Indeed. Thanks for reading and commenting.

I DO believe in that motherfucker, and so do a lot of my friends; but most of us are still stuck with the harm done by very powerful religious institutions that don’t.

If you tell your cousin he’s acting like a prize horse’s ass, would he listen to you?

Well said. Hypermasculinist and hetero-normative traditions in AA communities have exacerbated the destructiveness of racist/classist health care policies that deny communities of color equitable access to preventive HIV/AIDS and STD education. STD contraction amongst young teenaged AA women has reached crisis proportions, yet these very same young people are steeped in a swaggeringly religious culture that tells them that racial liberation is all about propping up men and male dignity, facilitating black male access to patriarchal power and privilege, and keeping “homos” closeted.

Thanks Jesse, that covers pretty much everything I would say in response to his response, so I’m good. 🙂

You claim, in this piece, that you’ve “never stated or even suggested that African American religion or religion at large should be walled off or shielded from criticism.” This appears to be contradicted by the text of your original article, in a number of places. All quotes from that piece.

“Given the widespread findings due to the varieties of religious expressions how would you summarize them into one neat conclusion? The simple answer is that you can’t.” Is this not suggesting that “religion at large should be walled off or shielded from criticism”?

“The broad and sweeping attacks against “religion” by the New Atheists do little to advance any sort of helpful conversation about what communities or people really need.” Is this not stating that “religion at large” should be “shielded” from such “broad and sweeping attacks”? Is that not a suggestion that religion not be criticized in this way?

“When I hear someone advocating the conversion of believers into atheism without any sort of qualifications or context it concerns me.” Apparently you “heard” this through some means other than reading the actual blog posts where Greta Christina made the statements you quote, since those posts do (as numerous people have pointed out) contain many “qualifications” and “context”. Is not this sort of deceitful and deceptive mis-reading (and lack of citation) a way to “wall off” or “shield” “religion at large” “from criticism”?

(also posted at the reply on Tikkun)

I am often told my mannerisms, inflection and speaking style remind people of Samuel L….

My brain voiced that by Samuel L. Jackson. And it worked.

Thanks! At that suggestion I just ‘heard’ Hitchens saying it, and you’re right it fits perfectly 🙂