It would be the height of intolerance--and intolerance is a species of violence--to believe that your religion is superior to others' religions and that you would be justified in wanting others to change over to your faith.
--Mahatma Gandhi
I think the most important thing to remember is that We care about people! We have an affinity for life, and we recognize how tenuous and fragile it is, and as emergency workers we have chosen a profession that allows us to actually do something (with our own hands) that really can make a difference in the future quality of life people may have after suffering a traumatic or medical emergency. We recognize that it is through the work of people that lives are literally "saved," and not as the result of hoping or wishing or praying or adhering to some doctrine of belief.
We believe that life, this life, is what matters and that everyone has the right to seek happiness in the here and now rather than blindly succumbing to self-serving religious dogmas that tell them they are unworthy, sinful, and wicked, and for that they are expected to suffer in this life, but by following, supporting (i.e., monetary) and promoting the way set forth by the church, they can expect to be rewarded with "eternal happiness" in a mythical heaven.
There is nothing beautiful or "righteous" or noble about death and suffering. There is nothing romantic about war and killing and torturing people because they view the world or religion differently than you. There is nothing "divine" about the death of a child, and there is certainly nothing to suggest that the mother and father of that dead child will be somehow "stronger" or of "improved character" or more "spiritually enlightened" as a result of that death. There's no "message" to be "interpreted" from it.
As firefighters we perform a dangerous duty and it is always a very real possibility that our next shift could be our last. But whereas Christianity would have this life be tantamount to just a necessary evil on the road to the real life in heaven, I find such an outlook to be selfish and ugly. If life in the here and now is not important, if it is not everything in fact, then why bother trying to extend it or to enjoy it at all? Why do the job we do in order to make someone's life better in their time of tragedy or need?
If they are a "Christian" and in their death they really are headed to "eternal happiness in heaven," as they proclaim, then who are we to stop it? If a "Christian" family is trapped in a burning building shouldn't they be allowed to just burn? If we did nothing isn't that exactly what would happen? Wouldn't that be "God's will" that their lives were "taken from this earthly existence ... called to heaven"? Well, I don't buy it!
Life does matter and I think everyone, even the most devout Christians, realize this in spite of the rhetoric they get from the church. I think people are not nearly so confident in their hoped for dreams of immortality in a pie-in-the-sky afterlife. I think this life is very important to people, and that is why they do everything they can to extend it as long as possible, but recognizing the inevitable, they convince themselves that this life is not all that there is.
I love life myself and I hope it lasts for a long time to come, but if it doesn't, so be it, at least I was alive and did something productive with it by helping others in their times of need; at least I experienced life and had a family. Whatever our life spans may turn out to be, just being alive is something to be cherished and should never be down-played or seen as unimportant in terms of some hoped for "eternal life." Death is the natural end to life and while it is sometimes horrific and almost always painful for the surviving loved ones, it is grotesque to assign some special divine significance to it beyond the natural indiscriminate world we inhabit.
There really isn't one concise definition of a "freethinker," even among freethinkers. Freethinkers can and do encompass people of many belief structures, including people professing to religious beliefs. For example, Thomas Jefferson, Mahatma Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama, each expressed some form of belief in a "god" of sorts (although most Jews, Muslims and Christians would not identify with their definition of that term), but their views toward humanity, religious tolerance, informed study and their ability to rise above demands of conformity to ancient dogmas make (made) them freethinkers.
Freethinker is not a synonymous term with atheism, even though most (but not all) atheists are freethinkers. When religionists attempt to classify "us" as some all-encompassing group that is at once "un-American" (or, internationally, "un-western"), "anti-family" and "morally decrepit heathens" who propel ourselves on a "hateful agenda" to "destroy God" (their god, the only god, of course) and religion (their religion, the only true religion, of course--remember, it is the self-proclaimed "true" religions in the world that have sought to destroy one another), they are playing upon emotional stigmas and innuendo rather than informed study and evidence.
It's important to note that it is not to us the evangelists are speaking when they attack the freethinker; it is their congregations they are trying to convince! By projecting the freethinker in a negative, hateful, evil, light, they seek to tap into the emotional receptors of their congregations in order to implant a distasteful image of contempt in their minds, and consequently to have them avoid us outright. Truly, the greatest assets the church has in maintaining its numbers are ignorance, fear and intolerance. Conversely, its greatest enemies are education, critical examination and competition.
No. We are not here to harass, attack or demean anyone for their personal religious beliefs. You will not find us standing at the door of your churches, mosques and synagogues engaging people as they enter and exit. We are strong believers that what people choose to believe is their own business, and so long as it remains a private matter for them, they are able to support themselves with their own funds, and they do not inflict harm upon others, then no one has the right to challenge that, whether one adheres to their views or not.
That said, however, the moment one feels they have been adorned with some "God-given right" to impose their religious views upon others, and worse, at the expense of others' religious or nonreligious beliefs, it is then that they have stepped over the line and, as Gandhi correctly observed, committed an act of "violence" that is both intolerable and harmful. And it is in the confines of this arena that you will see the proselytizers being challenged on their own turf.
While much of the world suffers at the hands of religion or sects within religions dictating public policy, we are fortunate here in the United States to have a Constitutional provision to prevent such intrusions into federal, state and local government; and that includes local city government jobs such as fire and police that are funded by the tax payers! Unfortunately, there are those that defy the laws of this land and they take it upon themselves to see government facilities and employees as fertile mission fields to further their religious agendas. That has certainly been the case for the Colorado Springs Fire Department as well as many others, and in all statistical probability it is more likely than not that this is a common problem in departments across the country. That is why it is important for people like myself to stand up against these activities. (Dousing a Religious Flap)
Even on my own department in the ultra-conservative city of Colorado Springs, which is home to more than 160 Christian organizations such as Focus on the Family, the Navigators, Summit Ministries, and the World Prayer Center, there are still 8-10 percent among our firefighters who are either atheist or agnostic in their beliefs and who see what the Christian firefighters have been doing all these years as wrong! I have been told time and again by others of these firefighters that they were "offended by the proselytizing" but never said anything because they "didn't want to rock the boat or jeopardize friendships," and "feared being labeled as an outcast or rebel." I have been told many times that they are "happy that [I] am speaking-out against these activities," but they are "glad it is [me] who is doing it and not [them]." I think this says it all and is something that needs to be reversed. That any of these people should find conditions to be wrong in their work place but feel "fear" at daring to challenge it in order to have things changed is proof positive that intolerance and discrimination are alive and well, and that all aspects of diversity are not being addressed.
And I can attest to the fact that the fears expressed by some of my colleagues are well-founded! I have been called a lot of hateful names by some of the Christian firefighters on my department (CSFD) for daring to challenge them for their proselytizing activities on City government property; names such as "The Devil's helper working overtime," "pure evil," "a reprobate mind," "God hater," and my favorite, "Spreader of Lies, Lies, Lies, from the father of all lies, the Devil!" Usually these are said behind my back (as if word wouldn't get back to me ... a virtual impossibility in the fire service! There's an old firehouse adage about gossip: "telegraph, telephone, tell-a-firefighter"...), but there are a few individuals that have made such comments to me directly, in writing, conveying their indoctrinated views in no uncertain terms.
Now, I wish to express that I do not allow such comments to hurt me since I understand, from having been a devout Christian myself once, where such feelings of animosity are generated ... the church! I find this especially saddening because these are all otherwise good, hard-working, caring people who would never make such contemptuous statements under any other circumstances aside from their intolerant religious views--views that had to be taught to them! In the end I think such things say far more about them than they do me, and it serves to demonstrate what is inherently wrong and destructive with any religious view that touts itself as "the only truth" and that those who fail to conform to that "truth" will suffer as a result. Such things are nothing less than tools of emotional, psychological and even physical trauma, and when such "missions" are brought into the government workplace by the adherents of such beliefs, they must be held accountable for their actions.
Government buildings and the services provided to the tax payers through them, are not churches! They are not mission fields for promoting one's religion or acquiring new members to one's church. And they are certainly not institutions governed by any power, divine or otherwise, above the document composed by humans, for humans, and begins "We the People" . . . the U.S. Constitution!
It is my sincere hope that other firefighters around the country, and indeed around the world, will see that they are not alone in their concerns, and that they will speak-out to their department heads and civic leaders to make sure diversity and the separation of church and state is observed and heeded.
--Bruce Monson, 2001
About Me
See Also
Is "Freethinker" Synonymous with Nontheist?
What is Atheism Really All About?