Stereotypes

Girl Scouts Flap Rears Its Silly Head Once Again By Wendy Thomas Russell | August 2, 2012: After reading yet another story on the flap over the Girl Scouts book I wrote, I’m reminded once again at how irrationally freaked out some parents become when their kids are exposed to ideas different from their own. Whether it’s nonreligious parents instructing their kids on what to think about Catholicism, or conservatives instructing kids on what to think about gay marriage, the short-sightedness involved in both is the same. Push too hard in one direction and you brainwash your kid, crush their self-esteem and damage your relationship with them in the process. Instead of [...] Read more – ‘Girl Scouts Flap Rears Its Silly Head Once Again’.
Don’t Label Me, Man By Wendy Thomas Russell | June 28, 2012: We humans are all about labels. From such an early age, labels are so central to our identities. We’re constantly looking for ways to divide and unify, divide and unify, divide and unify — starting with gender and age, and then blossoming into 150 million other identifying marks. It’s all so, well, annoying. When I decided to write a blog for nonreligious parents, my belief system suddenly became central to my life and work. I’ve felt I had to label myself as nonreligious — atheist, if pressed. But prior to a year and a half [...] Read more – ‘Don’t Label Me, Man’.
Stereotypes Broken, A Winner is Chosen By Wendy Thomas Russell | March 15, 2012: On Monday, I asked the fine readers of this here blog if a religious person had ever surprised them. Not a jump-out-and-say-boo sort of surprise, but rather the kind where a religious person acts or believes in a non-stereotypical way. I also told you that one lucky commenter would be chosen at random to win a copy of The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies — How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer. By “random,” of course, I meant that my assistant, Isabella Bird, would draw the name. Because, frankly, [...] Read more – ‘Stereotypes Broken, A Winner is Chosen’.
Has a Religious Person Ever Surprised You? By Wendy Thomas Russell | March 12, 2012: If there’s anything I’ve learned from this blog so far, it’s that no two nonbelievers are exactly the same. Each of us brings to the table so many different experiences, philosophies and opinions. Trying to generalize us is simply not possible. Yet we nonreligious types have a tendency to generalize, too. I would love to do one of those free-association tests on atheists. I’d say “religious people,” and they’d say the first words that came to mind. What do you think the words would be? It seems more likely, doesn’t it, that atheist brains would produce [...] Read more – ‘Has a Religious Person Ever Surprised You?’.
Put Your Hands Up, and Step Away from the Ideology By Wendy Thomas Russell | January 5, 2012: So, remember when Glenn Beck’s The Blaze accused me of injecting the name of a liberal website called Media Matters into a Girl Scouts book I wrote? And how the story prompted a minor shit storm when Fox News decided to feature the issue on two different segments, the Grapevine and Fox & Friends? And then remember how then I wrote a response on this blog, mostly to clarify for the conservative newsies that I was not the droid they were looking for? Last week was fun, wasn’t it? Well, I had kind of assumed the good times were behind [...] Read more – ‘Put Your Hands Up, and Step Away from the Ideology’.
“You Worship the Devil!” “You’re Homophobic!” … Um, Guys? By Wendy Thomas Russell | December 29, 2011: A Tempe family appeared on a billboard this month promoting the Freedom From Religion Foundation in the hope of dispelling some of the myths about nonreligious free-thinkers. The Schinellers — Freddie and Holly and their four children — are pictured alongside the slogan: “Love + critical thinking = open minds.” Sometimes I realize what a bubble I live in. I’m lucky enough to have a supportive family and to live in an area of the country where people don’t talk much about religion, much less judge each other for it. But in a place like Tempe, [...] Read more – ‘“You Worship the Devil!” “You’re Homophobic!” … Um, Guys?’.