Atrios “On Religion and Politics”
Atrios’ post “On Religion and Politics” has this paragraph amidst his defense of Democrats against spurious accusations of irreligion:
Secularism has essentially no representation in our media or politics. I'm sure there are secular politicians and media types, but few discuss it. No one gets on tv or writes newspaper columns or in any way participates in our contemporary mainstream political discourse and praises secularism or atheism or anything similar, and certainly not in a way which denigrates religious beliefs generally. Advocates for the separation of church and state are not advocating secularism, aside from government secularism, they're simply trying to defend freedom of religion. [emphasis added]
Unfortunately, he’s correct. For all the bluster (and fear-based fundraising) from the Right about a massive secular humanist conspiracy, there is no such thing. (In that respect, it’s quite similar to their myth of a “mainstream liberal media.”) The non-religious minority in this country is almost completely without a public voice, at a time when one is desperately needed.
I’ve written before about the nascent movement for atheists to “out” themselves, and about how we could profitably follow in the footsteps of the LGBT movement’s successes over the past few decades. More of us need to be up-front about our non-status-quo beliefs (should I say “non-beliefs”?), or the false perceptions will not change through contact with reality. The mainstream perception of freethinkers/humanists/atheists/agnostics/pagans (we are in serious need of an acronym!) is defined by religious people, to their benefit but at the expense of accuracy. Every day that passes where their misunderstandings (and sometimes outright lies) about us (that we are all immoral or amoral, relativists, nihilists, hedonists, solipsists, etc.) are allowed to stand uncorrected is a step backward for our public representation.
Speak up!