Daily Archives: February 7, 2022

As an ex-Muslim woman, I once sought refuge in a vocal online atheist movement that began developing in the early 2000s, but after a few years in what became known as the New Atheist scene, I realized that many of the people I had thought were dedicated to values like enlightenment and tolerance had a lot more in common with the religious bigots they claimed to oppose.

Online vocal atheist communities seemed like a great fit for me, at first. As someone who grew up in a theocracy, it was cathartic to find a place to vent my frustrations on the topic of religion. Finding community is certainly not easy as an ex-Muslim; and when youre an immigrant and a minority like I am in Canada, where I live now, that adds a few more obstacles.

Religion was never something I was fond of, even as a child. I questioned everything and the stories in scripture didnt make sense to me. You can imagine the challenges that posed while living in a theocracy. As a result, I never really fit in and always felt like an outsiderespecially growing up as a Third Culture Kid, a Pakistani expat in Saudi Arabia.

Over time, Ive come to realize that there were several reasons I felt that way, not just my lack of belief. Identity and being an immigrant in a place where you cant even call yourself an immigrant even if you are born there (Saudi Arabia) had a lot to do with it, too.

Both countries were still very affected by problems stemming from religion, however. Especially religion interfering in government. There were so many things that ran counter to my own progressive values. Dissent was not tolerated, women were treated like second-class citizens, minorities were treated unfairly, and anti-LGBTQ bigotry was commonplace. Encountering New Atheism seemed like a release of so much pent up anger about these things. It was wonderful to be involved with a community that seemed to be actively concerned with the same issues that I was.

I jumped right in with my newfound friends, most of whom seemed to be huge fans of evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins; Christopher Hitchens, the late Vanity Fair columnist; and Sam Harris, author of the book The End of Faith. Their in-your-face godlessness seemed to be just what I was looking for. It was unapologetic, caustic, and most important of all, concerned with spreading the good word. It was a welcome contrast to holding your tongue, as one must in theocracy for self-preservation.

These NewAtheists wanted to spread the gospel of secularism, unlike their predecessors whose atheism was more incidental to their identities. It wasnt an overnight change, but once I became involved in the online atheist scene, I too, posted frequently on the internet about religion and my dislike for it.

My online content generating days began In 2010 after I had recently returned to Canada after living in Pakistan for a few years. I decided to start a blog called Nice Mangos based on my observations and some interviews I did while I was there. I primarily wrote about sexuality in Pakistan back thenthe site was the first and only blog of its kind at the time. Of course, it was hard to completely disentangle religion from sexuality and societal restrictions around it in Pakistan, so I did touch upon it occasionally.

A few years later, I wrote and illustrated a childrens picture book called My Chacha is Gay which used simple illustrations to address the subject of homophobia in a specifically Pakistani context.

Most of the money I raised via crowd-funding for the book came from fellow Pakistanis, which was such a pleasant surprise and in stark contrast to the attitudes I had generally experienced in Pakistan. The homophobia in Pakistan always struck me as very odd & hypocritical considering that same-sex experimentation was not uncommon among men who lacked access to women because of gender segregation. Pakistan is a place where two men walking down the street holding hands would be perfectly acceptable and commonplace, but any mention of gay rights elicits howls of anger. My childrens book was the target of such anger, and I continue to receive death threats about it to this day.

I wrote my blog and childrens book under my current pseudonymand Im glad I did! Being a woman who discusses sexuality, religion and apostasy from Islam specifically put me in real danger and made me a target of intolerant religious extremists. I received all kinds of hate mail, rape, and death threats too.

I still get plenty of threatening messages nowadays, but the hate mail I currently receive comes mostly from Western far-right types who say Islam is barbaric, and call me a dirty immigrant. Having been the target of abuse from extremist Christians, Muslims, and atheists, its easy to see that they have a lot in common.

Sadly, the abuse Ive faced is part of a larger dilemma that Muslim and ex-Muslim women face. At home, we deal with constant oppression from Islamic authoritarians; in the West, were beset by bigotry and tokenism from people who want to exploit our struggles in the service of their own narratives.

After several years as a blogger, I decided to expand my online voice in February of 2016 by starting a podcast called Polite Conversations. The show started off with a bang by getting banned from YouTube twice for posting our first episode, an interview with Iranian-British atheist Maryam Namazie. Since then, Ive done scores of shows and met many wonderful people.

But as I got further into New Atheism, I began seeing troubling indications that many of the people in the movement seemed to be motivated by anti-Muslim bigotry rather than a desire to oppose intolerance and superstition. This wasnt a realization I came to easily or quickly since I too had personally had been falsely accused of Islamophobia because of my criticism of religion, so that obscured things for me for a while.

At the time, it was harder to see who was criticizing in good faith (no pun intended) and who was motivated by anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views. But after Donald Trump emerged as a political figure in the United States, the truth became much easier to spot, as bigots were emboldened and dog whistles turned into blaring sirens.

My concerns about movement atheism really escalated in 2015, when the reactions to the European migrant crisis I saw around me were more in line with the far-right than the compassionate, secular humanism I had been expecting. I was appalled as I saw prominent New Atheist figures sharing anti-migrant propaganda. One popular atheist publication even began publishing articles from notorious bigots like Katie Hopkins and supposedly satirical covers that depicted migrants in dehumanizing ways as insects or through racist caricatures. I was disturbed when I saw people like Sam Harris sharing and endorsing anti-migrant interviews with far-right figures like Anne Marie Waterswho was too extreme for UKIP (a far-right party in the United Kingdom).

Instead of welcoming refugees fleeing Islamic fundamentalism, many within New Atheism were joining the reactionary effort to close Europes doors. This moment was what really began to open my eyes to the hollowness and hypocrisy of this movement.

Despite my worries, however, I still had some hope that perhaps the disgusting behavior I was observing was merely the product of misunderstanding, rather than a turn by some atheists toward the far right.

In pursuit of that thesis, I decided to voice my concerns publicly through an open letter to Harris about a podcast discussion (horrendously titled On the Maintenance of Civilization) hed had with Douglas Murray, a far-right anti-immigrant English commentator who had once lamented the declining levels of whiteness in London, had a friendly conversation with a white nationalist like Stefan Molyneux, and had generally allied with many extreme figures on the right in their advocacy against refugees.

I expressed concern to Harris that, during his Murray interview, he had proclaimed that he would rather vote for Ben Carson, a man he proclaimed to be a dangerously deluded religious imbecile, over the atheist socialist Noam Chomsky because at least Carson knew that the real enemy of American society was jihadists.

At the end of my letter, I invited Harris to come onto my own podcast to discuss the topic further. Several months later, I was delighted that Harris accepted my offer to appear on Polite Conversations. Our interview took place in November of 2016, just before Donald Trump was elected as president of the United States.

Ahead of my discussion with Harris, I hoped that he would be able to address my concerns. But as our conversation progressed, it became increasingly evident that he was unwilling to budge in his positions, regardless of the amount of evidence and examples I provided. Instead of responding to the specific points I made, Harris responded with generalities and hand-waving as he doubled- and tripled-down in his support for people like Douglas Murray and YouTuber Dave Rubin, whose supposedly deeply journalistic agenda I was unable to perceive.

While I appreciated his courtesy in appearing on my show, the more I thought about our exchanges afterward, the more I realized how evasive Harris had beenand eventually through this exchange and other observations, I came to the conclusion that my concerns about New Atheism merging with the far-right were true. I now do a miniseries documenting my journey into and out of New Atheism called Woking Up. Im still very much an atheist, but not that kind of atheist.

Once Trump took office in 2017, the trends I had noticed before became glaringly obvious. Rubin, who had risen to prominence thanks to Harriss help (he not only appeared on his first episode to assist in launching Rubins show, he also regularly promoted his episodes and funded him on Patreon) began making paid videos for PragerU, a propaganda network started by Dan and Farris Wilks, Christian supremacist brothers who are big donors to Texas Republican Ted Cruz and many other extremist causes.

After building a career as a professional atheist, Rubin told a Religious Right YouTube channel that he now believed in a god, thanks to the ministrations of Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist whose first claim to fame was his transphobia and deliberate misinterpretations of Canadas Gender Identity Rights Bill C-16.

Since his emergence in 2016, Peterson has worked diligently to flatter his far-right Christian audience with interminable lectures that mostly amount to justifying Bronze Age theological pronouncements. Ditto for Bret Weinstein, a former biology professor who presents himself as a sciencey secular type while frequently shilling forivermectin, the anti-parasitic drug beloved by the Christian right that Weinsteinfalsely insiststo be a miracle cure for Covid-19. He has now openly embraced the anti-vaccine movement as well.

Harris himself has also carefully cultivated a right-wing audience, endlessly ranting against wokeness, critical race theory and leftist identity politics. While the coronavirus pandemic has pushed his obsession about Islam out of the news cycle, he still sometimes goes out of his way to throw a little jihadism-fearmongering into other subjects. Just recently on an Ask Me Anything episode he warned, given how disruptive Covid has been, I would bet that the threat of bio-terrorism has increased significantly and if youre a nihilist, or youre insane, or youre a jihadist, or youre a fanatic of some other stripe, well then, bio-terrorism just got its Super Bowl commercial.

Even as far-right movements around the globe have come to power thanks to inspiration from Trump, Harris has continued to use his platform to focus on petty grievances with college students, anti-racists, Black Lives Matter, and the political left in general. Instead of highlighting the alarming growth of right-wing extremism, Harris has downplayed it as irrelevant, a mere fringe of the fringe.

Despite his reputation as an advocate for atheism, Harriss content has barely examined the violence-glorifying Christian supremacism that metastasized into the murderous chaos of the Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol.Within the year after the attack took place, Harris published only two podcast episodes about itaccording to his website search. Even then, the event was portrayed as some sort of response to wokeness.

A few days after the first anniversary of Jan. 6, Harris did mention Trump and the Capitol putsch, but instead of putting the attack in its proper theocratic context, he framed the ex-president being a mere cult leader. While Trump certainly does inspire adoration in some supporters, its an incomplete picture, like most of Harriss Trump criticism. Thats becauseTrump alone did not create the manic hatred we all saw on Jan. 6, he merely took advantage of it. According to his website and Google, Harris has never even used the term Christian nationalism on his site, even as numerous journalists and scholars have published hundreds of articles, research papers, and books on the subject.

Everyone has their own priorities, but its certainly interesting to see that one of the original four horsemen of New Atheism evinces little to no concern about a growing and malignant Christian supremacist movement in his own country which was nourished by one of its major political parties to conduct the first violent invasion of the American Capitol since the War of 1812.

A key part of the far rights strategy to radicalize theologically conservative Christians has been the spreading of lurid and often false tales about Muslim immigrants and migrants. Unfortunately, Harris and many others in the former New Atheist movement have been more than happy to oblige. But in promoting and defending hatred against Islam, right-wing atheists are doing more than just enabling their fellow ideologues, however. They are also undermining the position of atheism in society. Trump and his underlings have been crystal-clear that their goal is Christian supremacyhaving government explicitly promote Christianity while giving non-Christians fewer rights and forcing them to be silent in public.

Christianity is under tremendous siege, Trump said in a 2016 campaign speech to an extremist evangelical group. We dont exert the power that we should have.

Christianity will have power, he promised. If Im there, youre going to have plenty of power, you dont need anybody else. Youre going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.

Unlike so many of the promises hes made over the decades, this was one that Trump actually kept. He appointed hundreds of Christian nationalist judges intent on throwing out abortion rights rulings, he gave them unparalleled access to his staff, he appointed many of them to the highest echelons of power. He catered obsessively to their authoritarian policy demands. And after four disastrous years, Trumps strategy of unlawfully clinging to power was conceived and executed by Christian Right activists.

Despite everything Trump and his fellow Republicans have done to promote and enforce Christian supremacism, right-wing atheists are still continuing their quixotic obsessions with random left-wing activists and college students, while also cozying up to theocrats. Figures like James Lindsay who emerged from the New Atheist scene are now prominent allies of the Religious Right with close ties to Christian nationalist organizations like Sovereign Nations. Richard Dawkins, meanwhile, is praising church bells and denouncing the aggressive-sounding Allahu Akbar, and Douglas Murray is making videos about the supposed god-shaped hole in the human psyche.

You simply cant make this stuff up. It is beyond parody.

Nowadays, no one wants to be called a New Atheist anymore, because of the baggage and connotations the term carries, but the evangelical right-wing atheists still continue doing the same things. Whether they call themselves the Intellectual Dark Web or heterodox, their anti-left sentiment remains. Its very different from the vast majority of atheistswho actually do embrace pluralism, science, and human rights.

I left Islam because my skepticism was prompted by progressive values. I did not expect to see the same bigotries and conservative biases in the atheist scene that claimed to oppose these things. I learned the hard way, however, that bigotry and discrimination were not what my former associates opposed, it was Islam, it was minorities, immigrants and brown people.

Joining hands with Christian nationalists to own the libs makes a certain kind of sense by this twisted logic. But its definitely not atheist activism.

Original post:
I never thought 'New Atheism' would become a tool of the Christian Right - Flux.community

Feb. 6Christian organizations and affiliated churches operate Colorado Springs' primary emergency shelters, soup kitchens and support programs for people who are homeless or otherwise in need.

Some clients say they appreciate the opportunity to pray or seek spiritual guidance. Others say they'd prefer to encounter no religious overtones while accepting a free meal or an overnight cot.

The old model of preaching to people who are down on their luck but not necessarily looking for proselytizing has given way to optional and voluntary choice for clients to hear Christian messages, say leaders of the city's largest homeless providers.

Though their locations may display crosses, have chaplains or clergy on site and offer worship services and Bible studies, Springs Rescue Mission, the Salvation Army of El Paso County and Catholic Charities of Central Colorado do not require participation in religious activities to receive meals, secure a place to sleep and get help with housing, employment, health care and addiction.

"We are a come-as-you-are, low-barrier shelter and meet everybody at their point of need," said Travis Williams, chief development officer.

The organization runs Colorado Springs' largest homeless campus, with 450 shelter beds, three free meals served daily, a 65-unit apartment building with support staff, employment programs and others.

"There's no witness test for anybody on what their beliefs are," Williams said. "We see in the Bible how Jesus consistently met people where they were at, regardless of their circumstances ... and that's the same philosophy we take."

But a common misperception prevails, he said, that clients are required to profess their faith, attend chapel or listen to sermons.

That was the format when Christians began outreach to the poor centuries ago. "A message and a meal" had been the standard for rescue missions since their inception in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1826, with Pentecostal leanings.

Springs Rescue Mission had used that format, said former President and CEO Larry Yonker, until he took over in 2013.

"I didn't feel like that was the best model for showing compassion for the guests, so I eliminated that," he said.

Yonker retired in 2020, after leading the organization through a $22 million renovation and expansion to build a 14-acre campus. The project started with securing a Community Development Block Grant from the city. Using federal money for a capital project was a relatively new move for a religious organization in Colorado Springs, he said, although such arrangements are becoming more prevalent.

"The state and the city are looking for people with vision to solve major social problems, and it takes a pretty good-sized organization to be able to sustain something like that," Yonker said.

Yonker said he strived to counterbalance city leaders' changing direction to manage the homeless by enacting municipal ordinances on camping, loitering and panhandling. Yonker wanted the city's approach to be tempered with a profusion of services to not warehouse the homeless but help them get off the streets.

"I am in favor of breaking up encampments around waterways because they're dangerous," he said, "but ordinances are just a tool to manage your city."

After visiting a rescue mission in San Antonio, Yonker said eliminating barriers of any kind, such as making room for pets, adding lockers to store belongings, and providing showers and laundry facilities, became a local focus to help the chronically homeless, who often have mental illnesses or substance issues, get re-housed.

Now, 20 to 25 chronically homeless clients of Springs Rescue Mission step up into housing each month, Williams, the chief development officer, said.

"In the past, we'd have 20 to 25 a year," he said.

One program at Springs Rescue Mission is Christian-based, a one-year residential addiction recovery course.

But planting seeds of the Christian faith is more likely to look like a volunteer sitting down at a table and eating a meal with diners, Williams said.

"If we're going to share our faith it's not typically from any pulpit," he said. "It's by doing the work, forming relationships and getting to know the people."

'We serve anyone'

The Salvation Army in El Paso County, which runs a 232-bed shelter for men, women and families and provides meals, senior housing, afterschool care and other programs, also has dealt with inaccurate perceptions, said Capt. Doug Hanson, who oversees local operations.

"Rumors have shrouded us the last handful of years that we don't serve everyone, and that's not true," he said. "We serve anyone and everyone that's the heart of why faith-based groups do this work."

Since the first day the Salvation Army opened soup kitchens in London, England in 1865, Hanson said the organization has been serving the poor, needy and destitute.

"While they ate, they heard the Gospel message," Hanson said.

Early organizers had "no intention of being a church, but rather a Christian movement that organized many churches to serve the homeless," he said. The Salvation Army church grew out of that.

Catholics also have a long history of responding to the Christian call to serve the common good by founding hospitals, schools, soup kitchens and social justice programs, said Rochelle Schlortt, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities of Central Colorado.

The organization is part of a nationwide network founded in 1910 and runs Colorado Springs' oldest soup kitchen, the Marian House, as well as homeless outreach, employment aid, immigration services, and assistance to pregnant moms and babies.

A priest, a spiritual care group and a nurse from Penrose-St. Francis Health Services are available at the Marian House for anyone desiring to pray, talk or have questions answered, she said.

"If people want spiritual guidance, we are more than happy to partner with them to help fulfill that spiritual need," Schlortt said. "But we don't force that on anybody or proselytize or require anybody to do anything to get help."

Seth Martin, a Colorado Springs native who has worked at a carnival, as a truck driver and at fast-food restaurants and has been homeless off and on for 21 years, has used homeless services at all three organizations.

"They don't push religion on you," he said.

Although Martin identifies as a lifelong Christian, he said he likes that there's no hard sell about Jesus when getting help.

The approach is more covert than overt, said Kristen Viers, who lives in the Greenway Flats supportive apartment complex on Springs Rescue Mission's campus.

"They imply just as many people who try to force their will in our society do what makes a good Christian to them and how I don't fit the bill," she said.

"My sentiment is, 'I'm sorry. There are plenty of people on this planet. Go and find one that will play with you then.'"

Compassion to fellow human beings

Working with the homeless population falls under the guiding Christian light that every person is a child of God who has value and should not be discriminated against, said Yonker.

Christians supply the majority of nongovernmental assistance for the homeless nationwide, according to a Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion survey released in February 2017.

Faith-based organizations provided 58% of emergency shelter beds in 11 sample cities surveyed, including Denver, in addition to related services such as education, job training, health care, education and addiction recovery, according to the study.

As a result, the study estimates faith-based organizations create $9.42 in taxpayer savings for every $1 of government funding for homeless services.

More than 200 churches donate money to Springs Rescue Mission, and also clothing, food and volunteer hours, Williams said.

However, churches contribute less than 5% of the organization's $12 million annual revenue stream, he said. The majority is from individual donations and foundations, with less than 10% from local, state and federal funding.

While churches and faith-based organizations have tenets of belief and proven records of service to the poor behind them, they don't corner the market on charitable acts.

"There's a negative connotation that all these people who help are Christian, but Christians don't have a monopoly on serving and helping people," Schlortt of Catholic Charities said. "People of all backgrounds are compassionate to fellow human beings."

That's why Michelle Popejoy, a member of the Atheist Community of Colorado Springs, is a regular presence in a collective monthly effort to hand out food, clothes and other goods at Dorchester Park, where homeless people congregate.

"I didn't want to do it in a proselytizing environment," she said.

Popejoy started helping the homeless about 30 years ago in Phoenix, when her daughter asked her about volunteering. Popejoy has been connected to the local atheists' group, one of several in town, since she moved to Colorado Springs in 2013.

Popejoy usually wears an atheist T-shirt while manning one of many tables that stretch in a long line in Dorchester Park during the "Spreading Smiles and Sandwiches" event.

Lugging her table with water and food that goes on top, Popejoy joins other event organizers, who are from local churches and other organizations.

"I like being here to represent the non-Christians and destigmatize and normalize atheism," she said at a recent distribution. "We're a community of and for atheists, trying to serve the community."

Homeless people said they appreciate the effort.

"It takes everybody Christians, Jews, Catholics and many organizations," said Tim Davis, a reformed heroin addict who's known on the streets as "Bama."

"There are far more people that have mental issues and don't have the ability to turn their lives around than people who do," he said. "Some have been kicked out of the shelter because they have personality disorders or Tourette's or extra food."

For years, Popejoy has fashioned sleeping mats out of plastic bags for the homeless, participated in parks cleanups, sewn warm hats and scarves, and more recently part of the giveaway.

"I don't like it to be assumed that only Christians do this," said Popejoy, describing herself as never having been religious. "No, not only Christians do this.

"I've just always enjoyed doing stuff like this, and I'm obviously not doing it to fill pews."

'A church with working gloves'

That's not the goal of Christian organizations, either, their leaders say.

In the month of December, Springs Rescue Mission logged 53 attendees at chaplain meetings, 77 people at four weekly chapel services, 246 people at15 Bible studies and 667 people at 44 Bible classes, the agency's statistics show.

Such attendance represents a small percentage of clients; the shelter averages around 325 to 350 people a night in the winter.

Chapel services are provided by an outside church, Williams said, not rescue mission itself.

Christian organizations are more visible than other groups involved in homeless services, said Kayla Farris, co-founder of Because We Choose To, a nonprofit organization she and a friend started in 2015 to give away donated clothing to needy folks.

"Christian-based organizations get a lot of the recognition because they tend to get more funding from churches and government funds, so they're able to help on a larger scale," she said.

"But if you really get out on the streets, you'll you see there are other a lot of groups, too, that do meals and whatever they can every week."

Hanson said big organizations are needed to handle today's demands for the homeless population.

"We need large institutions that can be of one mind when it comes to making decisions, sheltering and taking care of people's needs on a large scale," he said. "In response to pushback on faith communities and the way we serve, I say, 'If Jesus did not walk the earth more than 2,000 years ago, we would not be here serving.'"

The Salvation Army shelter's on-site chapel offers a 20-minute morning devotional, full church services on Wednesdays and Sundays, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and a house chaplain.

Of the 220 or so homeless people who spend the night each evening, an average of 30 attend a religious gathering, Hanson said.

"We do this not to make a profit because we don't but it's clearly a faith component," he said. "We believe that everybody has value, and therefore we must take care of other people."

Some homeless people say they don't see workers at organizations subscribing to the Christian principles that leadership says employees and volunteers follow.

A homeless man who gave his name as Michael said staff target disabled people, those with criminal records or homeless who have medically implanted devices with seemingly unfair practices.

"What they do doesn't jive with their Christian morals," he said.

Organizations have rules to "minimize the risks" in an environment that brings together hundreds of people, many of whom might be high on drugs, are known to steal from others or display other negative behavior, Yonker said.

"Most of the complaints are because people generally don't understand the chaos and how quickly things can get out of control if you don't have simple rules," he said.

Having said that, Yonker said he understands how some clients "don't feel like they're quickly given enough grace."

People can be permanently banned from Springs Rescue Mission, primarily for violent acts, which Yonker said was one of his hardest challenges in leading the organization because "there's no safety net below the rescue mission."

The Salvation Army's R.J. Montgomery Center also enforces rules pertaining to behavior but doesn't ban people permanently, Hanson said. People can be kicked out for a day, a week or a month but then can return, he said, even if they've been turned away from other places.

"There has to be recourse and accountability to poor actions," Hanson said. "But we don't want them to die on the streets just because they made a bad life decision that day.

"We're a church with its working gloves on," he said. "It's the role we play in Christendom."

(c)2022 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

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Serving the homeless a Christian ethos, but others involved, too - Denver Gazette