Letterbox (November 2024)
Expectations exceeded at Denver convention
Many kudos on a wonderful convention in Denver. I’m so happy I finally got to my first one, thanks to your bringing it to my hometown. My expectations were high, but were exceeded. The speakers were inspiring, knowledgeable, passionate and moving — to both laughter and tears. It’s so nice to be able to relax among kindreds and not have to monitor my every word.
Gosh, you guys really work hard! [Next year’s convention in] Myrtle Beach is on my calendar.
H.J.
Colorado
FFRF ad, index listing were pleasant surprises
Hey, what a surprise! While looking at the current issue of The Nation, I saw the gorgeous FFRF advertisement on the back page. What a beauty!
Then, while scanning the Harper’s Index listings from its September issue, I saw these words/number listed: “[Percent] who describe themselves as freethinkers: 36.”
J.K.F.
Pennsylvania
‘Fantasy-free’ also a good freethinker term
While I like the term “religion-free,” sometimes I’ve used the term “fantasy-free.” I’m defining a fantasy as a belief in something, the existence of which hasn’t been proven either true or false. A belief in any of the many gods, Santa Claus or Mickey Mouse fall into this category.
Overall, a religion, to me, is a fantasy world. The Vatican, for example, is a theme park for Catholicism. Going there is on the same level as visiting the Creation Museum, the Ark Encounter or Disney World.
D.P.
Michigan
‘Tax the church’ T-shirt gets positive responses
I’ve been wearing atheist T-shirts for 30 years, but I have never experienced the overwhelming positive responses I’ve received from wearing FFRF’s “Tax the Church” T-shirt. In one day, while out and about, six different people said “great shirt” or words to similar effect.
I think the boldness and brevity of the message, combined with the general mood of citizens, has struck a nerve. . . and the shirt looks and feels good!
Now, some people might say: “Well, if you tax the church, the church might get involved in politics.” To which I would reply: “Oh, yeah, like they aren’t already?!”
R.H.
Texas
All of us imbue the world with our spirit work
Like many of us, I wanted to experience the spiritual aspects of my life, but couldn’t buy the stories that came along with any of the many religions out there. I have decided that the human spirit, our nonmaterial essence, is that energy we give to the Earth with every action we take. When we smile at someone or plant a flower or design a city, that action carries with it our personal spirit, our soul work, and that energy stays in the world forever. It is that part of us that lives on long after our body is gone and may even multiply through time.
More than 100 billion people have walked on this planet and every one of them has left a spiritual legacy that still lives on. Almost everything that we depend on in the modern world is the personal and spiritual soul work of those people that came before us.
We may seek new experiences and accumulate things to make life easier, but I think our spirit self is only experienced through the process of giving to the world or just to be in the moment, with body and mind open to your environment — for that is where the spirit of the ages exists.
I think that a sufficient and sum total of the spiritual world is contained in the people and environment around us. And on occasions when I realize this, the world takes on a special glow.
B.C.
Colorado
Donation is because of FFRF’s dedication
Thanks to the IRA RMD/QCD charitable donation option again this year, I’m happy to be making a special one-time donation to FFRF.
I’m pleased to be doing this because of the outstanding work FFRF is spearheading in so many areas. Please look at this contribution as a “thank you” for your dedication.
You make me proud to be a Lifetime member of FFRF! I read all of your emails and I read Freethought Today from cover to cover.
Thanks for making FFRF such a smart, active, passionate leader of American atheism.
Perry Mitchell
Georgia
Will we ever put gods, religion behind us?
Religious conflict has been a worldwide reality — Buddhist vs. Muslim, Catholics vs. Jews, Protestants vs. Catholics, Hindu vs. Muslim, and so on through the ages. For thousands of years, religions have played a role in oppression and war.
Can humanity move beyond this phase of development and recognize that we are more similar than different?
Is it time yet to consider all of humanity equally worthy? When will it be time for cooperation, not competition and war? Are we able to leave gods behind and step into a new phase of human development?
Nayvin Gordon
California
Glad to read Trump adviser outed as child offender
It made my day to read in the Black Collar Crime section in the September issue about Robert Morris, founding pastor of Gateway Church in Texas, who was on Donald Trump’s 2016 “evangelical advisory board.” How appropriate that Morris was “outed” as a child sex offender and was ultimately forced to resign. Thank you, FFRF, for digging up this information. I’m still smiling!
Eithne Clarke
Florida
FFRF steps in so we don’t face retaliation
I wanted to send my personal thanks to FFRF for identifying a widespread issue in my county school system. I am a college instructor in the county, and my husband is a high school teacher in the system. We have three daughters currently in the system, at an elementary school, middle school and high school. They are not, nor is my husband, at one of the [name withheld] schools, but my girls come home at least once a week appalled.
One week, an elementary science teacher told my daughter’s class that the textbook might say Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, but the teacher said she didn’t believe that, and therefore they didn’t have to either because the bible says otherwise.
Another daughter came home telling us that a middle school teacher got into it with a girl for a minor dress code violation and scolded her while quoting scripture and shaming her for tempting boys sexually. My daughter in high school is lucky enough to have her dad’s class as a safe space and is also fearless in sharing her own strong views.
All of my girls have witnessed, experienced and been made to feel silenced and othered, and have had to watch everything they say for fear of retaliation on grades or social interactions — not from students, but from teachers in this school system.
My husband and I have always been open with them that this is the culture where we live, we are members of a fairly progressive Episcopal church, specifically so our girls can tell proselytizers they have a “church home” and were baptized as infants. Also, it allows them to become fluent in the language of Protestant, evangelical Christianity that my husband and I have both left, so they can code switch as needed.
It is exhausting living, working, teaching and parenting in our county. But, if all of us progressives left, those who speak up against religious, mental, emotional and constitutional abuses would have no allies. My husband and I are known as “the liberals” at our schools, but we are very careful because we need to pay bills and feed our kids.
So, thank you so much to FFRF for doing something neither of us can do without extreme retaliation. I just wanted to make sure you had a positive response to this from someone who actually lives in our county.
Name and state withheld
There were so many great columns in Sept. issue
I always enjoy Freethought Today, but the September issue was a masterpiece.
Barbara Walker’s “How patriarchal religion suppressed sexuality” article was fascinating, and I especially appreciated the info about fish-eating Friday. I knew that the Catholic Church adopted many pagan holidays (e.g., making the winter solstice celebration into Christmas), but I didn’t know that fish on Friday was originally a fertility rite. That one had me laughing hard enough to cry.
The column “U.S. secularists are unique political force” was also enlightening. I knew secular and nonreligious were more different than most people think, but the article made many things clear. As I expected, I am definitely in with the secular group, except for one thing — I do endorse free speech for all, but I do not endorse having social forums for dangerous groups. We do not need places for people to get together and plan, or even just encourage, violence. (I don’t endorse shouting “fire” in a crowded theater, either.)
Roger Lindsay’s article (“Discussing religion isn’t all pie in the sky”) also resonated, with one exception. I never told my parents I lost my belief in God, but it had nothing to do with hurting their feelings by seeming to condemn them. It was simply because it would have hurt them to think I “lost my way.” I think you can explain your differences with religious doctrine without implying that you condemn the religious. People are entitled to have their own opinions about how to respond to the problems with religion, and some religious people are very good people indeed. My mom would not have been angry with me, or felt I was condemning her, she just would have been made very sad by my choice, and I did not want to make her sad.
Finally, the article by Steven Green (“How two friends shaped state/church separation”) was a thought-provoker. If James Madison thought that freedom of conscience is an absolute right, he might have been on the side of the bakers, etc., who do not want to serve gays. I believe that your freedom of religion ends when it might harm me, but defining harm has proven difficult.
I think the only clear case is something like the doctors who want to refuse to treat emergency cases if the patient is gay. I can’t understand that degree of hatred, but such bigots do exist. The problem is in what happens if you force people to do what they don’t want to do. How well will that doctor care for that patient? How good of a cake will that baker make? Why would someone want to buy a cake from a bigot anyway? However, in an emergency, beggars can’t be choosers. If we’re going to insist that doctors provide care, we should specify that it must be quality care — and be prepared to enforce that requirement — and as soon as another qualified doctor is available, the patient should be transferred. I would not want to depend on fear of punishment to ensure the quality of MY medical care.
Anyway, once again, the September issue of Freethought Today was fabulous. I’m even more impressed than usual. Keep up the good work!
W.K.
Colorado
Bibles, commandments won’t stop violence
Headline: “Minnesota man gets 33 years for fatally stabbing wife at bible study.”
Yet, states like Oklahoma (because of state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters) think that forcing the bible into the curriculum is inherently a good idea.
And governors such as Louisiana’s Jeff Landry think that merely posting the Ten Commandments will magically prevent violence.
S.V.E.
Pennsylvania
