venting here so I don't offend friends

[jynnan tonnix]

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9pHhQsqvXY&feature=player_embedded

This link was on a friend's facebook page, along with a whole slew of additional comments/agreement about how Christians are getting sucked into this vortex of false preaching, and will be burning for eternity because of it.

This is actually more of an acquaintance than friend, per se...She and her husband are very nice people who you would never suspect are fundies from normal, everyday conversation, but her facebook posts are more often than not Biblical/worshipful/decrying the state of the world where god is not foremost, and her husband, at his recent retirement ceremony from the Navy threw in a lot of preaching.

It all just really gets my adrenaline going, because I am SO tempted to respond to those facebook posts with my own thoughts on the subject, but it would not be appropriate, especially given that my husband is commanding officer, and any facebook comments I make seem to quickly get around the command. And in this case would probably serve to diminish the respect the command as a whole has for him (given our Southern locale).

So I can't say anything to her, or her ilk, directly, but it's all rising up like bile in my throat because all this drift toward a more Unitarian mindset is, rather than the work of the devil and end of all morality, the natural, healthy progression of people whose minds are beginning to open; who have come to the realization that the vengeful god of Christianity hardly jibes with any message of universal love; who may yet be able to shed the trappings of religion and live moral, useful lives free from the oppression of mythology.

Anyway, it's good to have someplace to vent when it all gets too much for me. What I wouldn't give to be able to steer some of these peolple over here and engage them incognito. Would have to change my avatar first, though

[Nick]

Haha, if they only realized the evil lurking so close to them.

I understand.  I also get frustrated when someone I know surprises me with their closed mind.  Not sure what causes that.  Most people I know seem normal but once religion pops into their head they go all batty.

I'm in  heavily Republican county so I'm about at my wits end already with the terrible socialist, communist, Muslim, 1%ter banker friend, foreign born, no business experience, in over his head, hates America, president we have.

And to top it all off, I got a call from the Democratic Party wanting me to go door to door to try to get votes for Clair McCaskel (sp.?).  I just laughed.  Hell, I'd be treated like JW coming to my door.  I was not very nice to them on the phone.  Gave them the "I'm not playing this game anymore" speech about how billionaires and corporations are controlling things and voting is nothing more than trying to make us think we are still part of the game.

[Traveler]

I really identify with your feelings. I'm normally a fairly gentle person, but lately I feel rage seething out of every pore at the sheer, terrifying reality of today's right-wing backward-ass thinking. I feel like I'm living in a horror story.

[One Above All]

BM

[writerstephen]

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9pHhQsqvXY&feature=player_embedded

It all just really gets my adrenaline going, because I am SO tempted to respond to those facebook posts with my own thoughts on the subject, but it would not be appropriate, especially given that my husband is commanding officer, and any facebook comments I make seem to quickly get around the command. And in this case would probably serve to diminish the respect the command as a whole has for him (given our Southern locale).

I share your frustration. I have christian acquaintances who have no reservations about posting their verses of the day, prayer requests, and little christian memes whenever they feel moved--and treat them as fact. But i know if i posted something about this site, or godisimaginary.com, or just a general atheist thought, i would be upsetting them and opening myself up for grief from friends and family. I know there are some on this board who would snort in derision at my hesitation, but it is an actual concern for me.

On the other hand, if an atheist "movement" is ever going to occur, i suppose people like me should stop being so damned timid and suck it up.

[screwtape]

She and her husband are very nice people

Maybe they aren't.  Maybe they only seem that way.  Maybe they are really a couple of assholes who are superficially nice and have fooled you into thinking they are actually nice.  You might want to re-evaluate your feelings toward them.

[stuffin]

Hopefully all the christians will get sucked into that vortex and burn in eternity, and leave us of the hell alone.

Seriuosly, you have to protect you livelihood first. If you do decide to open it up, do so gradually, otherwise you just might go off the deep end on one of those chiristians. You and your family don't need that.

[jynnan tonnix]

Well, we are going to be moving back up to Connecticut in a couple of months, so I hope the proportion of fundies will diminish. Having grown up mostly there, I didn't even reallize there were rabidly religious people until I was in high school, and that was enough to take me from a sort of apathetic agnostic (despite my old-country Polish Catholic upbringing) to a fervent sense that the fundamentalist Christian doctrine was royally nonsensical and, by extension, that Christianity in general was as full of holes as a sieve.

For the most part, people I've met over the years seem to have been far more Universalist than otherwise, but then again I've never been all that social, and tended to gravitate toward the artsy bohemian types in the friends I did make. It's only been in the past five or six years since my husband's position has gotten high enough that I was more or less obliged to be a bit of a presence among the wives' clubs and such that I have a far wider circle of acquaintances and have come to realize just how pervasive fundamentalist thinking really is.

We only have a couple more years until retirement, though, so maybe after that I can be a little bit more outspoken.

[Dante]

I'm soooo blessed that I dont have to hide my atheism!