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2000-04-24 - 18:35:00

"These are atheists"

I was reading through some stories about the Elian Gonzalez case today, when one quote caught my eye. Miami Mayor Joe Carollo denounced the actions of the federal agents, saying on CBS: "What they did here was a crime. Tell the country that these are atheists. They don't believe in God . . . I felt that I could not trust our government any longer."

I don't understand how a politician could make such an offensive statement. I would expect an elected official to be a little more careful about respecting religious freedom and not to use the label atheist as an insult. I think that many people would feel unable to trust a government that fails to believe in the separation of church and state.

As for the mayor's equation of atheism and immorality, I'm going to fall back on a quote that I saw last summer, in an obituary of an Ottawa professor (whose name I have unfortunately lost):

As an atheist, I am profoundly insulted by the fallacious assumption that morality and values are the prerogatives of the religious. I have to agree, though, with University of Manitoba religion professor John Stackhouse's claim that "not all things can be explained by reason." This is undoubtedly true. But what Prof. Stackhouse fails to point out is that nothing can be explained by religion.

J.

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