Greetings, all!
Well, it has been a relatively active month for the Piedmont Freethought Association. We had our February meeting early on in the month, and made arrangements for a pretty fun field trip to Winston Salem on the 22nd.
Last week, we had a bit of excitement in terms of the latest Big Deal in religious movies -- "The Passion of the Christ."
Thanks to Mike Warren for letting us know about "Monkey Business," the play that the Association attended on Sunday, the 22nd. I wasn't able to get out there, due to some last-minute glitches with my car. (For those who are curious, it was a coolant problem, easily remedied by the dealer) Anyway, I heard that a good number of our members attended and were pleased with the play. V
The Passion
As most folks know, the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of the Christ" starts in theaters on Wednesday, February 24. Also known in certain circles as "Ash Wednesday." The excitement for our group started on the prior Friday, when we learned that a local DJ was asking for local atheists to call up and agree to see the film for free with him, and agree to an interview afterwards -- apparently with the idea that seeing the film would hopefully convert the volunteers.
I sent an e-mail to this DJ and asked him if he would be interested in inviting the PFA for this stunt. Sadly, the offer was turned down, so it looks like we'll get no free passes to see the movie at someone else's expense. Drat.
We discussed at our last meeting the idea of putting together another PFA junket to the Three Colleges Observatory. Winter wasn't kind to us last November, so we thought it might be fun to try and crash a public observing night, and save the trouble of trying to fill out the 20-person requested minimum.
We decided to give it a shot on Saturday, March 13. The night's observing starts at 7:00 that evening. This time, we have settled on gathering in the parking lot of a grocery store on the main road that leads to the observatory. Detailed instructions will be attached to the newsletter.
Our next meeting will be at the Unitarian Church at 4:00 on Sunday, March 14. Hopefully, there will be few drop-outs due to the Championship game of the ACC basketball tournament. We'll see. At this meeting, we will discuss the situation with science education and perhaps think about whether some members would be interested in participating in some local activism. Hope to see everyone there!
