Fail Quote: Fox host says theists feel like “second-class citizens”

From Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, lecturing American Atheists president David Silverman during a hopeless debate on the Obama administration’s supposed “attack” on (Christian) religious freedoms:

LAURA INGRAHAM: David, maybe you don’t feel this way as an atheist, and I don’t blame you, because you’re an atheist. You don’t see that people of good faith and good conscience across the country feel like they are second-class in this HHS and in this administration. That’s just a fact, that’s the way they feel. You can say it’s illegitimate, but that’s the way they feel, and it’s across denominations.

Here’s the full exchange (the above bit starts at the 5:12 mark):

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

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Via Mediaite:

Ingraham noted some new numbers from Gallup to preface the segment. According to the poll, 34 percent of respondents said they believed Obama is Christian. Eleven percent said they believed he’s a Muslim, and 44 percent said they don’t know. In another poll, 54 percent of respondents said they would vote for an atheist president, compared to 43 percent who said they would not.

Silverman called the trend “a progression towards tolerance,” or “the de-bigoting of America.” It doesn’t mean we’re going to become an anti-religious nation, he said. “But you would prefer that,” Ingraham responded, which Silverman refuted, saying we need to “get to a point where people can be who they are and not be judged simply on that fact.”

Ingraham didn’t buy the argument, referring to a culture that calls into question Christianity and belief in God — pointing to shows like Modern Family, Glee and Desperate Housewives (not exactly “Christian fare”). Silverman argued television is “reflective,” that it doesn’t cause the evolution.

Moving on, Ingraham turned to Jeffress, who said he takes Obama’s identification as a Christian “at face value” — but then noted some of his anti-Christian policies, offering his stance on abortion and same-sex marriage as an example. Silverman took issue with the assertion that the Obama administration is launching an attack on people of faith, which Ingraham countered by mention the contraception mandate (which, you’ll surely recall, has been a central point of contention for some religious groups).

Because he’s an atheist, Ingraham said of Silverman, he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand that people of faith feel like “second-class citizens” under this administration.

There’s just something wonderfully ironic in claiming (without even using one of their usual partisan polls to back it up) that religious people all around the U.S. are feeling crushed under the Obama administration’s jackboot of secularist tyranny – by trying to get all employers to provide adequate healthcare coverage to their workers – given the overwhelming presence of Christian preferentialism on display right to the very top of the government.

And the idea that these privilege-soaked theists are now (purportedly) being treated like “second-class citizens”, while godless people – who are still barred from holding elected office at all in multiple states and who half the freaking country wouldn’t even consider voting for on sole account of their lack of belief in God(s) – are apparently the new favored people is just too absurd to respond to with anything other than mockery.

I’ve heard of masochism before, but I have no idea why Silverman continually puts himself through these debilitating Fox News segments. Horse-whipping would seem like a less painful and more productive alternative.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Tags: David Silverman • American Atheists • atheists • Christians • Christianity • Laura Ingraham • Fox News • The O'Reilly Factor • Robert Jeffress