To my fellow atheists:
This week on the rec list we've had more than a few diaries that can only be described as Christian punching. I won't link them. You know where to find them. Enough is enough already. It's bad manners, bad politics and bad policy. We are all, believers or otherwise, on the same team. Team Democrat. So, my fellow atheists, cut the crap.
We have better things to do, like, oh, I don't know.
Fight the Republicans.
Ok, I am a so-called hard Atheist. I enjoy discussing atheism and religion here. I am also drawn to the atheist/Christian dialog, and even the battles.
But I am also a Democrat. Or rather, here at the Dkos, I am much more a Democrat than an atheist. This sight is about electing more and better Dems. The issues we may have with religion in general and Christianity in particular are inconsequential to that purpose. Dedicated liberal/progressive Dems, Christian or not, DOMINATE this site. We all want social and economic justice, good policy, and good government. We all want to pry off the strangle-hold that Right Wing America has on our political system.
We all want our country back. That is why I come here. That is why most of us come here.
Simply put, we are on the same team. Team Democrat.
I am saddened that while the Republicans in Congress are running a high-stakes, who-blinks-first charade with the Administration, we squabble about religion. While the Republicans hold the debt ceiling as hostage, we bicker with teh Christians and erect destructive straw men rooted in half-baked ignorant prejucide. While the Republicans pull a retread of their infamous shut-down-the-govt cynical idiocy they tried with Clinton back in the day, only this time it REALLY MATTERS if we default on our loans, we have diarists whine about Christians and you rec them up.
And if that were not bad enough, we have a dedicated Democrat hurling insults and abuse at another dedicated Democrat for, well, being a Christian. Now that's just mean.
Like I said, I am a so-called hard Atheist. Like I said, I like to engage a bit in the atheist/Christian battles.
But that gives me no license to insult someone because they are Christian. It is just bad manners to do so. So cut the shit, my fellow atheists. Quit making me look bad.
And, much more importantly, as a liberal Democrat, cut the shit period. These silly, superstitious, deluded, etc bla bla bla, Christians are your fellow Dems! They are not "they"
"They" are "us." Team Democrat.
So, enough already.
End of rant
UPDATE
Rec list? Thanks. Let's kick Republican Ass.
UPDATE #2
First, my thanks to everyone for the open, honest and civil debate. There have been some comments to the effect that this whole issue wouldn't be a problem if teh Chritshuns would just clam-up about their annoying and oppressive religion. About that:
1. The Christian Right is never gonna shut up. [Note: that is the name of the bad guy. The Christian Right] It's their goddam lives. It's all they got. They cling to their guns and their Bibles -- even through most seem to not read the thing, they know they hate abortion, teh gays, teh evil Mooslum Obama, etc etc. Real America™ will never shut up about it.
2. Given that, and given that many centrist and liberal Americans consider themselves Christian, we better not only talk about it as well. We must have answers -- good progressive, liberal and social justice answers -- to their bullshit right wing nonsense. When people hunger for meat, they will eat McDonald's if we don't give them steak. And they don't want to be vegetarians. They will get their meat. Railing against Christianity is the same. They don't want atheism. They want Jesus. As is their goddam right.
3. Progressive Christians are the ONLY groups who have the intellectual and institutional infrastructure to fight back against right wing xtianity. Case and point:
I think there's a fair amount of shit-piling (grin) that most people aren't aware of. For instance, when the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted in 2009 to open the ministry to gay and lesbian pastors in committed relationships -- removing the previous requirement of celibacy -- that was an outcome of decades of work by thousands of Lutherans who refused to live with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in their denomination. It didn't just happen. And its purpose isn't just to allow a few more people to serve as pastors, but to move toward making churches safe for LGBT people. (I'm not a Lutheran, so I'm not the best person to tell the story, although I've followed it somewhat over the years.)
-- Hudson Valley Mark
Thus, even if you assume that teh Chrisshuns are different than you, that they are not part of same Team Democrat that you are, they are your allies. Not only your allies, they are essential allies in our fight to take our country back.
4. Most important, "they" are not "they." They are us. More than a few posters have said things like them Xtians got to clean their house, or their "status as Christians" makes them different than us, the Real Progressives.™
No one passingly familiar with the history of progressivism in this country could ever make a statement like that. For chrissake, William Jennings Bryan was the dominant force in the liberal wing of our party for quite some time. He was also a religious nut job. Regardless, our fellow Democrats, who happen to be Christian, have just as much a claim on the terms progressives and liberal as you and I have. Those who think otherwise are simply ignorant. Christains are part of the root and branch of progressivism. You who think otherwise have no right to arrogate progressivism. Doing so is not merely historically baseless and devoid of being reality-based; it is bad manners, bad politics and just plain stupid.
So cut the crap. Let's kick Republican butt!