Wednesday, April 10, 2013

On Persecution

After the man we know as Jesus kicked the bucket, his followers had a hard road ahead. The ruling class was largely unimpressed by the alleged miracles and sought to suppress speech and action that could be seen as revolutionary or offensive to their god of choice. Early Christians would meet in secret for their safety at a kind of church speakeasy. I imagine the first rule of Christ Club was that you did not talk about Christ Club. When met with a newcommer, they faced a dilemma. Should they turn away a person of faith or reveal themselves to a potential sting operation?

I doubt what follows is the invention of the secret handshake (especially since hands aren’t involved,) but it was likely an early iteration of the concept. Here’s how it went down: A Christian would draw an arch in the sand with his sandal, then a second Christian would reveal himself as a friend by drawing an intersecting arch--making what we would recognize as the Jesus fish in the sand.

A Catholic priest told me this story. It may or may not be true. I don’t have a great track record gaining accurate information from clergy. Since this tale contains no miracles and Snopes wasn’t around back then, I’ll at least accept it’s premise. Christians were persecuted. They are still persecuted in some parts of the world, Muslim countries for example. You know who else are persecuted in Muslim countries? Atheists and Jews and, well, non-Muslims. Every minority viewpoint that runs contrary to the majority is persecuted.

What gets me is that Christians in America still say they are persecuted. Relatively speaking, that is ridiculous. We just came out of an election year where one of the more accepted-as-kooky Christian sects. Mormons, had a candidate that almost won! To the so-called persecuted Christians out there, what chance would an open atheist have had running on the Republican ticket? None. Zero. Come 2016, there isn’t a political advisor in the country, Democrats included, that would recommend coming out as atheist prior to election.

“Coming out.” We actually have a name for the reveal of our divine disbelief. Technically, we share the term with gays...who I should mention are far better represented in the media then atheists. Out of the 20 proud atheists I've interviewed, only seven use their full real name--or should I say at most seven, I haven't confirmed even those names aren't aliases. Each blogger has put a ton of time into their projects and can barely take credit of them because of the association to their real life could bring negative consequences. It's sad. And here I am, Grundy. No, my parents weren't mean enough to name me Grundy, but if they knew the extent of atheist activism I engage in, I would never hear the end of it. I am forced to live with an alias and not teach my mom how to use a computer.

If you're a put-upon Christian or make-believe martyr, I don't want to hear it. My country is one where those who don't accept a history of magic are pariahs.

10 comments:

  1. "Out of the 20 proud atheists I've interviewed, only seven use their full real name--or should I say at most seven, I haven't confirmed even those names aren't aliases. Each blogger has put a ton of time into their projects and can barely take credit of them because of the association to their real life could bring negative consequences."

    This is the reason why I blog under a pseudonym as well. My disgust for the Religious Right might not go over well with some people in my professional and personal life.

    However, there's an additional reason. Because I infiltrate right-wing events, I don't blog under my real name because it could blow my cover.

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    1. Is Ahab a Moby Dick reference?

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    2. Partially. The Religious Right is my "white whale". It's also a reference to King Ahab from the Old Testament, Jezebel's husband. I wanted a name that fundamentalists would think was wicked.

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  2. Speak it brother!

    This persecution complex that the Christians go on and on about at length really drives me crazy. They are the majority and they have a stranglehold on our government. Most of the time their claims of persecution are of people trying to keep them from imposing their beliefs on other people. Screw that.

    And yeah, one of the reasons I blog under a pseudonym is so it doesn't come up when you google my name. Suppose in the future a potential employer finds my blog, if they are a Christian I think it would be entirely possible that they would just throw my application in the trash. It could easily affect my wife's job prospects as well. I certainly don't see any Christians hiding their cross necklace before a job interview.

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  3. Brilliant blog once again. It is sad that religious people cannot see beyond their own persecutions. Luckily for me I dot have to live behind a veil, i suppose when you are in the scientific field its not a problem. But then again I could never work in an Arabic country (I am a dead man), not that I would want to as we see they treat other believers, never mind the treatment they afford women.

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  4. I post with a pseudonym, mostly because I've been doing it forever, I think I've been using this name for at least 25-30 years now. It's just tradition. However, considering I tend to be abrasive when I post and piss a lot of people off, the fact is, it's safer for me and my family if people don't know who I am, both on the theist side, and, unfortunately, on the atheist side, especially given the relatively recent Atheism+ attempts to cost people their jobs and provide personal information online. So no, I post as I post and under the name I choose to post under.

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    1. Yeah, sometimes we get it from all sides, which is a shame.

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  5. Good posts, all. Is the pen still mightier than the sword? Or just as dangerous?

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  6. Nice post! Yes, definitely agree!

    But I think this is exactly why atheism is still considered a very minority (non)belief -- people are terrified to even have their names associated with it. I understand the backlash; I was raised in a Bible thumping little town that gave me a pretty hard time for my heretic (non)beliefs. I truly think the only way atheists are going to be taken seriously in the US and the world in general is to stand together and own it.

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