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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.