{"id":2578,"date":"2011-10-26T08:33:01","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T13:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2578"},"modified":"2011-10-26T08:33:01","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T13:33:01","slug":"religious-bullying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2578","title":{"rendered":"Religious Bullying"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading a friend\u2019s blog<\/a> yesterday and one of the things she experiences seemed similar to what I recently experienced in relation to my friend\u2019s funeral<\/a>. We were both bullied into silence and forced to hide our lack of belief in the ridiculous.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, most people in the greater community of reason tend to put a value on morality. We care about the feelings of others. We are considerate people. The religious don\u2019t seem to care and aren\u2019t considerate and they have no problem using our consideration as a weapon to silence us and force their religious upon us.<\/p>\n

Sometimes that is unintentional as it probably was in my friend\u2019s case. Other times, it seems like it is very intentional like I think it was in the funeral case. Religious believers know that they can push us around and force their ridiculous beliefs on us and that we will stay silent because we have a desire to be respectful and we don\u2019t want our objection to be disruptive to others. If we do end up saying something, we then reinforce the old \u201cangry atheist\u201d<\/a> stereotype. It is a win\/win for the religious.<\/p>\n

Being in the majority helps them to bully us, but the truth is that they don\u2019t need to be in the majority to bully us in this fashion. All they really need is a screwed up sense of morality\u2026 check. They don\u2019t care about people\u2019s lives. All they care about is people\u2019s afterlives. Because of this, they have no problem pushing their religion in any and every situation without regard for appropriateness.<\/p>\n

In my friend\u2019s case, her teacher casually brings up religion in a lecture or discussion and if my friend raises an issue about it, it derails the conversation from the topic that is supposed to be discussed.\u00a0 It was inappropriate for the educator to insert religion into the conversation without consideration of the religious beliefs (and lack of beliefs) of his or her students. In my case, the pastor used the highly emotional situation to push his beliefs knowing full well that we were all grieving and that it was an inappropriate occasion to push religion on those he knows don’t share those beliefs.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have an answer to this problem. As outspoken and vocal as I am, there are times in which I think it is inappropriate to challenge the religious on their bullshit. The funeral was a perfect example of this. There is no right answer, but there are plenty of wrong answers. In these situations we have become victims of religious bullying because we want to be kind and considerate people and they don\u2019t care to be either.<\/p>\n

It seems like the only way out is to be just as inconsiderate and inappropriate as they are. But then we become no better than they are. So we are stuck being pushed around by these religious bullies. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

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