Recently, I’ve received letters and cards from Xians who say they will pray for me. While some applaud my attempts to challenge Xians into thinking and actually reading their Bible, they still manage to throw in that I am surely guided by the Holy Spirit or will discover the errors of my ways, and should read various Bible passages (again?). Most have been genuinely positive and upbeat, no hate mail or death threats yet (though I’ve seen other secular activists get their share). I try to write each back thoughtfully while I may still have time (doubtful if the volume picks up).
Below is my response to a pretty typical letter:
“I apologize for not replying to your card sooner. I am definitely trying to get both believers and non- believers to think about the religious claims that are such a regular part of our culture. They don’t get examined as much as they should. I get emails, have people approach me on campus, write me or even follow me into the parking lot, and the responses I get are more than 99% positive and grateful that someone is finally expressing the opposition to un-questioned religious claims that they have been questioning all their lives or have outright rejected, both silently for years as they don’t dare risk the ostracization from family or the community of believers of the so-called “religion of love.” I write for them.
I have no doubt that my writings are wholly uninfluenced by any Holy Spirit any more than your work is inspired by Allah. Religion is bullshit and most people know it, but dare not say so whatever culture they live within. But that is changing. For a good perspective on a whole world of people who live quite well without religion of any kind and who don’t worry about burning in your Xian hell any more than you give it a second thought that you will burn in the Hell of Islam for not submitting the will of Allah, check out my blog at wearedone.org.
Sorry, (name withheld), it is all myth. Religions delusions and repressive ideas don’t go unchallenged anymore. They are not only unnecessary for a good moral, full human life, but are in fact the biggest roadblock to human rights and freedoms around the globe. All misogyny and homophobia and denial of science would disappear if religion did. We’re working on it.
I am sure your work is motivated by your own personal goodness and I don’t doubt you sacrifice a lot for your congregation, they appreciate it (I hope) and you do a lot of good things for many. But I also hope you don’t take your Baptist faith too seriously as it is one of the most repressive of the Xian versions of belief.
Thnx again for taking the time to write.”
So I write both for the fellow secularists who are appreciative of my activism and are open about their questioning or lack of belief and for the “silent majority” of secular thinking folks who haven’t come out of the closet, cant come out of the closet and still identify with a religion of some kind. But I also write for the believers who haven’t heard much of the other side, if at all. They aren’t stupid, even Rachel Held Evans, the Evangelical blogger and writer has noted that the young, even those raised in Conservative Xianity have especially excellent and very active bullshit meters.
I write for them too.
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