# "Don't discuss why religion is bad or problems in black churches in a thread called 'black atheism'"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-discuss-why-religion-is-bad-or-problems-in-black-churches-in-a-thread-called-black-atheism/622486>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [May 20, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-discuss-why-religion-is-bad-or-problems-in-black-churches-in-a-thread-called-black-atheism/622486 "2012-05-20T02:40:58Z")\
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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-discuss-why-religion-is-bad-or-problems-in-black-churches-in-a-thread-called-black-atheism/622486/11 "2012-05-20T17:24:20Z")

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> [@Rhythmdvl](#):
>
> I wonder if the comments would have stood had they not been overtly racist and gross generalizations.

I guess i could _maybe_ buy that argument if **Der Trihs** had been included in the admonition. Just five minutes before **tomndebb** issued his edict, you’ll find this post:

> [@Interesting article on Black Atheism](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interesting-article-on-black-atheism/622293/46):
>
> That pretty much describes religious leaders in general. You hand them money in return for nothing, and the reverends/priests/preachers/whatever spend much of it on themselves and on bigger, shiner churches/temples.
> 
> Religion is a scam; that’s part of the point he’s making. People give them money in return for empty promises about an imaginary afterlife. He’s just claiming that black ministers are worse than average. However, whether they are or not, them being a type of priest automatically makes them scam artists; although unlike most scams, in religion sometimes the scam artist actually believes it himself.

He was agreeing with, and furthering, basically the exact argument that was being made by **Condescending Robot**. The only difference was that, instead of applying it specifically to black pastors and churches, he was applying it to all religion.

I guess i’d like to know why that doesn’t constitute a similarly unacceptable hijack. The OP of that thread was not, after all, about how shitty religion is, or how much of a scam religion is. It seems to me that **Der Trihs** ’s comments are just as “off topic” as the ones by the other two posters.

And i should add that i actually agree with some of **Der Trihs** ’s argument, although, as usual, he is too absolutist and dogmatic about it. But i still think that it was no more or less “off topic,” and no more or less potentially offensive, than the posts by **Condescending Robot** and **Qin Shi Huangdi**.

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