"I know you don't claim to be a Christian but even you wouldn't put something like that on your (web)page..." That's how the blow was delivered today - subtle but clear.
This was spoken by my good (?) friend and supervisor who I mentioned in my "Outed at Work" post. We were discussing one of the young girls at her church whose MySpace page had been hacked and terrible things posted. My friend described the very graphic and vulgar sexual innuendo and words that had been used about this little 14 year-old girl.
And then she told me that my morality was inferior.
I doubt she meant it fully the way she said it but it came out nonetheless. I am not a Christian so, of course, I must be less moral than she is. Somehow I am more likely to put up a webpage that is hurtful and indecent simply because I'm not a believer. Why is this?
I wonder if she has really felt this way about me all along? Have all my efforts to prove myself a good person been for nothing? Am I doomed to always be judged by my atheism and never for my character? It surely seems so this week. That this barb came from someone I considered a dear friend makes it all the more cruel.
No wonder so many people never let anyone know that they're atheists - particularly in the Bible Belt! When even your Christian friends think you are somehow less of a person because you don't believe, what hope do you have left? All I find myself thinking these days is, "I really wish I had some atheist friends nearby. If they didn't like me, at least it wouldn't be because of my beliefs."
How sad. How real.
Tags: morality, Bible Belt, religion, Christianity, Christian, belief, atheist