Atheist: Christmas tree recycling unfair
Program changed because incentive said to favor Christians
Posted: December 29, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
2004 WorldNetDaily.com
An atheist activist forced Chicago to change its Christmas tree recycling
program, complaining it was unfair to non-Christians.
The city wanted to bolster its Blue Bag recycling program by offering a years
worth of blue bags and some mulch to anyone who turned in a used Christmas
tree.
But Rob Sherman, known for his campaign to keep crosses off city seals,
protested to Chicago, insisting the trees-for-bags exchange unfairly benefits
Christians, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"The concern was that the city had constructed a well-intentioned program, but
the effect was that only Christians had the opportunity to participate,"
Sherman told the paper. "Christians had the opportunity to receive the blue
bags for free. Atheists and others would have had to pay."
Responding to Sherman, the city now will allow anyone to get the blue bags if
they bring in a large bag of recyclable material.
The city will now offer blue bags to anyone who visits one of 22 tree-recycling
locations on Jan. 8 and brings a large bag of recyclable material.
"We'd prefer the tree, but we're willing to permit that. We've always been
flexible," streets and sanitation spokesman Matt Smith told the Tribune. "The
main thing is that we want people to recycle, and we want to keep these trees
out of the waste stream."
Sherman, of suburban Buffalo Grove, doesn't live in Chicago, but he called the
city's law department on behalf of a Chicago resident.
He told the Chicago paper that at one point he was told he could receive the
blue bags if he brought in someone else's tree.
"Atheists shouldn't have to go begging from home to home for a Christian who
will sponsor them into this kind of government program," he said.
While some argue that many non-Christians put up trees for the holidays,
Sherman insists it's predominantly Christians who participate.
"No self-respecting atheist or Jew or Hindu puts up a Christmas tree in their
home unless they are Christian wannabes," he said.
Sherman led a campaign to remove crosses from the municipal seals of the
Illinois cities of Zion and Rolling Meadows.
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| User: "Woods" |
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| Title: Re: More Liberal sickness |
29 Dec 2004 09:29:06 AM |
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TonyZ2001 wrote:
Atheist: Christmas tree recycling unfair
Program changed because incentive said to favor Christians
Posted: December 29, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
2004 WorldNetDaily.com
An atheist activist forced Chicago to change its Christmas tree recycling
program, complaining it was unfair to non-Christians.
The city wanted to bolster its Blue Bag recycling program by offering a years
worth of blue bags and some mulch to anyone who turned in a used Christmas
tree.
But Rob Sherman, known for his campaign to keep crosses off city seals,
protested to Chicago, insisting the trees-for-bags exchange unfairly benefits
Christians, the Chicago Tribune reported.
It also unfairly benefits Christians who use artificial trees. Since
the point of the program was to encourage recycling, I don't see where
there's a problem. He brought up a hole in their incentive program,
they saw that yes, it was a hole, and they patched it up.
Woods
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| User: "Woods" |
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| Title: Re: More Liberal sickness |
29 Dec 2004 09:28:04 AM |
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TonyZ2001 wrote:
Atheist: Christmas tree recycling unfair
Program changed because incentive said to favor Christians
Posted: December 29, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
2004 WorldNetDaily.com
An atheist activist forced Chicago to change its Christmas tree recycling
program, complaining it was unfair to non-Christians.
The city wanted to bolster its Blue Bag recycling program by offering a years
worth of blue bags and some mulch to anyone who turned in a used Christmas
tree.
But Rob Sherman, known for his campaign to keep crosses off city seals,
protested to Chicago, insisting the trees-for-bags exchange unfairly benefits
Christians, the Chicago Tribune reported.
It also unfairly benefits Christians who use artificial trees. Since
the point of the program was to encourage recycling, I don't see where
there's a problem. He brought up a hole in their incentive program,
they saw that yes, it was a hole, and they patched it up.
Woods
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