Right- wing slams White House for meeting with atheist 'hate groups'
Officials from the Justice and Health and Human Services departments met Friday with representatives of the Secular Coalition for America, an umbrella group that includes American Atheists and the Council for Secular Humanism. The coalition called it "the first time in history a presidential administration has met for a policy briefing with the American nontheist community."
President Barack Obama was not scheduled to make an appearance at the meeting, nor were any policy changes to be announced, McClatchy news service reported.
But that didn't stop a number of religious conservative groups from attacking the meeting as a sign the president has an anti-religious agenda.
In comments posted Friday, blogger "Kyle" at Right Wing Watch suggested that religious groups criticizing the Obama administration for welcoming "hate groups" are guilty of hypocrisy.
"President Bush would never have met with anyone who espoused 'hate-filled views' ... would he?" the blogger asked sarcastically, above a list of religious leaders, known for their anti-gay stances, who met with President George W. Bush in the White House during the former president's term.
For the period April 2001 through June 2006, Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Emeritus James Dobson visited the White House 24 times; 10 of those visits were to President Bush.
Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition, made an astonishing 50 visits to the White House starting on February 1, 2001, and continuing through March 16, 2008. Six of those visits were to President Bush.
The late Jerry Falwell, of Jerry Falwell Ministries, made eight visits to the White House between May 2001 and September 2004. Three of those visits were to President Bush.
Since when are Athiests more hateful then..say.. the GOP??? If you are not "one of them" then you are hate-filled? To tell you the truth, I think people like Jerry Falwell (we think he's probably resting uncomfortably, somewhere very HOT) and James Dobson have hate in their self- righteous hearts. We like to refer to the White House as the peoples house, so the doors should be open for all to visit, black, white, Christian, Non-Christian, Right? You can read more here
