Ana Marie Cox, a blogger and writer, wrote a post for the Daily Beast that is getting lots of commentary. She says she feels uncomfortable talking about her faith with colleagues.
In my personal life, my faith is not something I struggle with or something I take particular pride in. It is just part of who I am.
The only place where my spirituality feels volatile is in my professional life; the only time I’ve ever felt uncomfortable talking about my faith is when it comes up in conversation with colleagues.
It does come up: Since leaving Washington, I have made my life over and I am happier, freer, and healthier in body and spirit and apparently it shows. When people ask me, “What changed?” or, “How did you do it?” or, sometimes, with nervous humor, “Tell me your secret!” I have a litany of concrete lifestyle changes I can give them—simply leaving Washington is near the top of the list—but the honest answer would be this: I try, every day, to give my will and my life over to God. I try to be like Christ. I get down on my knees and pray.
She also feels judged by believers, because she isn’t totally knowledgable about the bible. Would she fail the Christian litmus test?
I’m Catholic in one of most Catholic areas of the country. There are nothing but Irish and Italians around here. It’s hard to find parking space outside of church. Few people are REALLY Catholic, but lots of people are sort of Catholic. But we Catholics are much more reserved in our devotions than Protestants. Nobody expects us to know the bible; we just have to show up at church on Sunday. I never really thought of Catholicism as a slacker religion, but maybe it is.
Apt. 11d 
She’s from Lincoln and she went to Southeast, which is the most Lincolny part of Lincoln. I don’t know how that would affect her discomfort in talking with coworkers, but it’s really a very Protestant place. Even the Catholic services there are more Protestant.
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test.
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time lkjh lkjh lkjh lkjh 3:31 ljghljkg hgv 3:33
3:35
337
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I’m trying to post again, this time very quickly.
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3:37 vkjhg kjhg kjg 3:38 3:45
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Our family is athiest and we have no christian religious background (both were raised in non-religious households with parents who were in turn raised in non-christian homes). Our children are pretty adamant non-believers, too, in an environment in which non-believers are not uncommon. When we compare our experience with religion with our childrens’, we are fairly surprised at how much more we learned about Christianity than they do, from the people around us. It wasn’t uncommon to sing Christmas carols in school, for example, neighborhood families hosted bible study activities for the kids in the neighborhood, and we went along; when the neighborhood kids went caroling, they didn’t think twice about asking us to join in and we did. In our neighborhood, I’ve never seen a caroler (if they carol, they pick houses, and don’t presume that all the houses will welcome carolers). I can’t imagine my kids being casually asked to join a bible study group. And, recently, when a teacher asked what immersion in water was alluding to in a story, nobody in the class came up with the concept of baptism.
I read an article, that I don’t think I can find now (the Atlantic, I think), that argued that religious Christians are just having to cope with not accepted as the standard majority (at least in many areas of the country, including mine) anymore. That makes them feel, correctly, that something has changed because what they believe is no longer what everyone around them believes. I think that’s what Cox is facing.
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Laura — I think I’m noting a problem in posting when I’ve been at the page for any period of time, not just writing a comment, but also reading.
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Should work now. LMK if there r still problems.
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PS: We are more likely to identify ourselves as non-christian than athiests in our public life. But, I think our kids are more likely to state outright that they don’t believe in god, though they don’t use the word athiest.
I feel like it’s a changing world, in the acceptability of identifying yourself as not belonging to a religion and not believing in god. But clearly the world changes based on who you are. If you are of a different race, people in polite company (which most everyone I hang out with are) are pretty unlikely to say straight out racist things to you). I like hearing about other people’s experiences. In my children’s classes, I know of no more than 4-5 kids who go to church regularly (but more who identify as a particular religion, more noticeable now as some are choosing religious schools).
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These technical problems may be the final straw for me. This is a crazy-assed waste of time. I should have stayed with the dumb, free blogs.
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I hope it’s not the final straw in giving up blogging, but I can see why it might be. Today I have hit a bureaucratic wall in wanting to never fill out a piece of paperwork on anything every again. Unfortunately I am going to have to do it anyway.
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You could have made a bunch of money blogging if your readers were sleeping with Congressional aides instead of whatever it is we do. I don’t know how you plan for that.
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Honestly, guys, I’m burning out. I am not going to make a big announcement, because I’m not sure how things are going to evolve. I might keep my serious pieces for the Atlantic and other semi-paid venues, and then save Apt. 11D for an occasional personal post. I’ll post links to things I find interesting on Twitter. Um, not sure, not sure. But I can’t keep this up. I need to spend less time in front of the computer and explore some new opportunities.
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Best wishes either way. This Sunday, the priest said we should spend less time at the computer for Lent.
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He also, pretty much out of nowhere, came down extremely hard on living together before marriage. I think he got called in as a sub and just went with whatever was on his mind for the homily.
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I’ll miss you! But I totally understand….I wish you would keep writing here but of course that’s totally selfish. I’ll follow you wherever you end up.
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Religion rarely comes up in conversation in my working world; mostly because Gen X and younger people weren’t raised with much (if any) religion (Charles Murray gets a lot of things wrong, but he did get that right in “Coming Apart”—the working class isn’t anywhere near as religious as we’re rumored to be by the media). I think also that religion is seen in my area as a powder keg—it wasn’t that long ago that one’s religion effectively determined one’s opportunities (my Local used to be Protestants-only, and membership in a Masonic lodge was a de facto requirement). Not mentioning religion was first a good way to keep the peace, then became a habit.
(and for pagans, not mentioning religion is a real good habit!)
I agree with bj, but also think Cox might be experiencing people bracing themselves for preachiness—that’s the only time I run into folks mentioning religion randomly…when they’re proselytizing.
Best wishes on your writing. If you’re no longer doing it here, I’ll see you at the Atlantic. But Twitter? Naah. 140 characters isn’t good for anything except snark, and that’s not a habit I want to build.
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“people bracing themselves for preachiness—that’s the only time I run into folks mentioning religion randomly…when they’re proselytizing.”
Preach it!
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(yeah…it’s time spent on the page. Reading counts too.)
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Nobody expects us to know the bible; we just have to show up at church on Sunday.
Well, traditionally that’s the position of the Catholic Church – too dangerous to let the lay people know much about the bible. Better to let them just come to church and hear about it. A big part of history, that view is.
I read an article, that I don’t think I can find now (the Atlantic, I think), that argued that religious Christians are just having to cope with not accepted as the standard majority (at least in many areas of the country, including mine) anymore.
I’d be surprised if there are any “big” parts of the country where _religious_ people are not a majority. (Main-line Christians are not a majority in some small parts, but even that’s rare.) Maybe some neighborhoods, but not in cities or states. You’re lucky in a way if it seems like that to you. Atheists are still the most distrusted and despised minority in the US. And, the “feeling like they are not a majority” for Christians is like when white people feel like that when the population goes from being 95% white to 80% white. It’s a real feeling, but not based on reality.
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Yes, I know the data on the country in general about the perception of athiests, and, I do not feel that way in our neck of the woods at all.
Now, there are numerous selection factors going on.There’s the fact that we are fairly open about our non-belief (and our children even more so — my kiddo told me that she does indeed call herself an atheist). So people who truly “despise” athiests are probably eliminated from our social group (that is, they avoid us). We also live in an area with a fair number of immigrant asians (both south asian and from China), who are not christian and secular jews.
We also know there are a fair number of racists out there, too, but we never encounter them personally. And the people we know who do buy into stereotypes, and might even let them guide their choices, don’t tell us those beliefs personally (though, sometimes, their children tell our children, which is why I know about them).
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I was/am Catholic, though I’ve slowly evolved into an agnostic. 10 years ago, I never would’ve mentioned the lack of belief publicly. Things have changed though, and I will admit to it even with people who have very strong religious beliefs. Either I”m more confident because I’m middle-aged, or it’s more acceptable to not be a Christian.
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Interesting — and broader than my perception, since I have always been an outsider, and thus might overestimate the acceptability of my status, since I basically don’t have a choice (i.e. am not going to “pass’).
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