Chicago ‘Christian’ Activists Block Atheist Display, Harass Onlookers

Can’t you feel the love? It’s looking more and more like Christians resent the fact that people of reason (not to mention other faiths) have the protection of the First Amendment, so what better way to celebrate the holid… excuse me, Christmas®, than to bend this fundamental right into a pretzel:

A Christian activist group placed a banner over an atheist display at Chicago’s Daley Plaza proclaiming that “A is for Angels.”

The banner covers a sign set up earlier this month by the Freedom From Religion Foundation that explained that an 8.5-foot lighted “A” stood for “atheists” as part of a protest of Christmas-themed items on the public square.

The activists clashed Thursday with atheists at Daley Plaza over the banner, saying that objections to the counter-protest were inhibiting their constitutional rights.

“You shouldn’t be protesting the ‘A.’ Protesting the ‘A’ means you are surrendering our freedom of speech,” said a woman who described herself as a Christian activist. “Everybody should have their opportunity to speak here.”

She suggested that anyone who disagreed with her to “go back and read the Constitution.” …

“I think if you actually read the text of the atheist display it’s actually more hate speech,” [Remember America Foundation chair William] Kelly said. “It’s really not adding anything to the Christmas spirit, it’s really not even telling anybody who they really are or what they believe or what they want for society. They’re just saying they don’t like Christianity.”

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.