Every now and again something happens that brings joy into the heart of a nonreligious activist: a bigot is proven as the hypocritical fool he/she is. Even better when this person is supposed to be a pillar or morality in the religious community, such as Pastor Chris Fox of North Carolina’s Kendalls Baptist Church. He was caught and then admitted to posting inflammatory rhetoric on the atheist blog unreasonablefaith while claiming to be an atheist. It was immediately clear that he was no atheist, as his posts consisted of the most stereotypical caricature of the “immoral atheist.”
For instance:
If a man wants to make a women his b****, so be it? So what if you don’t like it, what if I do?
If I want to do something, and my conscience is cool with it, then I can do it. If it’s feed a homeless person, so be it. If it’s kill my neighbor, so be it. I am not bound to any morals.
The preceding comment is so transparently written by someone trying to make atheists look bad I actually laughed a little when I first read it. Pastor Fox only hurt his cause. Contrary to his original purpose, he proved the point that the stereotypical claims anti-atheist bigots make about the general character of atheists is a lie perpetuated only by the religious that see us as a threat. If we really thought this way he wouldn’t have to lie and post such comments, would he? He could just point to one of us. He couldn’t, because he presumably knows that the truth is that we are no less moral than anyone else, religious or not.
Pastor Fox seems to have forgotten the ninth commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20.13)1? He also has certainly not read Proverbs recently:
Six things the lord hates;
Seven are an abomination to Him:
A haughty bearing,
A lying tongue
Hands that shed innocent blood,
A mind that hatches evil plots,
Feet quick to run to evil,
A false witness testifying lies,
And one who incites brother to quarrel. (6.16-20)
I think claiming to be someone you’re not certainly falls into the category of hatching evil plots. This is one of those times it certainly helps me as an activist for atheist rights to be a scholar of religion. What is better when attacked by religious bigots than to throw their own scripture in their faces after they are exposed as the hypocrites they are. And people questioned the usefulness of my degree!
- All scripture referenced from The Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh: A New Translation of The Holy Scriptures According to the Traditional Hebrew Text. 1985. ↩
