American Atheist Newsletter: Foxhole Atheist of the month
Foxhole Atheist of the month
American Atheist Newsletter, July, 2004 by Pat Tillman
We have never written a posthumous Foxhole Atheist profile before but this month we are making an exception. Had we known that Pat Tillman was an Atheist, before he died on April 22, we would have written this then. Since the media did such a poor job of reporting on this finding we thought we would do it now.
U.S. Army Corporal Pat Tillman, 27, had a $3.6 million dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals football team but he left football to join the military. According to CNN he was probably killed by friendly fire during a convoy attack in Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.
We all learned that Pat was an Atheist when his brother Rich said this at his brother's funeral: "Pat isn't with God," he said. "He's fucking dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's fucking dead."
More:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=%22Pat+Tillman%22+atheist+%22fucking+dead%22Also:
There are atheist in foxholes
... Gwen Knapp reports Richard Tillman, Pat's brother, taking offense at remarks
that Pat Tillman was now with God: "Pat isn't with God. He's fucking dead. ...
http://www.valleyskeptic.com/atheist_foxhole.htmlAlso:
"Pat isn't with God. He's fucking dead." Posted by Les
Guess who said that? Pat Tillman’s little brother did during a memorial service at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden in honor of his brother.
<snip>
Pat Tillman made a point of not granting interviews to the media on his decision to quit the NFL and join the Army, he insisted that he not be treated any differently than any of the thousands of other volunteers who had stepped forward to put their lives on the line in service of their country, and it’s clear that he wouldn’t have worn the title of hero comfortably had he survived. He simply did what he felt was the right thing to do and he didn’t want people making a big deal out of it. Which, of course, is part of why everyone is making a big deal out of it.
<snip>
Already there are some conservative-minded folks out there trying to tie Tillman’s story into their personal views on patriotism, honor, and God and so it wasn’t without some amusement that I read of Rich Tillman’s comments to the crowd that had gathered at the memorial service. Reportedly his full comment was along the lines of:
"Pat isn’t with God. He’s fucking dead. He wasn’t religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he’s fucking dead."
Given all the threats coming out of the FCC as of late over obscene language on the air you can imagine the effect this had on the TV stations providing live coverage. And Rich wasn’t the only one who used such coarse language either.
More:
http://stupidevilbastard.com/index/seb/comments/pat_isnt_with_god_hes_fucking_dead/