The majority of Christian history has a shameful past of bloody torture combined with racism and slavery, especially so in the southern United States. The bible itself condones slavery, even to the point of offering ‘Dos and Donts’ guidance to slaveholders — never once condemning it — not even in the Ten Commandments.
Yet Joseph E. Strictland, a Texas Catholic Bishop, vilifies atheism, claiming it is much worse than racism. And he blames atheists for every “ill that plagues our society.”
We are worried about the wrong “ism”. Racism is immoral & should be shunned but the root of our problems is ATHEISM. Let us repent of our sins & humbly return to God. It we do this racism & every other ill that plagues our society will fall into dust. We must address this root!
— Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) February 24, 2021
Some Christians have long defended their inclination for slavery with those scriptures, even those who still believe slavery was a good thing. With today’s sharp rise in white supremacists unmasking themselves, how can they deny it?
In other nations, aside from those ravaged by communist leaders, religion is a tiny part of society. Yet, those countries are significantly healthier, happier, and boast stronger economies.
This Texas Bishop is compelled to attacks atheists, blaming them for all of society’s woes, but he ignores the fact that atheists never really had any political power. Mostly because atheists are routinely vilified by the religious, so atheists are rarely elected to any political seat.
As one can imagine how atheist groups are responding to the bishop’s accusations:
“How delusional is this priest who thinks without atheism there would be no racism when it wasNOT atheists who were reading the Bible before the Civil War to justify keeping human beings as slaves or after that denying the right to vote to Blacks?” said one blogger on Quora.
“OK, a lot to unpack here. Atheism has nothing to do with morality because it is just non-belief in a god. But most atheists are also humanists, and humanism has A LOT to do with morality because it is all about supporting human rights and equality for human beings and that society and policies should be based on human needs...
...It does not mean all atheists are anti-racism or that there are no Christians opposed to racism. But the idea that without atheism, there wouldn’t be racism is beyond absurd. If I said as an atheist that if there were no theism, then there would be no racism, that would also be absurd, but no atheist would say that.”
Strickland enjoys imposing his ridiculous opinions regarding other topics. In September 2020, he promoted the claim that True Catholics™ couldn’t possibly vote for a Democrat. He signed a “manifesto” in 2020 claiming the pandemic is a nefarious plot to establish a “world government.” And he believes climate change is just a hoax.
