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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Announcing you’re an atheist, is only crass if they don’t bring up religion. If they are talking about church, it’s not tacky. [b]They’re tacky for discussing religion in the first place[/b]. [/quote]

Maybe -- It depends on the context of the conversation.  Religion or lack of religion aren't out-of-hand tacky subjects.[/quote]

I was at daycare dropoff last week and a mom was telling us other parents about her son's baptism over the weekend. "He's not a little heathen anymore," she joked. Maybe that joke is funny in church, where (probably) everyone is Christian and baptized, but in a setting like daycare dropoff where you don't know, yikes![/quote]

Agree.  This is a good example of it being tacky to mention religion in such a way, even jokingly, that implies that any kids who aren't baptized are "little heathens."

I wonder what could be done to stop this Mom from talking this way.  To me, her words seem more insensitive and thoughtless than intentionally cruel.[/quote]
I think it would take someone she knows better bringing the problematic nature of the joke to her attention in a non-judgmental way. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to do it, because I think coming from a stranger, it would just shame her or embarrass her and, to your point, I don't think it was meant to be intentionally cruel.[/quote]

I think she could be told in a sensitive way, without feeling shamed.  Nothing wrong, though, with feeling a bit embarrassed - which she will likely feel if she can be helped to understand how non-christians would be offended by her off-handed statements.

I think random comments about a lot of things - not just religion - are not meant to be cruel, but are.[/quote]

Such sensitization could conceivably be done in liberal, Christian churches, that are already sympathetic to the many ways that people are discriminated against - e.g., LGBTQ.

Also, many religious people theses days are very accepting of other religious beliefs (and even atheism), so should be open to the idea that it's an insult to call people who are not Christians "heathen".[/quote]
Presumably if she's making a "heathens" joke, she's not part of a liberal church, or her mindset would already include the idea that she lives in a multicultural world. It seems more likely that her life is mainly in her Christian bubble and it just didn't occur to her that the joke might come off wrong to non-religious or non-Christian people around her.[/quote]

Even people with liberal mindsets screw up occasionally. And I've noticed that even some liberal Christians are not particularly accepting of non-religious people.

It's been noted on this forum before that while there's a standard of civility among people of different religions, it doesn't necessarily extend to people of no religion.[/quote]

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