Feb 7 2013

Westboro Baptist Church has Lost More Members

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I was the same age as Megan Phelps-Roper when I began questioning everything I’d been raised to believe. And at 27, she has taken a giant step and left Westboro Baptist Church with her sister.

I applaud this woman for this courageous decision. While I do believe her family is absolutely evil, they are still her family. And this choice has left her completely estranged from them. But she still made the right choice, knowing the consequences that would befall.

The act of leaving Westboro is as weird as the church itself. Sometimes it’s described as a shunning process, but that’s not entirely apt. It is, in the eyes of the remaining members, a sort of death, but it’s a gentle one, because the carcass isn’t just dumped or ignored. One church member, who has lost two of his kids to the outside world, told me that he still loved them and that he set them up as best they could with what they’d need to start their new lives—some money, some household goods, even a car.

Megan didn’t leave alone; her sister Grace decided to go with her. They stayed just one night in Topeka. Then, after returning to their family home to retrieve some things they’d not packed the night before—“it was so weird and horrible to ring the doorbell,” Megan says—they left town.

I know from personal experience that it was not an easy choice, and her life was far more insulated than mine. And going public with this decision is even worse. Not only has she isolated herself from her friends and family, but now she has to face the entire world and own up to her past mistakes.

“I definitely regret hurting people,” she says. “That was never our intention. We thought we were doing good. We thought it was the only way to do good. And that’s what I’ve always wanted.”

That’s not how the message was received. “I think I’ve known that for a long time, and I would talk to people about how I knew the message was hurtful,” Megan says. “But I believed it couldn’t matter what people felt. It mattered that this was what God wanted.”

…

“I don’t feel confident at all in my beliefs about God. That’s definitely scary. But I don’t believe anymore that God hates almost all of mankind. I don’t think that, if you do everything else in your life right and you happen to be gay, you’re automatically going to hell. I don’t believe anymore that WBC has a monopoly on truth.”

This girl is pretty amazing, if you ask me.

And according to other sources, there have been other members of WBC who have decided to pull away from the church as well.

Little by little, chinks in the armor of the WBC are showing. Eventually there will be nothing left. It’s taken years, but the younger generation is finally starting to see that what they’re being taught simply doesn’t make sense. There is still hope.

(h/t)

Jun 24 2012

The Afterlife

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There are way too many quotable quotes in this new video by The Thinking Atheist. It covers everything from how believing in eternal life diminishes humanity to how all of us are physically immortal because we came from stardust and will be stardust again.

It’s truly inspiring.

 

May 22 2012

North Carolina and “the Gays”

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A few weeks ago, I voted against NC Amendment 1, also known as “the marriage amendment.” Unfortunately, the Amendment passed with 61% of the vote.

This amendment has thrust North Carolina and the (predominantly religious) supporters of the Amendment into the spotlight.

Just prior to the election, Baptist Pastor Sean Harris preached in a sermon that you should beat the gay out of your kids if they show predilections for such things.

And this week, Baptist Pastor Charles Worley suggested rounding up all the gay men and women and putting them in electrified fence enclosures so they could not escape (one for the women and one for the men). His logic is that if we do that, they will die out very soon because they cannot reproduce.

You can’t make this stuff up.

I had a way, I figured a way out, a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers, but I couldn’t get it passed through Congress. Build a great big large fence, fifty or a hundred mile long, put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified ‘til they can’t get out. Feed them, and you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out. Do you know why? They can’t reproduce.

The thing is – this is nothing new. These attitudes and opinions, while morally reprehensible and repugnant, have been making the rounds from pulpits for years.

It was just never publicized quite the way it is now.

Amendment One passed for several reasons. It was deceptively coined “the marriage amendment.” The majority of NC is, unfortunately, rural. I don’t want to make the assumption that rural=uneducated or ignorant, but it’s hard not to jump down that train when you look at the counties where the amendment passed compared to the counties where it did not. By calling the amendment “the marriage amendment” you make it seem like the amendment is simply about defining marriage. Many of the people I spoke to who supported the amendment believed that all it did was define marriage as between one woman and one man. They did not understand how the amendment could strip rights from anyone.

North Carolina is a largely religious state. We are part of “the Bible Belt.” Sermons like the ones referenced above are far more common than people realize. It’s easy to find those Christians who say “yeah, but we’re not like that – we believe that God is love!” but the sad truth is, in the South, Christians who believe in tolerance and equality are not in the majority.

It is my hope that people will continue to call out these pastors and other “Christians” who continue to stand in opposition of civil rights and liberties. If enough people see it happening, then maybe something can finally change.

May 2 2012

The Kind You Hear About – And the Kind You Don’t

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Bruce Grierson has had an article called The Atheist at the Breakfast Table published in Psychology Today.

It’s risky to say anything categorically about atheists – for a more individualistic bunch would be hard to find. But let’s propose that there are two kinds of atheists: the kind you hear about, and the kind you don’t.

This is undeniably true. I think of myself as falling into the latter category. I am no activist. I’m certainly not militant in my beliefs.The most I do is occasionally blog about my beliefs or post things I find interesting on Facebook.

I highly recommend you click through and read the entire article on Mr. Grierson’s blog. As Hemant noted:

It’s not very often that we see an article actually humanizing Humanists in a mainstream publication. This is a good one, though.

Apr 22 2012

So Why Do Atheists Spend So Much Time Trying To Debunk Religion?

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The question in this post title is one of the questions that bugs me oh so much when it comes from anyone – but especially from a Christian.

My friend Donny posted a link on his wall to an old post from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Not even halfway through the article, the author succeeded in irritating me by asking:

What makes Dawkins and Hitchens so fascinating, however, is not so much the tightness of their logical argumentation or their marshalling of empirical evidence, but the force and power with which they make their cases against religion. Why spend so much time proving the nonexistence of something? Why not do something more constructive with life? Why not build bridges or run marathons or even collect string? Devotion to the debunking of that which does not exist is a strange and parasitic activity. After all, I don’t believe in unicorns or the tooth fairy, but I really do not have the time or the energy to write long books articulating my position and ridiculing those who hold such beliefs.

Not only is that ridiculously condescending, but it’s also so full of hypocrisy that it seems Christians just can’t see.

Donny asked me to explain it because he couldn’t see it. I answered:

 You spend all (or most) of your time going around the country speaking about something you are passionate about. About something you believe in so deeply that it is fundamentally a part of who you are.

Dawkins and Harris and Hitchens (when he was still alive) do (did) the very same thing. Yet, it’s somehow wrong for them to do so?

How do you not see the hypocrisy there?

That explanation did nothing to persuade him of the hypocrisy of his perspective, so I further responded:

And that baffles me. Truly.

Prominent atheists are trying to change the world. (Hey, isn’t that what you’re trying to do?)

The thing is, atheism doesn’t want to take your beliefs away from you. There are two things happening in the secular movement. First, the movement as a whole simply seeks to make it okay for me to not believe. There are those who believe that because I am an atheist, I am not American. There are those who believe that this country should be governed by Christian beliefs and the Bible. The secular movement seeks to stop that from happening by making the government separate from religion, providing freedom and equal footing for everyone. Most of the Christian community does not seek that (though some do).

And secondly, many atheists believe that religion causes harm to society. And they write books about it to raise awareness about it. There are those who wish to eradicate religion because they believe the world would be a better place without it. They look at religion and see children dying because the family refused medical treatment in lieu of prayer and faith healers. They look at wars that have been fought over religion. They look at the way homosexuals are dehumanized and belittled by many as a result of religious belief. And rather than remain silent about it, they stand up and say something about it.

How is that a bad thing? Why does that not make sense to those of you who choose to dedicate your lives to teaching and converting people to believe in something no one can see because you believe it makes the world a better place?

And once again, he still couldn’t see it. I really don’t know how to explain it any further. The conversation degenerated from there into a discussion about whether or not wars are really fueled by religion and how many people have died as a result of atheist regimes – discussions that are easy to get caught up in but have little to no bearing on the question at hand.

The fact of the matter is that Christians look down on atheists for standing up for what they believe is right. And until they can see that they are seeking to silence a group of people who employ some of the same methods as Christians (ie speaking publicly, writing books, creating groups on campuses), they will never understand why I look at the conversation and see hypocrisy.

Apr 16 2012

Crocoduck… Say wha?

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I’ve heard folks mention the crocoduck in passing, but I never really paid attention to it. Then I saw this video over on Christian Nightmares.

And it’s pretty much one of the most ridiculous things ever. “Now of course, evolution doesn’t claim that the crocoduck ever existed, but if evolutionists can make up imaginary missing links, why can’t we?”

*headdesk*

That’s one of the most ignorant statements I’ve ever heard.

 

Apr 13 2012

God’s Infallibility and Authority

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I got really excited when I discovered that Tim Minchin has two albums on Spotify. So on the way to work this morning, I was completely grooving to The Good Book when I had a few thoughts.

I am probably not the first person to ever have these thoughts, but it was the first time I’ve ever had them – an epiphany if you will.

You may recall that I used to be among those who counted the Bible as infallible and the complete word of God.

This is a common belief among evangelicals. And when you question things like Paul declaring women should be silent (1 Cor 14:34) or many of the laws written in the Old Testament the answer you’re often given is that “Those laws were written for a different time period.”

And at one time, I accepted that. It made sense to me that since women were treated as property in those times when the Bible was written that rules, laws, commandments, etc. would reflect such things.

But it occurred to me today that according to the beliefs of those who spout such things, society was created by God. The all-knowing, all-powerful God who knew that society would one day be the way it is now.

So why would that God create a society and give rules to live by that would one day change, yet still expect His followers to follow “his” writings? Stay with me here.

If God created society and the rules written in the Bible, why didn’t He create them the way they’re supposed to be instead of allowing rape, slavery, murder, and oppression?

On the other hand, if you’re pushing God’s rules to fit into societal standards – isn’t that essentially an admission that God didn’t create the world and how people live?

This all sounded much better in my head, but hopefully you see the point I’m trying to make.

No matter which way you take it, it doesn’t make sense. And both point out the flaws of this “all powerful God” that is worshipped.

Apr 13 2012

CCOKC (or, Child Celebrities Opposing Kirk Cameron)

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It’s hilarious, but true:

It bears stating: I am not opposed to Kirk having his own opinions and expressing them. I disagree with those opinions and also do not oppose folks who disagree with him calling him out for it.
 

Apr 13 2012

Teen Birth Rate Lowest Ever

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According to the Religious Right, we live in perilous times. To hear the GOP candidates (former and current) talk about it, God needs them to bring this country back to basics because we’ve gone so far off track that if God were anything like he was in the Old Testament, we’d be having a flood.

So then why is the teen birth rate the lowest it’s ever been?

The birth rate for teenagers in the U.S. dropped to the lowest ever, with the fewest number of babies born to the age group since 1946, as health-awareness efforts paid off, U.S. officials said.

I can’t give a citation for what I’m about to say, but I can’t count the number of times I heard a sermon preached about how America was going to hell, largely in part due to unwed teen mothers.

Birth rates fell among all age groups, and racial and ethnic groups. The CDC credited “strong pregnancy prevention messages” with the declines, as well as an increase in contraception. It’s also more common for teenagers to use two kinds of prevention — a condom in addition to birth control pills, for example — when they have sex, the report said.

And oh hey! Guess what? Birth control works. Not abstinence.

Remember that, okay?