American Airlines' Preaching Pilot

In alt.atheism on Sun, 8 Feb 2004 13:49:02 -0500, Christopher
wrote:

God was my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat
him.

You could probably make a movie out of that. "Eating God". I'd
almost be willing to bet that a "Catchy Title of the Year" award would
probably go there. ;-)
--
L8r,
Bill
/\~*`-\|~/.`\*=`~\/|.-`\=~`/\.|*-`\~*
"Is not the epitome of narcissism to
quote one's self?" - Me
/\~*`-\|~/.`\*=`~\/|.-`\=~`/\.|*-`\~*

In article , devil
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 00:44:01 +0000, BTR1701 wrote:

You could file a lawsuit but you'd have no grounds for it. American
Airlines is a private company. They can plaster the inside of their
airplane cabins with bible verses if that's what they want to do.

Methinks you got mixed up. That's Alaska, not AA.

The point is the same either way.

In article , "ZenIsWhen"
wrote:

Lo, many moons past, on Sun, 08 Feb 2004 00:44:01 GMT, a stranger
called by some BTR1701 came forth and told
this tale in alt.atheism

In article , Douglas Berry
wrote:

When I fly, I'm paying the airline to transport me from point A to
point B in a safe, comfortable manner. Being a captive audience when
the religious nutso pilot pretty much tells the Christians on the
plane to bug the non-Christians for the entire flight would **** me
off.. I'd file a lawsuit against American had I been on that flight.

You could file a lawsuit but you'd have no grounds for it. American
Airlines is a private company. They can plaster the inside of their
airplane cabins with bible verses if that's what they want to do.


The captain of the plane is NOT ":American Airlines".

Actually, legally he is.

In article k.net,
"None" wrote:

"BTR1701" wrote in message
...
In article , Douglas Berry
wrote:

Lo, many moons past, on Sat, 7 Feb 2004 15:27:03 -0600, a stranger
called by some "E.E.Bud Keith" came forth and
told this tale in alt.atheism

And just what is that we call you, the guy was not harming a sole
but
you compassionate liberals go for the jugular

That's "soul."

When I fly, I'm paying the airline to transport me from point A to
point B in a safe, comfortable manner. Being a captive audience when
the religious nutso pilot pretty much tells the Christians on the
plane to bug the non-Christians for the entire flight would **** me
off.. I'd file a lawsuit against American had I been on that flight.

You could file a lawsuit but you'd have no grounds for it. American
Airlines is a private company. They can plaster the inside of their
airplane cabins with bible verses if that's what they want to do.

Sorry, they are a PUBLIC company, publicly traded on the stock exchange,
and HEAVILY regulated by the FAA and the DOT.


Being a publicly traded company is irrelevant to 1st Amendment
constitutional legal analysis. It's still a private company, held by the
shareholders, not the government.

As for being regulated, well my car is heavily regulated by the DOT. It
has to meet dozens of safety and mechanical standards to be legal. It
must be registered, have license tags and I have to be licensed by the
state to drive it.

Does that mean I have no right to put a religious-themed bumper sticker
on it?

Hint: being regulated does not invalidate a person or entity's free
speech rights. If it did, then the 1st Amendment would be meaningless
since there's nothing and no one that is not regulated somehow and in
some way in modern America.

Daniel Kolle wrote:
"Mark K. Bilbo" -amikchi thought hard and said:
Tolerant of a pilot who basically encourages big, nasty arguments over a
touchy subject among passengers on a jet?

It was on a mission trip.

AA0034 is a scheduled flight between Los Angeles and New York. It goes
every day. It is most certainly not a chartered mission flight.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

In article k.net,
"None" wrote:

"BTR1701" wrote in message
...
In article .net,
"None" wrote:

Great, another xtian freak just chomping at the bit to **** off the
next rag head who's bound and determined to teach a whole plane load of "infidels"
all about Allah! That little announcement would be all it would take
to push any hanky head over the edge.

Well, I'm an atheist myself but I think it's ridiculous to suggest we
as Americans should censor ourselves and give up our rights to discuss
matters openly and freely because we might tick off a terrorist.

I'm certainly not going to keep silent because some religious whack-job
might get worked up over something I say.

This was different. This was a pilot with a captive passenger load, who
was inviting those onboard who WERE xtians to bend the ears of those who
weren't, most likey for the duration of the flight.

And those who weren't Christians can politely say "Can you please shut
the hell up. I'm trying to sleep (or read or whatever)."

You seem to think there's a fundamental right to never have an
unpleasant experience in life.

I would have sued if I had been on that flight.

You would have had no more of a cause of action than if the pilot had
asked everyone who had ever been to the Grand Canyon to share their
experience with the person next to them.

Since the airline is not a government entity, the fact that the subject
was religion and not tourism has no bearing on the legalities involved.

If they don't fire his
ass, the fall-out will be a lot more than people would think.

And that's their risk to run, of course. People can decide to spend
their money elsewhere.

In article . net,
"None" wrote:

That means a good portion of the muslim world, which
pretty much hates our guts right now, christian or otherwise, now know about it
and more than a few of them I'll bet are now devising ways to teach the
infidel americans about allah!

While some may think this is no big deal, I shudder to think of the
reprocussions it could/will have on americans both in the USA and abroad
in the very near future, and for some time to come.


So you think we should shut up and censor ourselves and avoid saying
things in public that might make psychopathic terrorists mad?

Personally, I'm not going to tiptoe around my daily life on the
off-chance some terrorist somewhere might not approve.

Jos Flachs wrote:
(Yaofeng) wrote:
What he did may not be appropriate. But he was not preaching. He
asked Christians on board the flight to share their faith with others.

This is very appropriate. Had the pilot been a Hindu asking the same
thing, he would have been fired upon arrival.

Had the pilot been a Hindu, he would never have asked the same thing.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

ZenIsWhen wrote:

Lo, many moons past, on Sun, 08 Feb 2004 00:44:01 GMT, a stranger
called by some BTR1701 came forth and told
this tale in alt.atheism


In article , Douglas Berry
wrote:

When I fly, I'm paying the airline to transport me from point A to
point B in a safe, comfortable manner. Being a captive audience when
the religious nutso pilot pretty much tells the Christians on the
plane to bug the non-Christians for the entire flight would **** me
off.. I'd file a lawsuit against American had I been on that flight.

You could file a lawsuit but you'd have no grounds for it. American
Airlines is a private company. They can plaster the inside of their
airplane cabins with bible verses if that's what they want to do.

The captain of the plane is NOT ":American Airlines".

The problem for the airline is that he is a representative of "American
Airlines". Some folks might take his silly proselytizing poorly. I
suspect many of the stockholders might as well. Well American stock
isn't worth much perhaps the southern baptists might buy it out. FFM

"Bill, The Avender" wrote in message
...
In alt.atheism on Sun, 8 Feb 2004 13:49:02 -0500, Christopher
wrote:

God was my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat
him.

You could probably make a movie out of that. "Eating God". I'd
almost be willing to bet that a "Catchy Title of the Year" award would
probably go there. ;-)


And AA could show it as a feature movie on one of their flights.

L8r,
Bill
/\~*`-\|~/.`\*=`~\/|.-`\=~`/\.|*-`\~*
"Is not the epitome of narcissism to
quote one's self?" - Me
/\~*`-\|~/.`\*=`~\/|.-`\=~`/\.|*-`\~*