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The following article is from the Secular Humanist Bulletin, Volume 23, Number 1 (Spring 2007).
The following comments by humanist activist John Dunphy came in response to a request by a conservative Christian talk-show host for his views on the “Blasphemy Challenge,” which was issued by a group asking people to videotape their renunciation of belief in God and post it on the Internet.
Dunphy is a writer and bookstore owner in Illinois. He is the author of the 1983 essay “Religion for a New Age,” which became the basis for the religious Right’s charge that secular humanism was taking over public education.
–Eds.
I’m sure that conservative Christians such as yourself are horrified by secularists who are inviting—even encouraging—others to blaspheme, thus renouncing any belief in a deity or afterlife. You probably see such a movement as yet another attempt by secularists to outrage Christians and other theists by attacking beliefs they hold sacred, while garnering additional recruits for the humanist forces in what Pat Buchanan and others have called the “Cultural War.”
Well, the Blasphemy Movement indeed might be all of that. But I see it as something else as well. I see it as an opportunity for people who have been deeply hurt by Christianity to facilitate their healing.
What kind of people would welcome an invitation to engage in public blasphemy? Former Catholics who were repeatedly sexually molested as children by priests who knew their parishioners worshiped the ground they walked on and would never believe the boys’ accusations—if they even dared voice them. Gay and lesbian ex-Christians whose clergy told them they would burn in hell forever for the sin of being born with their sexual orientation. Family members who were told that beloved relatives were roasting in the flames because they had failed to undergo baptism, not been “born again,” or simply had chosen the wrong denomination. Women who were told that Satan was waiting for them with open arms because they had opted for abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. Adults whose parents beat the tar out of them because their churches sang the praises of corporal punishment as the biblically sanctified method of child-rearing. Those who lost a loved one to disease and were told by their clergy that, if only their faith had been greater, their loved one would have recovered. Ex-congregants who experienced a horrendous illness or accident and were told by their pastors that it was God’s punishment for having violated one of His commandments. Women whose ex-husbands behaved like tyrants because their Bibles and preachers told them that wives should be submissive. The list goes on and on.
A secular culture didn’t create these blasphemers—Christianity did. People such as these have usually been hurt beyond the point of any possible reconciliation with mainstream Christianity. Many of them will gladly blaspheme to symbolize their break with the Christian culture that so wounded them. If their blasphemy helps facilitate their healing and sets them on the road to achieving a better, more rewarding life, then I say—for lack of a better phrase—God bless their blasphemy.
I only hope these blasphemers don’t get stuck in their anger and bitterness. A life spent in the mere loathing of Christianity or all theism is a life misspent. I want the blasphemers to heal enough to move on and join their sisters and brothers in doing the kind of work necessary to make this world we share a more hospitable habitat. Who makes a greater contribution to humanity: those who get up the gumption to blaspheme and then sit on their asses, wallowing in anger and self-pity, or theists who throw themselves into the struggles against poverty, famine, disease, war, and discrimination? Theists and secularists must work to gether to address the global warming crisis, or many of us will be wearing hip boots while attending our respective church services and lectures.
So I say, “Blaspheme if you must, and then move on!” The staggering problems humanity faces do not allow us the luxury of lifelong, paralyzing bitterness.
John Dunphy is a writer and bookstore owner. His essay “A Religion for a New Age” was the basis for the religious Right’s charge that secular humanism was invading public education. This essay was originally published in The (Alton, Illinois) Telegraph on December 24, 1995.
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