Dear Certain Individuals in One of My Women's and Gender Studies Classes,
The topic of the course is "Perspectives on Women and the World," not "Ill-Informed Perspectives on Christianity," "Justify All the Past Failings of Christianity," "Play the 'I'm a Unique and Beautiful Christian Snowflake' Game," or "Bore Everyone in Class with Inane Ramblings About What You Learned in Bible Study This Week." The goal of the class (at least, according to the syllabus) is to discuss the ways in which women affected and were affected by colonialism and its discourses, not re-hash whether or not Christianity functioned as a patriarchal and imperialist entity (It did, it still does, and there's really nothing that can change that) and derail into inane discussions about what the Bible does and doesn't say. It's not relevant. Nobody cares about what happened in your Bible study last week.
It would also behoove you to get it through your heads that a critique of the past and present shortcomings of Christianity does not constitute an attack on your individual faith. It is therefore not necessary for you to get defensive and derail the discussion for the rest of the class insisting that "Not all Christians are bad," "Some Christians are respectful of other cultures," or "Christians are nice and don't do things like that now." We're all aware that most Christians do not suck. That fact, however, does not alter the hard realities of history, and ignoring them or trying to cover them up with lame, half-assed excuses about how GREAT modern Christians are doesn't work, either. Face it: Christianity has a bad history. Also, it is not my job to reconcile that with your faith, it's yours. However you choose to deal with it (even if it's with denial) is your business, but do not try to make me complicit in it.
Furthermore, I am not an idiot. I may be an atheist, but I was raised Southern Baptist in a state that is saturated with fundamentalist Christianity. I have a pretty good grasp on the basic tenets of Christianity- and by that, I mean that I've read the Bible in its entirety and know it cold. So, you can stop assuming that I don't know what I'm talking about when I criticize Christianity. I DO know of what I speak, and it's why I am not a Christian anymore.
Seriously. I'm not going butt-deep in debt to Vanderbilt to talk about Bible studies, listen to morally and intellectually dishonest justifications of Christianity's bad behavior, or learn everything I didn't care to know about your religious beliefs. Let's make a deal: if you stop being an asshat and quit derailing class discussions, I'll stop calling you out on it and being a meanie head by making you think about your religious beliefs for once.
I hope to have a semi-decent discussion of the readings on Thursday,
That Disgruntled Atheist that You All Hate
PS: Just because the professor enables your atrocious behavior and minimizes or ignores the concerns of other students like me (and yes, there are several in the class who feel the same way I do; I'm just the only one who's really vocal about it) doesn't mean it's okay.
