Attn: Christians

21Nov08

Hi there! Listen, I know you like to think you’re the only true religion and the rest of us are either full of shit or just plain ignorant or whatever, but did you ever stop to think that maybe some of us might be offended when your actions show that you’re assuming everyone else shares the same worldview? Now forgive me if my words are not so eloquent right now, but do understand that I’m being driven by anger at the intolerance and/or ignorance of my fellow man at the moment. So what made me so angry? You’ll laugh, but I’ll tell you anyway because it’s not so much the event that made me angry but the circumstance that I, as the only open atheist in the office, am stuck in. The culprit was a seemingly innocuous email forwarded to me by my supervisor. She’s forwarded religious themed emails to me before, but most were easy to shrug off because they read like greeting cards. Today’s email featured a picture of Billy Graham followed by this:

Billy Graham’s Prayer For Our Nation

THIS MAN SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT’S HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY!

‘Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!’

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, ‘The Rest of the Story,’ and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord’s help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called ‘One nation under God.’
Think about this: If you forward this prayer to everyone on your e-mail list, in less than 30 days it would be heard by the world. (It’s worth a try!) One Nation Under God.

There’s so much about this excerpt that I take issue with that it’s hard for me to contain myself when my coworkers are circulating it via email because if I’m getting it from them, I’m sure it’s because it aligns with their belief system. And here I am, the lone atheist (the only openly atheist anyway), and I can’t say a damned thing. Can you imagine the backlash if I started forwarding Dawkins or Hitchens emails? Even a simple reply requesting that I not be included in these forwards in the future would make me a pariah in my department. I’ve done the reply thing before, but that was when I worked in a different department and didn’t have to deal with the offenders. Why does society (and my conscience) force me to be tolerant when others can’t be bothered to extend that same courtesy?

So I’d like to take a moment to ask all of the Christians who don’t think about the rest of us before they send off those emails to take a look at the people around them and get to know them and learn to RESPECT them. Not everyone shares the same worldview, and let me tell you, the world would be a much better place if we all learned to respect our fellow man. You don’t have to respect my beliefs, but do respect my right to hold those beliefs as I do yours.

Filed under: atheism   |  5 Comments
Tags: atheism