I came across the Facebook page "Atheist Jesus" today, and it contained the following:
There was then a request for videos of advice or personal experiences to help folks in Melissa's situation. (Click on the graphic to participate.)
I made the following comment:
To Melissa, I would remind her less-than-loving-and-accepting loved ones that Jesus told them not to throw stones (or sandals) or judge. Violence in the name of religion (aka who someone chooses as his or her imaginary friend) seriously makes me sick.
I think the issue here is that no amount of physical or emotional torture your loved ones could do to you seems like a drop in the bucket to the eternal torture you are supposedly going to receive in Hell, and parents are told in many religions they are obligated to save your soul or can be damned themselves for your actions.
There is also the rather typical Mormon response to believe you must be kept away from the rest of the family in order to both show you the seriousness of your actions and to keep impressionable younger siblings away from your evil influence--being gay or being an atheist is treated pretty similarly in this state, and we have the highest rate of teen suicide in the nation to show for just how common kicking out homosexuals for the sake of the rest of the family is. (Legal age and parental obligations be damned, apparently.)
My conclusion on this is that we need to both show that atheists aren't "evil" people and teach the younger generation that religion is brainwashing crap so that, much like discrimination against women and blacks and now homosexuals, it becomes progressively a moot point and the haters are slowly getting shut out and dying off.
Living in Utah, it seems like quite the uphill battle, but I stand for truth and rightness. (Trust me, if you're formerly LDS, that's hilarious.)
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