According to Raw Story, Glenn Beck says that “forces of spiritual darkness” (at CNN) arranged to have Wolf Blitzer ask an atheist tornado survivor if she thanked the Lord for sparing her life. The question was just part of a plan to give atheism more airtime, you see. And of course if that's how the atheists are going to be play, well, Beck wants Christians to fight back by showing that they can out-do us in the nice department:
Beck insisted that he liked atheists, but Christians needed to prove that they were better.
“Have I done anything this week, have you done anything that would make anyone say, ‘Wow, what is it about them? I want to be like that. I want to be able to provide hope to others in dark times,’” the radio host said. “If you haven’t done anything different than what an atheist can do this week then your light is not shining very bright at all.”(Emphasis mine.) Beck's inducement to Christians to prove they are better than atheists is ludicrous... but it sounds even more ridiculous if you trade the terms "atheists" and "Christians" for any pairing that puts mainstream Christianity in the position of underdog, and gives the place of privilege to any other worldview:
Sonja Eggerickx insists that she likes Christians, but says Humanists need to prove that they are superior.
Miroslav Gavrilović insists that he likes Christians, but says the Catholics of the Serbian Orthodox church need to prove that they are superior.
Zachary Bos insists that he likes Christians, but says the secular citizens of Massachusetts need to prove that they are superior.Hey, I like that last one! Let's see how much further we can take it:
“Have I done anything this week, have you done anything that would make anyone say, ‘Wow, what is it about those Atheists? I want to be like that. I want to be able to provide compassion and reason to others in dark times,’” Zachary Bos continued. “If you haven’t done anything different than what a theist can do this week then your Atheism is not shining very bright at all.”I like this game; it is both easy and subversive. Let's keep doing it! Here's how:
- Find a piece of sectarian writing that is blind to the privilege of its position
- Swap the privileged identity with the underprivileged identity
- Share with friends
