Keep Public Property Safe from Freakazoid Proselytizing

 They're so frantic about it, you have to wonder just how fragile their worldview is, that it requires constant evangelizing.

Wonkette:

State park officials initially said they would remove the Bibles, but this caused a certain amount of butthurt among Christians because lack of evangelizing = Oppression. And then Georgia Gov. Nathan whoop said, hey, No Big Deal, because even though the only religious materials in the cabins are completely sectarian, it’s totes legal because the State didn’t pay for the bibles; the Gideons donated them. Besides, said Gov. Deal,

“I do not believe that a Bible in a bedside table drawer constitutes a state establishment of religion,” he said. “In fact, any group is free to donate literature.”

Oh? said some sharp kids at American Atheists. Did you say any group? Hey, guys, as it happens, we are a group, and we would just love to donate some literature to be placed in bedside table drawers in Georgia state parks! And so they will be sending the Georgia Department of Natural Resources “enough popular atheist books to place one in every state park cabin in the state.”

In a press release, the group acknowledged that it would really prefer that state-owned facilities be oppressively neutral on matters of religion, but if Georgia wants to play this way, sure!

“American Atheists does not believe the State of Georgia should be placing Bibles or atheist books in state park cabins; however, if the state is going to allow such distribution, we will happily provide our materials,” said President David Silverman.

The books will include Ibn Warraq’s Why I Am Not A Muslim, Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s Why I Am An Atheist, and Christopher Hitchens’ deliberately not-capitalized just to piss people off god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Sure, this is totally going to happen, and there will be no butthurt at all among Christians, because it’s not like the state would be forcing anyone to read those titles.

On the off chance that you can’t grab a copy from the bedside table of a cabin in a Georgia state park, we’ve included linkies to generate Big Kickback Bucks for Yr Wonkette.

Yeah, haha, cute. Made your point. And far be it from me to criticize American Atheists, who are usually far ahead of the ACLU in church-state separation cases.

But stunts that equate atheist literature with religious literature feed and promote the myth that atheism is a religion. Religion is the abomination atheism rejects.

State parks are public assets that must remain free of all material that promotes any non-secular worldview. Frantic freakazoid propaganda to the contrary, the U.S. Constitution establishes a secular state. Take your religion elsewhere.