But to actually be proud of it, and defend its regular use as reasonable? Come on. It’s not even a particularly intelligent pun. Sounds more like something a thirteen-year-old would come up with, giggling. Being an atheist myself, silly and ignorant rhetoric like that really pisses me off. It’s certainly not friendly, nor rational for that matter.

And before anyone gets started — you are of course entitled to say whatever you like. But you don’t have to.

I read letters to the editor and get those e-mail and MySpace forwards all the time claiming that public schools are breeding grounds for “evil secularism” and that kind of garbage. I should share some of my responses. Sometimes I can let it go, but when it goes after my profession, my love, I just cannot. I take a stand. And it’s cost me before. I’ve had fights with friends and been called most often both “godless” (duh…) and “un-American”.

Sheesh…

We’re doing just fine here – even here in Texas – in our nation’s public schools, thank you very much. Sure, we’ve got our share of problems and issues, but we’re dealing with them and working hard. Quit trying to shove religion at us!

If I understand Mike C. correctly, such people have every right to define “Christian” however they might see fit, and neither he, nor you, nor I, nor anyone else has any right to get pissed off about it.

Telling me I don’t have the right to get pissed off pisses me off.

Gary- Mriana, while awesome, did not invent the term, “Religious Reich”.

I had no idea. I guess great minds think alike. Wonder who thought of it first because I’ve been using that term for a couple of years now and I never heard it before. Whatever the case, this guy you mentioned and myself obviously think alike.

In my years being educated at Illinois public schools, I never once heard a reference to atheism. I am fairly certain that most of my teachers were in some way religious.

Gary- Mriana, while awesome, did not invent the term, “Religious Reich”. No doubt it was some evil mean leftist blogger who was watching the 700 Club and sobbing. The RR wants to be seperate of all our terrible fun sin, in the sense that they want us to all convert so that they don’t ever have to face temptation.

Your use of the phrase “Religious Reich” is a nice touch, by the way. It shows how you, for one, have grasped the importance of seizing control of the vocabulary in order to define “others” as “the Other.”

Thank you… I think. It does make it a whole lot clearer as to who I mean and few Christians seem to resent my use of words in that manner. They know exactly who I am talking about and they know it’s not them- unless they are part of that group. I have found that many liberal and progressive Christians resent the Religious Reich too. There are, amazingly, even some Fundamentalist groups who resent them also.

Bruce said,

December 2, 2007 at 1:25 pm

Ahhh, small-minded Mid-Western values. It’s what makes American so great!

Bruce, will you please define “small-minded Mid-Western values” and just who you mean by that remark? I’m not sure if I should resent that remark or not.