The Washington Post ran a story today of an unusual workplace settlement. Two atheist workers in North Carolina received a total $50,000 settlement due to anti-atheist discrimination in their workplace:
Every day, employees at Aurora Pro Services, a North Carolina home-repair company, would gather for a mandatory prayer meeting, according to a federal complaint.
They stood in a circle while leaders, including the company owner, allegedly read Bible scriptures and prayed. In the circle, the owner required Aurora’s employees to recite the [L-rd]’s Prayer in unison and requested prayers for poorly performing employees…
Washington Post
I shared the story to Mastodon, where I noted I was happy to see the settlement, even if it was for a relatively low sum considering the discrimination claim. I received a reply noting the “prayers for the poorly performing” to which I replied humorously that I knew of no Scriptural basis for even thinking of such a prayer.
While I can’t speak, obviously, to this particular boss and their particular prayer and intent, in general, I refer to belief systems like this as “theological fanfic”. No more realistic than the Google results the phrase returns. Built by the “fans”, for the fans, for the benefit of the fans.
Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today and former leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, recently told NPR that in his eyes, American Christianity is in crisis. Calling for “rethinking what the church is”, Moore illustrates his point with a poignant example:
It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — “turn the other cheek” — [and] to have someone come up after to say, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”
And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, “I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,” the response would not be, “I apologize.” The response would be, “Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.” And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.
NPR, “All Things Considered”
First of all, I can see why people en masse calling Christian scripture “liberal talking points” that “don’t work anymore” is a crisis that would definitely get onto a pastor’s radar. It wasn’t Scripture that those churchgoers wanted to hear. They didn’t want to hear “weak” teachings about forgiveness and helping the poor, all those “literal quotes”.
They wanted theological fanfic. Something they could scream “yeah!” along with.
American law is designed to defend and protect “all sincerely held religious beliefs whether or not central to, or mandated by, a particular religious organization or tradition.” The government is not allowed to “second-guess the reasonableness” of the religious belief – were I to found “Y-Love’s Orthodox Synagogue of Paganism, Pulled Pork & Torah”, I would be well inside my rights to do so.
One has no burden to prove that one’s belief system is cohesive: “I believe in the Bible” and “I believe G-d wants my workers to suffer to make me money” don’t have to make sense together, they only both have to be “sincerely held beliefs”. Many a cult have flourished in this legal vacuum. To say “this is Biblically ridiculous” or “Moses never said that” is beyond the jurisdiction of any governmental entity, even if easily demonstrated.
Theological fanfic is the religious framework that enables the transphobe to scream and growl in the face of a young child. It’s what enables a landlord to claim religiosity while simultaneously maintaining uninhabitable tenant conditions – while any Biblical scholar could disprove such a person’s claim to “righteousness” effortlessly, such disproof is irrelevant. All that is relevant is the sincerity of the belief.
As someone who loves G-d and Scripture, from the progressive side of the aisle, it pains me when I want to open up a Bible (or Talmud or Code of Jewish Law, depending) and say “don’t you see it says X?” First of all, as a Jewish “outsider” to many of these incidents, my opinion is already secondary at best. But it still is almost painful to watch eternal teachings get mangled into an unrecognizable monstrosity by minds more connected to hate than Heaven.
You know, the Bible is a real book: some people may want to look into it more thoroughly before claiming to speak for it. What prophet cussed children out, cussed widows out? What teaching mandates abusing workers, hurting the poor, dissing orphans? And relying on such flimsy claims? (And even if the person is committing a sin, where do we find sinners being put through such ringers in this world?)
It’s not Scripture, it’s not “the Bible”, it’s not organized religion – it’s not even the religions that many of these people profess to believe themselves.
It’s theological fanfic. By the fans, for the fans. Creation of a deity in one’s own image. The antithesis of self-nullification. Instead of asking for one’s heart to be recreated (Psalm 51), theological fanfic is centered around recreating the Creator of the heart (ch”v).
In the world of theological fanfic, not even racism and lynching are worthy of guilt, and colonization contained not even a glimpse of malcontent. Authors and purveyors of well-written and well-spoken theological fanfic can fill halls with throngs of listeners. Actual teachings – in original languages – fall to the wayside in favor of “give the people what they want, and tell ’em G-d sent you”. Do people want to hear about forgiveness and high burdens of judicial proof for transgressions, or do they want to hear “G-d hates gay people”?
While I would never want a Biblical “test” to be administered by the government, sometimes I wish our false advertising laws or brand infringement precedents could cover this. “If someone says X, they can’t call it Judaism”. Of course, this would lead to a horrific slippery slope and no one would want this.
But it’s still sad to watch people fall for it.
