What this really boils down to has more to do with socio-economic prejudices that the religious don't realize actually matter more to them than their own religion.
People of lower socio economic status - read: middle-middle class and below - who identify as conservative/republican in this country are often incredibly prejudiced towards anyone who they feel are cheating them out of their jobs/money/services. The problem is, they admire the wealthy, so they direct their ire at other poor people and assume they are using up the resources. It's easier to pick on people who have a shittier life than you, instead of on the people who have the things you also want.
North Carolina has been cutting services and funneling taxes and other funding into corrupt politicians for a while now. Charlotte in particular is finally seeing some traffic solutions being finished/worked on - the completion of the 485 corridor, the building of a light-rail extension, etc - but many of us have little to no goddamn grasp of where our taxes are being sent to. We're going to be organizing a voter registration party for February to get more of our atheist group out and voting, but I'd also love to start looking into things to see if we can determine how and where the money is being spent. I bet if you looked into this for Concord, you'd see similar problems.
When I lived in the city - and I lived less than a mile from the courthouse, police station, and major historical thoroughfare - the power was constantly going out all over. Street lights would go down. Roads were shitty. They weren't investing in their infrastructure, or many city programs. They now have a wonderful library director who impresses me so much with all of her efforts to get people encouraged in reading and education - and she's a wonderful friend and lady besides - but she and another mutual friend of mine who was a teacher for several years in Charlotte's schools say they have to deal with racist coworkers all the time. Literally, they are working in a building which has the most ridiculous mural in its auditorium portraying all kinds of dubiously racist crap detailing the "history" of Concord involving the native americans and blacks. And Jesus, of course, is painted into it. We pulled the screens down for the event, but we hosted Seth Andrews, the Thinking Atheist, in that room. Holy fuck that was hilarious.
But that's what you're dealing with in Concord - a very backwards, racist, insular people. They could be Muslim, it wouldn't matter. They just don't realize that they're frightened of being like those homeless people more than they're frightened of what God would say for them not being generous, because they've been sold a bill of goods that says this life is zero sum and there isn't enough to go around. That's what happens when you let psychopathic capitalists hold the reins of power. There's plenty of resources to go around in this state - it's just that several of the people in power gives absolutely no fucks about managing it properly.
People of lower socio economic status - read: middle-middle class and below - who identify as conservative/republican in this country are often incredibly prejudiced towards anyone who they feel are cheating them out of their jobs/money/services. The problem is, they admire the wealthy, so they direct their ire at other poor people and assume they are using up the resources. It's easier to pick on people who have a shittier life than you, instead of on the people who have the things you also want.
North Carolina has been cutting services and funneling taxes and other funding into corrupt politicians for a while now. Charlotte in particular is finally seeing some traffic solutions being finished/worked on - the completion of the 485 corridor, the building of a light-rail extension, etc - but many of us have little to no goddamn grasp of where our taxes are being sent to. We're going to be organizing a voter registration party for February to get more of our atheist group out and voting, but I'd also love to start looking into things to see if we can determine how and where the money is being spent. I bet if you looked into this for Concord, you'd see similar problems.
When I lived in the city - and I lived less than a mile from the courthouse, police station, and major historical thoroughfare - the power was constantly going out all over. Street lights would go down. Roads were shitty. They weren't investing in their infrastructure, or many city programs. They now have a wonderful library director who impresses me so much with all of her efforts to get people encouraged in reading and education - and she's a wonderful friend and lady besides - but she and another mutual friend of mine who was a teacher for several years in Charlotte's schools say they have to deal with racist coworkers all the time. Literally, they are working in a building which has the most ridiculous mural in its auditorium portraying all kinds of dubiously racist crap detailing the "history" of Concord involving the native americans and blacks. And Jesus, of course, is painted into it. We pulled the screens down for the event, but we hosted Seth Andrews, the Thinking Atheist, in that room. Holy fuck that was hilarious.
But that's what you're dealing with in Concord - a very backwards, racist, insular people. They could be Muslim, it wouldn't matter. They just don't realize that they're frightened of being like those homeless people more than they're frightened of what God would say for them not being generous, because they've been sold a bill of goods that says this life is zero sum and there isn't enough to go around. That's what happens when you let psychopathic capitalists hold the reins of power. There's plenty of resources to go around in this state - it's just that several of the people in power gives absolutely no fucks about managing it properly.
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