Is There a Backlash Against All Religion


Some religious people in Canada feel there is growing anti-religious fervor growing there. Churches have been burned. Religious pundits are saying religious people are being viewed with increasing suspicion. This is unfortunate. 

I was surprised by a headline about a press stunt held by group of Catholics who like Latin mass. The group held a Latin mass in a room in the U.S. Capitol. Instead of a headline about how bonkers it is to believe Latin mass is better than mass in English, the headline was that the Latin mass was not part of a terrorist plot. That is, there was suspicion anti U.S. secrets were being passed along in this secret language. 

Catholics, or maybe all churches, are seemingly rising in conspiracy theories as the reason things are not better for those who consider themselves outsiders. Trump has been appealing to this group by insulting those who he can blame for the plight of outsiders. Could it be his followers are switching to blaming something else in the establishment for their grievances and that something is Christianity? This group has already gone light on church attendance. Denominations are viewed with suspicion but "Jesus" is still good. Perhaps "Jesus" will slip over to the status of villain?

As an elderly professor I had in graduate school said, "Never underestimate the ability of the public to latch onto a bad idea." We could start with the idea of Christianity itself. How did so much of the public latch onto the idea there is an imaginary being or three imaginary beings like in Christianity. Then it latched onto the idea there are imaginary places, heaven and hell. Now, it could be a group of voters is assigning some imaginary evil attributes to people who merely go to church on Sunday. 

We atheists have had some experience with being blamed for things we for which we are innocent. Pat Robertson blamed atheists for a shooting in a Sikh Temple. Atheists escaped Jerry Falwell's rant about who was to blame for 9/11. In case you are interested, it was "pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, lesbians, the ACLU and People for the American Way." 

Whomever or whatever the next demonized group is, we will have to put up with it until something else comes along.

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