THE SAD RADICALIZATION OF ATHEISM

I read something sad and scary yesterday.

Yesterday on my Facebook page, I shared a blog article called “WHAT LITTLE GIRLS WISH DADDIES KNEW” by Tara Lee.  Tara Lee is a counselor who writes on her personal blog.

The article included a list of 25 statements in the voice of a young daughter telling her daddy what she wishes he knew.

The comments were pretty positive until someone said:     “Great list, except #5.”

Number 5 on Tara’s list was:   Every time you show grace to me or someone else, I learn to trust God a little more.

The comment prompted the usual internet back and forth about God and Christianity and America.  The exchange didn’t break any new philosophical ground.   

Another comments was:        “Please remove #5 – no one likes it when people try and push religion down their throats. It’s unbecoming. If you want to do it so badly, don’t publish what you write.”

What did Tara Lee do that was “unbecoming”?    

She used the word “God” in a positive way one time in one sentence of one item among a list of 25 items.

And that alone someone believed amounted to an attempt to “push religion down their throats.”

Follow the comment thread on faith based links that get shared around Facebook and you’ll see that this commentator isn’t an anomaly.  His response is very much typical.

I believe that the commentator was sincere, and that’s what’s sad.    It’s sad that people believe that just saying “God” amounts to pushing religion down their throats.  And it’s scary that there are those who sincerely feels that ANY positive reference to God even on someone’s PERSONAL blog should be censored, that the internet should be cleansed of such “unbecoming” language.

Christian leaders are more and more tolerant of other belief systems.   Christian scholars are more and more critical of basic Biblical doctrine and supportive of everything other than basic Biblical doctrine. 

In the meantime, atheism/ anti-Christianism/ post-Christianity is becoming less and less tolerant of Christians.  The culture is becoming more and more hardened in its response to even the slightest expressions of dissent from a strictly non-Christian philosophy. 

As Christian theology become less orthodox, atheist theology is becoming more radicalized.

And that is sad and scary.

But mostly---- scary.

Here’s the link to Tara’s article.  http://tarahedman.com/girls-daddies-knew/ 

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

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