Sunday, February 08, 2004

Friggin' Bible Bangers

This really happened, but for some reason, the news services took it off their web sites:

American Airlines Pilot Plugs Christianity

NEW YORK - An American Airlines pilot asked Christians on his flight to identify themselves and suggested the non-Christians discuss the faith with them, the airline said.

The case was handed over to the airline's personnel department for an investigation, spokesman Tim Wagner said Sunday.

"It falls along the lines of a personal level of sharing that may not be appropriate for one of our employees to do while on the job," he said earlier.

American's Flight 34 was headed from Los Angeles to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on Friday when the pilot asked Christians on board to raise their hands, Wagner said.

The pilot, whose name was not released, told the airline that he then suggested the other passengers use the flight time to talk to the Christians about their faith, Wagner said.

Passenger Amanda Nelligan told WCBS-TV of New York that the pilot called non-Christians "crazy" and that his comments "felt like a threat." She said she and several others aboard were so worried they tried to call relatives on their cell phones before flight attendants assured them they were safe and that people on the ground had been notified about the pilot's comments.

The pilot also told passengers he would be available for discussion at the end of the flight. Wagner said the pilot had just returned to work from a weeklong mission trip to Costa Rica.

Because of privacy issues, there would likely never be any announcement about what kind of punishment or reprimand the pilot may face, Wagner said. The pilot was not scheduled to fly during the weekend, he said.

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Now, some of you may be saying "so what, he's just preaching the word of God. He isn't hurting anyone." Turn that around and say, I don't know, an Atheist were to come over the intercom and say "Christians are crazy" and that people should learn to think for themselves instead of believing in a non-existent God.

If you don't want to go to that extreme, how about an Agnostic saying "Christians are crazy because they don't know that there IS a god any more than I know that there isn't. If you are a Christian, you should listen to an Agnostic and learn to think for yourselves." That's not hurting anyone either, is it?