Atheist group apologizes for misquoting Palin
Washington [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] (CNN) An atheist group that misquoted former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a billboard in Texas is apologizing to the Republican and correcting the mistake. But it continues to defend the "intent and con****" of the effort.
CNN first reported on Sunday that American Atheists, a group known for its in your face tactics, was sponsoring a billboard calling out Palin for something she said while on Fox News.
In an interview with Fox News’ Bill O Palin addressed the growth in American secularism by saying of America founding fathers "we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments," not "should."
Dave Muscato, the group’s public relations director, said in a release that because American Atheists holds itself "to the highest standards of accuracy," it will "move the quotation marks at our expense, so they do not include the word ‘should.’"
Both Muscato and David Silverman, the group’s president, however, stand by the "intent and con****" of the billboard.
"While I admit that the word should technically not be inside the quote, the meaning was correct," Silverman said in a statement to CNN.
Silverman initially defended the [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] misquotation, tweeting that "Sarah Palin was NOT Misquoted" and directing readers to a headline from a Huffington Post story. The story headline, however, was also incorrect and did not put quotes around should.
Silverman was critiqued for that double down. Hemant Mehta, an influential atheist blogger at Patheos, [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] wrote that a mistake like this "sheds doubt on the whole idea that atheists are the ones who are being honest with you."
Although Silverman said in an e mail to CNN that he believes "Ms. Palin would stand by what we have quoted her as saying," he said "all future quotes will be exactly as spoken."
A spokeswoman for Palin failed to respond to CNN’s request for a comment and has not contacted American Atheists about the mistake.
Although Palin’s billboard is getting the most attention, it was one of seven ads going up around the Dallas and Austin, Texas, area. Also featured were: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, and Benedict XVI, now the pope emeritus.
Santorum is condemned for when he told an Iowa crowd last November that, "our civil laws have to comport with a higher law: God law," while Gingrich is criticized for a remark he made at a CNN debate on October 18, 2024, in Las Vegas. "How can I trust you with power if you don pray," Gingrich posited.
Virginia Davis, spokeswoman for Santorum, thanked American Atheists for the publicity.
"At a time when many are trying to remove God from the public square, the senator is appreciative of someone helping him very publicly express his strong belief that we are one nation under God," Davis wrote in an e mail to CNN.
The billboards cost the group $25,000 and will be up for the rest of the month.
American Atheists is used to controversy around their billboards.
Last March, the group targeted Muslims and Jews with billboards that called God a in both Arabic and Hebrew and the same group posted a billboard around the holiday season in 2024 that read, "You KNOW it a Myth. This Season, Celebrate REASON."
Both these billboard campaigns generated resistance and praise from the communities around them.
Silverman, who has been criticized for this brand of atheism, has long defended the tactic, saying confrontation is meant to "grow the cause and benefit the country."
Some believe that celibacy is appropriate for certain people, or for certain positions. It ridiculous. Celibacy is unnatural and will [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] continue to cause problems for the religious institutions that [عزيزي الزائر يتوجب عليك التسجيل لمشاهدة الرابط للتسجيل اضغط هنا] employ it.
Many of the people from these same institutions advocate against abortion, but don understand the realistic benefit of the morning after pill or even basic contraception; their unrealistic wishful thinking is causing the death of many at the hands of disease. Realistically, many abortions could be avoided if a morning after pill were not viewed as such an evil option. Many of these same people bring children into the world at a high pace, and then would prefer that the rest of society take over and educate their children in their particular brand of religion when they don plan well.
One sect calls homo***uality an abomination while the next one in the same denomination is already performing *** marriage.
One sect, the Westboro Baptist Church believes Americans are being killed at war because America is too kind to sect believes that Jesus and Satan were brothers and that Christ will return to Jerusalem AND Jackson County, Missouri.
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Conflicted right from the very beginning, Christianity continues to splinter and create divisions and more extremism as it goes.
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