RagingRev

If you’ve never been exposed to the annual deluge of commentary from Christian pundits and lay persons alike, consider yourself lucky. In America today, especially in the Bible Belt (where I so begrudgingly abide) you can’t look twice before you find someone claiming that there is some sort of “War on Christmas or Christianity”. I wouldn’t have a problem with people like Glenn Beck or Bill O’rielly if they actually had a leg to stand on when they make these egregious claims, but the simple truth is that they do not. Today I am going to explore not only why these consistently bad claims are entirely incorrect but also give a surprising retrospective view of my own position on Christmas and other traditionally Christian holidays.

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Foreward

About two months ago I was browsing through my normal routine of atheist sites and blogs when I happened upon an advertisement for Mormon.org’s chat service which allows anyone to log onto the website and chat with a missionary from the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as Mormons or LDS).  I decided to log on and chat with the kind folks there to see why they believed what they did and so on,  being an individual that is not entirely unfamiliar with LDS beliefs I came in with a foreknowledge of the basic LDS doctrine and simply wanted to challenge these kind people to think about the origin of their belief – something I had to do for myself once upon a time.

Missionary One: Initial encounter

The first missionary I talked to was a very kind young man, if I remember correctly he was 19 and in training to go to South America to present their version of the gospel to the people there, you see, the chat center is located in Provo, UT at the Missionary Training Academy where all the LDS missionaries go for a time prior to being sent out. (Most LDS members go on mission at some point in their life usually in their early 20’s, the mission generally lasts two years and is part of being a holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood). I explained to him that I was an atheist and that I was at one time a Christian, he spoke to me about  his “relationship with god” and how he knew god was real because he felt him so strongly in his life and because he had seen god’s many blessings on him and his family. I explained to him a little about my past and how I too had a relationship with my own deity and that at one point I came to realize that this deity was merely my own mental and emotional interpretation of the god of the Bible and the god that I most wanted to serve. (aka, an imaginary friend that I molded after my own view of god). Eventually I gave this missionary my phone number and he and I talked about this subject on two different nights, he would also give me some verses from the Book of Mormon to read. I read what he asked each time that he did. During our last conversation he let me know that he was leaving to go on his mission and would therefore be unable to call again and asked permission to give my number to another missionary named Stephen, I agreed and issued one final challenge to him: I simply asked that he ask himself if he would be comfortable with even the idea of there not being a god and that if he could find a way to cope with that if he would then begin to challenge the idea of god that he had. He agreed.

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I’ve always been a relative extremist, somewhere in my genetic code is the overwhelming desire to be right and to make my correctness known to mankind. This explains the evangelical nature of my Christian faith, as well as the nature of my atheistic stance. Ever so slowly I have recognized the folly of extremism and attempted to reconcile my competing worldviews with a more balanced position. I’m nowhere near perfect at this,  I still consider myself a strong atheist and feel a moral obligation to make reason a more acceptable worldview. Balance has defined my politics for longer than it has my views on theism however.

When I was 18 I joined the Democratic Socialist Party after reading the Communist Manifesto in combination with the  Acts of the Apostles (I realize now a bit better about the communal nature of the early Christian Church, so lets not turn the comments into that). My ideals still hold that above all things people should be free, fed, healthy, and informed – something I do not believe capitalism will ever provide. I have also dabbled greatly in the world of conspiracy theory and the underground occult which shaped my worldview during the Bush administration as a member of the 9/11 Truth Movement (again, not debating that here). Through that movement I noticed all the conspiracy nuts (of which I don’t think I belong any longer) rooting for the Presidential campaign of one Dr. Ron Paul. Through Ron Paul I discovered the roots of the Republican Party, I began to realize that the GOP was  not what theocrats  like Jerry Falwell had made it out to be and instead was about individual freedom, self guiding markets, States Rights, and policies that did not cause havoc in the lives of the people of sovereign nations. Not a list of things that I agree with 100%, but I find them to fit a political ideal that is realistic. When Ron Paul didn’t get the GOP Nomination I voted for Barack Obama as opposed to having Sarah Pahlin anywhere near the White house. Currently my political views are a strange conglomeration of Socialist, Communist, Republican and I consider myself a lover of freedom. I strive to explore  all sides of a debate before I make any commentary or form a strong opinion and I think that is how I came to be such a plethora of political contradictions.

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This is a continuation of the last post: My Gripe with the TEA Party: My Town Responds please read it after you have read my original post: My Gripe with the TEA Party

The final letter that was addressed to me was from none other than the pastor that I focused much of my attention on in my original submission. Understandably he too thought that I was the heckler that shouted and interrupted his speech at the rally. I have attempted to call Rev. Hicks to inform him that this is not the case and left him a voice mail to that effect. I hope to hear from him soon, perhaps he would be willing to go grab a cup of coffee with me sometime. Due to the length of this letter I will only post it in portions, then deal with it a paragraph or two at a time. His letter can be read in it’s entirety Here without any of my comments inlaid.

Dear Editor, In the last edition of this newspaper, I was the main target of a lengthy letter to the editor. Inasmuch as the writer identified me by naming the church where I pastor, I feel compelled to respond. It is the right and privilege of the writer of that letter to express his “gripe” as he sees fit. I am thankful for the right to respond.

First, thank you very much for your relatively gracious response. We are both mutually thankful to have our right to respond and have gripes and I am even more glad that we can do so in a civil way. My intention was not to bring any negative attention onto you or your church and I am very sorry if that has been the case – I will try to better explain my intentions and failures as we progress here.

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Last week, as you remember, I wrote a letter to the editor of The Dodge County News regarding the T.E.A. Party tax rally held by some private organizers and citizens of Eastman, GA. That letter can be found in it’s entirety Here along with various comments from locals and my internet friends.. The Dodge County News runs weekly, every Wednesday and when I got my paper yesterday I was delighted to see that there was nearly a full page in total dedicated to answering my letter. I am going to post these answers and reply to them here rather than write another letter to the editor because I simply do not want to continue monopolizing the space of the paper, but I do want the Dodge County News to know that I am eternally grateful for their inclusion of my letter and it’s responses – the media is so often either a lame duck or a slanted medium to push policies and opinions of it’s editors that I find it very refreshing that even in my small conservative town a voice of dissent (and in my opinion a voice of reason) is not silenced despite the pressures that the editor may receive from various parties. It means a LOT to me that they allowed my voice to be heard and that tells me that this paper is one of integrity – Dodge County is lucky to have it.

I am breaking this up into two separate posts because this entry will be over 5000 words if I do not, the two shorter responses will be on this post and a very long response from the pastor that was a target of my original TEA Party letter will be on another post.

July Fourth – Religious Holiday?

The first response I would like to reply to is one that comes from a misunderstanding of the writer, and evidently a few other folks. While at the TEA party there was an individual standing outside the grounds at which the rally was being held that started yelling at Rev. Hicks, the speaker that I spent most of my letter complaining about, things that were pretty well in agreement with what I said in my letter. The individual yelled something to the effect of, “What the hell does this have to do with taxes?” among other things that I couldn’t quite make out. Though I agree with the general sentiment of the heckler (as I will call him henceforth), that heckler was not I nor was it anyone within my company at the time. The most protesting I did whilst at the rally was shaking my head at some of the things the speakers were saying, but I did not yell or interrupt the speakers at any point. The letter is as follows:

Editor, There was a letter in the paper July 8,2009 addressing the contents of the T.E.A. party held on July 4, 2009. The person that wrote the article would, by his actions, like to silence the tone on born again Christians.

The 4th of July holiday was picked by those that planned the gathering with the intention of giving a Christian tone, because the 4th of July is a holiday that is celebrated across our nation thanking God for the privilege of assemble. I was one of the people that was in the planning, paying my money and time to have the right to select the speakers that we wanted and giving the right to even an atheist the privilege to attend. Take notice that we did advertise that we would have barbecue, yet this intruder elected not to participate. He brought his own and stayed out of the venue that had been reserved for the TEA Party. By his actions, his purpose was not to come and listen, but was to cause trouble. The 4th of July is a holiday that was selected for Christians to assemble, and if the atheist that wrote the article really wants to organize something for his cause, he should locate and rent an old phone booth and invite all that wants to hear him. He could hold this gathering on the atheist holiday, which is April 1. At least he wouldn’t be bothered by any born again Christians to heckle him. In closing, Mr. Oxley has the right to be wrong. JW (Initials for privacy)

Source

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The following is a letter I recently wrote to the editor of my local newspaper, the Dodge County News. I am not sure if it will be published in the edition that should be coming off the presses right now, but I do expect it should be included in next weeks edition. I have included in my salutation that I am a fiscal conservative Atheist and included my website, hoping to get some feedback from the local folks but I am actually quite nervous about it. See, I am out about my lack of belief…I don’t do anything to hide it and if someone asks me anything about religion I am more than glad to let it be known that I am indeed an Atheist. I have not, however, made an uninvited public statement as of yet which is why I know that members of my family and the family of my wife may be surprised to know of this and it may be a shock to them. Therefore, before I post this letter, let me just explain a few things:

Disclaimer

1. I did not choose to be an Atheist, I simply chose to think critically about my religious beliefs and it led me to this place, I am not making an effort not to believe, I simply find it impossible to continue belief in any god especially the god of Christianity.
2. This is not the fault of anyone, it has nothing to do with a less than perfect (though it had it’s high points, don’t get me wrong) family life or any sort of trauma over the problems that my family has had.
3. I do not hate the religious, I respect those that wish to continue believing. I have no intention of fighting the religious establishment in this town publicly. I just want to see common sense used when political rallies are held and false pretenses are used to attract participants. I still believe in the freedom to believe in whatever god or gods you please so long as your belief does not drive you to harm other people, I would fight to keep that freedom for everyone if there was ever an attempt to take it away.
4. My morals have not changed, there are no black robed satanic rituals occurring at my home nor any wild orgies. I still love my wife and am wholly dedicated to my marriage.
5. None of my opinions, views, beliefs, or lack of beliefs are necessarily shared by my wife. She believes whatever she wants to believe and I have not made any effort to stop her from believing in god. Please don’t apply any words that you read here to my wife because they simply are not her statements. If you want to know about her beliefs or disbelief you will have to ask her though she doesn’t seem too very inclined to discuss those things with a whole lot of people.

If you came here after reading my letter please feel free to comment in the comments section, I will not censor any views so long as there are no threats made against myself or my family. Sometimes people do irrational things in the name of god and I know that %99.9999 of you would never do anything to harm another person, but for that individual that cannot tolerate questioning his/her beliefs people like me on occasion fear the repercussions of not participating in the status quo. I love my fellow man, I care about this country, and I worry about it’s future – this is why I wrote this and why I continue my blog in the way that I do.

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The Iowa Supreme Court recently struck down a ban on same sex or gay marriage. I personally could not be happier for the homosexual constituents of Iowa and am glad to see that many are now getting married to their loved ones. Some, however, cannot leave well enough alone… There were already people lined up ready to protest this decision just hours after it was made. Some Christians are currently in outrage, and I really want to know why…What will it harm the “family” to expand it’s definition to same sex couples? Will it in any way affect the way you guide and lead your own family?

I may have been really liberal as a Christian (I wasn’t on any other issue), but this is one of those issues I just couldn’t

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Let me first say that the intent of this blog is not politics…I care about politics, I happen to love politics, but the purpose of this blog is religious freedom and the whole Christian to Atheist mindset..and other stuff of course.Political times, however, will call for more politically minded times and thusly my posts may take the occassional political twist, so I am sorry if that bugs any of my regular readers, I still value your time and will be back to the normal routine shortly.

Yesterday I got all sappy about Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony. Yesterday history was made and I am eternally greatful to have been alive to see this day. There is a time though when you have to get down to business, and that day is today. Today, we must talk policies and we MUST see Change.

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At Noon today something will occur that I never thought I might see in my lifetime. A dream deferred will become a present reality. We may not be at the mountaintop, but finally now it will be something we can actually see.

Where I grew up, in Middle Georgia, nigger is a word I hear every single day of my life. It is a word that makes me cringe to hear or type. For some reason  white people in the south do not realize the pain and exclusion that such a word can hold for a group of people. Today I feel like finally, even though it won’t silence those people,  those people are a minority in this world and the kind of ignorance and hatred they represent is dying out with them. Maybe it’s the fact that I grew up here that suprises me so much about Barack Obama winning the Presidency, living here makes it seem like having an equality mindset is a rarity, but I never thought I would actually see this…it gives me great hope that there are more people like myself and my wife whom hate all the racism and ignorance that we have grown acustomed to in the society we have had to grow up in. Both my wife and I have always been ones to stand up against this inane attitude, but more often than not it is like talking to a brick wall about how we are all essentially the same inside…this is our chance to feel like we are no longer the underdogs in a fight like this…like maybe the things we have always believed in us are simply being proven now to the rest of society.

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I am not one of those folks that thinks that Hamas is some angelic group trying to save the poor citizens of Gaza, but I don’t for one second think that they would without provocation fire rockets during a truce… That just seems inane to me, and it is. So don’t take this post as a Hamas apologetics thing, rather it should be seen as a defense  for the people, the Palestinian citizens as well as those Israeli’s that recognize that the current approach is a bad deal.

The history behind this conflict is a long one…if you don’t know you should really take the time to educate yourself on it, not that I am some expert because there are so many details on this thing I don’t think I ever could be but having at least a working knowledge of the Arab/Israeli conflict is tantamount to being an earth citizen due to the impact it has had on humanity for such a long time.

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