President of the American Atheists Seems Pretty Mad At Movie Tavern For Refusing To Run Atheist Ads

By Anna Merlan
Fri., Mar. 30 2012 at 4:03 PM

Last week we told you about the Dallas Fort-Worth Coalition of Reason's tiff with Movie Tavern. Once more, briefly: DFWCoR signed a contract to pay Movie Tavern three grand to show a pro-atheism ad as part of the coalition's new campaign, "Our Families Are Great Without Religion." But Movie Tavern decided sometime in the last couple days that no, they were definitely not showing that ad, that they would never show an ad "of a religious nature," in the words of their spokesperson, and that atheism, per se, has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Dave Silverman, the president of the American Atheists, isn't buying it. "If the theater is actually discriminating against atheists because they simply don't like us, that's bigotry, it's horrible and it's not something for which we will stand," he told us in a recent phone conversation. But, he added, "the jury is still out over whether they're actually doing that."

His suggestion to Movie Tavern? "I would recommend the theater reverse its decision and allow atheists to put up an ad. It's the civil and American thing to do."

Here's why it's a big deal that Dave Silverman is sounding so cranky: The American Atheists, who are currently based in New Jersey but were founded in Austin by Madalyn Murray O'Hair herself, are themselves a rather big deal. (Silverman even has his very own Internet meme). AA also has a very long history of suing institutions, public and private, that they believe are discriminating against atheists or violating church-state separation.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/03/the_president_of_the_american.php