Marginalized

Today's Carnival of the Godless (dirty or clean) included an article discussing Huckabee. I agree with about 90% of it. In a few cases, I think Alexander gets a touch carried away, but I recognize the signs of extreme frustration in the writing and can sympathize.

One quote:

Of course, he will say it is not a civil rights issue but a religious one because homosexuality is a "sin" and this just shows us that Huckabee has no idea what the role of our secular federal government is. Because it certainly is not the function of our government to enforce religious orthodoxy and recognize "sin." Who is next after the homosexuals, anyhow? Lots of "sin" out there.

If the only justification for banning a behavior is religious, then the federal government has no place in it. Period. It's called "separation of church and state". Huckabee, in fact, has made it clear that he has every intention of ignoring/abolishing this separation. The full text of the infamous quote is available at the linked blog. Here's the most damning portion: "And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards." That, Mr. Huckabee, is called theocracy, and is in complete violation of the first amendment. Oh, wait, you probably want to get rid of that, too, so that heathens like me can't complain about it when our rights are shoved right out the window. Seriously, how long would it be before he decided to make it so that only (the right kind of) Christians could hold office or even vote? That is what putting "God" back in the Constitution would ultimately mean.

As Huckabee currently stands almost no chance of securing the Republican nomination, this is less of an issue now. But it highlights an extreme inequity in American politics. It is very nearly impossible for a professed non-Christian to hold office, particularly for a professed non-theist. Two different studies from 2001 put the number of non-Christians in the US at 23.5% or 18.9%. So let's call it 20%. That's one in five people in the population marginalized. Then when we dare to complain, it's the Christians who are being persecuted. Got news for you: losing undeserved privileges ain't the same as persecution*.

Now, to be fair, my experience has been that 99% of the time, there is no actual intent to marginalize non-Christians. It's a by-product. Around these parts, the population is overwhelmingly Mormon. That gives Mormons applying for jobs, etc., an advantage, whether there's intent to discriminate or not. If a Mormon employer has two candidates with identical qualifications, where A is a stranger but he's seen B around at local Mormon events, which do you think will be hired?

It's truly sad and ironic that, when these discrepancies are pointed out, the usual response is to try and silence or discredit the dissenter. Sorta proves the point, don't it? Yup, can't have all them ignernt heathens tellin' 'em what t'do. Nope. If they was worth anythin', they'd be good an' keep their mouths shut*.

As for me, at various times I've been left out of things by dint of not being a Christian; I've been omitted for consideration by dint of not being a Christian; my point-of-view has been ignored because I'm not Christian. Thusfar, it hasn't involved anything extreme, like a job, but it's...upsetting, especially when I realize that they don't even realize what bigots they're being. Would it be less upsetting if it were deliberate...? I don't know. Maybe. At least then I could get good and angry at a specific person rather than at the bloody system.

*I don't know why, but I tend to adopt atrocious grammar for emphasis in certain places. Sorry if it bugs you.