Again: Richard Dawkins is one reason why atheists can’t have nice things.

Good luck with that, fellas:

Richard Dawkins and Sean Faircloth are recruiting college students to photograph the homes of ministers as the two well-known atheist work to make a documentary they say they hope leads to the abolishment of tax exemptions for religious leaders in America.

Faircloth, author of “Attack of the Theocrats: How the Religious Right Harms Us All & What We Can Do About It,” encouraged hundreds of University of Colorado – Boulder students who attended his talk last week to photograph the homes of ministers and send them to him.

Then again, I suspect that Dawkins isn’t really an atheist.  Nobody sane would spend this much time hating Something that they don’t actually believe really exists.

Via

26 thoughts on “Again: Richard Dawkins is one reason why atheists can’t have nice things.”

  1. But lets be honest: Activist Atheism is, sociologically, it’s own religion. There is no god but human Reason and these dudes are it’s Prophets; With the exception of an irrational paranoia of anything “religious,” to be determined by them, in public discourse.

  2. Haha! Hahaha! Hahahahaha!
    .
    Okay, let me break this down for Dawkins. Two things that’ll happen, if he does manage to strip the tax exemption.
    .
    First, churches will *stop* limiting how they choose to inject themselves into politics. Right now, they hold back due to … tax laws!
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    Second, charitable giving (and therefore charitable *operations*) in Blue States will drop even further.
    .
    “Oft evil will doth evil mar”, to borrow from Tolkien.
    .
    Mew
    .
    .
    p.s. yeah, he’s no a-theist, he’s an anti-theist… he doesn’t like what the existence of a deity would mean for his life.

  3. Can we *PLEASE* get back to leaving peoples’ homes out of our political disagreements?
    .
    I do not like where that road leads.

  4. As an overseas missionary who has made $25,000/year for the last several years (and thankful for it, I might add), I’ve always been somewhat…uncomfortable…with the affluence of American pastors and ministers. If followers of Christ truly lived as He lived, then this wouldn’t be an issue. Despite Dawkin’s hostility toward religion, he may be doing the church a service.

  5. As a conservative Christian, I agree with some of Dawkins’ sentiment here. There is definitely a minuscule sliver of the “Christian” pastorate that lives very high on the hog and in what I would consider a sinful manner considering their position and the calling and mission of the Church. As I said, it’s a very small sliver as to be statistically insignificant, but mostly consists of television personalities and African American pastors. If you are a pastor who drives a Bentley, you are doing it wrong.

    That said, I’m sure bringing about repentance and right living is not what Dawkins is interested in here.

  6. I didn’t mean to make it sound like many African American pastors do this, I do think it might be ever so slightly more prevalent just based on anecdotal evidence. There’s a story that runs in local papers here from time to time about some Baltimore area pastors who live quite well in million dollar plus houses and own a few $100k+ cars and whatnot. Also, a few of my African American friends complain from time to time about well to do pastors wringing donations out of their poorer, devote congregants.

  7. Jbird:
    And, really, those men will be held accountable by God in the end and, hopefully, their local Christian bodies in the short term, be it their own congregation or their hierarchy (synod, presbytery, association, etc.).

  8. “Also, a few of my African American friends complain from time to time about well to do pastors wringing donations out of their poorer, devote congregants.”
    .
    How is this Dawkin’s concern? If there is fraud involved, then there are laws. If the money is voluntarily donated, then the donors should as themselves if it’s being used as they intended.

  9. Even when I was an atheist, I hated other atheists. All I can see now is a bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

  10. Let’s all take photos of Jessie Jackson’s and Rev. Wright’s home(s) and send those to Dawkins.

  11. Two points. First, as a PK (Pastor’s Kid) who lived in a number of church-provided parsonages, I think a true representation of how the AVERAGE clergy lives will prove the opposite of his point. Second, maybe as part of this process, the students should be encouraged to interview these pastors in addition to photographing them. (“Hey, come in, tell me about your project….have a cookie….”)

  12. As the daughter of an exemplary man who devoted himself to the Episcopal Church for 23 years, then the Catholic church for 27, I take exception to tarring all with the ‘slimy preacher’ brush. These people can’t understand that for every jerk who uses his influence to bilk a congregation, thousands of good folks devote themselves to God and service. It wasn’t just a Sunday job–our phone rang at all hours, and out the door my Dad went.
    By all means, if illegal/immoral use of funds takes place, bring those to justice. And yes, many times I’ve said the same BG5–idiots like these are the first to lined up and disposed of.

  13. My secretary’s husband is a pastor. His family lives in a double wide trailer. All three of the pastors (pastor, asst pastor and pastor emeritus) at my church are outside employed and take no money from the church for themselves.
    Will Dawkins be as interested in any of them?

  14. I come from a family of pastors and missionaries, 99.9% live standard middle class lives if their congregation is large or less than that relative to the size and wealth of the congregation. No one becomes a pastor to strike it rich.

  15. “Attack of the Theocrats: How the Religious Right Harms Us All & What We Can Do About It”

    First off folks, given that this is an attack on the “religous Right” I somehow doubt that there will be photos of Jesse Jackson’s or Jeremiah Wright’s houses. Wouldn’t support the agenda, you see.
    Second, what the parish grants to the officiant (rabbi, minister, or Primitive Babtist preacher) is between them. I have as much contempt for religous thieves as anyone, but that’s for the parish to handle- not some loudmouth who isn’t only not of that community, bit actually hates all religon.

  16. Sure they do Jbird, it just requires a definition of the word ‘rich’ that Mr. Dawkins is unfamiliar with…

  17. How about photographing the nice homes of university professors, and use that to push for an end to tax exemptions for educational institutions?

  18. The Richard Dawkins Foundation is tax-exempt. Why not target it? I’m sure Dawkins is living very well, and his foundation is not so much educational as a bunch of hate-mongers.

  19. Dawkins et al aren’t remotely interested in any pastor or minister who isn’t preaching the biblical Gospel. That is why you will never see anyone photographing Jesse Jackson’s, Al Sharpton’s or Jeremiah Wright’s houses, nor anyone theologically liberal. The Devil knows who his friends are as well as his enemies.

    **please delete first attempt…typo***

  20. I dated a preacher’s kid in college. His family had a huge home in a fashionable part of Dallas. But the story behind that was that a parishioner had donated the home to the church, because at that time (early 90s) the parishioner would not have been able to make a profit on selling the home after investing in what it would have taken to make the home salable. All the fixtures, etc were old, but the house was big and in a good neighborhood, and my then-boyfriend’s family was huge. A perfect match. By no means did they live high on the hog.

  21. pst314, those are two really excellent points. Would provide some interesting blowback.

    Aand for the record, every one of my ministers/pastors lived lower middle class lives, financially. They and their families gave up good deal to minister to others.

  22. There’s something indescribably warped about a man who tells us that it should be legal to kill your two-year-old child if he or she turns out to be imperfect in your eyes but then travels around trying to expose what houses people live in as if it’s some grand moral crusade.

    Dawkins has a cold lump of coal where his soul should be. He’s a hand puppet for an evil force that he doesn’t even believe is real.

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