this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
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Atheism
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Being an atheist in a rural area is not easy. One of the first questions someone asks is -what church do you go to? People look horrified when you mention atheism. My employer says Christian prayers over employee meals, with the head of HR clasping her hands, lowering her head, and praying right along. Constantly awkward. Religion has an iron grip out here.
Aye. Here it's not "stand up and be counted", it's "stand up and be felled".
So we continue to require the same closet that gays sometimes do.
In that case, we shouldn't expect atheists to individually be out and proud until it is safe for them to do so.
I'm also curious how much hate-motivated violence is committed against atheists and pagans (compared to Muslims, who've been a target since 2001)
I had this same experience when I moved from Seattle to rural Iliinois a few years ago. Two of my neighbors invited me to their church, and another neighbor is a church. Luckily, my MIL who lived here (and is the reason we moved here) was a member of a different church, so I could beg off by mentioning that and avoid the whole atheism discussion completely.
To this day, I've never mentioned it to any of my neighbors.