Thanks to the Roy Moore’s sex scandal I have been able to observe many reactions of many people, and the one that surprise me and disgusted me the most was, of course, the people that were still defending an alleged pedophile.
Not only some people are still defending these actions, but they are using a story about purity, the virgin Mary story, to defend the actions of this man, because “Mary was a teenager”.
For me this interpretation of the story is disgusting, and makes Christmas a time to vomit. I’m really happy to be an atheist right now, and to know that it is a made up story; leaving aside the fact that Mary was a virgin.
Many people, understandably, called the people defending Roy Moore’s actions “immoral”, and I agree with them, thinking that these actions are acceptable is completely immoral and shouldn’t be tolerated and this society.
What I don’t agree with, and this Post is about, is that some atheists are saying that Christians defending Roy Moore should stop calling themselves Christians. That sounds to what a Christian would say!
Just think about what saying this implies, it implies that only if you are moral you can call yourself a Christian, therefore creating synonyms between being moral and being a Christian.
Atheists always say that morality doesn’t come from god (and it doesn’t), then why are so many atheists quick to call out immoral godly people? But not calling them out as I think it should be, in a way that points out that they are just people that can be immoral because they don’t have a special connection with anything; no, they are called out as fake Christians, and are shamed into rejecting the name “Christian”.
Even though Alabama Evangelicals are more likely to support Roy Moore after child molestation accusations, that doesn’t mean that they are not true believers, is not like you have to choose between being immoral and delusional.
And yeah, it definitely angers me that these people call themselves more moral than atheists just because they believe in god, but by saying that they aren’t true believers it only follows the logic that says that immorality can only come from people that doesn’t believe in “the true god(s)”.
When you say to Christians that you are an atheist, they tend to affirm that you are wrong and going to hell, while at the same time they claim to be peaceful and loving. Of course, they don’t notice the hypocrisy, but I, as an atheist, do. But my point is:
why does it surprise us when they support a child molester when they have always supported a murderer (god)? Why are we surprised of the hypocrisy now when we already knew they are hypocrites?
There are some atheists calling them unreasonable, but we already knew that!
Hardcore believers have always done things like this, from creationism in school to conversion therapy, it shouldn’t surprise us anymore.
I’m sure most believers condemn this behavior, but the fact of the matter is that the good ones are the ones that should consider start calling themselves something else.
The Christians that believe in science, forgiveness (even for atheists), gay rights, women rights, and other progressive ideas, are the ones that align the most with secularism. And atheists should be championing for them to reject the name “Christian”. We want the good people on our side.
I’m not saying we should give the bad ones a pass or stop condemning them, I’m just giving the label “Christian” to anyone who wants it, as I don’t want it, and no one needs it.
I met a woman that stopped going to church because of the child-molestation-scandal, and I consider that a win. Things like that make reasonable people question religion and that’s my end goal.
So, no, I take no issue with disgustingly immoral people calling themselves Christians, because it helps my case that morality doesn’t come from god, it never has, and it never will.
Sources:
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/11/10/16633478/roy-moore-sex-abuse-scandal-evangelical-support-culture-wars
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/alabama-evangelicals-more-likely-to-support-roy-moore-after-child-molestation-accusations/#.WglyoduO2RM.twitter