Funny, I don't FEEL hateful and malicious...

This is a copy of an email I got today. I'm posting it because I think it's important for people to know what senators do when they run amok.


Dear Paul,

When we unveiled our Times Square billboard urging people to enjoy the holidays without the religious baggage, we expected to receive the usual backlash from religious conservatives.

But what we didn't expect was an elected official to smear you and the millions of other American atheists as "hateful and malicious."

But that is exactly what New York State Senator Andrew Lanza did.

Senator Lanza even went so far as to demand that American Atheists lose our tax-exempt status because he "doesn't believe that tax dollars should be used to spew religious hatred."

We need you to stand with us as we fight back against his hateful, bigoted smears against us and against all atheists. Please become a member with a tax-deductible year end donation today.

Perhaps even more outrageously, he compared our billboard to the type of hatred that led to the Holocaust. 

After I wrote an open letter to Senator Lanza, he removed some of the statements from his press release. He even called our office to apologize for calling all atheists "hateful and malicious."

And yet, we just learned that he is still calling for the revocation of American Atheists' tax-exempt status. Here we have a government official, abusing the power of his office, to attempt to silence our First Amendment rights. 

Senator Lanza has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution of this nation and yet he defiles its most basic protections with his petition to remove our billboard and his attempts to take away our tax-exempt status.

We will continue to demand a public apology and retraction of his outrageous statements. We need to show elected officials that bigotry against atheists is unacceptable. Your membership support will help us do exactly that.

I need you to help us as fight back against these attempts by Senator Lanza to take away our most important Constitutional rights. Please support our work by becoming a member with a generous tax-deductible donation today.

Sincerely,

David Silverman
President

PS: I hope you'll also consider supporting one of our matching gift campaigns: one for our IRS case and another for our billboard campaigns. All gifts to those funds will be matched, dollar for dollar. This is a great way to double your impact for the New Year.