"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

[arhuaine.livejournal.com]

ditto. Well I wouldn't sing it anyway, being British and all, but I totally agree with the sentiment. I won't sing certain parts of the British National Anthem for the same reason, or at least if I do sing the words I use "God" and "Goddess" alternately.

Actually if the truth be known, I don't sing the National Anthem because the tune is so crap. ^_~

[starfishsarah.livejournal.com]

i never say 'god bless you' either, and i hate when people say it to me. i don't do 'god bless america' and the pledge of allegiance and such, but i make exceptions for christmas carols. i love christmas carols, and i don't really even care what they're about, cause they're so fun.

[soulmyst.livejournal.com]

wow! you did that too? we thought we were the only ones :)
* J *

[xk8tx.livejournal.com]

amen...

it is rather arbitrary to respond religiously to bodily funtions..good call(s)

[tikarass.livejournal.com]

When did you get the impression that you had freedom from religion in this country? Freedom of doesn't mean freedom from, and everyone believes in something. Otherwise we'd all be homosexual sinners and abortionists.

Ok. Enough of my sarcasm. The "God" bullshut has irrated (and scared) me from the onset of Christian rhetoric in reponse to this. I wish you had heard a lecture (part of a larger teach-in) on Bush's (and America's) use of "God," and other sordid words like "crusade," and how Bush was taking America on what looks to be and resembles former crusades. It was a wonderful argument. But it's not okay to associate Christians with wars, just Muslims.

[tikarass.livejournal.com]

Actually, the origins are that when you sneeze you are off guard and Satan can enter 'cause you're not paying attention :)

[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.