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Interesting article about how racism infiltrates White churches.
Interesting article (Washington Post 2014) about how racism is present in atheist organizations, Atheism has a big race problem that no one’s talking about
"White atheists have a markedly different agenda. They are, on average, more affluent than the general population. Their children don’t attend overcrowded “dropout mills” where they are criminalized, subjected to “drill and kill” curricula and shunted off to prison, subminimum-wage jobs or chronic unemployment. White organizations go to battle over church/state separation and creationism in schools. They largely ignore the fact that black nonbelievers face a racial and gender divide precipitated by rollbacks on affirmative action, voting rights, affordable housing, reproductive rights, education and job opportunities. With the highest national rates of juvenile incarceration, as well as suspension and expulsion in K-12 schools, African American youth in particular have been deeply impacted by these assaults on civil rights.
"But when we look to atheist and humanist organizations for solidarity on these issues, there is a staggering lack of interest. And though some mainstream atheist organizations have jumped on the “diversity” bandwagon, they haven’t seriously grappled with the issue. Simply trotting out atheists of color to speak about “diversity” at overwhelmingly white conferences doesn’t cut it. As Kim Veal of the Black Freethinkers network notes, this kind of tokenism exhibits a superficial interest in “minorities, but not in minority issues.” Black atheists are forced to form their own organizations, often getting pushback from some whites about creating “separatist” groups. Ultimately, if people of color don’t see atheists and humanists stepping up on issues that directly affect their communities, atheists proselytizing about the evils of organized religion will be dismissed as empty paternalism."
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 09-20-2022 at 11:14 AM..
Curious that none of the religious people reading these threads commented about this at the end of your article...
"As someone who has seen the worst of what the church can do to people, how do you still call yourself an evangelical and hold on to your faith?
I've been blessed by meeting the cream of the crop. I know there are a lot of people out there who who've been burned by the church. And I certainly went through that as a child. But as an adult, I think God said, "You've seen the worst of the church, Philip. Let me show you the best." Would I still consider myself an evangelical? Well, the word means "good news," and in most of the world, it still means good news.
The United States is the one exception, because life (here) has become so political. But in most of the world, evangelicals are people who work in prisons, who work against sexual trafficking, who do health care.
I saw the other day that 50% of the health care in sub-Sahara Africa is done by Christian mission agencies. You ask the average African, what is an evangelical? Well, he or she might not know anything about theology, but they'll say, "They're the people who come by in a van with a cross on the side once a month and treat heart diseases." That's true all over the world.
I wish that when you say the word evangelical, people would still think to what Jesus said in his in his first sermon, that "I've come to free the captives. I've come to visit prisoners, to heal the sick and feed the hungry." I wish people thought that when asked, What is an evangelical?"
Knowing what I do about the religious people who are posting in this forum on a regular basis, I'm thinking the reason for no comment is the likelihood they didn't even read the article, because of how you introduced it. Again a typical example of how confirmation bias insures most information not in line with our biases is avoided let alone considered.
I once actually saw a bumper sticker that said: "Guns for Christ".
Interesting article (Washington Post 2014) about how racism is present in atheist organizations, Atheism has a big race problem that no one’s talking about
"White atheists have a markedly different agenda. They are, on average, more affluent than the general population. Their children don’t attend overcrowded “dropout mills” where they are criminalized, subjected to “drill and kill” curricula and shunted off to prison, subminimum-wage jobs or chronic unemployment. White organizations go to battle over church/state separation and creationism in schools. They largely ignore the fact that black nonbelievers face a racial and gender divide precipitated by rollbacks on affirmative action, voting rights, affordable housing, reproductive rights, education and job opportunities. With the highest national rates of juvenile incarceration, as well as suspension and expulsion in K-12 schools, African American youth in particular have been deeply impacted by these assaults on civil rights.
"But when we look to atheist and humanist organizations for solidarity on these issues, there is a staggering lack of interest. And though some mainstream atheist organizations have jumped on the “diversity” bandwagon, they haven’t seriously grappled with the issue. Simply trotting out atheists of color to speak about “diversity” at overwhelmingly white conferences doesn’t cut it. As Kim Veal of the Black Freethinkers network notes, this kind of tokenism exhibits a superficial interest in “minorities, but not in minority issues.” Black atheists are forced to form their own organizations, often getting pushback from some whites about creating “separatist” groups. Ultimately, if people of color don’t see atheists and humanists stepping up on issues that directly affect their communities, atheists proselytizing about the evils of organized religion will be dismissed as empty paternalism."
Given the date of the article, it appears you must be Googling for articles that support your negative view about atheists perhaps? No matter. An interesting read and more of what to consider along these lines. Also interesting what you chose to quote from the article aside from some other interesting reading.
"And they can participate in conferences hosted by groups like the Black Nonbelievers Inc., Black Atheists of America and Black Skeptics Chicago. In February, many black atheists observe the Day of Solidarity for Black Non-Believers, a national event that was created by author Donald Wright in 2010 to promote awareness of black secular humanist traditions.
This fall the Black Skeptics Group, the People of Color Beyond Faith network and African Americans for Humanism will spearhead the first atheist of color conference on social justice at the Center for Inquiry in Los Angeles. Going beyond the sexy buzzword of diversity (and the narrow lens of “atheist equals good” versus “religion equals bad”), the conference will bring together nonbelievers and progressive faith organizations on such issues as homophobia and transphobia in the Black Church and prison pipelining."
Here's to more objective learning, from wherever it may come! Whatever it may be...
"A study on personality and religiosity found that members of secular organizations (like the international Center for Inquiry) have similar personality profiles to members of religious groups. This study found that members of secular organizations are very likely to label themselves primarily as "atheists", but also very likely to consider themselves humanists. It was also found that secular group members show no significant differences in their negative or positive affect. The surveyed individuals also had similar profiles for conscientiousness (discipline or impulse control, and acting on values like "pursuit of truth"). Secular group members tended to be less agreeable (e.g. more likely to hold unpopular, socially challenging views), as well as more open minded (e.g. more likely to consider new ideas) than members of religious groups. Luke Galen, a personality researcher, writes "Many previously reported characteristics associated with religiosity are a function not of belief itself, but of strong convictions and group identification." Catherine Caldwell-Harris notes that "non-believers" are interested in social justice concerns and posits that this is due to their lack of belief in an afterlife, leading to a focus on what can be fixed here and now. Another study by Caldwell-Harris describes atheists as being capable of experiencing awe, which she states debunks stereotypes of atheists as "cynical and joyless". A 2014 study created six different personality profiles of 'types' of nonbelievers and compared them to Big Five personality traits. In countries which have high levels of atheism such as Scandinavian nations, atheist organizations there generally have very low membership and only those that have links to a political party or offer legalized rituals have some noticeable membership." - Wikipedia
Interesting article (Washington Post 2014) about how racism is present in atheist organizations, Atheism has a big race problem that no one’s talking about
And misogyny. But this is a people problem, there is nothing in atheism to say people can be bigots or not. And people are talking about it.
Religion has rules, and pretends to say what is moral. It appears religious people will ignore (or abuse) their own rules when they want to.
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