Comment

Comment by C on February 10, 2011 at 8:50am

Definitely will check it out!

Comment by Lyra Silvertongue on February 4, 2011 at 12:26pm

This was posted on the Recovering from Religion group:

"RR in Atlanta (sponsored by Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta) starts Monday! Imagine that...an RR group targeted to Blacks. Man, do we need it BADLY! :)"

Comment by Lyra Silvertongue on February 3, 2011 at 10:58am

That is really disturbing that the black community is clinging to religion like that. Emancipation should include emancipation of the mind!

What are your thoughts on the role of the black churches in civil rights movement (and King Jr. being a reverend)? It seems like they were often gathering and organizing places. I am going on a visit to the Civil Rights Museum and the book The Help, so my perception may be skewed.

I also wonder, with the gay thing, how it plays in that gay people have to actually come out and be acknowledged. Obviously there are plenty of self-hating gay people in denial who are neck-deep in fundamentalist religion (just look at the pastors coming out). So when you say "gays are proud and independent," you are only seeing the ones who WERE proud and independent and freethinking enough to come out. Also, that those people would be the ones more likely to brush off religion.

That's really all the feedback I have, I'm just curious and will keep an eye out for your post.

Comment by C on February 1, 2011 at 1:49pm

it is the exact opposite. Gays are proud and independent, whereas most African-Americans are in self-denial and assimilate no matter how much they try to deny this. I see gay minorities who have higher self-esteem that straight ones, although mostly male. Sociological, I agree, in addition political as well as psychological.

I studied Af-Am Lit as apart of English, and the recurring theme from the 1600s (onset of slavery in N.Americica), past Emancipation and reconstruction,  until now in virtually all black literature both fiction and non-ficiton is the importance of black spirituality and the black church--with only a few contemporaries like Malcom X (though a Muslim) and Toni Morrison criticizing it.  In reality, to take religion away from the average black family  is like taking away oxygen.  So, you can imagine the vicious attacks of the threat of ruining tradition. 

I think all those hundreds of years believing didn't do too much. Some say, "We wouldn't be free today..." That is SO not true.  Emancipation would have occurred much sooner (before some 200 years!) had religion not been so deeply embedded and misinterpreted within the minds of Southern blacks and whites alike.

I will post another blog, and would love to have your feedback. 

Comment by Lyra Silvertongue on February 1, 2011 at 12:41pm

"I could go on..."

I'd be interested if you would like to, or maybe write another blog post about it sometime. It seems to me like minorities would in some ways be less willing to accept a religion like Christianity, but the opposite seems to be the case. As far as gay people that I have known, they are much less likely to be religious, and the religious ones are not fundamentalists. I know the situation is quite different for ethnic minorities, and I'm sure there are complicated sociological reasons behind it, but your personal thoughts would interesting.

Comment by C on February 1, 2011 at 12:30pm

I would say that taking the initiative to send those things does imply somewhat of a belief in it.  The folks sending them and continuing the chain either a. are religious and conscious of it, b. non-religious folks wanting to play pranks lol o,r c. religious just because someone said so. 

However, I do agree that not wanting to get chains is does not necessarily mean one is an atheist.  It could be a christian who is upset that someone would even doubt their piety. lol

Comment by Prog Rock Girl on February 1, 2011 at 11:59am

Most people who send those chain things really don't give a rat's ass about them...I don't think they're usually very indicative of a person's beliefs and values. There are lots of people who are not atheists but who would still be annoyed with this religious message and probably say so...not wanting to get chain things like that isn't exactly an admission of atheism.

Comment by C on February 1, 2011 at 10:55am

Yes. I'd say it's worse than AIDS.  Southern minorities have used religion for centuries as escape, and the longer the addiction, the harder it is to shake.   I could go on...

Comment by Lyra Silvertongue on January 30, 2011 at 5:52pm

Wow, you seem to have encountered a particularly vicious strain of religion there. I wish you and your family the best.

Comment by C on January 30, 2011 at 11:40am

H

i Diane.  Fortunately, I think most already suspect. That is a good thing. My closest friend seems that she would still be there for me.  Family, on the other hand, is a different situation.  Most believe that, and I don't know if you're familiar with this rule, whatever an "unsaved" and a non-christian does, no matter how beneficial to society it is, is done in the name of evil.  For instance, they'd say that Oprah's free gifts and her philanthropy are to no avail.  It's still wicked if not done in the name of Jesus Christ.  I recently discussed this with a grandmother and thought, " Wow, this religion feeds off of labeling others as evil so that the believers feel "chosen." It's soo unfortunate that they see such deeds as evil.  How far from the truth it is!  I could go on and on...

Yes, their problem. Not mine.  But I'm kind of a person who--I am an educator by profession--feels like people need to know the truth.  WHat good am I doing if I just ignore their beliefs and don't try to show them the path to reason. I guess some are chosen to understand, and others are not.lol :)

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