Good that they focus on the real priority of war refugees

[Lord Jim]

Again, I have to wonder if there would be this sort of bile and contempt expressed if we were talking about Teddy Bears or toys being sent rather than Bibles...

[Gob]

Well there would from me.

[MajGenl.Meade]

We'll never know.

From the organizational point of view, I'd have said this:

If you are in the "business" of evangelizing, that's what you do. Other people are in the "business" of refugee relief. Some are in the "business" of counselling and so on. Whatever one may think of it, there's nothing inherently wrong with providing audio Bibles to people across the world, regardless of their status and the contents of their larders.

To those who don't believe in this kind of mission, one can only say that sending audio Bibles is no worse than sending nothing at all - which one suspects is true of all the critics. Of course, it would be wrong to assume that the critics do nothing but criticize - perhaps all of them have donated tons of cash to the cause of refugees from ISIS.

I do disagree with the specific beliefs of this man's "organization" (if it's not just him, which it may well be) and personally I would not contribute to his organization.

[dgs49]

One of the great things about humanity is that different people are passionate about different "good" things. I know people who volunteer many hours a week at the local Animal Rescue League, but couldn't care less about the homeless guy holding out a tin cup for donations. My wife never passes a beggar without giving him a buck or two, and actually frets about it for hours when she doesn't have any money to give. But in many other ways, she is not a "charitable" person at all (same with me and most other people).

Some people are passionate in support of Habitat for Humanity, or Doctors without Borders, or the American Red Cross, or the Salvation Army, or Catholic Charities. Are people who support H4H insensitive to starvation and disease? No; they are for some reason motivated in another direction. And that's a good thing - the diversity of passions for "good" things.

For Christians, spreading the Good News is not only a valuable ministry, but a moral imperative. And it provides a philosophical framework that can foster greater tolerance for hardship, knowing that the trials of this life are not determinative of one's ultimate fate.

No one can be unmindful of the fact that people who are literally hungry or afraid for their own safety cannot be fertile ground for religious conversion, so distributing Bibles without other types of surrounding support would be a perverse waste of time and resources. Criticizing such people for spreading the Word under these circumstances is...pretty much what one would expect of the Scooter-person.

[Lord Jim]

You make some excellent points Dave.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Indeed.

[Lord Jim]

Liberal MSNBC talk show host and screen writer Lawrence O'Donnel has a charity he set up to raise money to send desks for kids in schools in impoverished villages and refugee camps...

What a thoughtless prick...

I have read about another charity that raises money to send soccer balls for kids to use in refugee camps...

Despicable assholes; they should be ashamed of themselves...

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Econoline]

I've got to agree with most of what the dgs-person just said; indeed, this part is pretty close to what I've said above in this thread:

No one can be unmindful of the fact that people who are literally hungry or afraid for their own safety cannot be fertile ground for religious conversion, so distributing Bibles without other types of surrounding support would be a perverse waste of time and resources.

Other than his gratuitous swipe at "the Scooter-person" that was, on the whole, an excellent post.

[Gob]

No one can be unmindful of the fact that people who are literally hungry or afraid for their own safety cannot be fertile ground for religious conversion, so distributing Bibles without other types of surrounding support would be a perverse waste of time and resources. Criticizing such people for spreading the Word under these circumstances is...pretty much what one would expect of the Scooter-person.

Yes, trying to convert people from one religion to another, when they are under starvation and war conditions is such a devious, underhand, sly, disreputable, shitty little trick, nice thing to do, one that only the religious would think of doing.

[Joe Guy]

Liberal MSNBC talk show host and screen writer Lawrence O'Donnel has a charity he set up to raise money to send desks for kids in schools in impoverished villages and refugee camps...

I hope they're sending one of these with each desk...

[Lord Jim]

only the religious would think of doing.

Of course only people of Faith would recognize it was important to provide suffering people with sustenance and comfort for the spirit and soul in addition to providing it for the body...

No Atheist would ever bother ...

All kinds of organizations send all kinds of non-edible things to the unfortunate folks who have escaped war and are living in refugee camps, but for some reason it's only those who are sending Bibles that have become the object of ridicule and scorn...

Must be another one of those amazing coincidences...

[Lord Jim]

...or maybe not one of those amazing coincidences...

I did a little search to learn something about the author of the article in the OP, and imagine my surprise when I discovered:

Hemant Mehta (born 1983) is an author, blogger, and atheist activist who gained fame for "selling his soul" on eBay. Mehta is a regular speaker at atheist events and has sat on the boards of charitable organizations such as the Secular Student Alliance and the Foundation Beyond Belief. He also runs a blog on Patheos, Friendly Atheist, in which he and his associates publish articles several times a day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemant_Mehta

So, this guy who is so indignant about Bibles being sent is not in the slightest motivated by concern for the welfare of the refugees. No, his "concern" is motivated solely by his bigoted, fanatical hatred for religion. (In fact he's a professional hater; he earns his living from proselytizing his gospel of bigotry.) He wouldn't give two shits about any other non-food item being sent to these folks. He's merely exploiting their plight as a vehicle for expressing his hate.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh now LJ. I bet he and the Society of Concerned Atheist Twats (SCAT) got together and sent a bazillion dollars to aid the refugees - they just forgot the Bibles so the other chap stepped in to remedy the oversight