A petition has been started to get Wal-Mart to pull the Bible from it's store shelves.
Now I'm big on free speech. I'm also very much against censorship. But I'm also very much in favor of companies consistently applying their policies. Wal-Mart has a policy against selling offensive media and literature. They've invoked said policy in their banning of Jon Stewart's #1 bestselling book, "America the book" for example.
Well, the Bible is much more "offensive" than a few pictures of naked Supreme Court Justices. The Bible contains instances of incest, demands genocide, and supports all kinds of discrimination, just to name a few of its problems. So if Wal-Mart is going to have a policy of banning offensive products, I think this one fits the bill.
So let's make Wal-Mart sleep in it's own bed. This petition, if it gets enough signatures, could very well either compel it to ban the Bible, or reconsider it's ban on selling offensive material. Either way, it’s a win.
Honestly, if I had my choice, I would choose for Wal-Mart to continue selling the Bible and to start selling other "offensive" material. But if they are going to keep their silly policy of not selling offensive products, then I want them to apply it consistently. Otherwise their policy comes off as a lie; an excuse or cover up of an ulterior motive.
So to all the readers of my blog, please sign the petition. Please tell your friends. Please email the link. Please post a MySpace bulletin about it or whatever else you can do. I, for example, sent emails to PZ Myers and Austin Cline asking them to post about it. I also posted about it here (but that is perhaps stating the obvious). Later today I will post a MySpace bulletin about it. And I've also requested all my atheist and agnostic friends to sign it as well.
Finally, be sure to click on the confirmation email link that is sent after you sign it, because otherwise your signature won't count.
7 comments:
It is a very good satirical piece.
If Walmart is rational, it will make Walmart think.
Satirical? The obscenity in the bible is far worse than the obscenity in any porn film. The bible demands the actual murder of millions of people. A porn film is a bunch of actors having fun in a fantasy world.
To the first anonymous poster:
This is not satire. This petition is very serious, as is my posting about it.
Followed the link back from Pharyngula. Then went and signed the petition. I'd like to see this thing make national headlines ... hey, I can dream, can't I?
PS. I always enjoy hearing you on H. Alleee's show, Aaron.
Why thank you Stillwaters! Its great to know that there are repeat listeners on the Hellbound Alleee show that actually remember my name! :)
Last weekend we recroded an excellent episode of H. Alleee. Franc and I hosted the show and our guest was David Pearson, who had AMAZING things to reveal about Jehovah's Witnesses! It was really good.
I hope this petition makes national headlines too. The way I figure it, the only way this thing can make national headlines is if enough atheists talk about it to where it catches the attention of the Christian mainstream population, at which point the Christians will likely start a counter-petition or something, and then Fox/Cnn/etc... will pick up the story based on the surrounding controversy.
And we only have until November 1st to get this thing as much exposure as possible. Considering that America has 300million people, and that a conservative estimate puts American atheists at 4% of the population, that means that we have at least 12million Americans who would likely be interested in signing this thing (and thats not counting agnostics and non-Christian theists).
Thanks for the email about this, Aaron. I've posted about the petition here.
Hi Aaron:
I'm not signing it. I've posted my reasons here:
http://biblioblography.blogspot.com/2006/09/whaling-on-walmart-high-cost-of-low.html
Nutshell version is, I think it'll do more harm than good.
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