Ugly Stereotypes

We've all heard the stereotypes that are thrown about so callously. Jews are rich. Black men have unusually large coupling gear. Gay men swish when they walk and lisp when they talk. Rednecks are stupid. Asians are smart. Women are bad drivers. All men think about is sex.

Atheists are evil.

Nowadays, most journalists and news organizations conscientiously avoid perpetuating stereotypes like the ones listed above because they are not generally true and can be incredibly bigoted and hurtful to the people targeted with their broad brush. They avoid it - except for the last one.

Atheists have become the new whipping boy of choice here in America. We have supplanted the dreaded "liberal" in the minds of a conservative majority as domestic enemy number one, ranking somewhere below middle-eastern terrorists in the "people I wouldn't want my daughter or son to marry" list.

Incredibly vile, bigoted, hurtful statements are thrown around about what atheists do or don't do, how they live their lives (amorally), how they "hate god", and how they are just plain Evil with a capital "E".

Of course, the fact that none of this is true in the general sense does not seem to make much of a difference to the people continuing these types of harmful stereotypes. Individual atheists may or may not be evil, or immoral, just like individual theists can be evil or immoral. Atheism and theism does not indicate any of those characteristics in any way, shape, or form. The words simply indicate the presence or absence of god-belief in a human being - and nothing else. To say that "atheists kicked God out of school," is just as silly and just as bigoted as saying "Jews killed Christ", and for exactly the same reasons.

Atheists are the last minority group in America that it is OK, and even encouraged, to discriminate against.

Take for example the Republican Party of Texas. They recently called Ben Franks, the Democratic nominee for a seat on the 6th Court Of Appeals a "professed atheist".

[Law.com] The Austin-based Republican Party of Texas played the religion card in a Sept. 21 online newsletter. As alleged in the newsletter, Texarkana solo E. Ben Franks, Democratic nominee for a seat on the 6th Court of Appeals, "is reported to be a professed atheist" and apparently believes the Bible is a "collection of myths.'"

Jebus. Replace "atheist" with "communist" and it feels a whole lot like McCarthy Red Baiting back in the 50s. The sad part is that this strategy will probably work.

The Dickson Herald, a small newspaper serving Dikson County, Tennessee, writes a story about a Russian judge who visited Dickson County recently. The headline for the story which was reported as actual news?

"Russian judge shows compassion after God enters her life"

She never, ever showed compassion before she started hearing voices in her head? Not once? I find that very difficult to believe. Sounds like tabloid sensationalism to me.

[link] Before God came into her heart, Chief Justice Gulnara Belenkaya was a diehard communist atheist.

But, she said God began speaking to her after a serious car accident and how she views the people who come before her in court.

Belenkaya, a born-again Christian, recently spent several days in Dickson County talking about her conversion and spoke Monday at the Charlotte Courthouse annex. As the American equivalent of a Circuit Court of Appeals judge, she said prior to her conversion she had always believed the people appearing before her were guilty.

She would sentence them and then go on about her life, never giving a thought to what might happen to them in prison.

But at Monday’s presentation, she told of a man who she had sentenced for killing someone and after her conversion, of how she went to his cell to pray with him and tell him that God loved him.

Let me tell you something - if she was a heartless, cruel bitch before she went insane and started hearing voices in her head and praying with convicted murderers, then it wasn't because of her "atheism" - it was because she was a heartless, cruel bitch. Now she's a crazy heartless cruel bitch who mixes church and state all together and piously preaches from the bench. Yep, that's sure better than an objective, logical secular judge who can fairly look at all sides of a case and render a fair sentence in accordance with the law.

"The Devil made me do it" doesn't fly with me. Take some responsibility for yourself for a change, Chief Justice Belenkaya. Quit blaming your own mistakes on imaginary friends.

If we don't get a handle on this discrimination against atheists by good old regular Joe and Jane American, we could very well be heading into a period of "Godless Baiting". And with the suspension of habeas corpus, and the inability of people to recover court costs on First Amendment violation cases, are "Atheist Internment Camps" complete with "re-training" techniques like waterboarding far behind?

Yeah, I know. Probably not. Am I paranoid? You bet I'm paranoid. I'm not an idiot and I can see the way the wind is blowing. I just don't want to be caught sleeping when the other shoe drops.