By SIKIVU HUTCHINSON - L.A. WATTS TIMES
Added: Thu, 28 May 2009 23:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Layla for the link.
http://www.lawattstimes.com/opinion/opinion/773-out-of-the-closet--black-atheists.html

In some black communities it’s akin to donning a white sheet and a Confederate flag. In others, it’s ostensibly tolerated yet whispered about, branded culturally incorrect and bad form, if not outright sacrilege.

For black atheists like myself, proclaiming one’s non-belief amidst genial wishes to “have a blessed day” is never easy in the seemingly innocuous context of casual chit chat between black folk.

Yet, according to The New York Times, a small but growing segment of the American population, galvanized by the hyper-evangelical climate of the Republican Pleistocene, have begun organizing nationwide and becoming more vocal about their atheism.

Although African Americans are not visible in the “movement,” some are easing away from religion. For black atheists, actively breaking with religious tradition is an even graver rejection than that of white intellectuals electrified by the “pew-storming” rhetoric of atheist gurus such as Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins.

This is partly due to the fact that the history of African American civil and human rights resistance is heavily steeped in Judeo-Christian religious dogma.
...
Continue reading
http://www.lawattstimes.com/opinion/opinion/773-out-of-the-closet--black-atheists.html

TAGGED: ATHEISM, RELIGION