Via NoGodBlog: Hearing about this made my blood boil. From About.com:
On the January 31 edition of Paula Zahn Now, the problems experienced by atheists in America were discussed. This segment began by exploring some of the discrimination, hatred, and bigotry atheists have faced.
The intro to the show was sympathetic: a Mississippi family who becomes ostracized and harassed in their community and workplace after complaining about the (illegal) bible-study and prayer time at their local school; another couple who are ostracized and later evicted shortly after coming out to a friend.
How does Zahn’s show follow up to this pretty clear-cut opening? By flipping completely. Of her panelists, a conservative Christian and Jew and moderate Christian — no atheists – the former two spend the entire time lobbying vitriol at athiests.
But before we get into that, a clip from a spokesperson for the ur-ecumenical First Things Journal, who plays a rather familiar-sounding tune:
We feel, to a certain extent, that atheists are very much on the attack. Part of the public persona and the public image of atheism is what’s presented by people suing to remove “In God We Trust” from the coins or God phrase in the pledge of allegiance. And when that militant atheism becomes kind of like the public image of atheism, I think that gives rise to a lot of discontent with atheism.
Them Aytheeists only got themselves to blame for how people treat them, apparently. If only they’d wear less atheistuous clothes and keep their minds closed together, they wouldn’t get what they get.
The “sit down and shut up” theme continues with Zahn’s panel.
The worst of it comes from Karen Hunter, a J-school prof at, surprisingly, a Manhattan state university. She advocates segregation for christians and atheists in greeting cards, and then begins to directly attack the victim.
“Maybe they need to get some atheist cards and get that whole ball rolling so more people can get involved with what they’re doing. I think they need to shut up and let people do what they do. I think they need to shut up about crying wolf all the time and saying that they’re being imposed upon.”
Maybe Hunter didn’t see the intro to her segment. Maybe she doesn’t think being kicked out of your community for your spiritual beliefs isn’t an imposition. Or maybe she plain just hates athiests.
“Believe or don’t believe what you want. Don’t impose upon my right to want to have prayer in schools, to want to say the pledge of allegiance, to want to honor my God. Don’t infringe upon that right.”
You hear this a lot out of anti-atheist bigots. By preventing triumphalists from forcing others into group prayer, or having to follow solely religious rules for solely religious reasons, they are taking away the rights of christians. Apparently, christians — and only christians — have the right to force others to do such things, and to have public services like schools and courts spread their religious beliefs. (Atheism, of course, has no corresponding right to receive such treatment.) Hunter’s wording is even more peculiar than the usual saw — she portrays the fight for a government and society that respects atheist views as one that infringes on her right to want. I’ve no idea how you infringe on a right to want, without psychic abilities.
Putting it in even worse perspective is conservative columnist Debbie Schlussel who, despite being openly Jewish, also feels that atheists should shut up, because despite her own religion, she freely accepts that America is a christian country. She would, never, I suppose, advocate for asking that a menorah be included in a winter holiday display, for example. Cause this is a christian country, not a Jewish country, despite herself being Jewish.
“…[Y]ou have these atheists selectively I believe attacking Christianity. …I really believe that they are the ones who are the intolerant ones against Christians. … They are on the attack. It’s obnoxious and they do need to shut up. … “
Schlussel actually manages to one-up Hunter by being doubly bigoted. As she argues, when you have too many athiests, you get a lot more — OMG — Muslims!
“Look where there are more atheists and where they’ve lost God, where the church is not that strong. Europe is becoming Islamist. It’s fast falling and intolerance is increasing.”
So, if you don’t want America becoming all “Islamist” like Europe, you should thank God that the athiests here are being kept down.
The third commentator actually tried to be sympathetic, from a populist égalité sort of way rather than a direct support of atheists. At least the guy acknowledged that atheists are discriminated against, especially in the South. But even he stereotyped atheists as “being on the attack”, and rejected Zahn’s statistic that atheists are more hated in American than the gays.
Austin Cline, the atheism/agnosticism coordinator at About.com, gives good coverage with a few choice points:
If three Christians were invited to comment on discrimination against Jews, would that be acceptable? If three white people were invited to comment on discrimination against blacks, and all three insisted that racism is dead, might that not legitimately be treated as a part of the problem itself? For all his otherwise good insight, Smith didn’t think to look around and ask why atheists were excluded from a discussion about atheism and whether that might itself by evidence for the truth of atheists’ complaints about being excluded in American society.
As I likewise said in a comment to CNN: If Martin Luther King were alive, and Zahn did a panel on her, she’d no doubt invite David Duke and Strom Thurmond.
The final punchline: After the Jan 31 episode sparked an outcry, Zahn’s show tonight (Feb 8) was to include a rebuttal segment, featuring renowned evolutionary scientist and rationalist Richard Dawkins. But unfortunately the day’s events preempted it: tonight’s show ended up being an obituary of Anna Nicole Smith instead.
Update via neonpablo: The Dawkins appearance is moved to Monday.
