# Is the Democratic Party "anti-God", and what can they do to stop that stereotype? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 31, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770 "2016-01-31T18:38:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/101 "2016-01-31T20:56:45Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > Why are they in the U.S. then? Why? Why don’t they stand up to radical Jihadists? Why are Americans in the US? Can you explain that question? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/102 "2016-01-31T20:57:49Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > Why are they in the U.S. then? Why? Because they’re American citizens and they have a Constitutional right to live here and a Constitutional right to practice their religion freely. > [@](#): > > Why don’t they stand up to radical Jihadists? What have _you_ done to “stand up to radical jihadists” lately? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/103 "2016-01-31T21:00:03Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > For the past few decades, the Democratic Party base has been seen as the party of atheists, and secularists. The party booed and removed God from it’s party platform in the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. I assume the phrase “Boo” is hyperbole. As noted earlier ~90% of Democrats believe in God. Also, Muslims believe in God and while Jesus never expressed any problems with homosexuality, he did take a harsh stance towards sanctimonious pricks. (Not saying you are a prick - I think I’m faithfully characterizing the gospel. I can quote passages.) Anyway to answer your question, the few who believe the Democratic party to be anti-God tend to be either supporters of heresy or are conservative politicians making cheap shots and ignoring Jesus’ commandment to Love thy neighbor. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/104 "2016-01-31T21:01:21Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > I’m not obtuse, by the way. So why are you confusing extremely simple concepts? **Smapti** said most Muslims didn’t attack the US. This is absolutely true. You they said asked about 9/11. That is irrelevant to **Smapti** ’s point. Are you unable to understand that? If you can understand that, then how is that not willful ignorance? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/105 "2016-01-31T21:07:11Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > Why are they in the U.S. then? Why? Why don’t they stand up to radical Jihadists? I’m having trouble keeping track, so remind us again… Are you posting your beliefs or those of your “friends”? ---
**Author:** ![GloryDays](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GloryDays](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GloryDays)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/106 "2016-01-31T21:15:58Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I’m having trouble keeping track, so remind us again… Are you posting your beliefs or those of your “friends”? My friends are in pain. It’s turning violent as well for them. They love America, but they want changes. Fast. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/107 "2016-01-31T21:18:10Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > My friends are in pain. It’s turning violent as well for them. They love America, but they want changes. Fast. You didn’t answer my question. Does the post you made that I just quoted reflect your own views or those of your “friends”? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/108 "2016-01-31T21:18:19Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > My friends are in pain. It’s turning violent as well for them. They love America, but they want changes. Fast. Sounds to me like what “they” want is the preservation of some extinct status quo where “they” were a privileged class that was free to mock, belittle, persecute, and subject The Other with impunity. Why are you friends with these people again? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/109 "2016-01-31T21:18:57Z")
Just to pick a few of the sillier claims posted: > [@GloryDays](#): > > Values. Hard work. Going to school, having an education. Building on society. Believing in marriage and what it comes with it. I am an independent, but I am a Christian as well. I don’t believe in mocking God as Bill Maher does. Both Democrats and atheists, (a hardly congruent pair of groups), believe in “Values. Hard work. Going to school, having an education. Building on society. Believing in marriage and what it comes with it.” Bill Maher is not the sum total of either Democrats or atheists and even he believes in all those things. Bill Maher has a personal antipathy to religious belief; so what? Based on this post, you are trying to condemn two large groups of people, (Democrats and atheists), based on erroneous views regarding the personal views of a single person. > [@GloryDays](#): > > Work values. Ethics. Most atheists do not. They are seen as leeches, losers, haters, parasites, people who want to suck the country dry. Atheists don’t enter the military for honor, they do it to get on the government largesse. That is how normal Americans see it. Again with the false claim about what atheists do or do not hold as values. If you are saying this on your own belief, you are simply utterly mistaken. If you are attributing it to other people, (whomever you are calling “normal Americans”), you are still completely wrong. It is true that an unfortunately large number of ignorant people associate atheism with a lack of morals–although their belief has no basis beyond the preachings of some churches–but very few of even those ignorant people hold that atheists lack work values. Your comment about the military is beyond silly. I grew up at a time when there were far fewer atheists and far more expressly Christian people in the country and nearly every guy I knew who joined the military did so for the GI Bill benefits. (Later, a number of guys joined up figuring that three years in Germany was better than being drafted for two years with one being spent in Vietnam. I knew no one who joined up for “honor.”) > [@GloryDays](#): > > You may have a point, but do you see the depravity of today’s culture? You see the filth in our country, our military, strange people entering our military, right? The only strange people that I have seen joining the military in the last two decades have been the[far-Right crackpots who have attempted](http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/09/religion-and-american-armed-forces) to[impose Fundamentalist Christianity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Academy#Religious_atmosphere) on other members of the military who have not shared their religious beliefs. Given the “religious” tilt of many in the military power structures, today, if there is “filth” in the military, it would appear to be the result of too much religious interference, not too little. Your OP was just silly. The Democratic Party is not against God. It joins with all those concerned citizens who resist the efforts to impose one brand of far-Right Fundamentalist Christianity on the nation in opposition to all the other Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and non-Believers who make up the majority of the country. Resistance to the far-Right’s efforts to establish a theocracy are not opposition to God, although polemicists for the far Right like to pretend that it is. You should strive to avoid those bad claims by that group. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/110 "2016-01-31T21:20:16Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > For them to stop supporting terrorism. Period. Um, I know several American Muslims, and as best as I can tell, none support terrorism. They work, go to school, help their family, hang out with their friends, and generally do all the same things American Christians do. Okay, they don’t eat pork, which most American Christians do, and they don’t drink alcohol. Those are by far the two most obvious differences. > [@GloryDays](#): > > I’m not obtuse, by the way. I am very sad that you chose to completely ignore my prior post. I think you might learn something from it. > [@GloryDays](#): > > My friends are in pain. It’s turning violent as well for them. They love America, but they want changes. Fast. Huh? what’s turning violent towards who? And what sort of change are they so desperate for? ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/111 "2016-01-31T21:21:00Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > My friends are in pain. It’s turning violent as well for them. They love America, but they want changes. Fast. From everything you describe “them” saying and wanting and believing, they don’t seem to want change. They want white, christian heterosexuals who can openly be as bigoted as they want, make sure no people they dislike for religious and crackpot reasons can live near them, live peacefully and thrive in American culture. They don’t want any progress, they want 1950 back. Problem is, change is always happening, change leads to progress, progress is good. However some people just aren’t able to adapt to the change around them. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/112 "2016-01-31T21:23:43Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > Why are they in the U.S. then? Why? Why don’t they stand up to radical Jihadists? Are you so desperate to follow the lies of the far Right polemicists that you have refused to understand that there are thousands of Muslims in the military fighting the Jihadists, today? That hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the U.S. oppose Daesh and al Qaida and have condemned those groups for years. If you do not know those facts, (easily discovered by anyone who looks), then you are ignorant to a shameful degree. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/113 "2016-01-31T21:24:29Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > … > Your comment about the military is beyond silly. I grew up at a time when there were far fewer atheists and far more expressly Christian people in the country and nearly every guy I knew who joined the military did so for the GI Bill benefits. (Later, a number of guys joined up figuring that three years in Germany was better than being drafted for two years with one being spent in Vietnam. I knew no one who joined up for “honor.”)… I am a Jew. Several of my older relatives joined the military to fight Hitler. Not exactly “honor”, but it wasn’t about the bennies. Of course, my father joined the military to avoid the draft. He figured that a few years working for the CDC was better than the risk of being sent to Korea. He referred to his group as “the yellow berets”, as in “yellow-bellied cowards”. Having told his children this, I assume he wasn’t too embarrassed about it. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/114 "2016-01-31T21:25:56Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > Why are they in the U.S. then? Why? Why don’t they stand up to radical Jihadists? Because they were born in the US. Same reason I am here, and I’d guess the same reason you are. Why aren’t you standing up to Jihadists? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/115 "2016-01-31T21:28:09Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > Why don’t they stand up to radical Jihadists? They probably don’t actually know any radical Jihadists. How are they meant to ‘stand up’ to them, whatever the hell that means anyway. Oh, and they’re probably too busy y’know, working, raising families, and trying to make a decent life for themselves, just like all those other Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/116 "2016-01-31T21:28:48Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > I get that. However, on the Muslims thing, it’s a reaction to Paris, San Bernandino, and 9/11. Have you not forgot what happened on that day? I didn’t forget. In fact, in January of 2002, I took a plane from Louisville, KY to BWI Airport, and took a train into New York City. I spent 4 days in that city, not even 6 months after those towers were destroyed. I, and a group of Dopers, went and saw the wreckage. Saw where a few cowards killed over 3000 people. Because they said, essentially, that God told them to. I looked at ashes of people who had never met before died trying to help each other to safety. I thought about the firefighters who KNEW that there was no hope, and went in anyway, trying to pull a miracle out of thin air. I thought about my dad, who had died the year before - almost to the day - of my visit. My father, the retired firefighter. The man who, despite not knowing anyone there, and never having been to NYC in his life, would have rushed inside that building in an attempt to save whoever he could. You want to know something? My father could be incredibly bigoted. He tended not to like black people, Mexicans, gays, or essentially the same people you’re talking about. And it wouldn’t have mattered. He wouldn’t have cared - much like the people in the buildings, and the rescue workers who died (and the ones that didn’t) - he wouldn’t have cared what gender you prefer. What God you pray to. What language you spoke. He would have died to save anyone in those buildings. The same as the firefighters there. They gave their lives without asking questions. And they knew that any day they went to work could be their last day alive. They were willing to sacrifice themselves for the ideal that EVERYBODY gets the same opportunity. They didn’t go in looking for Christians, or straight people, or Americans. Because, at that moment, we all ceased being gay/straight/Protestant/Catholic/whatever. It took a tragedy to remind us that we are PEOPLE first and foremost. The rest of it is just all man-made division. When I was at Ground Zero, I cried. I cried because of the lives that ended, and also for the ones that were going to end because of that smoking hole. Not everyone killed in Afghanistan by an American was Al Qaeda, or anything like that. I cried for the children, and the elderly, and everyone else who were going to be killed as collateral damage. While I stood there, with all of this running through my head and tears streaming down my cheeks, cutting through the dust and ashes of people that the cold sea breeze was kicking around, someone grabbed my shoulder. I looked, and there was a roughly middle-aged woman, wearing what I initially thought was a nun’s habit. Turns out she was dressed in traditional Muslim attire. She looked me right in the eyes, and she hugged me. As she did so, she whispered in my ear, “it wasn’t all of us.” > [@GloryDays](#): > > I understand that, but name one product or thing in the U.S. that Muslims have created or done to make America a better place. Name one Muslim celebrity or singer that changed America. Name one thing. [Malala Yousafzai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai) ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/117 "2016-01-31T21:34:31Z")
Ironically the OP essentially is advocating a form of right-wing political correctness that would pander to fanatics to avoid “triggering” them on things like having homosexuals in the military. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/118 "2016-01-31T21:37:09Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > 9/11? C’mon. Don’t deny things. Are you paying any attention to your own thread? The WTC/Pentagon attacks were not carried out by Americans. (We were discussing American Muslims. Your false claim that such people have not been opposing the Jihadists has already been shown to be wrong.) No one hijacked any towers. As far as i recall, they never left the U.S. or even Manhattan until they were carried out in pieces to New Jersey, (and not by Muslims). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/119 "2016-01-31T21:40:51Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > Why are they in the U.S. then? Why? Why don’t they stand up to radical Jihadists? Why are _you_ in this country? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770/120 "2016-01-31T21:42:26Z")
> [@GloryDays](#): > > My friends are in pain. It’s turning violent as well for them. They love America, but they want changes. Fast. Your friends are horrifying monsters. Violent? I saw armed terrorists take over a federal facility, saying they would shoot to kill anyone who defied them. They were all white Christians. Should I defame every white Christian because of them? You’re a white Christian, aren’t you? Doesn’t that make you responsible for their actions, according to your own logic? I love America, and I want changes fast just like your friends. However, all the changes I want are the exact opposite of what they want. (I use “they” loosely: we all know you’re talking about yourself.) Why do their bigoted, obsolete, worthless opinions count more than mine? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-democratic-party-anti-god-and-what-can-they-do-to-stop-that-stereotype/744770.md?page=7)