Why do you hate fundies so much? They're harmless, right?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-04-22 11:09pm

Well, not really. Remembered a post from another forum today that I thought I'd share with all of you, as it deserves being spread.

Foodbunny wrote:When I was in 5th grade the big thing to do to prove how popular you were was to invite as many kids over to have a sleepover at your house on Saturday night and then all go to church together on Sunday. I was a rather unpopular kid, I was ugly and spent most of my time with my nose in a book, but I was a warm body of the appropriate age so I eventually got asked. Not knowing that it could possibly bother anyone, I politely declined. When they asked why I told them that I was an atheist and wasn't really interested in going to church, but thanks for asking me anyway.

Now none of the kids around me knew what an atheist was, but some of them remembered that word and asked others. Like their parents, who warned them to stay away from me. And one little girl asked her Southern Baptist minister, who told her that "Atheists aren't even human, don't treat them with the kindness you would show a dog." Coming from a person in a trusted position, this bit of 'wisdom' spread quickly.

At first it was just shunning. No one would talk to me, which was fine by me because I didn't talk to others very often. Then it was threatening letters left in my locker, which didn't bother me because kids are just being stupid and they'll find someone else to pick on if I just don't react, right?

Then the beatings began. It started with tripping me in the hallway so they could push my face into the wall. Then it escalates into groups holding my arms while they take turns punching me. They start talking to me again so they can sing songs about how stupid evolution is and how I'm going to burn in hell for ever. I think about going to get help from a teacher, but one day on the playground I'm struggling to get to one and she looks me dead in the eye then turns away. There's no help to be had.

One day a huge group of them surround me. I'm restrained again as a boy wearing cleats kicks me in the face and they all laugh as I bleed. I lose my mind. Until that point I had been a pacifist, then I started to fight back. When I finally got away I ran into the school and hid in the janitor's closet, crying and screaming, terrified and angry. A little girl trys to help me but I'm so lost I can't respond to her, I tell her to go away.

Finally the teacher comes and drags me back to class. She tells the class it's mean to yell at Angie, ignoring the bruises and the cuts. I huddle first at my desk, then under it, begging people to just go back to shunning me, to pretend I don't exist. After class I've calmed down some, so I go to the school councilor and beg her for help. She asks why I'm being bullied, and when I tell her I can quote to you her exact words because they hurt so much. I'll never, ever forget them. She said "One day you'll change your mind and you'll thank them for helping you".

I couldn't react. I had finally worked up the guts to ask for help and the help I get is telling me I deserve all that pain and that'll make me a better person. It's a familiar refrain from my childhood, but I digress. I stop crying. I stare at her, for the first time feeling complete and total hate with every fiber of my fucking being. And I decided that hate was the only way I was going to make it.

I spent several more years that way. Hating everyone because they hated me. Being beat up when people got the chance. Being literally hit over the head with a Bible, having kids raise their cross necklaces when I walked by thinking I'd burst into flame if I touched them. Being cornered in the locker room for some punches to the gut, or slammed into the wall. I got back what I could, fighting without any regard as to what could happen to me, but I was outnumbered by 2000 by the time I got to high school. By then I got to have sexual harassment with my daily beatings. And the adults always turned away. No one wanted to help the atheist, because atheists are lesser humans and not worthy of the respect you'd show a dog.

I dropped out because I was seriously afraid that I was going to kill someone. And I spent several years just hiding from the world, trying to heal. I'm on the verge of tears right now just remembering it. That's what I get for being unlucky enough to be an atheist in Texas.

Do you still wonder why I would perfer a non-religious leader? Do you still wonder why I am not the biggest fan of vocal Christianity? Do you still wonder why I sometimes, just sometimes, still feel like a victim?

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-04-22 11:16pm

Hmm, who do these people remind me of, who do they remind me of... hmm, let's see now... oh yeah! Hitler!

Enricko · Post by **Enricko** » 2003-04-22 11:19pm

Bless the Universe I was born in Quebec! Texas seems like hell-on-Earth...

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2003-04-22 11:27pm

Part of me almost wishes I could be in his position so I could kill them.

When they gang up on you like that is when you start to shatter tracheas.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-04-22 11:28pm

XaLEv wrote:Part of me almost wishes I could be in his position so I could kill them.

When they gang up on you like that is when you start to shatter tracheas.

Her position, actually.

Just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-04-22 11:35pm

Ouch...poor girl.

Seriously those are some assholes with truly one tracked minds that deserve an asskicking.

And honestly Texas isn't that bad(and coming from my past down there, that me saying a lot...people are people...many ignorant some good, and places vary in quantity of it place to place)

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2003-04-22 11:36pm

Where did this occur, exactly?

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2003-04-22 11:43pm

Ok, i nearly cried reading that. No one deserves to be treated that way. NO ONE

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-04-22 11:44pm

XaLEv wrote:Where did this occur, exactly?

I don't remember where she said it happened, specifically. I'd have to sift through the rest of the thread in question to find out.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-04-22 11:51pm

Fucking assholes. I was really hoping she could've learned some really nasty martial art and ripped anyone who tried that to bloody shreds. It's what I would've done. Besides, don't her parents have a legal case against the school for this?

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-04-22 11:56pm

Everyone sing with me!

Whaaaat a friend we have,
in Jeeesuuus....

*vomits*

Fuck religion. Hard.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-04-22 11:59pm

Damn. Considering what a shit position she was in, it'd probably have been better to kick randomly when ganged up on like that. And where the fuck where her parents?

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-04-23 12:03am

Darth Yoshi wrote:Damn. Considering what a shit position she was in, it'd probably have been better to kick randomly when ganged up on like that. And where the fuck where her parents?

To everyone who knows about this: were her parents churchgoers?

And did she ever tell her parents or was she too ashamed to?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-04-23 12:10am

Some answers to questions posed on this thread:

Foodbunny wrote:Thanz, these were all public schools. I do realise that the majority of people aren't like that, but it took a while for me to be able to see it.

I'd also like to clarify that I did not become an atheist as a rebellion to anything. My mom is a spiritual agnostic, my step-dad was a Baptist, and most of my family is non-denominational Christian. I was encouraged from a very young age to not ask questions, but to go to the library and research to find my own answers. My grandfather particuarly got me interested in critical thinking (and computer games, my grandpa rules). When I was sent to vacation bible school during summer I just came to the conclusion that I didn't agree with what they were saying and started to look up various religious beliefs. I ended up deciding that I wasn't really swayed by any of them and that I didn't feel any compelling reason to believe, so I was atheist.

Where this all took place:

Foodbunny wrote:Same where I live now, Texas, in a suburb of Dallas.

Where were the parents?

Foodbunny wrote:During the first part of it my mom and step-dad were going through a messy, messy, MESSY divorce, and I had already had "Don't tell me bad news" drilled into my head by said step-dad. My step-dad was a real, real creep and I ended up getting into a pattern of hiding EVEYTHING and never talking and I think it was just easy for my mom to go along with with the problems at work and at home.

During the later half of it, after he was gone, my mom was in serious denial that anything could be happening and thought I was just trying to get attention. So I started purposely pulling greater and greater stunts for attention so she'd see what it was like when I was really hurting vs when I want attention. Finally she realised that there was a problem (though no where near the extent of it) and pulled me from school. I think it was only when I started to get better she realised how damaged I had been.

She still denies that some of the stuff I went through could have possibly happened, but I think she realises part of why I acted so badly.

As for fighting back...

Foodbunny wrote:I spent years fighting back. All that happened was they learned not to come at me one on one, but to come in groups. I don't think there's anything I could have done short of making a huge public conversion that could have stopped it. This was a group activity, even those who didn't dirty their hands directly supported the group action and talked others up into it.

Even the public conversion wouldn't have probably worked, she'd have to prove it every waking minute of her life, living a total lie.

paladin · Post by **paladin** » 2003-04-23 12:11am

Yet another example of how Southern Baptists can be ASS-HOLES!

Lord of the Farce · Post by **Lord of the Farce** » 2003-04-23 12:11am

The fact that these fucktards who should have helped her only made things so much worse makes me want to have them tried for crimes against humanity.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-04-23 12:14am

Shinova wrote:
Darth Yoshi wrote:Damn. Considering what a shit position she was in, it'd probably have been better to kick randomly when ganged up on like that. And where the fuck where her parents?
To everyone who knows about this: were her parents churchgoers?

And did she ever tell her parents or was she too ashamed to?

Eh, probly. Shitstains...

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2003-04-23 12:16am

Perhaps if everyone took some time off their days to will these bastards to suddenly drop dead and die, perhaps, through the combined force of our wills, it can happen.

Lord of the Farce · Post by **Lord of the Farce** » 2003-04-23 12:23am

Shinova wrote:Perhaps if everyone took some time off their days to will these bastards to suddenly drop dead and die, perhaps, through the combined force of our wills, it can happen.

I don't think I can ever directly wish for someone's death. But wish for these bastards to get what they deserve? Hell yes.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-04-23 12:23am

Shinova wrote:Perhaps if everyone took some time off their days to will these bastards to suddenly drop dead and die, perhaps, through the combined force of our wills, it can happen.

I'd rather we will them to a messy, excruciatingly painful massacre

NO MERCY FOR THE EVIL FUCKHEADS!!!

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-04-23 12:27am

I am curious how much of this is true.

not that Id be surprised if it was.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-04-23 12:30am

Enforcer Talen wrote:I am curious how much of this is true.

not that Id be surprised if it was.

All of it, unfortunately. All of these quotes have been pulled directly, with zero editing, from the James Randi Educational Foundation forums. The poster, as I've indicated, goes by the handle of "Foodbunny". This is a rather old thread over there by now, but I had just remembered it, and thought it worthy of sharing over here as well.

Queeb Salaron · Post by **Queeb Salaron** » 2003-04-23 12:32am

::Looks at the scars on his forearms::

::Nods::

You never forget the transgressions made against you.

I say let them burn you. Let the pain take you. For a while, anyway. Then laugh at them all. It's all you can do. Fighting back makes you look like a militant athiest, which is as good as being a Satanist in their minds, and that's even worse.

At the same time, if you do nothing, they'll use your beatings as evidence that God conquors all heathens.

All life is a catch-22 when you're an athiest among Christians. I admire your willpower. There are those with whom I went to school whose scars will never fully heal because of their assumed superiority over me. Maybe for young women it's different, and maybe violence isn't always an option for them.

But I doubt that makes it any easier.

Saurencaerthai · Post by **Saurencaerthai** » 2003-04-23 12:52am

This is absolutely sickening. I tried to think of something to say, but I am at a loss for words. We've seen how dangerous fundimentalism and it's symptoms can be. I wish I could say "launch a war on fundimentalism and wipe it out", but ideas really don't ever die.

XPViking · Post by **XPViking** » 2003-04-23 01:11am

That is simply awful.

XPViking