Lauren Nelson is an advocate and aspiring ally focused on intersectional justice. When she's not gabbing on social media or chasing after her precocious seven year old, you'll find her researching and writing extensively on the subjects of politics, policy, culture, neurodiversity, and faith for The Friendly Atheist and Rethink the Rant.
Anytime Christians make the news for doing or saying something patently awful (see: Westboro Baptist Church, Kim Davis, recent outcry over Syrian refugees, etc.), so-called progressive evangelical leaders publicly and loudly proclaim that those engaging in the behavior are not representative of the Christian faith. Anytime the bloody history of Christianity is laid bare in black, white, and crimson, there is an indignant cry of, “That’s in the past! Things are different now!” Anytime some of the more disturbing elements of the Bible are pointed out to mainstream Christians, they insist that their faith looks different — that it’s one of compassion, forgiveness, and selflessness. They’re not all wrong. There are certainly Christians who practice their faith in this manner; we’ve all met some of them at some point in our lives. They give charitably, they love unconditionally, and they stand up to those who fail to do the same in their own lives. I have no doubt that these generally good-hearted Christians believe that they are part of the majority. Unfortunately, they’re wrong. It’s not that the majority of the American Christian population is actively stoning adulterers or trading their daughters for goats. It’s that despite this insistence that the Christian faith revolves around the ideas of love and charity and an individual commitment to walking the walk in their day-to-day lives, the majority of American Christians continue to support leaders whose beliefs and policies stand in stark contrast to the purported foundation of this “new and improved” Christianity — leaders whose actions and rhetoric have a direct, measurable, and profound impact on those marginalized by society. You know, those same folks Christ told his followers to embrace. This hypocrisy is visible throughout history, at all levels of government, and along all party lines. In some cases, folks attempt to pseudo-excuse such behavior as a “byproduct of the times.” In others, you’ll hear people use a person’s age and presumed inability to change in their twilight years to excuse the continued embrace of what is a religiously shaped, archaic, and widely condemned worldview. Still others apologetically excuse the contemptuous actions and words of their contemporaries by saying “they were just raised that way.” None of these excuses actually excuse anything, obviously, but that doesn’t stop people from using them. Except now, over the passionate objections of those attempting to defend their faith, the majority of American Christians aren’t even attempting to make excuses. They’re throwing their support behind racist, sexist, classist, and heartless leaders without shame or caveat. To be fair, that description might apply to a large number of Republican-elected officials and candidates, but this deplorable support becomes crystal clear when dissecting the rapid ascent of The Donald. Read more
I don’t have a lot of good things to say about President George W. Bush. However, if there’s one thing he got right, it was in a speech following 9/11 when he said: The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war. It was a message people needed to hear but they weren’t listening. To be fair, if the policies enacted by the Bush administration are any indication, Bush wasn’t listening to himself. That said, we would all do well to heed those words today. Much has been said about the rights sacrificed in the name of security back then, but we gave up a large chunk of our humanity as well. Violence against people who fit the Western view of what a Muslim looks like soared, causing many to fear for their lives. Overt and thinly veiled prejudice against the same population ran rampant. And now, in the wake of the Paris attacks, people aren’t even pretending not to be bigots anymore. This goes far beyond talk of Muslim registries, IDs, and internment camps. It’s in everyday life — including, it seems, during travel. All those warnings you hear in the airport about reporting suspicious behavior? It turns out speaking Arabic is suspicious enough for Southwest Airlines to be alarmed. Read more
If I hear one more person ranting about discrimination against Christian refugees in Syria and the resulting threat of terrorism, my blood pressure is going to reach unhealthy levels. I know I’m not alone. Unfortunately, encountering such xenophobic ignorance is probably inevitable. So let’s take a moment to count the ways these assertions are undeniably, indescribably, quantifiably wrong by pointing out what the facts actually reveal. Read more
The Catholic Church is a wee bit obsessed with sex in that they believe it’s only acceptable on their terms. No birth control because reproduction is important. No abortion because reproduction is important. No sodomy because reproduction is important. No same-sex marriage because reproduction is important. Don’t worry about physical attraction or orgasms because none of it has to do with reproduction. Shorter version: “MAKE MORE BABIES, PLZ.” This message isn’t new and probably won’t ever go away, but in an extension of this line of argumentation, the Catholic Church decided to get real specific. The Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a report that really isn’t surprising except for its tepid inclusion of actual science. Their target? Pornography. We read it so you don’t have to. (You can thank us later.) Read more
It wasn’t all that surprising when Republican Presidential candidates took advantage of the Paris attacks to try to shore up their national security credentials. In theory, it wasn’t a terrible plan, strategically speaking. After all, their base actually believed Trump when he said undocumented immigrants from Mexico included many rapists and drug dealers. Xenophobia is sort of their thing. But it seems that even their conservative base has its limits. While Republicans bank on the fact that they’ll get the evangelical vote, some Christian leaders see that vote as uncertain now. Read more
