le=Atheist-Arrested-at-Polk-School-Board-Meeting

The leader of Atheists of Florida (John Kieffer) was arrested for disrupting the Polk County School Board meeting yesterday.  He shouted out "Prayer has no place in government! Prayer has no place in government!" between the "invocation" and the beginning of the meeting.  He'd just been rebuked for not being silent (spoke to the Atheists of Florida legal coordinator) during the prayer (which was scheduled before the official start of the School Board meeting), and I'm sure he responded in frustration and anger over being rebuked.

I'm pretty upset at this.  He shouldn't have shouted, and what he did gave the "Good Christians" in the county something they can use to drum up more support for their forcing their "Christianity" on the rest of us.  It's already being used to call for more political support for the school board - and they're calling for returning the prayers as an "official" part of the school board meeting.  Now Kieffer and the legal coordinator (and possibly they will extend this to the group) are banned from the meetings.  VERY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE!!!  I can understand the frustration he must have been feeling, but there are times and places to protest and times and places to keep one's mouth shut, and this was one of the latter.  I could have told him that they were looking for any reason to (mis)use the law against him, and now it's going to be harder to monitor the school board for violations of the law.

I'm equally, if not more upset at what is going on in this county.  The efforts to force "Christian" prayers on people are increasing all over the place - I've even gotten quite a few proselytizing attempts by cashiers at major stores and some friends have reported having the same experience.  The practice of overt "Christian" (Pentecostal/Dominionist/Fundamentalist) prayers as part of government meetings has been going on here for years, along with their persecution of non-"Christians" (including persecuting mainstream Christians like Roman Catholics).  Now that they're being called on it, they are becoming more militant and insistent.  My friends (atheist and not) have mentioned receiving persecution because of belonging to religious minorities, including being denied service when people found out.  I fear physical violence will soon come, because of what my wife and I have been through.  We have already had several things happen to us: burned shop, racist graffiti, pets vanishing/dying mysteriously, threats to family members, preached against in megachurches, and all connected to my political activities and words.  I wouldn't put it past the local dominionists to do more because the very things we've experienced and worse have happened to others around the country (possibly establishing a pattern).  Kieffer may end up making things far worse for us personally by his mistake, as we have to live here (no way to move).  He can go home (I think he's from northern Florida), but the repercussions of his actions will remain and I think I'm justified in fearing those repercussions.

In this fight for our freedom, we need to always consider what our words and actions will do.  There are times and places for overt protest, and there are times where a soft word at the right time and place is far more effective.   The "Good Christians" already consider this a form of violence against them, although it was really non-violent and a legitimate complaint.  In dealing with those types and in this sort of situation, you have to have every i dotted and every t crossed, and have to make sure everything is just right, otherwise you can make things worse.  I imagine that Kieffers only whispered to his legal coordinator, and that was just what the school board was looking for.  It escalated.

Now he has a fine, is banned from the meetings, and there may be unpleasant repercussions for local people, including those who aren't from his group, yet support separation of church and state.