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CreativeDominant -> RE: News from the Society for the Perpetually Offended (5/6/2015 12:16:10 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lucylastic
An Auburn woman calling herself an ambassador for God and his son, Jesus Christ, filed a federal lawsuit Friday against all homosexuals.
Sylvia Driskell, 66, said in the suit that she is petitioning the U.S. District Court of Omaha to be heard "in the matter of homosexuality. Is homosexuality a sin, or not a sin?"
In a seven-page letter framed as a lawsuit, she cited Bible passages that described homosexuality as an abomination and against nature, and she said never before has the nation or the state been "besiege(d) by sin."
"Will all the judges of this nation judge God to be a lier [sic]?" Driskell asked.
She said she petitioned the court because she feels it imperative to stand up for the moral principles on which the nation was founded.
http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/auburn-woman-files-federal-case-against-homosexuals/article_fcf1e8b6-5744-5579-ac38-b19b427b8492.html
Another religious person guided by her beliefs that the Bible is to be taken as the literal word of God. Other than fundamentalists, I don't think there's all that many of us that view it that way. It's a waste of time.
Hey...speaking of time-wasters when it comes to religion:
1. A 'Church Bulletin Discount' From a Pennsylvania Restaurant

(PHOTO: JONATHAN FOSTER / LANCASTER NEWSPAPERS)
Sharon Prudhomme, co-owner of the Lost Cajun Kitchen in Columbia, Pa.
Not so long ago Prudhomme's Lost Cajun Kitchen of Columbia, Pennsylvania, thought that a good way to encourage business was to have a "church bulletin" discount.
If a patron brought in a church bulletin on Sunday, they could get a 10 percent discount on their bill. One did not have to be Christian to take advantage of the bargain. Just bring in a bulletin and show it to the waiter.
However, John Wolff of the group Pennsylvania Nonbelievers saw things differently and filed a complaint against Prudhomme's to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in the summer of 2012.
"I was a little taken aback because they provide a discount for churchgoers," said Wolff in an interview with Lancaster Online.
"That rubbed me a bit the wrong way. It's not a big deal in itself and I have no animosity towards Prudhomme's, but I do bear a grudge against a religious right that seems to intrude on our civil rights."
Wolff's complaint garnered backlash from across the country and reportedly helped boost business for the Columbia restaurant.
In November 2012, a settlement was reached between the two parties in which Lost Cajun Kitchen was allowed to continue having the 10 percent discount, albeit they were encouraged by the Commission to omit the word "church" from its title.
2. Praying in Public Restaurant Discount

(PHOTO: FACEBOOK/MARY'S GOURMET DINER)
Mary's Gourmet Diner
Speaking of restaurants in trouble, in the summer of 2014 Mary's Gourmet Diner of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, found itself threatened with legal action over a 15 percent discount on "praying in public."
The Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison, Wisconsin, sent a letter to the diner, arguing that the "praying in public" discount was discriminatory.
Again, the discount was broadly defined and reportedly could be gotten with doing something as simple as closing eyes and taking a deep breath.
Nevertheless, the threat of legal action prompted Mary's Gourmet to discontinue the discount in August, with a manager at the restaurant conveying sadness over the matter.
"We have done away with the discount and Mary and her daughter, Shama, are very saddened by this; this is a gift that we gave to our customers — this is a gift that has been taken from us," a manager at the Diner told The Christian Post back in August.
"The gift of giving is just as important as receiving the gift. These individuals are very hurt, but it has made our community stronger. There's always good things that come out of the bad, and unfortunately, we will see it in time, but we are not seeing it yet."
FFRF did not come out the legal battle unscathed, however, as the satirical program "The Daily Show" had a segment lampooning the Wisconsin-based group for their actions and calling for them to "lighten ... up."
The segment had FFRF Co-President Dan Barker admitting that he had not gone to the diner and two local atheists saying they did not feel discriminated against.
When "Daily Show" correspondent Jordan Klepper noted that an atheist could always pretend to pray and get the discount, Barker replied that such an act would make a person "a hypocrite atheist."
"What's going to happen if you're a hypocrite atheist?" responded Klepper, "you're going to go to not hell?"
"Look, I'm an atheist, alright? I get it," Klepper continued. "We need somebody fighting the good fight. Is this a good fight?"
3. A Holocaust Memorial in Ohio

(PHOTO: STUDIO DANIEL LIBESKIND)
A graphic rendering of the proposed Holocaust Memorial for the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
Columbus, Ohio, faced atheist litigation when its Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board approved a design for a Holocaust Memorial in July 2013.
Daniel Libeskind, the architect behind the new World Trade Center building and himself the offpsring of Holocaust survivors, made the winning design.
So what prompted a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation this time? Libeskind's inclusion of a Star of David in the plans.
"I think that the Star of David is a religious symbol, and religious symbols, we have been told on several occasions, are not permissible on Statehouse grounds," wrote FFRF co-presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor.
"To align the State of Ohio with one religion and its sacred symbol - even a minority religion for a worthy memorial - would dishonor the truest protection our country has against a similar Holocaust on our shores: the precious constitutional principle separating religion from government."
The FFRF suit garnered outrage from Christian and Jewish groups alike, with one online petition calling for them to halt their threat of legal action getting over 39,000 signatures.
Later that summer, the FFRF decided to back down from their hostile stance against the planned Holocaust Memorial.
4. 9/11 Memorial's World Trade Center Cross

(PHOTO: REUTERS /PETER MORGAN)
The American Center for Law and Justice said it will file an amicus brief in support of the World Trade Center cross display at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. American Atheists has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the cross.
Speaking of memorials, the National September 11 Museum found itself the target of an atheist lawsuit a few years before it opened.
In 2011, the New Jersey-based group American Atheists filed a lawsuit against the museum for deciding to include a relic from that tragic day known as the World Trade Center Cross.
Comprised of two intersecting beams from one of the WTC buildings, the cross was to be included in the museum, much to the chagrin of AA.
"They're trying to Christianize 9/11 with this cross and it's not American and it's not fair," stated David Silverman, president of American Atheists.
The move was an unpopular one, with many including atheist author Susan Jacoby denouncing the lawsuit as one of those things that "confirm negative stereotypes about atheists."
"What I find dismaying about lawsuits of this kind is that they make it more difficult to focus public attention on real and serious violations of the separation of church and state," wrote Jacoby.
Even The Washington Post's editorial board, seldom a friend to the Religious Right, expressed opposition to the AA lawsuit.
"[AA] argues that the cross, a symbol of Christianity, has no place in a museum that is on government property and receives some government support, though it is run by a private foundation," read the editorial.
"Under that logic, it would seem the National Gallery of Art would have to banish its religious art — or that any group that receives government help must forfeit First Amendment rights of expression in choosing what to exhibit."
The legal system has also thus far given the effort a no vote, with U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts ruling against the suit in March 2013 and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the Batts decision in July 2014.
5. Mother Teresa Commemorative Stamp

(PHOTO: AP PHOTO / BIKAS DAS)
Size does not appear to matter for some atheist groups when it comes to what they will denounce as violating the separation of church and state.
In 2010, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter of complaint to the U.S. Postal Service for issuing a commemorative stamp of Mother Teresa.
Apparently, FFRF took issue with the Nobel Prize–winning philanthropist being given a stamp due to her strong association with the Roman Catholic Church.
Never mind that the Post Office has had stamps commemorating various religious holidays and figures from diverse backgrounds for years now.
In an interview with Fox News, atheist writer Bruce Sheiman denounced the FFRF's efforts as "hypocritical" and "stepping over the line."
"Clearly there are a number of things that you can point to and say it's religious and a number of things you can point to and say that it's areligious … So it really doesn't make sense to protest it," continued Sheiman.
The FFRF's efforts also caught the attention of "The Daily Show," which made fun of the atheist group's letter writing campaign in a segment titled "Mail Mary."
"So just to be clear," said "Daily Show" correspondent Jason Jones to FFRF leader Dan Barker while holding up a picture of a smiling Mother Teresa, "this is the fight you are picking?"
That phrase is worth repeating for all the entries in this brief list and those that did not make the cut: "this is the fight you are picking?"
http://m.christianpost.com/news/five-ridiculous-targets-of-atheist-groups--131799/
Just gotta LOVE all these nut jobs involved in religion in one way or another, don't you? Although you have to admit, the FFR tends to come across as leaning more towards the "Perpetually Offended" than this one lone woman.
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