E-mail Response to Article

Background:  On October 5th, 2000 Rose Mastroianni wrote the following email in response to Tim Fake's and John Bateholts' editorial Is Religion Affecting Your Child's Education?. Her letter is in red, and Doug's remarks in black
 

     You recently mailed a response to one of the editorial pieces written by our Capital District Coordinators, Tim Fake and John Bateholts.  My name is Doug Schiffer, and I co-founded the Freethinkers of Upstate New York, with a college student from RIT.  I'm 41 years old, and for much of my adult life I have been either an agnostic or an atheist.

    Your recent letter published in the Daily Gazette was an interesting piece of baloney.  Most condescending is your closing question of "...they are well-intentioned individuals but are they really doing what's best for the kids?".  It's so obvious that your letter is only a promotion piece for your cute little group of free-thinkers and could not care less about doing what's "best for the children."

    On the contrary - I am very interested in what's best for children.  I have two children of my own. I care deeply for children.  It is my concern for children that makes me want to expose them to something different than just one way of thinking.

    Are you blind to all the school violence kids are faced with today?

    America is *the* most religious industrialized nation on earth.  Yet America has amongst the worst violent crime rates of any industrial nation on earth.  These two facts alone cause me to question that more religion is the cure for America's high crime rate.  A nation like Japan, where Christians are a vanishingly small percentage of the population, and monotheism is almost unknown has a crime rate that makes ours look (not just figuratively) sick.  If you wish to suggest that America switch to the Buddhist and Shinto religions I guess I couldn't argue with you.
    Also, please remember Rose that violent crime is on the decline including crime in schools.  Yes, there have been some highly publicized school shootings.  But please try to remember that in America, a child is more than 3 times as likely to be shot and killed by their parents than by a classmate.
        Rather than push theistic beliefs on children (which hasn't worked so far, and indeed never has prevented violence in any era), perhaps we need to pursue other courses.  This could include exposing children to the idea that this life may indeed be all they get.  If that's so, then they shouldn't blow their chance by engaging in violence that might end their existence prematurely, or cause them to spend the rest of their only chance at life rotting in prison.  I sincerely think this stands a better chance of making kids into better, more responsible and caring people.

    Are you also blind to the declining morals and beliefs of our youth when they  choose to worship other so-called "free-thinkers" like Eminem and other disgusting pop icons?

    There is nothing that a rap star like Eminem can say or do that is comparable to the revolting violence to be found in the Judeo-Christian bible, where men, women, children, infants and fetuses are regularly slashed to death by godly soldiers, burned alive by an arbitrary deity, mauled by bears or are worst of all, seared forever in a place called Hell.  Yet, oddly enough, millions of people in this nation do indeed literally worship the god that is said to have written that book.

    I do indeed find many rap stars to be bad role models.  But quite frankly, they aren't lauded with anything like the praise that the prevalent American deities are.  American currency doesn't say "In Eminem we trust", nor does the president get sworn in with his hand placed firmly on a gangsta rap CD.

       You so-called free-thinkers are some of the most unintelligent group of non-critical thinkers I've ever encountered.

    I've read the Christian bible. I've read Christian apologists. In addition, I've read Islamic literature, pagan literature, Hindu literature, Buddhist literature and Taoist literature (some of them in the original Chinese). In addition, I have read from several philosophers from Greek times to Bertrand Russell in the 20th century.  My thoughts have roamed much of the spectrum of human beliefs.  I have considered the Christian tradition from both within and outside it.  But I am not alone.  The people we've attracted to FUNY have similar, or even broader perspectives on religion.  Your insult is totally unjustified and is completely false. If I were a member of your particular religion Rose, I would quite frankly be embarrassed at your comment.

    Jesus himself is supposed to have said to be kind and loving - even unto your enemies.  What I have to ask of you Rose, is that you follow his advise.  Of all the things I've encountered from Christianity, this is one of the few things I would like to see preserved.

    Good, healthy religion does not endorse that its followers follow blindly in the name of getting into heaven and other such nonsense.  If you free-thinkers did some research and opened your mind and heart to the benefits that religion can offer maybe you wouldn't form cute little groups whose sole purpose is to exist for all the misguided misfits out there looking for "acceptance" of some kind.

    Good luck Rose, and I hope that you find a good healthy religion.  As one Jesus of Nazareth is supposed to have said, the tree is known by its fruit.  I wish you would come and see one of our meetings, where we "misguided misfits" laugh, joke, tell stories, share information, eat good food and generally have a good time.  That you feel the need to attack us I think shows a deep unsatisfied need in your life.  Please consider, thoughtfully and critically, whether your own beliefs are serving you well.  If you do this, perhaps one day you will join us in the liberation that can come from abandoning judgemental superstition.