[Never]

I was doing some cleaning and ran across a notebook I had stored printed out copies of posts I wanted to keep from back in the day. I had remembered reading this but didn't know where it was. I always thought JMS represented a healthy atheist POV. Please note that he has always had a policy that anything he posts in public is free to be re-posted. So, from J. Michael Straczynski, creator, writer and producer of Babylon 5, one of my favorite TV shows of all time, the following from 6/14/1997. Note that he is responding to a question (in quotation marks) from a fan.

Originally Posted by J.Michael Straczynski on Compuserve

"On a completely different and impertinent tack, I am curious to know if you feel any impact from being perhaps the most visible atheist since Ms. O'Hair?"

Not Really. I think that a large sector of the religious community is still trying to figure me out...because yes, I'm an open, avowed atheist, but I've done stories about religion and spirituality that -- if the mail from priests and rabbis and ministers and even a few folks from other, non-western religions is to be believed -- are more fair and respectful that just about anyone else in TV is doing, even according to last week's Christian Science Monitor.

They openly ask, "How is it that an atheist is able to get stories of great faith on the air when nobody else will do it?" To which I generally have started replying, "Only Nixon could go to China."

I think that if I were using my show as a bludgeon to convey my own personal beliefs, or lack thereof, as an atheist, that would be a whole different kettle of fish. But I don't. I have an obligation as a writer before anything and everything else...that means that if I create a character who is religious, I must treat that character with respect and, just as importantly, *authenticity*. I must, in short, be *fair*.

Where this works to my benefit is that if I, as an atheist, do an episode showing a religious character in a positive light. the mail comes in thanking me for being fair to points of view I don't agree with. Then, when I do a show implying Ivanova and Talia were briefly lovers, or when you have Marcus and Franklin undercover as a married couple, they start to go to the keyboards to complain...then remember what they said about fairness to other points of view.

continued next post...

[Never]

continued from above...

Originally Posted by J.Michael Straczynski, Compuserve 1997

As a result, even with all the very subversive and challenging shows we've done in four years, and even being an open atheist, I can count the harassing religious fringe-mail on one hand. (Thinks for a moment...okay, maybe two hands, but that's all.) As long as I stay honest with the writing, I'll be okay. The moment I start to use it as propaganda, they'll be all over me...and rightly so.

BTW, on the issue of Madalyn O'Hair..or O'Hare, I can never remember which it is...interesting thing is, I worked for her magazine for a while, doing a couple of columns and articles. At the time, I did so because I felt (and still do to some extent feel) that atheists are easy targets in society. You will never see an avowed atheist in the White House or Congress, whatever it may say in the constitution about this being a secular government with separation of church and state. When then-Vice President Bush could say, at a press conference at an airport in Chicago, "Well, I don't really see how an atheist can be a patriot, this is after all on nation under God", then you see how bad things can get.

But in working for her magazine, I gradually figured out that she wasn't oriented toward equal respect on both sides, for atheism and religion, which is where I am...she was anti-religion and looking to sabotage that element of society, which I do not condone. It's simply wrong. I've always said, the day they try to shut down churches, I'll be the first one on the firing line to fight back...I just hope that the other side will join me when they try to shut down the libraries. Which, finally is why I resigned from her magazine. I'm pro-tolerance, and don't have time for bigots of any stripe.

[Gurdur]

This is really interesting; more later.

[Seeker630]

Before this, I had never heard of J.M.S. And I will at least partly disagree with the last paragraph and his reference to "tolerance". There are many Christians and other religionists we should indeed accord a good deal of tolerance, because even though they disagree with our viewpoint, they don't go out of their way to abuse or villify us.

Then there's the others. We should show absolutely no respect or tolerance to those who show us none. Period. The ones who try to legislate their stupid nonsense on everyone else, the ones who damn us to eternal torment because we have a brain and they don't, the ones who try to proselytize us all the time. The ones who paint us as an enemy of our own country.

Fuck em.

I never cared for O'Hair's antics either, BUT-----I do understand how she got to be that way. It was because of the intolerance of Christians. She didn't have a Dawkins or Harris or Hitchens to help her through the hoops when she filed her court case. She was strictly on her own. She had to face up to a lot of people who openly hated her, and she formed up the first coherent organization in this country for atheists. The media had a field day villifying her like it was some kind of fucking sport or something. So I think I can allow her a lot of latitude in her personal life, which was pretty much living hell after that court case. She and her family endured years of death threats, and assorted discrimination.

I am not a member of American Atheists. I think my support and money is better spent on organizations like the ACLU, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. I've been to a couple of local meetings of A/A in Michigan, and an annual convention once. Just not my cuppa.

I think J.M.S. needs to take off his historically revisionist glasses and read the fine print. J.M.S. wasn't there when the shit was hitting the fan----she was, and hindsight is always 20/20. And there is nothing wrong or illegitimate about being anti-religious. If he doesn't like that then it's his problem, and he reacted correctly---leave the organization because you don't agree with all it's positions anymore. Everyone has that right. That doesn't mean the organization was necessarily wrong, only that he thought it was.

[Nina]

Has anyone ever run for the presidency of America as an atheist? Its as if they must pander to christians to get elected, though some are obviously not knowledgable on it and claim verses that aren't there, etc.
Why not?

[Don Alhambra]

Originally Posted by Nina

Has anyone ever run for the presidency of America as an atheist? Its as if they must pander to christians to get elected, though some are obviously not knowledgable on it and claim verses that aren't there, etc.
Why not?

You're exactly right. Anyone who ran for the US Presidency as a visible atheist would have not a hope in anyone's version of Hell of even getting past the primaries.

I believe that most US states have (unconstitutional) laws on their books that disqualify atheists for even attempting to run for office.

[Seeker630]

Originally Posted by Don Alhambra

You're exactly right. Anyone who ran for the US Presidency as a visible atheist would have not a hope in anyone's version of Hell of even getting past the primaries.

I believe that most US states have (unconstitutional) laws on their books that disqualify atheists for even attempting to run for office.

The last time I checked there were 7 states that had such provisions. Legally they are quite unenforceable, but no politician is going to volunteer to do the right thing and make a motion to get those old clauses removed either.

[Don Alhambra]

Ok, not 'most' then! Thanks for the clarification.