Blaming the Godless Messenger

Recently a fundie accused me of continuously focusing on media reports of the hideous acts committed by Christians, both clergy and lay people. You know, the murder of the abortion doctor, the acts of Fred Phelps, the molestation of kids by pastors, the torture of children by devout parents, etc.

Evidently, the fact that clergy, men of God, vicars of Christ, and the deluded sheep they herd frequently commit atrocities and obscene acts of abuse and degradation on their fellow man in the name of God/Jesus or to fend off Satan, wasn’t his primary concern. It’s the reporting of it that irked him … as though I singlehandedly might give religion a bad name (religion does that all by itself with no help from me.)

Invariably the old canard pops up:
“ Any one who calls themselves a Christian who perpetrates those acts is “not a True Christian.”
But this is nonsense. We have been amused and disgusted by this tact for as long as these US Christian fundamentalist sects have been holding themselves up as the arbiters of who is / isn’t a Christian, in spite of what scripture and Jesus himself identifies as prerequisites for being “saved” / labeled Christian.

No, the condemnation, the complaint, this fundie has is with me, the messenger. Better these “fake” Christian’s acts not be held up to scrutiny and dragged into the light of public opinion. Better the self appointed inquisitors of who is / isn’t Christian be spared the embarrassment and indignity of having to explain away, apologize, deny how a doctrine that claims a monopoly on morality and goodness breeds such disgusting behavior.

The media is full of these reports of theist attrocity. It’s a weekly if not daily occurrence. A recent example is a forced exorcism on a child by his mother who handcuffed him and denied him food for three days in order to purge "the demon" from his body. Here’s the whole story: http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=131511&catid=3

Ask a fundie: “Without religious superstitions, from where would such a delusion leading to such abuse have originated????” …their silence is deafening.

Whether it’s hyper-religiosity caused by mental disease, or simply a minister taking advantage of a child by using his shaman like authority to intimidate, these acts are there. They are real. They are commited by the devout, the followers of a mythic man-god, the readers of and adherents to scripture. They justify the act in the name of scripture.

When the day arrives that an atheist tortures or murders her own child in the name of “NO God” or “NO Satanic possession”; or a renowned atheist figure rapes a child and uses his atheism as leverage to get into that kid’s pants and intimidate him into silence, I promise to report it. Until then, don’t blame the godless messenger for the copious grotesque acts of the religiously deluded. It comes with theist territory.