This isn’t religious, it’s merely tradition

I’m certain our case will be met with approval

A secular prayer—just a trivial thing—

So we’ll fight tooth and nail to prevent its removal

The prayer was a gift from a class in the sixties

Its place in tradition just can’t be denied

This isn’t religious! It’s all about freedom!

And we’ll fight, with our secular god on our side

For decades, the mural’s been there in the hallway

And no one—not one—had complained it’s religious

The taunting and threats that this Jessica’s getting?

It’s her fault alone, cos she’s so damned litigious

She’s out for attention! That’s all that this is!

The god-hating liberal, atheist slut!

We good Christian people should teach her a lesson

How sometimes it’s safer to keep your mouth shut.

How dare she insult us? How dare she mock God?

How dare she belittle the prayer in the hall?

How dare she believe that the law’s on her side—

Remember… this isn’t religious at all!

Angry rant, after the jump:



So, clearly, this is a continuation of the story of Jessica Ahlquist, the bravest girl in Rhode Island. The story has hit the national news now, so we can play my favorite game of “compare the comment threads”. I like to dive in–none of this getting toes wet first business–so it’s off to Fox News. I must compliment the readers of the Providence Journal; compared to the Fox News commenters, ProJo commenters are a breath of fresh air. Fox News commenters are… by and large, predictable. There are a small handful of people whose comments reflect an understanding of the actual case and law, but they are rare oases in a desert of stupidity.

I started out laughing. I really did. Out loud. Scaring the cuttlecats. I mean, how can you not laugh, when you compare the pragmatic protest that Jessica represents, with this:

Wouldn’t it be neat if all Christians all over the world united to pray for this teenager. Her name is Jessica Ahlquist. I promise to pray for her daily for the next 30 days. If you are with me pleasecopy this and put this as your FB status. It would also be neat that a girl who tried to take prayer out of school managed to get hundreds, thousands, or even millions of Christian’s to pray for HER.

Yes, let’s all pray for her. And then… wait.

Get right on that, would you?

After that great start, the stupidity just kept coming. It is quite clear that the commenters have no idea about the issues at stake, and they really don’t seem to care. It’s all about her attention-seeking; it’s all about an individual trying to deprive a Christian majority of their rights. For a network that features American flags as prominently as they do, Fox is doing a poor job attracting readers that actually understand the law of the land. There is a history of establishment clause cases; Jessica knows this, and Fox readers do not. And again, do not seem to care. When the occasional commenter brings it up, they are accused of being libtards, aclu lackeys, godless evolutionists (seriously, in the comments on this story, I swear to you, some pinhead actually wrote “if we descended from monkeys, how come there are still monkeys?”).

And then I read this:

I say just take her out to the parking lot, put on some gloves so as not to leave any marks, and just b e a t her selfish little a s s for her. If she tells on you, b e a t her a s s again. What have you got to lose? I can guarantee that throwing bibles at her isn’t going to help.

And this:

She should be removed…PERMANENTLY…Nothing here but a wannabe future aclu w h o r e….

They are talking about a 16-year-old girl. A five foot tall girl.

It turns my stomach.

PZ mentioned the catch-22 in the ProJo story; it seems to me the mural’s defenders have one of their own. Is the mural secular? Trivial? Not religious at all? Then it’s really not worth defending (as evidenced by the painting over of another mural in the same school district). Would painting it over be an affront to believers? Then it’s in violation of the establishment clause, and is clearly unconstitutional.

But we know what Fox commenters think of the constitution. Nothing at all.

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