Part II
Charlie D. invites our resident Atheist back to the interview table for another round of questions, answers, e-mail and understanding.
Hello, All. It's your friendly neighborhood ranting-n-raving, recovering Charlie D. at your service. I'm sitting here with James T. who is one of our staff writers and an Atheist in Recovery.
My recent interview with James triggered a massive response from so many RecoveryWorld visitors that we thought another installment would be a great idea.
CHARLIE D.: James, thanks for coming back. You're a brave man.
JAMES T.: Y'think?
CHARLIE D.: I think so. I have to admit, during our last interview I had no idea the sort of prejudice there was against Atheists until I starting reading the visitor's e-mail feedback.
JAMES T.: Rough stuff. There were a lot of mean words directed toward me but, on a the other hand, I received a lot of e-mail thanking me for speaking up.
CHARLIE D.: I have a few email's right here. I won't share full names or addresses but these are actual e-mail's sent to either your attention or mine.
"Dear Charlie D., I can't believe you would give that sinner any airtime. You claim to be a Christian. Christians shouldn't give these fools a soapbox to stand on. I pray for James T. He's ignorant and is surely bound for hell....." Claire (GA).
JAMES T.: I saw that one. It was longer though.
CHARLIE D.: Sure but it was just more of the same.
JAMES T.: There were tons of e-mail's just like that one. I have a theory.
CHARLIE D.: Regarding?
JAMES T.: The reason for the anger and venom toward Atheists. Look, I'm not trying to convert people to Atheism. I'm just saying, "this is who I am, and I don't subscribe to any of the religion or supernatural being." Well, so many religious people get angry when I speak up and basically ADMIT my lack of religious belief. They don't want me to speak any further. They don't want to hear what I have to say because...and here's where I'm going to trigger a whole new bag of hate-mail....I think most of these people are afraid of hearing what they already know. They're like big children who put their hands on their ears and scream "Blah, lah lah lah, I can't hear you, I can't hear you, I'm not listening."
CHARLIE D.: LOL. Wow. Great imitation of Pee Wee Herman! Let me read another email.
"James T., You are going to rot in hell. I feel sorry for you. You better wake up and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior before it's too late. How is it that you can have any morals at all? You claim to be an American??!!. This country was built as a NATION UNDER GOD. If you don't like it the way it is, get the hell out and go live in some communist country..." Jake (KY)
JAMES T.: Well, Jake in Kentucky is not sounding happy about me being an Atheist.
CHARLIE D.: (Laughing) I'm sorry I'm laughing. But, honestly. I had no idea. It wasn't just one e-mail it was literally hundreds like this one. I shouldn't laugh but I can't help it.
JAMES T.: Don't worry. I understand where the humor is and I laughed at a few of these letters too. To me, I feel like the alumni cast of Jerry Springer wrote in to respond to the interview. But, honestly, these email's represent a good chunk of our country. That's pretty scary. These are people who work in public office, teach my boy in school, and consider me to be an "un-american" worthy of deportation.
CHARLIE D.: What do you say to someone like Jake?
JAMES T.: Look....Jake is just another example of the kind of brainwashing. He spouts fiction as if it's fact and asks that I follow.
CHARLIE D.: Talk about the fiction.
JAMES T.: This country was not constructed as a "nation under God." I want to tell guys like Jake, READ the constitution! If you don't want to read it, stop speaking as if you're an expert. God is not mentioned ANYWHERE in the constitution.
CHARLIE D.: I'm embarrassed to ask this but...are you sure about that?
JAMES T.: Dead sure. Our founding fathers didn't want any church to have a say in how this country was run. Look, if any organizations are "communist" it's Religious ones. There's no Democracy involved. You're Catholic? Well, here's your leader, here are the laws dictated to you, you don't have a vote, you have no say, you're all sinners and you're all going to end up the same way if you follow the word. Don't want to follow the word? Well, then we've built this place called Hell for you. And, you don't have a choice. You don't have any freedom. And you can't question any of this because we have this law called blasphemy. So, believe, don't question, swear to raise your children the same way...and, oh yeah, give us money.
CHARLIE D.: Okay, now you sound angry. This is what people talk about. "The angry atheist."
JAMES T.: What did I just say that was false? Anytime someone speaks up regarding an unpopular idea, he or she is labeled as angry. There were a lot of angry people during the civil war that were getting mighty pissed off at the people of this nation who wanted to keep slavery legal. So angry they were willing to die in defense of their unpopular ideas. Atheists are starting to speak up. They are not happy that religious people are hi-jacking this country, our courts, our schools, our money and our flag.
CHARLIE D.: Explain.
JAMES T.: This country should be united, not divided. Religion is dividing us. Our Supreme Court is supposed to uphold the constitution, but now that the majority of the judges are rooted more in their religious belief than a respect for the constitution, the strength of our highest court has been severely injured. ALL children should be able to attend our public schools without fear of rejection because of their race, sex, religion or lack of religion. Forcing non-religious children to recite a belief in God is wrong and our original pledge was not written that way. It originally stated that we were "one nation, indivisible." When they placed "Under God" in the middle of our country's pledge, in the 1950's, it divided us. We were no longer united. People like Jake believe our money ALWAYS had "In God We Trust" printed on it. Not true.It was added in the middle of the 20th century. This country's strength was that it's Government was a servant to it's people. It was never meant to be a servant to a God.
CHARLIE D.: As I've said before, I'm a Christian and I've never thought twice about any of this. It doesn't bother me that the pledge has God in it or that our money has God printed on it.
JAMES T.: What if the Dollar Bill in your pocket said "One Nation Under Allah" or "One Nation under the Supreme Being" or how about "One nation under Jesus?"
CHARLIE D.: That wouldn't be fair to the people who don't believe in that particular God. Our nation is a melting pot of many religions.
JAMES T.: No. It's a melting pot of people, from many lands with many beliefs some religious and some NOT.
CHARLIE D.: Again, you've got me thinking, James. We're out of time. Do you want to come back again and give this another try? Maybe talk about Recovery?
JAMES T.: Sure.(Laughs) Before we go, I just want to thank everyone who wrote in to share their thoughts whether I liked what you had to say or not. I also want to thank everyone who encouraged me to come back for another round of questions with Charlie D.
CHARLIE D.: Get ready to read a lot of email, James. Until next time, this is Charlie D. Signing out.
Read the Original Interview: Can Atheists Find Recovery In a 12 Step program?
WANT MORE JAMES T.? HE'S BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
Have some comments you would like to share with either Charlie or James? Write to:
staff.contact@RecoveryWorld.com and put either JAMES T. or CHARLIE D. in the subject line otherwise your e-mail will be deleted automatically.
Interesting
Links: Major
Religions of the World
Ranked by Number of Adherents
