"Being a Black Atheist"

Almost all of my friends are atheists, agnostics, former believers or lapsed somethings. I have one friend, however, who is a practicing, believing, weekly-service-attending - albeit liberal - Catholic. I don't hesitate to get in the face of friends or acquaintances who try to slip some religion by me - one friend got a 20-minute lecture for daring to tell me "don't give up on god" - but I don't in the case of my Catholic friend.

That's because this practicing Catholic friend is black.

Religion means something very different to African-Americans than it does to Americans of other races. Religious faith - as ridiculous and misguided as we today know it to be - got a lot of African Americans through life as slaves and life under Jim Crow. Religious faith spurred, grew, strengthened and gave victory to the Civil Rights Movement.

I honor that history and do not hector my highly educated, intelligent Catholic friend about the stupidity and destructiveness of religion, though I do not hide my own atheism.

Which is why I am glad to see this post "Being a Black Atheist, Part One" from Minority Atheists of Michigan.

In the black culture, christianity is thrust on you at an early age.  You are christened before you roll the alphabet off your tongue.  You are taught prayers before you learn your address.  You are brainwashed from the beginning to call out for “jesus” or “good lord” before you know how to dial 911.  Hypocrisy becomes ingrained.  You can smoke, drink, dance and commit any sin from Monday through Saturday,  so long as you go to church on Sunday.

Since being brought into the Americas, African-Americans have had the foundation of their culture layed with christianity.   You can simply listen to the radio, and here rap songs that talk about gangrapiing a woman and in later lyrics mention praying to god.  We are taught not to think for ourselves.  Instead, brainpower is encouraged to be diverted to reading your kids bible pamphlets, cute stories that are written like the same fantasy stories kids read in school.

As a child, you are taught that race determines what you like.  Anything that is not what you are taught is considered “not black” and not accepted.  In most cases, when it comes to “nonchristian”, it is considered not black and evil. Worldy is the word they use.  No child wants to wear the scarlet letter of unacceptance and being demonized.  You start to fear being called the word “worldly”.  Preachers and bishops determined what is worldly with what seems like the logic of a coinflip.  Violent cartoons were okay. Dungeons and Dragons was the devil.  Any belief other than the holy trinity was evil and not worth learning.  Womanizing politicians were okay so long as they were christian.

So the end result is culture of zombies, too indoctrinated from generations of brainwashing to decide their own life. The best brainwashing is the kind where the subjects no longer need to be brainwashed, but are trained to brainwash the future members.
 
Pavlov would be proud of the end result.

I don't think my Catholic friend is a zombie or brainwashed - just unable to separate religion from race.

Via divine irony.