David Silverman: CPAC is crawling with closet atheists

[rug]

By Roy Edroso
Friday, March 7, 2014 17:52 EDT

I finally got to talk to That Atheist Guy, American Atheists President David Silverman. You’ve probably heard about his controversy at CPAC: First they let him and his atheist-advocacy group have a booth, then they begged off under pressure from nervous Christians), though Silverman himself was welcomed and is now allowed to prowl the halls, spreading his conservatism-without-Jesus gospel. He seems an unlikely proselytizer for this suit-and-bow-tie crowd, tearing into his subject with the wired energy of an old-school punk rock fan. But he claims it’s working.

“I came with the message that Christianity and conservatism are not inextricably linked,” he told me, “and that social conservatives are holding down the real conservatives — social conservatism isn’t real conservatism, it’s actually big government, it’s theocracy. I’m talking about gay rights, right to die, abortion rights –”

Hold on, I said, I think the Right to Life guys who have a booth here, and have had every year since CPAC started, would disagree that they’re not real conservatives.

“I will admit there is a secular argument against abortion,” said Silverman. “You can’t deny that it’s there, and it’s maybe not as clean cut as school prayer, right to die, and gay marriage.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/07/david-silverman-cpac-is-crawling-with-closet-atheists/

[NeoGreen]

1. Newsflash...

...it is not just CPAC.



To quote the "Sword of Fighting" from JourneyQuest: "I'm Your Everywhere".

And for the record, everyone is an atheist, just not necessarily for the same god(s).

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Not entirely surprising. Libertarianism is a refuge for former Republicans that got the boot

by the evangelicals after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed. All the Goldwater republicans and such that got thrown out during the dixiecrat influx.

Not surprising that people who are libertarian track more atheist than the general republican populace.

[cbayer]

3. I doubt it very much.

If I had to list the places where one would be least likely to run into an atheist, CPAC would probably be right at the top of that list.

This guy continues to confuse me. I think he's really missing the mark here if he thinks he is going to get CPAC attendees to come out or if he thinks he is going to attract atheists to CPAC.

But if it's self promotion he's after, he seems to be doing that pretty successfully.

Democrats are too liberal for him and he doesn't trust Obama? Again, I think AA might want to consider a leadership shake up.

Anyway, it's becoming increasingly clear how Edwina Rogers got her job.

[rug]

4. You're not the only one thinking that.


Historically, secular identity organizations have gone to some trouble to accommodate their conservative minorities, taking care not to alienate Republican and/or libertarian members with positions too far to the left on issues (like reproductive rights) that might be seen as “non-core.” One of our motivations for creating the American Secular Census was, in fact, to try to quantify the prevalence of conservatism among Secular Americans, since we have suspected for some time that it is less than believed by organizations’ leaders, boards, and staff. So far, our statistics have borne out this theory. So why are groups continuing to accommodate — and now actively courting — conservatives into the secular movement, especially at a time when organizations’ support for, and relevance to, women is being debated?

Maybe secular leaders aren’t aware of these political statistics …? Except that they are. These very figures were posted by us on a listserv of leader-subscribers of these two and many other organizations in July of 2013, following a claim by one leader that 30% of secular voters are Republican. We asked for a citation on that figure, were never given a primary source for it, and then posted these figures as clarification for our request. There was no followup to our post.

That one leader was Edwina Rogers of SCA.

So, yeah. Many of us have been getting increasingly alienated from the atheist and secularist movements because they seem to have shitty politics on a lot of issues. The Secular Census post shows us that they’re not even making a good cynical move.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2014/03/going-for-the-numbers/

[cbayer]

5. Shitty politics? CPAC is shitty politics.

Women's rights, GLBT civil rights, & economic equality are shitty politics?

Glad to see he and she are getting some pushback. Are they possibly agents provocateur?

[rug]

6. Who knows?

But their actions are telling.

[cbayer]

7. Truly. They should be outside protesting not inside rubbing

shoulders, imo.

If they want to start a group "Atheists for Rand Paul", go for it. But to have the leader of the biggest atheist organization so far out of step with his constituency seems really questionable.