The Foundation for a Better Life, at Values.com, has some TV spots I really like, about human values. The unexpected part is that, as near as I can tell, the purpose of the videos is to introduce viewers to simple lessons about decent behavior … without at the same time attempting to shove Jesus down your throat. A sample:
I couldn’t figure out how to embed this one, which I could only find on the original site, but it’s pretty good too.
Something I said in my book Red Neck Blue Collar Atheist is that if your goal is to spread moral messages such as these, but you do it by wrapping the message in religion, you divert and dilute attention from the core message. So much so that it often gets lost.
A lot of people really do believe Goodness is Godness, rather than Goodness is Goodness.
This is why religions are free to practice great evil, such as the institutionalized long-term child molesting of the Catholic Church. It’s why large numbers of Catholics are STILL convinced that the Church can do no wrong, and that this was all the work of bad individuals betraying the principles of the institution, rather than a bad institution betraying the principles of the people who trust it.