Ronald Lindsey, President and CEO of the Center for Inquiry, has a great article out about coming out as an atheist in which he compares and contrasts disbelief with sexual orientation. He makes some great points:
(HuffPo) — However, here I have to register a note of caution. I don’t think coming out will have the same level of success for atheists as it’s had for LGBT individuals. Why? Because even after we come out, some fear will persist. For some, the level of fear, the sense of being threatened, may actually increase.
I’d go further on that point: it’s also the dollars, always the fucking dollars.
It doesn’t cost multinational corporations and wealthy people much of anything for gay and lesbian Americans to have equal rights. In fact most large companies already offer same sex couples insurance and other benefits regardless of the marriage laws in that state. But loosening the religious blinders proudly worn by modern day conservative fundamentalists would spell big, big political trouble for the Republican party and, by proxy, the nutty zillionaires they work for. I don’t see the wealthy and powerful who are hellbent on getting more tax cuts and more government gravy and more government bailouts, by hook or spiritual crook, letting that happen without a tremendous battle.
Conservative evangelicals have become so intertwined with the GOP that the grand old party wouldn’t just feel threatened by a surging atheist movement, they would be facing a very real threat. And the money men behind it are plenty smart enough to know they can probably survive without gay bashing, they can probably survive as a party without gun hysteria and crazy conspiracies therein; it’s hard to imagine how they survive in their current form without a theology for the masses that justifies the cruelty, greed, and widening income inequality practiced in 21st century America.
“it’s hard to imagine how they survive in their current form without a theology for the masses that justifies the cruelty, greed, and widening income inequality practiced in 21st century America.”
It works. Every power-preacher, banker, con-artist, (same as banker) corporate suit and politician/grifter claims they are doing “God’s work”. So I guess god must pay pretty good, at least for some.
I didn’t follow the Republican primaries too closely, but is there a chance that the Republican party learned something from the inability of far-Rights like Bachman, Santorum, and Perry to create enough momentum to win an election?
Or did they only lose to Romney because the media and pundits kept telling people that he was the only one who would stand a chance come November?
If Obama wins again in November, will they come back even crazier in four years or will they try to tone it down a bit?
” Because even after we come out, some fear will persist. For some, the level of fear, the sense of being threatened, may actually increase.”
What makes him think that the fear completely vanishes when you come out as gay?
A friend of mine who lives in the south recently came out as an atheist in an email to her friends. I sent back a note that congratulated her, but I also told her that coming out as an atheist was not a one time event. Atheism is not visible, no more than sexual orientation. Each time you are in a new place with new people, you have to decide how out you will be and if you will make a point of coming out to people. It can be good. It can be empowering. It can be stressful.
Coming out is important for all kinds of reasons. If those of us who do not fit the mainstream mold are not visible, then we can be said to not matter, to not exist. Then you get bullshit mythologists like the one that states that the REAL Americans are white, straight, Christian, from the heartland, republican and anti-intellectual to boot.
Making a difference can be as deceptively-simple as shouting, “We’re here! We’re HERE!” like the Whos down in Whoville. It’s a risk, but the risk is worse if we are silent.
Redpanda, nope, there is no chance. EG: If Romney wins it will be credited to him going way, way right, if he loses it will be blamed on him not being rightwing enough.
I worry about my descendants. Is it too early to move to Canada?
Actually, it used to be about the dollars.
In the early 1990s Apple had a non-discrimination policy, but not couples health insurance coverage. (Remember there was no same-sex marriage then.) When that was pushed for, it was the CFO (whose name I forget) who balked. I managed to get a letter to Sculley (CEO at the time) explaining how insulting that was.
Apple instituted health insurance for couples (any gender) who had cohabited for 6+ months.
Sculley became the first Silicon Valley CEO to meet with a gay employees’ group.
Sculley was a guest at Boston(?) gay pride.
Sculley got canned.
I can’t remember the order of these events, nor do I have any idea if they are interconnected.