Christian lechers

This is just an observation...and I'm formulating theories as I'm writing this...so pardon the rambling... :)

I think we've all met people in our lives who are lechers. And by "lecher" I don't mean your garden variety pervert. I mean the total jackasses who sexually harasses at every opportunity. I'm talking about managers who invite the cute employees to lots of 1-on-1 meetings and hit on them constantly and pressure them into going out for drinks. I'm talking about married guys who pick up girls (or hookers) on every business trip away from home, or the guys who can't go more than a minute in a casual conversation without diving into sexually explicit details of everything they've done or would like to do to every woman or man they know. I'm talking about guys who discuss their plans to take a vacation to a country where the "age of consent" is less than 16.

I've met 6 hard-core lechers in my life, and I think I've found #7 at my current place of employment. (2 of these 7 are women!).

It's not that I'm so terribly deeply offended by these people...because often times I can just avoid them or ignore them. But what is bothering me is that I've noticed a trend that is too much to be a coincidence: EVERY one of these jerks I've met is fervent, loud, bible-clutching Christian. Most are Evangelicals! They are sexual harassers and Jesus freaks at the same time!!

One guy from a previous job would sit as his desk listening to Christian Rock and Gospel music all day long, and then he would go out to lunch and paw the waitresses and loudly tell stories that would make a porn star blush! Then he would go back to work and put on headphones and sing along for the glory of God. (I'm not exaggerating. He really was that extreme!)

I've never met an Atheist harasser. I'm not saying they don't exist, but I am saying that is seems pretty clear that religion does not guarantee morality or compassion for others.

You see, in order to live with their obvious hypocrisy, they must take to heart the Bible's statements that all men are sinners, but that Jesus paid for these sins. So, if the Bible says I can't help but be a sinner, and that my sins will be forgiven, then that pretty much gives me a blank check!

"Jesus died for these sins...so we better make them good ones!"

As an Atheist, I know that nobody is paying for MY sins except myself and any other people I affect. So I feel especially obligated to be as decent and respectful as I possibly can be to others.

But these Christian Jekyll-and-Hyde bastards can do whatever violent or depraved behaviors they want to do on a Saturday night so long as they drag themselves into church the next morning...and that makes it alright.

One guy I knew many years ago was obsessed with getting the "legal age" lowered to 12. And his argument was always "If they can bleed, they can breed! They married that young in the Bible!" He had no conscience or respect for others. Just because something is biologically possible doesn't mean it's in their best interest! How do you not care about what is best for others? How do you take Christianity seriously and yet walk through life like one big "id"?!?

I got so sick of working with this individual that I made destroying his career a pet project of mine for about two months. Fortunately he just quit the job and I never had to see him again.

One theory of mine is that the Bible tends to diminish the value and humanity of women...to a small or large degree depending on how seriously you want to interpret it. Traditional Evangelical families may not provide these men with good role models of smart, independent women. In fact they might even have come from families where women were treated very badly.

BUT that still doesn't explain the two female lechers I've met! Neither one of them are capable of carrying any conversation for more than a minute with dragging it into the gutter...often in front of younger male employees who report to them. Maybe they grew up in a house full of male lechers and they just got used to behaving that way? But still, how can they possibly NOT notice that nobody else in the work place talks like that or laughs at their jokes or participates with them in these conversations?

I don't want to paint with a broad brush here, because most religious people are not serious lechers. I don't think being religious can make you a creep, but I do suspect that being a creep (or a sadistic jerk or a power-freak) makes you susceptible to the message of religion.

Most strongly conservative men are high-testosterone, red-meat loving, pro-military, gun-loving, deer-hunting, beer-drinking, football-watching, macho-men. Or at least that's the kind of strong man they admire. Those traits are all badges of honor among conservative men (and conservative women). This is the "Joe Six-pack" that conservatives idolize.

Religion is very attractive to these kinds of people, because religion offers authority, certainty, power, discipline, order, and something worth killing for. It's not attractive because it promises to make them behave like good people...although that is the disguise used to cover for religions indulgences.

If you could buy a box of religion at a store, the label on the front of the box would say "It makes you a good person! It increases morality and compassion!" But the ingredients on the back would be "Contains: authority, obedience, conformity, unquestioning acceptance of dogma, certainty, violence, blood sacrifices, marriage to young girls, and corn syrup". It would also have a disclaimer: "Does not contain compassion, critical thinking, self-analysis, introspection, respect for others, or peanuts"

And that is where the hypocrisy comes from. Religion cultivates an innocent goody-goody facade that masks the true dark desires that it is really made of.

As an Atheist, I feel like I've spent my whole life being beaten down with everyone's belief that religion leads to morality and that religious people are "good" and moral people.

But from my personal experience, the most morally corrupt and twisted people I've ever met in my life have all been...without exception...devout Christians. Some of the most twisted and sadistic behavior in all of history (like the Inquisition and Salem Witch Trials) comes from Christianity! Do some reading sometime into some of the torture devices used during the Inquisition. Those people were FREAKS!

And don't forget about all the boy-raping priests (and subsequent cover-ups) that have been uncovered over the past decade! Those guys are the epitome of sexual perversion combined with religious devotion!

I don't want to make it sound like I'm some kind of prude. I have the Internet after all. I've seen it all, and very little shocks me. (Except the original "2 girls, 1 cup" video...GROSS!!!!!!!!) I'm absolutely fine with people fantasizing about anything they want and indulging in whatever activities they wanna do between two (or more) consenting adults, but I'm NOT fine when they see no need to control themselves in a public space or work environment where other people should have a reasonable expectation of safe and mature behavior. And I'm especially not fine when they wrap this behavior in Christian holier-than-thou hypocrisy!

I'm willing to offer the benefit of the doubt and believe that that bad people are just bad people, and whatever religion they do or don't have will not change their bad behavior. Christianity won't "fix" them anymore than Atheism would "corrupt" them. Atrocities happen when bad people come into absolute power. The "absolute power" is the real problem, regardless of how they got that power.

But...without religion...there would at least be one less road to absolute power!