Post by AuntieSocial on Jun 12, 2004 10:16:01 GMT -5
Discrimintation Against Atheists: The Facts
by Margaret Downey[/b]
The following article is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 24, Number 4.
Civil Rights n pl : the nonpolitical rights of a citizen; esp: the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to U. S. citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress.1
In “Atheism Is Not a Civil Rights Issue” (Free Inquiry, February/March 2004), DJ Grothe and Austin Dacey wrote:
I greatly respect Grothe and Dacey, but in light of my own research I believe that they provided a misleading perception of the nonreligious community and its predicament. For almost a decade, I have been documenting acts of discrimination against the nonreligious through the Anti-Discrimination Support Network (ADSN), a committee of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia.
In 1995, the United Nations Non-Governmental Organization Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief invited me to submit information on discrimination against atheists by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The committee’s mission was to record and monitor incidents of intolerance around the world. I was told that my findings would be published in the committee’s final report only if the cases I documented were grievous by its standards. The committee quickly recognized that Scouting’s discrimination against atheists was no less severe than its far more widely reported discrimination against gays. A synopsis of my findings was included in the committee’s published report.2
Shortly afterward, the same UN committee asked me to assess other incidents of discrimination—in particular, what forms of discrimination were of greatest concern within the U.S. atheist community. During the following year, I conducted numerous interviews and discovered multiple instances of discrimination. In 1998, I delivered a personal report to the committee, noting that bigotry against atheists was relatively common, much of it based in popular misunderstandings of the U.S. Constitution’s secular character and its intent to protect minorities against majority rule. I reported that, with respect to the atheist community, the United States was not in compliance with the 1981 United Nations “Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.”3
During 1998, Dr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, toured the United States and visited some of the families mentioned in my report. In his findings he noted atheism’s “non-acceptance by the society in which religion remains a very strong point of reference in social, cultural and identity terms.” Nonetheless, he suggested that the situation faced by atheists in American society was “satisfactory.”4 Compared to the deadly violence that threatens some oppressed minorities in other countries, this may be true; still, discrimination against unbelievers falls far short of the American ideal. I resolved to strengthen my efforts to document discrimination against atheists, which had never before been attempted in a formal manner.
In 1999, I developed the Discrimination Narrative Collection Form (DNCF), an easy-to-complete incident description form which I released to every national humanist, freethought, and atheist organization. The Council for Secular Humanism was first to publish the DNCF, in its newsletter Secular Humanist Bulletin.5 In 2000, I mass-mailed the form to atheist, humanist, and freethought groups nationwide. In addition, I circulated it at every movement conference I have attended since 2000. At those events, I heard many personal accounts of discrimination. But persuading victims to put their experience on paper was sometimes difficult.
One would think that any atheist who had experienced discrimination would be eager to submit an affidavit. Instead, the fear of suffering further discrimination as a “whistleblower” was widespread. Some victims told me that they did not want to go public lest still more hatred come their way. This is the trauma of discrimination, just the sort of intimidation that discourages discrimination reports and makes it difficult to find plaintiffs for needed litigation.
These obstacles notwithstanding, I eventually compiled hundreds of incident reports (selected reports are summarized in the sidebars to this article). The actual case reports reside in an ADSN master file that is not available to the general public. A narrative collection is available as a hardcopy that interested parties may purchase from ADSN. This is the only way to obtain this data, which has never been available online.6 Therefore, the payment record makes it possible to track who has the narrative collection and how it is used. Dacey and Grothe do not appear in my records as recipients of the narrative collection.
Still, even without access to the material in my files, discrimination against atheists is easily documented. National atheist and freethought publications frequently report on atheists losing their jobs, facing abusive family situations, being subjected to organized shunning campaigns in their communities, receiving death threats, and the like. That Grothe and Dacey overlooked—or elected to dismiss—these accounts concerns me, especially because they claim to have researched cases of discrimination prior to coming to their conclusions.
On the other hand, it is no surprise that Grothe and Dacey do not find mainstream media coverage that substantiates discrimination against the atheist community. (I am constantly amazed how seldom the two little words and atheists see print when journalists cover BSA discrimination against gays.)7
Had Grothe and Dacey contacted me before writing their article, I could have opened my files and shared accounts of physical and mental abuse, job loss, cruel media stereotyping, and other instances of discrimination. I believe they would have been satisfied that “atheist bashing” really exists and is getting worse.
Nevertheless, I feel that Grothe and Dacey have done our movement a service by demonstrating the need for unbelievers to come forward and document their experiences of unfair treatment. Before atheists, humanists, and freethinkers can prove discrimination to the satisfaction of society in general, we must first prove it to ourselves. Otherwise we court the risk that activists who decry discrimination will be dismissed as “whiners,” even within our own ranks. I only hope that Grothe and Dacey’s claim that known cases of discrimination are insufficiently compelling will not lead aggrieved atheists to resign themselves to genuine abuse.
by Margaret Downey[/b]
The following article is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 24, Number 4.
Civil Rights n pl : the nonpolitical rights of a citizen; esp: the rights of personal liberty guaranteed to U. S. citizens by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by acts of Congress.1
In “Atheism Is Not a Civil Rights Issue” (Free Inquiry, February/March 2004), DJ Grothe and Austin Dacey wrote:
I greatly respect Grothe and Dacey, but in light of my own research I believe that they provided a misleading perception of the nonreligious community and its predicament. For almost a decade, I have been documenting acts of discrimination against the nonreligious through the Anti-Discrimination Support Network (ADSN), a committee of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia.
In 1995, the United Nations Non-Governmental Organization Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief invited me to submit information on discrimination against atheists by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The committee’s mission was to record and monitor incidents of intolerance around the world. I was told that my findings would be published in the committee’s final report only if the cases I documented were grievous by its standards. The committee quickly recognized that Scouting’s discrimination against atheists was no less severe than its far more widely reported discrimination against gays. A synopsis of my findings was included in the committee’s published report.2
Shortly afterward, the same UN committee asked me to assess other incidents of discrimination—in particular, what forms of discrimination were of greatest concern within the U.S. atheist community. During the following year, I conducted numerous interviews and discovered multiple instances of discrimination. In 1998, I delivered a personal report to the committee, noting that bigotry against atheists was relatively common, much of it based in popular misunderstandings of the U.S. Constitution’s secular character and its intent to protect minorities against majority rule. I reported that, with respect to the atheist community, the United States was not in compliance with the 1981 United Nations “Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.”3
During 1998, Dr. Abdelfattah Amor, Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, toured the United States and visited some of the families mentioned in my report. In his findings he noted atheism’s “non-acceptance by the society in which religion remains a very strong point of reference in social, cultural and identity terms.” Nonetheless, he suggested that the situation faced by atheists in American society was “satisfactory.”4 Compared to the deadly violence that threatens some oppressed minorities in other countries, this may be true; still, discrimination against unbelievers falls far short of the American ideal. I resolved to strengthen my efforts to document discrimination against atheists, which had never before been attempted in a formal manner.
In 1999, I developed the Discrimination Narrative Collection Form (DNCF), an easy-to-complete incident description form which I released to every national humanist, freethought, and atheist organization. The Council for Secular Humanism was first to publish the DNCF, in its newsletter Secular Humanist Bulletin.5 In 2000, I mass-mailed the form to atheist, humanist, and freethought groups nationwide. In addition, I circulated it at every movement conference I have attended since 2000. At those events, I heard many personal accounts of discrimination. But persuading victims to put their experience on paper was sometimes difficult.
One would think that any atheist who had experienced discrimination would be eager to submit an affidavit. Instead, the fear of suffering further discrimination as a “whistleblower” was widespread. Some victims told me that they did not want to go public lest still more hatred come their way. This is the trauma of discrimination, just the sort of intimidation that discourages discrimination reports and makes it difficult to find plaintiffs for needed litigation.
These obstacles notwithstanding, I eventually compiled hundreds of incident reports (selected reports are summarized in the sidebars to this article). The actual case reports reside in an ADSN master file that is not available to the general public. A narrative collection is available as a hardcopy that interested parties may purchase from ADSN. This is the only way to obtain this data, which has never been available online.6 Therefore, the payment record makes it possible to track who has the narrative collection and how it is used. Dacey and Grothe do not appear in my records as recipients of the narrative collection.
Still, even without access to the material in my files, discrimination against atheists is easily documented. National atheist and freethought publications frequently report on atheists losing their jobs, facing abusive family situations, being subjected to organized shunning campaigns in their communities, receiving death threats, and the like. That Grothe and Dacey overlooked—or elected to dismiss—these accounts concerns me, especially because they claim to have researched cases of discrimination prior to coming to their conclusions.
On the other hand, it is no surprise that Grothe and Dacey do not find mainstream media coverage that substantiates discrimination against the atheist community. (I am constantly amazed how seldom the two little words and atheists see print when journalists cover BSA discrimination against gays.)7
Had Grothe and Dacey contacted me before writing their article, I could have opened my files and shared accounts of physical and mental abuse, job loss, cruel media stereotyping, and other instances of discrimination. I believe they would have been satisfied that “atheist bashing” really exists and is getting worse.
Nevertheless, I feel that Grothe and Dacey have done our movement a service by demonstrating the need for unbelievers to come forward and document their experiences of unfair treatment. Before atheists, humanists, and freethinkers can prove discrimination to the satisfaction of society in general, we must first prove it to ourselves. Otherwise we court the risk that activists who decry discrimination will be dismissed as “whiners,” even within our own ranks. I only hope that Grothe and Dacey’s claim that known cases of discrimination are insufficiently compelling will not lead aggrieved atheists to resign themselves to genuine abuse.
