Filed under: WTF?

[emmagrant01]

Americans Will Tolerate a Variety of In-Laws. One Exception: Atheists.

Other good news is that opposition to interracial marriage, at least overt opposition, is also fairly low, with only 11 percent of Americans balking at the idea of a new family member of a different race. (How likely you are to bothered by racial mixing rose with levels of conservatism, with only one percent of strong liberals opposing interracial marriage and 23 percent of strong conservatives doing so.) And Americans are even more welcoming to foreigners, with only 7 percent of respondents opposing marriage to someone born and raised outside of the U.S.

There's one group, however, that continues to cause fear and loathing across the land: atheists.

I don't even know what to say about this.

No: actually, I do. I'm pretty sure that several members of my mon's family would completely disown me if they knew I was an atheist. Which is why I just shrug off questions of religion whenever I'm with them.

But still, wow.

Comments

[lauramcewan.livejournal.com]

yeah. I don't say much about my beliefs to my family either.

So, Katie's grad party. We gave her the special graduation version of "Oh the Places You'll Go" where they have a spot for advice from family and friends in it, right?

So Roy's uber-fundie cousin (seriously, her EMAIL is 'redforpeace') homeschooling Christian woman writes, "Remember Jesus - he is the way and guide to your future. Seek him for ALL decisions and life will be LESS stressful and MORE joyful." So Katie is agnostic to atheist like me, not that fundie!Cousin knew that, but still, it's her GRADUATION and you basically offered a sermon.

My MIL, God bless her, is a practicing Catholic who has NEVER EVER EVER even INTIMATED that we should be taking our kids to church - any church. EVER. She writes directly under fundie!Cousin: "Be true to yourself. And never let anyone tell you different."

I love my MIL. She hasn't much patience for fundie!Cousin either. I am not alone in my huge-ass eyerolls over this woman's behavior in just about ALL THINGS.

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

I would never have expected that about atheism and tolerance. Good Christians might see this as an opportunity to prosthelytize to prove their own faith but I couldn't see this as a I don't want you in the family unless they doubted their own faith.

One of my former in-laws was excommunicated from his church because he didn't favor raising the pastor's salary. He'd been an elder in the church for decades. Small town mean community in the northern mid-west.
Same area different church, the pastor was bemoaning that there wouldn't be any virgins for his children to marry when they were older.
It is Children of the Corn time. We'll be having people burned at the stake next. Oh wait this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/11/scott-esk-stoning-gays_n_5486678.html

[aome.livejournal.com]

Ok, WTF? As long as they don't judge me for MY beliefs, I wouldn't mind their lack thereof. I've had quite a few atheist friends. *shrug*

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

I had a "spirited" discussion with my son this morning as I was driving him to the transit stop, because every now and then an older man stands on a prominent corner with a placard praising Jesus and there are American flags taped on the ends of this placard. And THAT is the problem. Because faith has become a litmus test for patriotism in this country these days. If you don't believe (of course in a specific way, I imagine that a deeply religious Jew or Muslim wouldn't count), then you aren't a TRUE American. I'm so tempted to stand there opposite him with my placard that says, "Faith isn't a barometer to patriotism. Separation of Church and state, now!"

[write-out.livejournal.com]

OMG this. Yes. This bothers me so damn much.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

It's offensive. This is truly the genesis of the tea party. White evangelicals gaining power by clothing their religion in the flag.

[wickedcherub.livejournal.com]

I find American patriotism baffling in of itself, and find that it assists in a lot of racism as people try and define what and who makes up 'America' that you are all so proud of, casting everyone else into 'otherness' and 'no good'.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

Join the club! I find it baffling myself and I lived in this country all my life. It did NOT used to be this way. There really WAS separation of church and state. The juggernaut of Reagan changed all that. All of sudden every single political speech started ending with God Bless. Excuse me? Now the whole conservative movement is completely intertwined with evangelical religious beliefs. They are a very small minority in this country with a tremendous power, mainly because they are backed by people with endless pots of money (Roger Ailes of Fox News and the Koch brothers). The only thing that give me any hope is that these groups funneled something like $300 million into the last presidential election and yet Obama was still re-elected. And Cantor spend million and still went down to defeat. It says to me that money doesn't trump all in this country.

Truly you can blame our Puritan heritage which has basically defined poverty as a sign that you are a sinner in God's eyes. The minute you start equating wealth with Godliness, you have a problem.

[helens78]

You are completely right about this. Oof.

[pir8fancier.livejournal.com]

It drives me crazy. What is so interesting is that atheism is on the rise but you would never know it because of how much money faith-based organization pile into various elections. I find it inconceivable that entities like the Catholic church have NO problem accepting enormous tax breaks as a non-profit institution, accepting the government's largess, but then when the government says, hey, your health care for your workers must include birth control, they screech that their rights are being violated!

[connorblond.livejournal.com]

I am actually stunned.
That really is a problem?

Here? Nobody would give it a second thought.

[write-out.livejournal.com]

WTF is right. I had no idea the numbers would be that high.

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

I wonder how much those numbers reflect not just our tolerance but our willingness to admit what we will and won't tolerate. Atheism is something folks feel free to condemn? M.

[pauraque]

My thoughts exactly. Polls can only ever indicate what people will admit to the pollster that they believe.

[helens78]

Yeah, I'm sadly unsurprised by this myself.

Though it does bring to mind a funny story! More than a decade back, I was friends on LJ with some very conservative people, and Grant and I were often in conversations on LJ together, so people kind of got to know us as one of the "power couples" in the group. And one day, one of the other people in the group discovered we were both atheists, and asked, "What do you base your marriage on if not on God?"

It's probably been twelve years and I still have NO idea what he meant by that!

I mean... ???? I feel like I should have responded, "What do you base your marriage on if not turtles?" because that's about how much sense that question makes to me!

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

I find this so baffling that so many people would still have such a problem with atheism. This is mind boggling to me.

[geneva2010.livejournal.com]

Atheists aren't very viable as political candidates either. The article makes a good point, that atheists need to be more visible. Hell, that doesn't sit well with me - I'd rather not have their religion in my face, and I don't flaunt my non-religion in theirs either.