And, Of Course, There Is That Whole Thing That Jesus Supposedly Said About NOT Praying In Public And

And, of course, there is that whole thing that Jesus supposedly said about NOT praying in public and going to pray in private...

“The story the right tells about Kennedy is one of a humble, pious coach who wanted only to engage in private prayer after games — “a brief prayer of thanks,” as his lawyer put it — and was persecuted by his employer as a result. That story is a complete distortion of the facts in this case. But it’s a common one, in which conservatives claim that if they are not allowed to impose their religion on others, then they have been victimized and the Constitution must bend to accommodate them. In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored prayers, even vague, nondenominational ones, violated the establishment clause’s prohibition on the establishment of state religion, even if they were supposedly “voluntary” for students. This decision was one of the most controversial in the court’s history, and to this day some conservatives blame it for for a range of societal ills from births out of wedlock to school shootings. Then in 2000, the court addressed whether it was permissible for a school to allow student-led sectarian prayer during events such as graduation and football games; the court said no. Students and faculty are free to pray on their own and gather to do so; the question is whether those prayers are official in any way. In this case, the coach’s prayers were not private or individual at all, no matter how many photo shoots he does portraying himself as a solitary figure communing with his god. They were not only public but also clearly a performance meant to attract the maximum attention possible; if you’re praying for yourself, you don’t go to the 50-yard-line at the conclusion of the game to do it.”

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The Supreme Court’s threat to the separation of church and state

I am an atheist. For my entire life, I’ve been told that I MUST respect people who believe in a narrowly-defined version of the Christian god, even though America is explicitly non-religious in our Constitution. And I have done my best to just live and let live, even when they are being reprehensible, cruel, aggressively in my face about everything, based entirely on a belief I do not share.

And I’ve just had enough. I’m done playing nice with people who are doing everything they can to force me and others to live our lives according to their religious beliefs. I’m done being tolerant of intolerance.

I’m done being polite. I’m done respecting someone’s bullshit and quietly minding my business. If these Evangelical Authoritarians are going to push America even deeper into Theocracy, I’m done being polite. I’m going to punch back and I’m going to punch back HARD.

If someone wants to believe in a story and use that story to guide their lives, that’s awesome. Go nuts. Worship all you want, privately, where nobody can tell you what to do. Do it in public, even, AND ACCEPT THAT NOBODY HAS TO LISTEN TO YOU, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS. Freedom OF religion means nothing without freedom FROM religion. 

Fuck these people. Fuck their bullshit invisible sky ghost who tells them what to do, and fuck them for doing everything they can to force me and anyone else to live in the same fear and authoritarianism they embrace.

I was real happy to just live and let live, and that wasn’t enough for the authoritarian evangelicals. Because, for these people, this is entirely about control and white supremacy. No matter how they try to dress it up, that’s who they are. All of them.

And I’m done tolerating them and their bullshit.

(via wilwheaton)