Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars by Sikivu Hutchinson

[essentialsaltes]

I wanted to love this book. I wanted to hate this book.

Sikivu Hitchinson is female, black, and, I seem to recall, a communist. So based on thumbnail identifications, it wouldn't seem we had much in common. Then again, she's an atheist from Los Angeles. (Indeed, recently when fracking in the Baldwin Hills was in the news, I learned that her

Comments

[ian_tiberius]

Wait, compulsory heterosexuality with men hewing to rigid heterosexual gender norms produces predatory homosexual behavior?I believe the argument goes something like

[essentialsaltes]

I believe the argument goes something like:

Yeah, I can follow that along, but it does require a lot of intervening steps.

And if the syllogism you provided is an accurate summary, then sheesh.

Well again, she doesn't explicitly make any argument. She's providing lived experience. The church is important in black people's, particularly black women's, lives. Leaving the church brings ostracism. The church is also a patriarchal, heterosexist organization.

[essentialsaltes]

No, in theory, atheism entails not believing in any gods. No more; no less. And though that may free one from adhering to sexist/racist/homophobic religious dogma, it doesn't really determine what your stance on these issues should be. Atheists can and do have a variety of opinions about these things. But, generally speaking, the atheist movement I see is anti-racist, anti-sexist and gay-friendly.
My vision may be faulty, because I do not have the 'lived experience' of various minorities as they 'intersect' with atheism. Reading this book may have helped address that. I don't think Hutchinson would say the atheist movement is racist, but rather that it hasn't done enough to understand the needs that religion fulfils in the black community, and that it won't be successful until it too serves to fulfil those needs.

[essentialsaltes]

organized atheism has a very serious problem with sexism.

Would you care to describe this? I know the atheist reddit is a hive of scum and villainy (and not in a good way) but that's hardly organized atheism.