We Thought You Should Know…

Stephanie Zvan

Anoka, Minnesota bills itself as the Halloween Capital of the World™. It is also in Michele Bachmann’s congressional district and houses a school district under fire for not protecting the civil rights of its LGBT students. That makes the following, sadly, almost inevitable.

At Saturday’s Halloween parade, someone was passing these out:

We thought you should know...

On the back was apparently a bible verse about leading children into sin. I’m not a bible atheist, so I don’t know which verse that would be, but feel free to guess for yourself.

The person who received this flyer, once she realized what it said, tried to track down the person who gave it to her in the crowd. I understand the intent had something to do with (suggested, self-inflicted) paper cuts in intimate places. Failing that, she posted the picture on Facebook, where it has been passed around.

The discussion, as one might expect, contains the obligatory comments of “How do you know this person was a Christian?” (Answer: Know? We don’t. But this is Anoka, where the homophobic crap is coming out of proudly Christian mouths.) and “They’re not real Christians” (Answer: Oh, yes, they are. They are not terribly Christ-like, but they are decidedly Christian.).

So, remember, people: This Halloween, be sure to avert your children’s eyes from any tolerance, diversity, equality, respect and acceptance.

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We Thought You Should Know…

About the author

Stephanie Zvan is one of the hosts for the Minnesota Atheists' radio show and podcast, Atheists Talk. She serves on the board of Secular Woman. She speaks on science and skepticism in a number of venues, including science fiction and fantasy conventions. Stephanie has been called a science blogger and a sex blogger, but if it means she has to choose just one thing to be or blog about, she's decided she's never going to grow up. In addition to science and sex and the science of sex, you'll find quite a bit of politics here, some economics, a regular short fiction feature, and the occasional bit of concentrated weird. Oh, and arguments. She sometimes indulges in those as well. But I'm sure everything will be just fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
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12 thoughts on “We Thought You Should Know…”

  1. george.w
    1

    It’s remotely possible the person handing out these fliers is not a Christian. Which is to say it’s extremely likely that they are Christian.

    Probably Matthew 18:6 “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

    Depth of the sea being a place non-seafaring people in Jesus’ audience would prefer to avoid.

  2. Shari
    2

    They can protest a “tolerance” float all they want as we do live in a free country. They are free to call themselves Christians too. And the observant people around them are free to call them hypocrites!!

    I do have a beef with that parade too. The detour kept me on one block in traffic for half a damn hour!!

  4. Rieux
    4

    They are not terribly Christ-like….

    I dunno. Given the whackjob reprobate that the Gospels paint Jesus as, it seems to me that to the extent Anoka’s homophobes aren’t “Christ-like,” it’s because they’re too peaceable, caring, and nice.

    Now here is a curious thing. It is believed by everybody that while [God] was in heaven he was stern, hard, resentful, jealous, and cruel; but that when he came down to earth and assumed the name Jesus Christ, he became the opposite of what he was before: that is to say, he became sweet, and gentle, merciful, forgiving, and all harshness disappeared from his nature and a deep and yearning love for his poor human children took its place. Whereas it was as Jesus Christ that he devised hell and proclaimed it!

    Which is to say, that as the meek and gentle Savior he was a thousand billion times crueler than ever he was in the Old Testament — oh, incomparably more atrocious than ever he was when he was at the very worst in those old days!

    Meek and gentle? By and by we will examine this popular sarcasm by the light of the hell which he invented.

    – Mark Twain

  6. Pierce R. Butler
    6

    “How do you know this person was a Christian?”

    Given that the spelling, punctuation, acronym, grammar and syntax are (almost) all correct, it’s a difficult call.

    The giveaway: a headline in Comic Sans.

  7. ckitching
    7

    Better than I was expecting before the click-through. I was expecting (another) suicide of a gay teen. At least it’s only hateful literature this time.

  8. James
    8

    Actually, that’s “Marker” font, from Arts & Letters Corp. You can usually find it on those “1000’s of fonts” CDs.

    Yes, I’m a font geek. 🙂

  10. chrissevern
    10

    I read this first on another site, and then here, and it never crossed my mind that this was a Christian handing them out.

    I assumed from the beginning that it was an atheist or at least LBGT, trying to raise the consciousness of people.

    I mean, it’s suggesting that people avert the eyes of their children so as to not see messages of tolerance, respect and acceptance. That can’t be a Christian being serious can it? I mean, I know about Poe’s law, but……..

  11. NathanDST
    11

    It would be nice if the verse on the back wasn’t there, as that would make it lean, I think, toward a Poe (it’s those words about tolerance and respect that make me think that).

Comments are closed.