From: stoesser@i31s17.ira.uka.de (Achim Stoesser)
Newsgroups: alt.quotations
Subject: Re: Presidential quote (Bush/atheism)
Date: 2 Jan 1993 14:03:11 GMT
Organization: University of Karlsruhe, FRG
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: i31s17.ira.uka.de

There was a long long long discussion on this thread when the quotes
appeared first in alt.atheism.  The result was that someone messed it up
while retyping it. The a.a FAQ file reads (see end for ObQuote):

# Subject: George Bush on atheism and patriotism
# 
# Typical posting:
# 
# Did George Bush really say that atheists should not be considered citizens?
# 
# Response:
# 
# The following exchange took place at the Chicago airport between Robert I.
# Sherman of American Atheist Press and George Bush, on August 27 1988. Sherman
# is a fully accredited reporter, and was present by invitation as a member of
# the press corps.  The Republican presidential nominee was there to announce
# federal disaster relief for Illinois.  The discussion turned to the
# presidential primary:
# 
#  RS: "What will you do to win the votes of Americans who are atheists?"
# 
#  GB: "I guess I'm pretty weak in the atheist community.  Faith in
#       God is important to me."
# 
#  RS: "Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of
#       Americans who are atheists?"
# 
#  GB: "No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens,
#       nor should they be considered patriots.  This is one nation under
#       God."
# 
#  RS: "Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation
#       of state and church?"
# 
#  GB: "Yes, I support the separation of church and state.  I'm just not
#       very high on atheists."
# 
# UPI reported on May 8, 1989, that various atheist organizations were
# still angry over the remarks.
# The exchange appeared in the Boulder Daily Camera on Monday February 27,
# 1989.  It can also be found in "Free Enquiry" magazine, Fall 1988 issue,
# Volume 8, Number 4, page 16.
# 
# On October 29, 1988, Mr. Sherman had a confrontation with Ed Murnane,
# cochairman of the Bush-Quayle '88 Illinois campaign.  This concerned a
# lawsuit Mr. Sherman had filed to stop the Community Consolidated School
# District 21 (Chicago, Illinois) from forcing his first-grade Atheist son to
# pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States as "one nation under God"
# (Bush's phrase).  The following conversation took place:
# 
#  RS: "American Atheists filed the Pledge of Allegiance lawsuit yesterday.
#       Does the Bush campaign have an official response to this filing?"
# 
#  EM: "It's bullshit."
# 
#  RS: "What is bullshit?"
# 
#  EM: "Everything that American Atheists does, Rob, is bullshit."
# 
#  RS: "Thank you for telling me what the official position of the Bush
#       campaign is on this issue."
# 
#  EM: "You're welcome."
# 
# After Bush's election, American Atheists wrote to Bush asking him to retract
# his statement.  On February 21st 1989, C. Boyden Gray, Counsel to the
# President, replied on White House stationery that Bush substantively stood by
# his original statement, and wrote:
# 
#   "As you are aware, the President is a religious man who neither supports
#    atheism nor believes that atheism should be unnecessarily encouraged or
#    supported by the government."
# 
# For further information, contact American Atheist Veterans at the American
# Atheist Press's Cameron Road address.
# 

ObQuote:
"... A socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to
 leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy
 capitalism and become lesbians." -- Pat Robertson on Feminism
 							        Achim
_____________________________________________________________________

I'm an anarchist, atheist, pacifist, and vegetarian.  This does _not_
mean that I'd bomb kings, worship Satan, let soldiers bleed to death,
or eat fish.


Newsgroups: alt.quotations