Letter to a Unitarian Minister: Where I Stand

Some weeks ago I wrote a letter to the editor of a local “Shopper's News” circular. It was in response to a rambling Christian fanatic’s assertion that the US is a “Christian Nation”. I provided facts and historical documentation that refuted the theist's idiocy. Surprisingly, they printed it in their next issue.
[ see "Christian Nation" http://atheistcamel.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html ]

Today I received a letter from a total stranger, a Unitarian Minister thanking me for what I wrote, and endorsing my position. The following is my letter in reply to the Reverend. I offer it here not only as an insight as to what drives my activism, but also as a possible template for others who might want to use some of my perspectives in their own public writings.


Dear Reverend W------;, March 26, 2008

Thank you for your kind words in support of my letter to the Monadnock Shopper News. Frankly, I had anticipated a firestorm of responses from Christians, all based on emotional appeal, and denial or lack of knowledge of our country’s history. That I did not is probably attributable to NH’s demographics. Had I published it in the “Little Rock, Ark. Shopper News” I’d likely have to dictate this letter through wired jaws.

I was a Psychology major / Religion minor in college, and an atheist in a foxhole in Vietnam (‘68- ’69). In 2004 I retired early, after thirty two years, from a senior position with a major national retail company, my wife and I moving from New York to our home here in New Hampshire. I’m an atheist whose philosophy is perhaps bested summarized as Secular Humanist.

Having been on the receiving end of Christian intolerance in the army; after witnessing the transformation of my Republican Party into the “Party of Jesus”; seeing the efforts of medieval fundamentalists to insert Creationist / Intelligent Design hocus pocus into public school curriculum; and watching the Christian war on science right into the 20th/21st centuries, et al., I have gradually become something of an activist anti-theist.

The last straw, or perhaps the ultimate awakening, was the realization that there are misguided utopian millennialists who’s perspective of the world, and how it “should be”, is founded in self-righteous, archaic, and dangerous Christian dogma. For the past seven years this mindset has resulted in alienating us from the rest of the world. It positioned the US as a country to be feared and hated, not respected. It has embroiled us in a senseless conflict that has wasted American lives, eroded the potential for stability in the Middle East, all the while diverting attention and resources from this nation’s real priorities … improving the lives of our citizens and those of the generations to follow.

Thus, while I recognize the importance of fighting the threat of theist extremists who wish to harm us from without, I am also very aware of our home grown theist extremists whose religious zeal threatens our liberties and freedoms from within. Therefore when I read or hear of attempts to distort and undermine the gifts with which our Founding Fathers endowed us, either through ignorance, attempts at revisionist history, or outright religious fanaticism, I cannot, I will not remain silent.

I am a contributing member of a number of national organizations which have been formed to protect our rights and maintain Jefferson’s “wall of separation” between church and state. I have enclosed a list of them that I would urge you, your freedom loving friends, and congregation to consider supporting, irrespective of their philosophies, personal “beliefs” or lack thereof.

Again, my thanks for your nice letter.

Yours truly,