Response to Greta Christina

This is my response to a well-written post about atheist anger found here. (With a follow-up post here.) I want to read the other stuff she's written but I have to finish a paper. Curse you, school!

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Well-written, well-said. And the comparison to white people getting defensive when a black person talks about racism is spot on. It's easy to get defensive, to say "well I'm spiritual and that isn't MY voice/opinion/action/etc." But doing... that misses the point entirely, as she says.

People of religious and spiritual inclinations need to take a long hard look at themselves, at their institutions, at their peers. They need to speak out and act out against immoral behavior, always. They need to wrest their institutions from the hands of those who behave irrationally, immorally, and prejudicially. We are all human. No one individual is perfect, let alone organizations, affiliations, blah blah. So there's no excuse to sit back and let things happen.

I see it as the same reason to vote, the same reason to stay politically informed, the same reason to sign petitions, to go to protests, to donate to causes you believe are just, it goes on and on. Take responsibility for your life. Don't just sit there and say that because you are not perpetrating the injustices that you bear no responsibility for them. As Americans, we ALL bear some responsibility for things our government does, even things we voted against. As she says: "No, I didn't vote for him, but he was still my President." So no, I didn't elect the boards of the various Jewish organizations I can choose to be affiliated with, but I will damn well speak out if I see them doing or saying something wrong. I am pursing a career in spiritual leadership for just that reason: so I have a say.