DangerousTalk

One of the most amazing things about the Reason Rally was it was like opposite day. Atheists had no fear in expressing our atheism. We didn’t have to hide from anyone. Christians on the other hand, were often the ones afraid to come out of the closet.

There are four different groups of Christians at the Reason Rally. The first group was the street preachers. These guys are used to being the lone wacko since they are pretty far out there even for Christians. So they had no problem being open about their ridiculous beliefs.

The second group was the Westboro Baptist Church people. Surprisingly the Phelps were a little shy at the Reason Rally. They showed up toward the end and hung out blocks away from the Rally. While I wouldn’t go as far as saying they were closeted, they certainly weren’t their usual selves. It seemed like they were afraid. Personally, I think they were afraid of Nate Phelps, their son who was speaking at the Rally as an atheist. Maybe Fred just didn’t want the kiddies to hear their brother speak.

The third group was the True Reason people. They are fundamentalist Christians who posted on their website that they would be going to the Reason Rally to hand out water and proselytize. They even informed the media of their intention. I wrote an article about them on Examiner and was looking forward to seeing them. What a letdown, they were hiding in the closet.

My brother, ShaunPhilly, and I walked right past them and ShaunPhilly didn’t even know they were Christians. I told him who they were and he suggested that we talk to them. They looked really bored, so I agreed. There were only three of them and they really needed us to get them into a conversation. I should add that they were across the street from the Rally too.

It seemed to me that “True Reason” was a little afraid of all the atheists. They had pamphlets (not books as promised on their website), but they weren’t really giving them out. They were just handing out water to people without coming out as Christians. I thought the whole point of them being there was to proselytize. That’s kind of hard to do when no one knows you are even a Christian. They weren’t even wearing Christian t-shirts.

Then there was the final group of believers. Those were the people who were completely in the closet. Yeah, there were Christians who were walking around the Reason Rally afraid to come out, but curious about the Rally. I talked to one on Twitter, so I know they were there. There were probably not very Christians of this sort, but there is no way to tell because they were completely closeted. Too bad too, because they would have had some great conversations with people if they had just come out and told an atheist that they were a curious Christian. We wouldn’t have eaten them or anything and we certainly wouldn’t have told them that they deserve to be tortured for all eternity for their ridiculous beliefs. We would almost certainly had a nice pleasant conversation with them.

I don’t want Christians in the closet; I just don’t want them to be dicks.

Related articles

• Reason Rally: 30k godless undeterred by rain (examiner.com)
• Christian proselytizers coming to Reason Rally (examiner.com)
• Mr. Phelps Goes to Washington (dangeroustalk.net)
• Reason Rally Was Awesome! (dangeroustalk.net)
• Reason Rally 2012 (skepacabra.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Reason Rally