UU Mom

Believers in Community

Omar Latiri is an atheist. But the former Muslim has begun going to church and even decorated a Christmas tree, albeit a plastic one, this year.

"I don't believe," said Latiri, an Air Force reservist who is a member of a Unitarian Universalist church in Bethesda with his wife. "But that doesn't mean I don't see the benefit of something that is from the Bible in terms of humility, caring for other people, forgiveness, charity."

In a society filled with religious references -- the Pledge of Allegiance with its "one nation under God," weddings, funerals and other events -- some atheists such as Latiri attend houses of worship and enjoy the traditions and sense of community they provide, minus the sacred interpretations. Other atheists have adopted alternatives to rituals such as baptisms. More from Post

Their site says:

"HEART of the BEHOLDER has won more Best Feature Film Awards than any other independent movie ever.

Distributors agree that it is a quality film with superb acting, a riveting story, and production values much higher than our actual budget. But those same distributors complain that our movie is too controversial to pick up for distribution.

It took us 12 years to make our passion project and we want it to be seen. We have serialized our movie into short clips to make it easy to watch."

Some claim it's not being shown because it's about standing up to religious fundamentalists, others say it's because it was created by atheists.

IMDb gives it a 7.3

You can watch clips here (I think this is actually the whole movie, but I haven't seen it all yet): http://www.beholder.com/WebTheater/PlayMovie/play_movie.aspx.3

First news this morning (though late since it occurred Jan. 31) was about atheist hate on CNN. Now I've learned about unapologetic white supremacy on tv. What's the difference, really, Christian/theist supremacy and white supremacy? Why do people not see this as oppression and hatred? What happened to "love thy neighbor"? Here are the details:

CNN had 2 segments, apparently on Jan. 31. One was on a family that was run out of a town because they were atheists. The other was a discussion about the rights of atheists with 3 Christian defenders [sorry I previously said "ministers" but they were journalists who were all adamantly defending the "Christian nation" so I thought they were ministers]. CNN also had a back drop for the show that said "Why do atheists inspire such hatred?" Replace "atheists" with "blacks" or some other minority group. If you want to see the news stories and share a reasonable sized link, use this one: http://tinyurl.com/2lr7xn Also, see all these blog posts about it.

The white supremacy incident is also not "new", but I've just learned of it. There's a tv show called "The White Rapper". Though I don't know first hand, I believe this means that none but white can apply. I've also heard that AR-15, an anti-racist group is participating and getting some negative feedback from the other groups and/or others in the show. I "met" one person online who never heard of a white anti-racist until they saw this show, which is a good thing, but over-all, the concept sounds like another evidence that white supremacy is far from over in this country.

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I hate hate. :_(