The other day my friend opined the focus of many movement atheists. I'm beginning to think she's right.
EDIT This piece is not telling anyone to shut up. This piece is written from the perspective of an outspoken atheist supporter (and member) of the American Atheists' who has a critique of the organization. Dave Silverman isn't afraid to unapologetically say what he thinks, and neither am I.
The other day, my friend Bridget McKinney made the following statement on her excellent tumblr
Greater Than Lapsed:
"I’m
increasingly convinced that the reason that movement atheism is so
dominated by white men is because there is no other way they can
experience oppression."
She received a flood of rebuttals, rebukes, and high-fives on this statement, but one of the more interesting thoughts that came out of this conversation is a statement by Bridget that--to pararaphrase--many white atheist men, unaware of their privilege, are overwhelmingly concerned with the few first world problems that their lifestyle and our social structure allow to get through to them. I.E., whether or not 'under god' is on our currency, keeping 'merry christmas' greetings out of public schools, etc.
David Silverman of the American Atheists' group seems to have made it his goal in life to
embody this complaint. From the
Friendly Atheist site:
"This morning, American Atheists’ Dave Silverman made an offer to Cee Lo Green after the singer altered the lyrics to “Imagine” on New Years Eve:
Come to the Reason Rally and sing the song with the line “And no religion, too.” Dave even offered to pay the expenses for the trip."
I don't know. When people movement atheists go after Tim Tebow, or make too big of a deal out of vulgarities like Cee Lo Green's embarrassing (to him) rendition of
Imagine, I can only roll my eyes. It's fine to engage in trifles. It can be fun. But when a group that is supposed to represent America's Atheists becomes overly identified in the popular consciousness with waging righteous battles over the kinds of issues listed in this post, I think it trivializes them.That's too bad. In movement politics, it's important to consider the perceptions of the casual follower.
CROSS POSTED AT EVERYTHING IN THE MEDICINE CABINET HAS EXPIRED.