(October 31, 2011 at 9:14 pm)Phaedra Wrote:(October 31, 2011 at 8:39 pm)reverendjeremiah Wrote: In America you have to be very cautious admiting you are a liberal. It could mean losing your job and many other harsh consequences.
Yep. Quite similar to admitting that you're an atheist.
That is true in most (but not all) American areas.
BUT
In my union I am well known as an atheist. I am also politically active in that union and typically draw 75%+ of the vote when I run for union official positions. When on the job, people seek me out for information on many topics because most people consider me to be quite smart.
I shake my head when they say this and instead claim that "I am merely a font of trivial information." to witch they almost always get a good laugh out of.
Being openly and unashamedly atheist in the union, and being an elected official, has given some non-religious types in my union the courage to approach me on the subject. Some will approach me while I am alone and admit that they see eye to eye with me on religion. And they are of all ages. This current job of mine has a 65 year old man boldly and laughingly agreeing with me that atheism is the correct world view.
This man is also VERY intelligent, and enjoys discussin ALL topics (are you suprised?)
I havent been actually keeping records, but I would say that any where between 1 in 10, and sometimes 1 in 20 of my fellow union brothers and sisters are some form of atheist, agnostic, or deism on the jobs I work on.
I hope that gives some people hope on this forum.
My advice? Pick and choose your fights and know when to ease the facts out at the right time.
