"Even an Atheist Says . . ."

[queerbychoice]

"But just as you needn't be Christian to enjoy ['White Christmas'] or ['Easter Parade,'] you don't need to believe in God to appreciate ['God Bless America.' Irving] Berlin's is the nondenominational, civic god, the one in whom, our currency says, we trust. When someone sneezes, even an atheist says, 'God bless you.'"
from Slate

I would like to state for the record that I have never in my entire life said "God bless you" to anyone under any circumstances, whether they had sneezed or not. Never once. And that this omission has always been deliberate. Furthermore, when we had to say the Pledge of Allegiance in elementary school I stood silent and deliberately said nothing because the "under God" part offended me.

Nor will I ever sing along to the song "God Bless America."

Comments

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I definitely find it quite distinctly chilling and racist/xenophobic/Christian-supremacist that mainstream America responds to attacks from a small group of Islamic fundamentalists by calling upon the Christian god to beat up the Islamic one. Never mind that there were plenty of Islamic and other non-Christian people killed in the World Trade Center . . . it's all about a wrestling match between Christian God and Allah.

Interesting, too, that we're not hearing much about Jesus these days. Just God - the God of the Old Testament, really, all about wrath and rage. Jesus has been conveniently dispensed with.

If you really want to be terrified though, try turning on AM talk radio these days. I turned it on for five minutes a week or so ago and discovered that there are people on the air there who not only want to blow up all of Afghanistan, but are quite blatant and forthright about stating that they consider the goal of this so-called war to be to forcibly convert all surviving Islamic people to Christianity, by bombing them all until they promise to convert.

[fyreharper.livejournal.com]

wrestling match between Christian God and Allah.

despite the fact that they're the same God.