From the article:

Clark Vinson, a Baptist-turned-atheist who grew up in Irving, said he believes he has been discriminated against in the Bible Belt because of his lack of religion.

“I was on the verge of sealing a contract for $105,000 a year for a school district in the area for counseling services,” said Vinson, who was a therapist at the time. “I lost the contract suddenly.”

He said a friend who worked for the district told him a school official was disturbed after seeing a Darwin fish on his car.

This type of discrimination is exactly what atheists and others who lack religion or religious supernatural belief deal with throughout the United States, from the East to the West to the North to the South.  The dominance of religion and expectation that everyone at least believes in some deity leads to some level of innate distrust of the nonreligious in even the most liberal of areas. We don’t always see examples such as this because it is avoided by atheists hiding or at the least not being open about our lack of faith.  If not, discrimination such as this would happen much too often.  If we look at history, as the nonreligious civil right movement is growing and there are more open atheists, we are already and will undoubtedly see more of this in the future.

Where is the Outrage?

Giving Mr. Vinson the benefit of the doubt – there are two sides to every story, after all – this business contract was virtually a done deal until the school official realized that he was an atheist.  You can’t get much more bigoted and hateful than that.  Apparently he was a good enough therapist to work in the school system before the revelation of his lack of belief.  The contract wasn’t lost because of anything he had done, but because he lacks religious beliefs.  Is this the tolerance they teach their children in that school system?

If Mr. Vinson was a member of a different religion, would that have lost him the contract?  I doubt it.  If such discrimination against a Christian, Jew, or even Muslim did happen and this was reported, it is likely that there would be public outrage.  How much stronger would the reaction be if he canceled the contract after seeing a Jesus fish on the car instead of a Darwin fish?  Our country was founded partly on the notion that we should all be able to worship or not worship how and if we choose.  Where is the outrage that a public employee, paid for by tax money, is discriminating against atheists?  We are protected by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment just like anyone else.

Silent Discrimination

This is not an isolated incident.  There are many instances of such discrimination that have been reported, and undoubtedly many more that have not been.  If it were not for the fact that Mr. Vinson’s friend worked for the school district and was able to tell him why he lost the contract, he would have never known the act of discrimination committed against him.  I propose that this “silent discrimination” is much more insidious.  It allows anti-atheist bigots to discriminate freely while it robs the nonreligious of their ability to seek redress for such actions.  How many more atheists have been discriminated against without whistle-blowers to let them know of the injustices committed against them?

I leave you with one more point.  The nonreligious are constantly criticized for being intolerant of religious people, but this is blaming the victims.  Many of us are intolerant of religious belief, but we live and work very well with those who hold such beliefs.  Our family members, friends, and colleagues are religious.  When was the last time you heard of an atheist canceling a deal or firing someone because he found out they believe in a god?  The converse happens much too often.  Too many religious people simply can’t get over the fact that someone can not have any religious belief at all, and clearly have no problem with discriminating against us.