this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
737 points (98.9% liked)

News

23376 readers
3976 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A federal judge in West Virginia has ruled that the state corrections agency can’t force an incarcerated atheist and secular humanist to participate in religiously-affiliated programming to be eligible for parole.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 year ago (2 children)

In the “Big Book,” the foundational document of these programs, “Chapter 4: We Agnostics” tells atheists and agnostics that they are “doomed to alcoholic death” unless they “seek Him.” The chapter characterizes non-believers as “handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice.”

This really jumped out at me. What a horrible thing to say about someone, especially someone looking for help.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago

"Unreasoning prejudice" ain't that just the richest projection you've ever seen🤣🤣🤣

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Alcoholic death? That's weirdly specific. I barely even drink. If I do, then I do it to get drunk, but not to comatose type of levels.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Big Book being discussed in this comment is one of the foundations of the Alcoholics Anonymous program. Hence this warning about alcoholism. AA features a higher power as part of recovery.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I was thinking about going to some AA meetings, was massively put off though by all the bible thumping rhetoric. I don't want anything to do with the majority of religions.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Am I allowed to drink alcohol as long as I believe in God, I'm not quite I understand their random system of belief.

Also, I guess that drugs are okay?

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago

Great now punish them for trying

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As a Christian, I agree with this.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seriously. Forcing prisoners to participate in a religion is just wrong. Imagine the uproar if it was Islam instead of Christianity.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

And yet, I'm being downvoted.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

People are stupid.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

There will be people browsing the comments who read the article, left feeling angry and powerless. Then you reveal yourself as someone who ascribes to what they see as 'enemy', downvoting you is a way to exert some (small) sense of power. Try not to take it personally.

I wish more Christians thought like you.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'm not sure if people thought you agreed with the state...? I guess we generally see "As a Christian, I ", so assumptions of that sort are likely, but I'm not sure. I try to do my part to show that we're not all the Westboro Baptist type, too.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Good point. I do not agree with the state. Nobody should have a religion forced upon them.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

As a Latin American, it seems to me that Christian fanaticism is so wide spread in the US it almost feels cartoonish, like the sort of general impression one gets from any cult or fundamentalist religious group. And I’m from Latin America!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It always reminds me of North Korea, or China. No matter what else you do, you must be seen to believe in the right thing or else you are some kind of evil deviant.

What the religion or belief system is actually is is about is almost irrelevant. The important thing is to believe, understanding it is entirely not required and almost frowned upon.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So while I'm all for this, think about the person trying to get a parole board to write off on their parole. Even if the person is in the right I can only imagine that it's still in that person's best interests to at least act the good christian because the parole board can deny them for any reason with no need to explain.

American society is so fucked.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Yeah, but it sounds like they already crossed that line. Once that happens, may as well stick up for your rights. Regardless of whether they went through the program. The corrupted parole board will already prejudge them as a bad person for not believing in their version of their god.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

You also get special privileges if you're religious in prison, like better food if you're keeping Kosher or Halal and being let out of your cell to go to religious services. Even if you're an atheist, I could see why you would pretend.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

We have more work to do than I used to think.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Good. I have grown tired of the brainwashed reformed criminal that spends all his time being overly aggressive about religion and downright hateful with it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I fucking love this guy. Fuck RSAT and fuck the WV DOC. The whole thing is a mess. Prison reform, now!

load more comments
view more: next ›