Reply #26: I just saw that thread

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Ugh. It's the kind of ignorance I used to see in Oregon a lot, although since 2/3 of Oregonians have no religious affiliation and 17% are self-declared atheists, people assume that you're irreligious unless you say otherwise, and it's no big deal. I never felt as attacked in 19 years of living in Oregon as I have on DU. The two largest non-Catholic churches in Portland were Unitarian and Episcopal, so the whole climate was pretty liberal, but on the whole, most people knew nothing about religion.

Two striking examples of ignorance: I was invited to a Thanksgiving dinner, and someone asked me if I had slept in that morning. I told her that I had had to get up early because my choir was singing at the 10AM service. Her response: "I didn't know churches were open on Thanksgiving."

A couple of years later, I was scheduled to help arrange coffee hour on Easter, so I went to the local Fred Meyer store's bakery section on Holy Saturday to see if they had any hot cross buns. I didn't see any on display, and I asked the young man behind the counter. His response: "No, Passover was last week."

I'm not making these two examples up.

Now take that kind of ignorance and stir in a media culture that spotlights only the charlatans and crazies.