comes to the florists, somehow they don’t believe in a Freedom from the Freedom from Religion Foundation.  Consistent!

This group is such a joke that they are basically a self-parody.  The people at FFRF are so singularly focused on their own perceived rights that they have absolutely no respect for the rights of others.

This organization doesn’t see the hypocrisy in backing someone who used  the government to ensure that atheists never have to be around anything that offends them, then turning right around and trying to use the government to force religious people to be around something that offends them.  The complete disregard that FFRF has for the rights and beliefs of others is stunning.

Here’s the funniest part: despite all the fanatical claims of discrimination, these florists weren’t even refusing to do business with FFRF because they were atheists. They refused the order because FFRF was adding a bunch of insane requests to the order:

The florists, though, disagree with [FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor’s] stance on the matter. Turnto10.com reports that Raymond Santilli of Flowers by Santilli, one of the companies the FFRF attempted to order from, explains that a foundation representative told him that the person delivering the flowers might need police protection. Additionally, he was apparently told that the person would potentially need identification to enter the home.

“We refused the order because we really don’t want to cross lines,” Santilli said. ”If I send flowers there, somebody may get upset with us and retaliate against us.”

Wow – FFRF told them that accepting the order would require police protection and they refused?  I’m shocked!!  But yeah, I’m sure it was the atheism that was the problem.

That should tell you all you need to know about the FFRF and what it stands for.  They don’t exist for the purpose of defending the rights of atheists.  They go around the country looking for any possible situation they can exploit to force their values on other people.

It’s long past time that we start recognizing groups like FFRF for what they are and challenging them at every opportunity.  We can no longer back down out of fear of a lawsuit or to avoid being politically incorrect.  If we don’t, the values of our entire society will be determined by a very tiny – yet radical – minority.