To test out my new e-book reader (aka my gigantic, beautiful and multi-purpose Dell Streak 5 that now has the newest version of Android and launcher pro on it…*sigh*) I’m reading Escape.  It is horribly depressing and really makes the issue of atheist groups needing to be more inclusive to women all that more important, in my mind. Carolyn, an ex-FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) accounts her life growing up in the “church”. She is beaten by her mother as a command from their religion, beaten at school, taken away from her friends and deprived of her dreams to be a doctor. Why is she deprived of that dream? … Because she is married off to an old man when she is only 18 years old… the old guy already has like 3 or 4 wives and actually chose her as a mistake. How brutal…

I just wrote a semi-lengthy post for Canadian Atheist about feminism in the atheist movement, but I didn’t drive in this point nearly enough: RELIGION IS INCREDIBLY SEXIST. Women are abused, taken advantage of, seen as less than men..etc etc etc. It’s hard enough to leave a religion why make it harder to enter a support group of atheists that could help in the transition?

It is vital to have an inclusive environment that anyone can walk into. When you enter into a church people are warm and welcoming despite race, gender and age. At atheist events its a bit harder if you’re not white, female or young. I want to believe that if a woman like Carolyn, who had experienced a life of abuse from religion, entered into one of our buildings that she would be welcomed with open arms and a shoulder for support.

This is my hope, anyway.