Friday, December 14, 2012

John Baird - Hypocrite

John Baird is a Canadian MP and the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Harper government.

Back in May, he gave a speech at the "Religious Freedom Dinner" in Washington, DC, in which he decried persecution of religious people, but said not a single word about the very real persecution of atheists and other non-religious people around the world.

But it's even worse than that. He actually repeated the tired, old claim that "We know that freedom of religion does not mean freedom from religion."

But freedom of religion, if it means anything, must include the right to practice no religion at all.

Baird is a hypocrite.

2 comments:

Newdow said...

Does "freedom from religion" mean the exact same thing as "the right to practice no religion at all"?

Jeffrey Shallit said...

The former is clearly far more extensive than the latter. "Freedom from religion" means, in addition to the right to practice no religion, the right to be free of coercion by the State to enforced practice of a religion and to participate in religious rituals.