{"id":45141,"date":"2021-09-12T10:24:57","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T17:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=45141"},"modified":"2021-09-12T10:24:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T17:24:57","slug":"everyday-erinyes-283","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2021\/09\/12\/everyday-erinyes-283\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #283"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/span><\/strong>, and Tisiphone<\/strong><\/span>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

One of my professors in college was fond of quoting Mary Wollstonecraft (not the author of Frankenstein, but her mother), who wrote, “A man convinced against his will\/Is of the same opinion still.” It’s something to keep in mind whan it comes to forced conversion situations. But there are all kinds of forced conversion situations. For one thing, not all forced conversions are religious in nature. But, when considering church-state separation, that’s generally what comes to mind.<\/p>\n

Atheists, agnostics, and others who often refer to themselves as “freethinkers” are not all in agreement as to whether their position is a religious one or not. I’m not sure it matters. I believe separation of church and state refers to all religions and also to the absence of religion.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the force in a forced conversion is not applied by a governmental body, but by societal pressure. All of us are under tremendous pressure just about all the time to be “like everybody else.” This may be most obvious in schools and applied to young people, but it’s far from limited to them.
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70 years ago Walter Plywaski fought for atheists\u2019 right to become citizens \u2013 here\u2019s why his story is worth\u00a0remembering<\/h1>\n
Walter Plywaski fought for atheists to be given citizenship rights.
\nHelen H. Richardson\/The Denver Post via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kristina M. Lee<\/a>, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Walter Plywaski\u2019s death<\/a> earlier this year from complications related to COVID-19 went largely unnoticed by national media.<\/p>\n

Only an invitation by his family to donate to the civil liberties group ACLU<\/a> in Plywaski\u2019s memory gave hint to his legacy in the fight for religious freedom. Almost 70 years ago, Plywaski fought for the right of atheists<\/a> to become U.S. citizens \u2013 and won.<\/p>\n

As a scholar of religious and political rhetoric<\/a>, I believe that Plywaski\u2019s fight is worth remembering. Stories like Plywaski\u2019s give an insight into the discrimination atheists in the U.S. face even today<\/a> and the role that those professing no faith have had in holding society accountable to the goals of religious tolerance and freedom.<\/p>\n

\u2018Seeking admission on your own terms\u2019<\/h2>\n

Polish native Walter Plywaski, born Wladyslaw Plywacki, spent five years in Nazi concentration camps<\/a> during the Second World War. After being liberated from Dachau, the Bavarian camp in which 41,500 prisoners died<\/a>, he worked as an interpreter before immigrating to the U.S and serving four years in the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n

In August 1952<\/a>, Plywaski petitioned for U.S. citizenship while in Hawaii. All he had left to do was say his oath of allegiance.<\/p>\n

Plywaski, however, was an atheist. He informed the judge that he could not sincerely end the oath with the words \u201cso help me God\u201d and requested an alternative.<\/p>\n

Judge J. Frank McLaughlin reportedly asked<\/a> Plywaski to consider what it says on the back of U.S. coins: \u201cIn God We Trust<\/a>.\u201d McLaughlin then denied Plywaski citizenship<\/a>, justifying his decision by proclaiming<\/a>, \u201cOur government is founded on a belief in God,\u201d and accused Plywaski of \u201cseeking admission on your own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the help of the ACLU<\/a>, Plywaski appealed McLaughlin\u2019s decision, arguing<\/a> it was a violation of religious freedom while noting that natural-born citizens had the option to say affirmations rather than oaths, which allowed them to affirm their allegiance based on their own honor rather than a belief in a higher power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin, however, stood his ground. He argued<\/a> that the case was not about religious freedom but about whether Plywaski \u201cbelieves in all the principles which support free government,\u201d which according to McLaughlin included a belief in God.<\/p>\n

Plywaski moved to Oregon and successfully petitioned<\/a> to have his case moved there to be looked at by a different judge. In January 1955, Plywaski won his case<\/a> and became a citizen.<\/p>\n

Plywaski\u2019s case confirmed that those applying for citizenship must have the option to not recite \u201cso help me God\u201d when taking their oath, a policy that is now explicit in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policy manual<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anti-atheist discrimination<\/h2>\n

But despite the precedent he set, Plywaski was not the last atheist who would be denied U.S. citizenship \u2013 more than 60 years later, nonreligious people still had to fight for immigration rights. In 2013<\/a> and 2014<\/a>, two women were initially denied citizenship after being told they had to be religious in order to be conscientious objectors when refraining from stating in their oaths that they will \u201cbear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was despite 1965<\/a> and 1970<\/a> court cases that affirmed that atheists could be conscientious objectors.<\/p>\n

And even atheists with citizenship have been denied certain rights because of requirements that a religious oath be uttered.<\/p>\n

Roy Torcaso won a 1961 U.S. Supreme Court case<\/a> after he was denied a position as a public notary when he refused to recite an oath acknowledging the existence of God. Torcaso\u2019s case made clauses in state constitutions banning atheists from holding public office unconstitutional and unenforceable. Yet such bans have still occasionally been used to challenge open atheists who have won public office, though such challenges have failed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And in 2014<\/a>, an atheist in the Air Force was denied reenlistment after refusing to say \u201cso help me God\u201d in his oath. The Air Force later reversed the decision and updated its policy<\/a> after atheist groups threatened to sue.<\/p>\n

Such instances fit a pattern of discrimination against atheists. A 2012 study<\/a> found that that nearly 50% of atheists have felt forced to swear a religious oath. While they legally should have options to say alternatives, the pressure to take the religious oaths remains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because \u201cso help me God\u201d is the a default in many oaths, atheists often have to decide between passing as theistic or outing themselves as atheists \u2013 which, in a country where good citizenship is often unfairly tied<\/a> to a belief in God<\/a>, could potentially bring stigma onto themselves<\/a> or mean risking being denied certain rights.<\/p>\n

Atheists tend to win cases in which they challenge the denial of their citizenship and other rights based on their refusal to acknowledge God. Yet the fact that atheists risk facing additional obstacles and legal fights to have their citizenship recognized speaks, I believe, to their continued marginalization.<\/p>\n

The atheist fight for religious tolerance<\/h2>\n

The atheist fight for equal rights<\/a> is rarely acknowledged outside of active atheist communities. My research shows how the discrimination against atheists fits with what I describe as a deeply ingrained and coercive theistnormative mindset<\/a> that frames democratic societies and good citizenship as being tied to belief in a higher power.<\/p>\n

[Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation\u2019s newsletter to understand the world.<\/em> Sign up today<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Historians such as Leigh Eric Schmidt<\/a>, David Sehat<\/a> and Isaac Kramnick and Robert Laurence Moore<\/a> have all written about religious oppression in the United States and its impact on atheists. These histories highlight how stigma surrounding both atheism and openly critiquing religion and religious oppression often pressured atheists to hide their identity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet, there were \u2013 and still are \u2013 atheists, like Walter Plywaski, willing to openly challenge discrimination. Their stories are part of the larger fight for religious tolerance within the United States.\"The<\/p>\n

Kristina M. Lee<\/a>, Ph.D. Candidate in Rhetoric, Colorado State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nAlecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/span><\/strong>, and Tisiphone<\/strong><\/span>, it’s my personal belief that many people get into a religious group (of any religion) with no real conviction but through pressure from parents, peers, miscellaneous aithority figures, whatever. Once “in,” some acquire conviction and some do not. I suspect this is responsible for a large number of religius phonies. Some of these do no harm. Others do much harm. I don’t know whether better and more nearly universal education in civics as it regards church-state separation would help … but surely it couldn’t hurt.<\/p>\n

The Furies and I will be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":40592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4570,3869,3729,4571],"class_list":["post-45141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-atheism","tag-constitution","tag-furies","tag-honor","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}