Athée Canadien
Posts tagged donations
Vancouver Atheists help the homeless
Feb 3rd
This is really cool.
A group on Facebook called Atheist Republic – which has only been around for a few months but already has nearly 30,000 likes – held its first event last weekend. They went to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and handed out socks to the homeless.
You can see some photos of the event here (you may need Facebook for this).
Other engagements sadly prevented me from making it out to this event, but I wish them the best in the future.
Atheist Republic has members worldwide and is hoping to launch an international non-profit organization to help organize and rally atheists everywhere. Check them out (their website isn’t exactly ready yet), they’re already off to a great start.
Nate vs Hate
Nov 25th
CFI:Calgary director Nate Phelps is the subject of a documentary that needs your help:
‘Nate vs Hate’ is a documentary about the life of Nate Phelps, the son of Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church. Nate escaped the church and family on his 18th birthday, and spent the next few decades adjusting to life and his place in it. This film follows Nate as he travels back home to Topeka for the first time in 30 years. On his arrival he gives an emotional speech to hundreds in Topeka, many from the LGBT community. Later in the film Nate even has an opportunity to confront some of his siblings who are still a part of the church and openly speak out against him.
They’re a long way from their goal and they only have three days to go so cough up if you can. They’re giving out incentives depending on your donation level.
See the film’s website for more information.
h/t Good Atheist
Give early, give often
Aug 26th
Rumour has it that CFI Canada is doing pretty well on their quest to raise $300 000 by the end of the September. You’ll recall that if they reach that target, an anonymous donor is promising an additional $200 000.
This half-a-million dollars will go a long way to supporting freethought in Canada. CFI will obviously benefit, but even smaller groups will gain notoriety from access to the increased resources of a central organization.
For key cities, those with the donor base to support it, physical venues will be established. Every small meetup will have one central location in their town where 100% of the people through the door will be their target audience.
But there’s still a ways to go in this goal.
So think bigger. A one-time donation of $50 or $100 helps, but contributing $25 or more per month can go a long way to ensuring the sustainability of freethought in Canada. Just think of it this way: if you’d donate $5 at a meeting every week to help cover the costs of the space, why not guarantee that money, giving predictability to the budgets of your favourite organization.
And, as an added bonus, every Canadian resident can claim those donations on their taxes. Everyone wins!
Finally, when Canadian atheist organizations have enough money to operate, I can stop pimping out this blog asking you all for money.
CFI to establish physical centres in all Canadian cities!
Jul 15th
Centre for Inquiry Canada has just announced that it has a donor who is willing to put forward a fifth-of-a-million dollars (Canadian dollars even!) if CFI can raise another $300,000. That would total half-a-million dollars, enough to lease or buy physical locations for each of their centres in Canada.
Even if you’re not the biggest fan of CFI, these physical centres will benefit the entire freethought movement. Local groups, as is the case in right now Toronto, will have a sympathetic landlord who will either rent at a reduced or complimentary rate.
So go and donate now, and again, and get your friends to donate to the Next Big Step campaign.
The deadline is September 30th, so there’s not a lot of time to reach this goal.
The Salvation Army destroys books
Sep 1st
An interesting email exchange was passed along to me that I’ve been given permission to publicize regarding books that are sold at Salvation Army Thrift Stores.
Over the course of the exchange (which lasts several months and includes many non-responses from the Army), it is admitted that the Salvation Army occasionally censors donated books that they receive that do not fit their Christian worldview. The censored books are then destroyed.
I’m not going to post the entire exchange here, or give out names or emails, but here’s some choice snippets (Salvation Army spokespeople in bold):
The Salvation Army store staff do their best to screen books so that we don’t sell books of a pornographic nature, or those that promote promiscuity.
If you find a book that you feel falls into the above categories, please don’t hesitate to bring it to the attention of the store Manager.
Regarding books that describe various philosophies on creation and evolution, non-Christian philosophies and beliefs, etc. we do sell those, as long as they don’t promote non-Christian beliefs. Again, if you see something that should not be on the shelf, please address it with the Store Manager, who will be happy to remove it if it’s unsuitable.
Does this mean that you will be more vigilant about Shakespeare, Greek mythology, or similar classical literature?
- No, because to meet the criteria which you are advocating, we would have to have staff with a thorough knowledge of every author, their opinions, theologies, writing styles etc and that is possible. We do the best we can with the resources and knowledge that we have available to us. We realize that our system is far from perfect,but we try to screen the books at our warehouse and again at store level, but it is difficult because of the enormous volume we process.What books (besides pornography and promiscuity) are removed from your shelves?
Books that promote any religion other than Christianity. Certain authors who we know use bad language, explicit sex or violence in their books. Again, I repeat our knowledge in this area is limited so it is highly probable that we miss some unsuitable books.What happens to those books? Are they put in a place where others may read them?
Destroyed, not re-circulated.
Of course the Army is not known for it’s progressive ideas, including about homosexuality:
For this reason such practices [as homosexuality], if unrenounced, render a person ineligible for Salvation Army soldiership, in the same way that unrenounced heterosexual misconduct is a bar to soldiership. The Army recognises the strength of feeling about sexual identity, and the difficulty many find in expressing this identity in keeping with scriptural standards.
However, it believes firmly in the power of God’s grace to enable the maintenance of a lifestyle pleasing to him, including a lifestyle built upon celibacy and self-restraint for those who will not or cannot marry. No one who yields to the lordship of Christ and who undertakes by his grace to live in accordance with the teaching of Scripture is excluded from Christian fellowship and service in the Army.
So when donating at Christmas, or giving away used clothes, books, or other belongings, consider Value Village or other thrift stores which donate portions of their profits to secular charities.
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