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April 23, 2004
Religion

I'd like to point out the following entry from Atrios, which I will quote in its almost entirety.

Atrios was inpired by this amazing page detailing the fight between the American Atheists and the first Bush administration, largely centering around this statement from George H. W. Bush in 1987:

No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots.

The statement is shocking enough, but the whole story is worse.

Atrios' comments:

No one finds it particularly troubling when it's pointed out that an "out" atheist couldn't get elected dog catcher in most of this country, let alone to Congress. I'm actually not complaining really - I'm not trying to establish some sort of new victim group here. But, nonetheless, I'm a bit sick and tired of White Christian Males pretending that they're the persecuted ones.

In addition, I'm a bit fed up with people hand-wringing about anti-religious sentiment from "the Left." First of all, "the Left" which has any clout or power in this country is explicitly "pro-religion" to a degree which disturbs me. My retinas still burn with the image of the members of Congress on the steps of the Capitol screeching out "UNDER GOD" while performing the pledge of allegiance. Left-leaning people with strongly held religious views need to stop worrying about what some comedian says on some radio show and need to start worrying that the public faces of their religion are people who, if they had their way, would establish their own flavor of theocracy and revoke our right to worship as we please (or not at all).

I'm tired of liberalish Christians telling me it's my job to reach out to Christian moderates who feel that "the Left" is hostile to them. Screw that. It's time for liberalish Christians to tell their slightly more right-leaning brethren that those of us who fight to maintain the separation between Church and State do it to protect freedom of religion - not destroy it. It's time for moderate and liberal Catholics to take a stand against their Church's assault on Democratic (and only Democratic) politicians who deviate from doctrine.

I'm not hostile to religion. I'm hostile to those who cloak their hate in [sic] bigotry in religion. I'm hostile to those who want to impose their religion on me and everyone else. I'm hostile to those who have no understand where their freedoms come from, and why they're important. I'm hostile to Christian Exceptionalists who believe that simply by being religious they're immune from all criticism.

source

At the risk of being ironic, amen to that.

Posted by ahecht at April 23, 2004 8:48 PM
Comments

Previous Comments

Excellent piece! As an agnostic with atheistic leanings I'm routinely appalled by the pandering that goes on regularly to appease whining masses of believers.

What irritates me almost as much is how they frequently want to have the perception both ways. On the one hand they want the platform of oppressed minority, but on the other they want to claim majority rule as believers.

Posted by: Mike Norton at April 25, 2004 12:13 PM