Scarlet Letter

[garote]

You know those snotty t-shirts that say, "Know Jesus, Know peace"? Well, now atheists can get their own signature shirts. (I just bought two.)

"As yet another delightful T-shirt put it, "Don't pray in our school, and I won't think in your church." "

Another amusing one, from Landover Baptist.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Wow. It is quite possible to be intelligent, educated and informed while still having a place for prayer and G-d in your life. It is clearly just as possible to be very smart and very close and cruel minded.

[graue.livejournal.com]

This reaction is why I would never buy a snotty atheist t-shirt.

[garote]

If a christian can put a plastic fish decal on the back of their SUV, proclaiming their membership in a cult, then I can wear a T-shirt with a scarlet letter on it, proclaiming my lack of membership. What's more, if you think that puts me and the christian on the same level, you're ignoring the crucial difference between our respective proclamations.

[garote]

Also:

Possible, yes.

Even you, my anonymous reproacher, will only go so far as to admit that it is possible.

I suspect that you are reproaching the wrong person and you know it.

[rudetuesday.livejournal.com]

I like the scarlet letter shirt. It's subtle, literary, clever and polite. The other ones, though funny, are just tacky.

Even when I was a Christian at my most devout, I thought it was sacriligious to wear clothing that shouted belief. I never wore a cross and thought crucifixes were tasteless, too.

Post pics of you in the shirt, okay?

[garote]

I agree, actually. The others are tacky, and I would never buy or wear them, but they still amuse me. Fifteen years ago I was anti-christian on a personal, specific basis, and might have worn one of those shirts if it had been available. I can only imagine what the outcry from the high school staff would have been like.

Nowadays I am much less angry at christians on a personal level, and am also much less interested in mocking them publicly. The religious folks I've met in my own travels have all been decent and kind. But the church experiences I had between then and now were quite different than the brief experience I'd had as a child.

[conflictdswitch.livejournal.com]

I remember wearing my Adobe shirt (all black with the well known red A in the center) in high school while we were reading "The Scarlet Letter. I'm glad it can have another meaning now. But I never preferred Atheist, I like Agnostic better. Although, to this day, it gets me into trouble with people who think it's their personal job to convert my ass (and the rest of me). Why can't they realize that their god gave me a choice to be who I am?

[graue.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I've never had this problem. I seem to run into atheists trying to convert people more often...

[garote]

Oh? How often, and where?

[conflictdswitch.livejournal.com]

There seem to be a *lot* of Jehovah's witnesses around my area. Seems like they come knocking every weekend. Plus, I made a lot of social connections during high school (private Catholic) and a good number of them seem to have "found Jesus." So, whenever I run into them, they preach religion at me.

[ammenda.livejournal.com]

Here's the thing, though. I don't think questioning religion, especially organized religion, is at all equivalent to trying to convert anybody. I would never tell someone to give up their religion, only to inform themselves further, or to not use "what God/the bible says" to excuse themselves from wrongdoing. That is not conversion as I would be uninterested in where this person ends up faithwise, I am only interested in them behaving like a responsible and kind human being.

[garote]

Nicely said :)

[ammenda.livejournal.com]

:)

Every once in a while I have a moment where! omgz, I have something to say and I actually know exactly how to say it. It's so nice when that happens.

[garote]

I think it's because they have grown up laboring with intense feelings of guilt. For example, guilt that their nastiest, most private thoughts are always audible to a judgmental presence. Or maybe just guilt over something they have done. They join (or are roped into) a cult that declares they are forgiven for this guilt, and feel a whole lot better ... so much better that they eagerly devote their time to roping in others, to share their relief and to swell the ranks of this group that accepts them.

It's creepy and scary, but, speaking as an outsider, it's the closest explanation I can come up with for why proselytizers are so fervent.

[conflictdswitch.livejournal.com]

I will *never* understand the guilt thing. How can a loving and caring god make a person feel guilty about anything they do, think, or feel? Plus, the whole "ask for forgiveness and you shall receive it" thing seems like it would alleviate the guilt, but it doesn't. I guess religion doesn't really allow for logic. 8)