John Michael Montgomery’s Christian propaganda

November 6, 12:02 PMDallas Atheism ExaminerKacey Cornell

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John Michael Montgomery’s song “The Little Girl”, written by Harley Allen, is a short story about two parents and their daughter. Before going any further, here are the lyrics: (source)

Her parents never took the young girl to church
Never spoke of His name
Never read her His word
Two non-believers walking lost in this world
Took their baby with them
What a sad little girl

Her daddy drank all day and mommy did drugs
Never wanted to play
Or give kisses and hugs
She'd watch the TV and sit there on the couch
While her mom fell asleep
And her daddy went out

And the drinking and the fighting
just got worse every night
Behind their couch she'd be hiding
Oh what a sad little life
And like it always does, the bad just got worse
With every slap and every curse
Until her daddy in a drunk rage one night
Used a gun on her mom and then took his life

And some people from the city took the girl far away
To a new mom and a new dad
kisses and hugs everyday
Her first day of Sunday school the teacher walked in
And a small little girl
Stared at a picture of Him

She said I know that man up there on that cross
I don't know His name
But I know He got off
Cause He was there in my old house
and held me close to His side
As I hid there behind our couch
The night that my parents died

Is it just me, or by the second verse did you also laugh and exclaim, “WHAT?” This song is about two negligent, drug-addict parents with anger issues, not non-believers. Not believing in a deity doesn’t lead someone to become anything like what’s written above, though many believers do tend to think of a lack of faith as being on a ‘slippery slope’ that could lead to such things. This is mere Christian propaganda aimed to stereotype non-believers. A friend told me about this song in particular, and if JMM has others of this nature, I’m not sure, but this one was bad enough for me to stop here.

Also, this is just a story, it is not something either Montgomery or Allen experienced or know to be true. When I tried to look it up I found this quote attributed to USA Today, (source)
Allen says he and his brother have tried to track down the tale’s source, without any luck. It’s posted on dozens of Web sites – usually with a title such as Held By Jesus or And the Little Child Shall Lead Them – with no attribution. “We don’t have a clue” about its origin, Allen says, “but if it ain’t true, it ought to be.”

Wow, so what should be true exactly, that a girl’s parents are killed in front of her so that she might experience Jesus for the first time? That’s just crazy. Again, the problem in this story is not that two people don’t believe, the problem is people reproducing that are not qualified to properly care for offspring.

Non-believers are not “lost” as a group, like many believers want to think. We are all individuals. Atheist is a descriptive word, simply someone who does not believe in a deity. We all have our own path we choose to take and that’s one of the better things about being an atheist. We rely on our resources and ourselves for our future, not believing an imaginary person has predetermined it. We know that we have the strength and determination to accomplish whatever we wish to in this world and are not at the will of the bully in the Old Testament. Of course this does not pertain to every non-believer, just as every Christian isn’t the best of what they claim to be (Ted Haggard for example), but we at least have the option to be who we want to be without the burden or dependence of a deity; without the closed and circular “revealed knowledge” of a holy book. These things are not necessary to live a productive, joyful and fulfilling life.

Any one person could fit the description of the song above, even two believers. How many people have you known that call themselves believers that have also never taken their children to church, don’t talk about “God” and probably haven’t even read a holy book? And how do any of those things stop someone from being a neglectful, drug-addict parent with anger issues? Some may think of it as good prevention, because doing these things ‘make you a good person’ but what’s good to one (like worshiping Jesus) may be thought of as wrong to someone else (like Musilms who do not recognize Jesus as God). And to some atheists, it will seem like a sad delusion one has allowed themselves to become apart of for no good reason.