RE: Closet Atheist Coming Out and Telling Family and Friends You're An Atheist
September 26, 2016 at 4:28 pm
(June 17, 2013 at 8:45 pm)iameatingjam Wrote: I want to go slightly off topic here and say WHAT THE FUCK
Kicking somebody out for being gay/atheist? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! I can't even imagine the biggest assholes I know doing that to their own children just for their thoughts and desires!
Is the thinking really that different there in America? (assuming thats where ya`ll from)
Oh! Yes! America is one of the most conservative Christian countries in the world. The Bible says that men having sex with men is an abomination. It doesn't seem to make any difference to those "true believers" that other Biblical abominations include eating pork or wearing clothes made of more than one type of fiber or any number of other things that most of them probably do frequently themselves. Many people here are sure everyone will go to hell it they don't believe in the Christian God and Jesus. That may contribute to the reaction of parents to discovering a child is atheist, but I think most parents are just upset when their children reject something they believe in so fervently. Several religions, such as the Amish and Jehovah's Witnesses, shun anyone who leaves their congregation.
I grew up in a highly religious family, but was an atheist by the time I graduated from high school. Although my family knew I never attended church, I never told them I was an atheist. I'm 71 and still only my close friends know. I happen to live in a highly-conservative Christian community with people who ride around in pick-up trucks with Confederate flags, lighted crosses on the grill, and rifles on a gun rack behind their heads. I consider my lack of openness a prudent decision.
The Christian Right (a conservative religious group) has made it almost impossible for anyone to be elected to public office without declaring that s/he is a devout Christian. There are a few Jews and a very small number (I'd say one or two in the entire country) of Muslims and openly gay people in public office. There is one gay man in my state legislature. When the ruling on gay marriage came down from the Supreme Court, he got up in a legislative session to express his approval of the decision, but another representative (who happens to represent my district) turned off the gay rep's mike because he didn't want to hear from anyone who was going against Christian beliefs. No one stood up to protest that jerk's actions as being a violation of the freedom of speech.
Actually, there are a number of Christian sects which openly welcome gays, so not all Christians are like that and in the past 20 years or so more and more people here are rejecting religion. However, the Christian Right and sometimes old-school Catholics who aren't as open-minded as the current pope, are the squeaky wheels we hear from most frequently.
The Christian Right are mostly a bunch of hypocrites. They were on Michelle Obama's case for wearing sleeveless dresses (showing too much skin) but now they support Donald Trump who's been married three times and whose current wife was a model who has posed in all manner of undress. Trump has displayed the least Christian behavior of any presidential candidate in my lifetime ---but they support him anyway.
Finally, in the last few years, we have over 50% of citizens who support gay marriage, but it was a long time coming and we still have plenty of people who won't be florists or provide wedding cakes for gay couples or public officials who refuse to issue marriage licenses to gays, because it's against their beliefs. Hardly a day passes that we don't hear about some nut job declaring that homosexuals or non-believers deserve to be stoned to death or some other nonsense.
Christianity in general and specifically Protestant Christianity used be powerful enough to require "blue laws" that required stores, theaters, and baseball parks be closed on Sundays. They were apparently immune to laws that required the separation of church and state. But, over the past 50 years or so they have been losing some of those privileges and now they are declaring that there is a war on Christianity. One ridiculous evangelical preacher stated:
"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history." ~Pat Robertson (I added the boldface.)
This is the kind of nonsense we have to put up with in the U.S.
My response to Robertson's statement was:
"Now, let me get this straight, Pat. The fact that non-Christians and non-believers demand that we uphold the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution that prevents evangelical Christians from receiving special treatment, those evangelicals are suffering more than anything suffered by any minority in history.
"Has he never read a history book? Does he not know that Christians still make up about 70% of the U.S. population? How could they possibly be considered a minority? And how could they be victims of such widespread discrimination when Christians are in the majority even among liberals, the media, homosexuals and Congress? How can they say they are victims of bigotry when both political parties (especially Republicans) have been pandering to evangelicals and the Religious Right for years?"
I continued with the following snarky remarks:
"I must have missed hearing about the terrible abuse, discrimination and bigotry Pat is suffering. If it is more terrible than anything suffered in history I must assume that:
"Liberals ---just like the Nazis did to Jews (1933-45) ---are taking evangelical Christians from their homes, confiscating their belongings, putting them in concentration camps, starving them, and exterminating them by the millions. I'm shocked because I haven't heard anything about this. But then, I guess the liberal media is keeping it out of the news.
"Homosexuals ---just like the Inquisition did to Jews (c. 1100-1794) ---are putting evangelical Christians on the rack and torturing them until they agree to become gay.
"Congress ---just like slave holders (before the U.S. Civil War) ---is keeping evangelical Christians in captive servitude, beating them, raping their women, denying them an education and the right to vote, and selling their spouses and children to other members of Congress.
"Liberals ---just like the Syrian government (ongoing) ---are bombing its evangelical citizens, destroying their homes, killing thousands of people who don't support them, denying fair trials, and arresting them without formal charges.
"Congress ---just like the Communist Chinese (1923-87) ---is responsible for 100,000,000+ deaths of evangelical Christians.
"Until one of those things actually happens, treatment of evangelical Christians is now and never will be more terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history.
"Pat recently supported the legalization of marijuana. Maybe he's been smoking too much weed."
“The problem with those who choose received Authority over fact and logic is how they choose which part of Authority to obey. The Bible famously contradicts itself at many points (I have never understood why any Christian would choose the Old Testament over the New), and the Koran can be read as a wonderfully compassionate and humanistic document. Which suggests that the problem of fundamentalism lies not with authority, but with ourselves.” ~Molly Ivins
