Christian Arrogance and Bigotry

Several years back, it must have been late May, 2002, I was accused of being a Christian.

I say accused, because that’s exactly what it was, an accusation from a Christian.

I had just graduated my Air Force technical training, and was on my way back to my hometown in Ohio after spending 2 years in California and 6 months in Texas. It’s a 40-hour drive from San Angelo to Akron, and I was pretty much determined to make it in 2 days of driving, instead of the 4+ days it should have taken. You see, I was also going to meet my son for the first time, nearly 2 months after his birth.

As I approached Columbus, the sky turned dark. As I entered, the city limits, the floodgates opened, and traffic slowed to a crawl. I had seen signs for a rest stop just outside the city, so I told myself I’d pull over and wait it out. I was pretty tired, I’d only gotten about 3 hours of sleep the night before.

Just as I pulled into the rest stop, I saw a guy walking back toward the entrance ramp, gas can in hand. Even though I was running pretty low myself, I figured I could spare a gallon, so I called him back and got out a siphon hose. I had just gotten the siphon running (slowly - it was a very small tube) when I noticed a guy pouring water into (and dodging the steam flying out of) his radiator. Knowing that this was a surefire method of cracking a hot engine block, I told him to stop, and explained what was going to happen. He decided to wait an hour until the engine cooled a bit, then try again. On the other side of my truck, a lady was having trouble too. I can’t remember what was wrong with her engine, but it would not start, and I remember thinking that she would need a replacement part or a tow truck. She was out of change, so I handed her my cellphone and went back to the other two. By this time, the trickle into the gas can had added up to about a gallon, so I disassembled the siphon and handed over the gas can.

With everything under control, I went into the rest stop and grabbed a couple (highly caffeinated) drinks and snacks to get me the last two hours to home. When I returned, Gas Can Man thanked me and offered to pay me. I told him I would only let him pay for the gas itself. Then he said “You’re a Christian, aren’t you?” I replied that I was not, I was an Atheist. He refused to believe me, and kept talking about my Christian generosity. “Only a Christian would help perfect strangers” Overheated Engine guy overheard us, and handed me a couple Chick Tracts. They both mentioned something about how they were going to pray for me, and Gas Can Man and I got back on the road.

I’ve been accused of many things, sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly. Never, before that day, though, did I truly understand the nature of bigotry. This people honestly believed that only a Christian was capable of doing something nice for another person. They weren’t inherently evil people. I doubt they had any malice in their hearts. And yet, they are clearly and undeniably religious bigots. Despite the evidence and statistics demonstrating the opposite, they believe all good people are Christians, all bad people are non-Christians.

I’ve since discovered that this attitude is prevalent in much of the United States, and it’s fairly obvious its source. While public schools and the media preach Tolerance and Diversity, the Church teaches Division and Bigotry. I’ll grant that this lesson is largely unintentional, but the lesson is still taught that Christians are Good and The Good are Christian. Non-Christians are viewed (at best) as a recruiting base, and (at worst) Agents of Satan. Atheists are viewed as willing Satanists.

It’s simply not true of Atheism. Some of these attributes can describe anti-theism, maltheism, classical or LaVey satanism, nihilism, Marxism, or Stalinism. But, they simply DO NOT apply to contemporary Atheism, which simply maintains the individual need not believe one non-falsifiable theory over another non-falsifiable theory.

There is one striking set of statistics that clearly demonstrate the Christian fallacy that Atheists are evil criminals. While Christians makes up 76.5% of the US population and Atheists make up approximately 16%, Christians account for 80% of the prison population, while Atheists make up only 0.209%.

Now, before you all flame me to a crisp, let me clarify something. I know that most Christians are the tolerant moderate, and are typically ignorant of the specific nature of Atheism. Any bigotry on their part is unintentional, arising from simple ignorance. Unintentional Bigotry irks me. Ignorance, though, enables true bigotry, and THAT is the real problem. People like Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, George Bush Sr, Fred Phelps, Ted Haggard, and of course, the late Jerry Falwell - these people and numerous other “fundamentalist” Christians made a conscious decision to become hateful bigots, and should be despised in the same we despise the KKK. But, because they merge their own hateful nature with Christianity, moderate Christians allow these bigots to speak for them.