Atheists in church

[ThatNomad]

I personally would only ever wish to be part of something like a Unitarian Universalist church, if I ever returned to one. Most mainstream churches are far too segregated racially, and far too homophobic, even if they do claim to be open and accepting. I grew up in a Southern Baptist church. We had one gay member, who sat in a pew all by himself, never interacted with anyone, and never came to the gatherings we had. It wasn't until much later in life that I found out he was never made to feel welcome, but continued to come because his faith was important to him and he didn't own a car, so since our church was within walking distance he continued to come. We had a single black family who was treated exactly the same way. Sat in a pew by themselves, never interacted, and never came to any gatherings. I can imagine if someone had stated they were an atheist they would have had exactly the same reception. There would have been no open discussion, no debate, they would have simply been shunned. I see no realistic purpose to this that would ever be served in most mainstream churches.

[HappySkeptic]

I personally would only ever wish to be part of something like a Unitarian Universalist church, if I ever returned to one. Most mainstream churches are far too segregated racially, and far too homophobic, even if they do claim to be open and accepting.  ...

UU is a great church (I'm UU).  My congregation specifically claims to be a welcoming congregation of the LGBT+ community (we have a number), and we actively work against discrimination. 

However, all churches sometimes fall down on being welcoming, and my UU church is extremely white, with a high number of professionals.  I wouldn't exactly call us racially diverse, even though we wish to be.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

At the Church where I used to attend Mass, if you announced to the other people in the pews that you were an atheist, the other people would be very likely to inform the staff of what you said, and you would then be escorted out of the building.

Dave Allen was an Irish-atheist-comedian.

The clip below pretty much some of the attitudes of the Irish Catholicism in which I was reared. Mercifully in Australia, not Ireland. 

At 1minute 20.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxo81Ok9Urk

To be fair, my ex wife was/is chronically Catholic. She joined this family group, which did things together.  They knew I was atheist and that made no difference I ever noticed. A few even phoned me after my wife and I split up.  The parish priest came over to comfort me, without preaching. I mentioned she had not left any money. He emptied hsi swallet and gave me all the money he had. He was a Passionist, very different from the average parish priest, who to me always sounded like parrots. 

Pope Francis  said that even an atheist who lives a life of conscience will go to heaven. Patronising, but " he means well"  


I guess my point is that there doesn't seem to be one broad Catholic attitude to atheism. Perhaps it has something to do with how confident a person is in his/her faith..  Could it be like the insecurity often behind homophobia?