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Old 04-30-2012, 12:16 AM
33girl 33girl is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevester View Post
You can't win every battle that comes your way. Some battles are unwinnable, some just aren't worth fighting, and there are some small battles you've gotta walk away from to save your energy and effort for the things that really matter. If you're going to be an atheist and live in the USA, you're going to have to put up with some Christianity from time to time, including some of the less attractive aspects of it, including ignorance, bigotry, and hostility from some believers. I suppose that if I wanted to fully "live my atheism," I might refuse to ever use cash because of that "in God we trust" motto, and I might walk out of the room every time I find myself in a "group prayer" situation at a public event. But some things just aren't worth the trouble -- and this really strikes me as one of them.
Well, different strokes for different folks. For the ookabillionth time, this isn't about the OP feeling like he's going to get pelted with rocks or jeered at on campus because he tells fraternities he's an agnostic/humanist. HE doesn't want to swear an oath that HE doesn't believe in - even if he is the only guy in the room, in the fraternity, on the campus, who pays 2 cents worth of attention to what is being said.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevester View Post
It's also worth mentioning that KS's ritual requires [edited by 33girl since blabbing about ritual offends a lot of people here]. I'm pretty sure that nobody in my chapter took that part of it seriously either, although I suppose you can never tell ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stevester View Post
2) I wouldn't take anything too seriously that a national organization says about its fraternity's "core values," etc. And that includes KS. If you already know what college you're going to, you have some familiarity with the Greeks there, and you know that particular KS chapter is full of seriously religious people, OK ... but if not, don't rule it out just because of what the KS national website says. And of course that goes for every other fraternity.
If you're talking about the interchangeable core values and mission statements that every GLO has these days, I would agree with you. But the OP is not. He's talking about ritual. If you found the whole thing one big eyeroll, that's fine. But I for one find it refreshing that a college-aged student would rather stick to his beliefs than toss it all in the name of "fun." If that results in him not joining a fraternity, that's sad, because he'd probably be a great member. But to tell him basically to not worry about it is offensive in the extreme.
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