A Time to Set Aside Your Beliefs

The card we were handed at the wake. I removed her last name as it is not relevant.

Our neighbor and friend Columba died a few days ago and today we went to her wake. She was born in 1939 in Sinaloa, Mexico and was extremely religious. We weren’t close friends but we talked often as she lived directly across the street. When her husband died two years ago I found homes for his dogs, which Columba felt she could not care for.

Her granddaughter told me the news. The memorial was held here in Bisbee, then she will be taken to Mexico for burial. The Mexican custom is to stay with the body until burial. She lay in an open white casket, her body covered with an Our Lady of Guadalupe blanket and a rosary wrapped around her hands. The casket had small oval Our Lady of Guadalupe insets all around it.

We were two of a handful of white people there and didn’t know anyone except her immediate family. The service consisted of readings from the Bible and the customary Christian eulogy. The priest asked for “audience participation” as he read traditional psalms.

There was no laughter at this wake. Columba’s family is large and grief filled the room. She was a tiny, frail, sweet woman. The family displayed pictures of her life and she was incredibly beautiful when she was young.

Although I am an atheist, I was not uncomfortable today. I did not participate in the responses the priest asked for, but this is not a time to share your opposing convictions.

Inside of card:

Te fuiste de este mundo, dejando un gran vacio en nuestro corazones y un gran silencio en aquel que fue tu hogar. Si tu estuvieras aqui, notarias cuan grande es nuestro dolor, al no tenerte aqui, entre nosotros, ¿Sabes como te extranamos? Ha pasado poco tiempo desde que nos dejaste, Para ya nunca mas regresar a aquel que fue tu hogar, en donde tenias todo el amor de tus hijos y nietos. Pero Dios te llevo de este mundo siendo tan buena para tenerte a su lado, te adelantastes en el camino se que desde alli, tu nos miras y tambien nos esperaras hasta que nosotros, tu familia nos volveremos a unir nuevamente para ser feliz nuevamente junto a ti: “Con todo nuestro amor nana Columba”

The Big Fat Egos of the Famous

When successful, well-known people tell you they want to hear from you, note well: unless you’re telling them you love them, they’re lying.

I listened to a sketch by a comedian about the horrors of “nationalism” who says that if you’re that pathetic that illegals take work from you, then “you’re a loser of epic, humiliating proportions.”

As a housecleaner, I face this every day. It’s very hard to find work here on the AZ/Mexico border, so I guess that makes me a loser. Since this guy’s usually surrounded by a hundred asskissers, it’s impossible to have a conversation with him. He says in his sketches that he likes freaks and outcasts and people who don’t follow the rules. But only if you agree with his views on what the rules are.

Since I am acquainted with him, I felt it would be OK to write him an email stating my case. I didn’t think it was offensive, but even if it was, his whole “brand” is being as offensive as possible on stage. I ended my letter by telling him how much I like most of his work. In his nasty email back to me, he said “Don’t give me shit, asshole. Why can’t you just be happy?”

He’s a fanatic atheist of the white-Christian-hating ilk. The one time I was able to ask him why he doesn’t object to Islam, he said “oh that’s for those Fox-news-watching assholes.” (I am neither left nor right, instead I appreciate people who think for themselves.)

There are some very good atheist websites that cover all religions in a scientific way. But there are also many who absolutely hate white Christians only. The last time I posed the question “why is this” on my blog, I received a lot of nasty mail. The obnoxious comments did not come from religious people, but from Christian haters. Most were unprintable, and I resolved to discard this subject. They say things like Islam doesn’t affect us, etc. I thought we were at war with a couple of Islamic countries. Have you noticed the New York skyline? Do you know what Sharia is? Misogyny as law?

Yet these same people want to open up the borders, apparently not aware that Mexico is fervently Christian. Right, they’re not white. The embarrassment and self-hatred of many white Americans is the only explanation I can come up with for this half-ass atheism. You’re an atheist or you’re not.

This comedian also says that he likes outspoken people and anti-depressants may be the one last thing that destroys any personality you have left. What a load of shit. Dude, you don’t want personality, you want minions.

When celebrities don’t want to hear what their fans say, they are doing themselves a disservice and will never grow. He will keep spouting the same bullshit over and over. He hates America so much that it’s a mystery why he lives here.

People say this guy is “nice” in real life. That’s because they don’t challenge him. Since I don’t fit the suckup bill, I don’t agree.

I gave up the confrontational ways of my younger days long ago. Growing up in a family of bullies, I know that to save your sanity, you must walk away. I am so sick to death of bullies, they’re everywhere. I could write him back and try to explain that I was only trying to have a dialogue about something that affects me personally—but I know from experience that intimidators MUST have the last word, and rational people MUST let them.

I will never watch, listen, or speak to him again. This blog is the only recourse I have to explain myself. He doesn’t give a shit about my blog and would never lower himself to read it, so he’ll never know. But you will.

If This is the New Atheism…

…then I’ll stick with the old-fashioned kind.

I read the following in an atheist blog yesterday, written in response to the recent protests in Egypt. First there’s a link to the story, “Christians pelt Egypt minister as unrest fears rise.” There are hundreds of similar articles online.

Here’s the blogger’s response:

“I always thought Christianity advertised itself as a peaceful religion myself. But time and again we see things like this where angry Christian practitioners commit such violent acts. And sadly, history is littered with them. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, and antisemitism are just a few fine examples. Here’s a great quote from author Sam Harris in his book ‘Letter to a Christian Nation’ “…faith inspires violence in at least two ways. First, people often kill other human beings because they believe that the creator of the universe wants them to do it… Second, far greater numbers of people fall into conflict with one another because they define their moral community on the basis of their religious affiliation…” Christianity is unfortunately a prime example of this behavior, particularly the second part of the quote. In Christianity’s view the only moral people are Christians. Everyone else is essentially a heretic.”

Atheists please. Even if you were religiously abused as a child by Christian holy rollers, this is harsh and inappropriate.  A group of people who riot in anger after the massacre of family and friends is hardly a case of “angry Christian practitioners committing violent acts.”

For their crime of refusing to become part of the dominant totalitarian religion, a religion that controls every single aspect of daily life, the Copts may as well be atheists. Finally a group with the guts to stand up to the iron grip of Islam, and all you can do is sneer at them for throwing stones? Those damn hypocrites!

It’s not like you’re going to praise them for NOT fighting back, they’ll still be ignorant Christians to you. But what would you have them do…assimilate? Is that what you would do?

It is the reaction of the Copts that has brought this to the world’s attention. Christians of Egypt have few rights, and face restrictions and intimidation in all aspects of their lives. So it is a source of encouragement to see religious intolerance exposed, anger raised, and the world take note. It wasn’t always this way in Egypt, the assaults on Christians have risen dramatically in the past 20 or 30 years.  Maybe the momentum of this attack will somehow be the catalyst for open dialogue and progress, but I imagine little will be accomplished, until the next bombing, and the next…as anyone who openly defies Islam is a target.

This is a critical issue not because they are Christians, but because they are not Muslims.

Equal Opportunity Atheism

I have lived my life feeling fear and repulsion toward religion. I’ve talked about it so much that I now find the subject boring. What’s the point in arguing with a believer? After all the debating, letters to editors, wisecracks and open hostility to religious individuals and their groups, my thinking has shifted. My atheism transcended attempting to reason with religious people long ago. Atheism is not about two intelligent people disagreeing as to whether there’s a god—it’s about keeping that god out of the lives of nonbelievers.

Just as religion drives or divides political parties, atheism has platforms too, and they are mighty puzzling. A leftist view of atheism calls for peace and love and destroying Christian institutions, I guess that would include the helpful ones too, like hospitals. Christianity is evil, yup I get it. They did a lot of bad stuff. The fundamentalists still do. So after a good round of public Christian bashing (as can be commonly found now in all media), shouldn’t I feel smug? More elite? Gratified that it’s all out in the open now and anybody in America can openly admit to being an atheist without fear of reprisal? No, because I’m too busy being embarrassed for being a white American and living next door to these Christian bastards.

A stand-up comic whom I have been a fan of for a long time has sold out of his “Death of a Salesman” T-shirts he’s marketing this season. He’s forged his considerable success by saying shocking, abrasive things and most of them are pretty funny, so this T-shirt is a real disappointment. I honestly can’t see myself wearing it. If you’re going for outré, Christian bashing isn’t really it, unless maybe you just heard of it or you’re very young. Christian bashing is no longer outrageous or shocking or scandalous or even all that offensive. It’s the religion of white America and you can say anything you want about them. True atheism is a positive force, but Christian bashing is merely fashionable.  Don’t think for a minute that if you take down Christianity it will be replaced with the sanity and reason of no religion at all.

Death of a Salesman T-shirt

I saw a woman wearing this T-shirt with a cross around her neck worn on the outside of the shirt. Huh? I asked her why she would wear this T-shirt with a cross but she had no answer I could make sense of. So what exactly are you saying? Maybe people don’t get it. Maybe I don’t get it and need it explained to me. Maybe it was purposely designed to be vague so more people would wear it.  If I see you wearing this T-shirt, be prepared for a short quiz!

The definition of atheism is the disbelief in a god or gods, and that means all of them. Christianity does not affect my daily life. I am not forced to pray, publicly worship, wear a veil, or obey the males in my family. As much as I bitch, I can do whatever I want and so can you if you live here. When small groups of fundamentalist Christian nutcases come along and the effects of their antics hugely exaggerated, Christianity gets a shitload of bad press and everybody’s got to get in on the joke. The spin works to make all white American Christians look like a bunch of rednecks, and this just isn’t the case.

Anyway, I ordered this T-shirt  from cafepress.com and I can’t wait to wear it.