I Still Hate The Fourth of July

I love my country, but I hate the Fourth of July^[1].  Why would I hate a celebration of the Declaration of Independence for the world's first secular nation?

She doesn't like explosions

This is why I hate the Fourth of July.

Fireworks went on sale this week.  They've been going off all night, and if this year follows the trend, they'll be going off every night for weeks.  Which means this dog will be scared every night for weeks, just because my neighbors want to blow shit up.

And she's the calm one.  There's an even more scared Great Dane alternating between pacing all over the house and hiding under things you'd never think a 140 pound dog could fit under.

Last year, I donated to the Wounded Warrior Project^[2].  This year, I think it'll be the Nebraska Humane Society^[3].

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1.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-hate-4th-of-july.html
2.  http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
3.  http://www.nehumanesociety.org/

Please Do Not Put Money In The Bucket

I am pretty careful about where my donations to charity go.  This is because of a combination of me not having a lot to give and me caring about how that money is used.  It's mostly the latter, because even if I were a millionaire, I would still not give to certain charities and would still be opposed to my donations being misused.

At the top of that list is The Salvation Army.  I think their immoral practices are well known enough by now, I needn't bother detailing them too much.  Among they're many flaws, is their anti-gay policy.  Like most bigots, they attempt to disguise it as adherence to their religion, as if that makes bigotry suddenly okay instead of pointing out the obvious flaws in their religion.

They site many Bible verses to justify their bigotry, but there's a particular one that sticks out like a beacon of  ignorance and hate.  Leviticus 18:22, 23

I'll be quoting the NIV Bible, as that's the one they say is theirs.

Leviticus 18:22:

Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.

Okay.  It's bigoted, but that certainly is what their religion's book says about the gays.  They also included   Leviticus 18:23:

Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.

That's right.  The Salvation Army is citing their Bible's words about beastiality on their page dedicated to their stance on homosexuality.  They are comparing homosexuality to beastiality.  I wonder if Dan Savage is aware of this.

This is what you're supporting if you put money into their buckets, or otherwise give to this organization.  If you would like to send them a message, there is this:

It's meant to be put into the buckets in place of cash.  Atheism Resource has been nice enough to put up a .pdf of these for easy printing.  Whether you use these vouchers or not, I have a couple of requests of you.

Please do not berate the bell ringers.  They probably do not understand how immoral Salvation Army is, and being rude will not do anything to convince them to change their minds.  Talk to them calmly if you must, but do so civilly, back it up with facts, and know when it's time to walk away.

If you're able, please be sure to donate to good organizations.  Last year, The Examiner published a list of worthy, secular charities and linked to a longer list.

The non-profits I've donated to this year were:

Secular Student Alliance

Recovering From Religion

Kiva

Wounded Warrior Project

Please feel free to share your favorite non-profits in the comments.

(Found via a friend linking to Atheism Resource and New York City Atheists)

(2012-11-25) EDIT:  There was some understandable dislike of the term "voucher".  One of the people who disliked it took the initiative to create an alternate version of it.

I like this one better and it's the one I'll be using.  Click here to download a pdf for printing.