DJ Grothe: "Yes, maybe Christianity was used to support the institutions of slavery, but wasn't it also really beneficial to slaves?  Or after slavery, [to] the black community in general?"

Norm Allen: "Well, the way I look at it is that you can get a positive out of a negative, but that doesn't justify the negative. For example, if I burned down your home, I don't expect you to thank me for calling the firemen."

-- From a podcast interview, Science, Humanism, and the Black Community, on pointofinquiry.org.

I recently had someone reply to my anti-religion stance with "Surely we can learn to take the good and ignore the bad?"  With any other topic besides religion, this would be an offensive position to take.  It's like arguing, "Never mind the horrors of the mass genocide in Rwanda, the important part to remember is that lots of people were given free machetes.  You have to focus on the good parts!"

Back to Norm's analogy: Don't forget what's been burning down the proverbial homes of sex workers, women, queers, and sexual outsiders for a long time - religion.  Please stop thanking them for calling the firemen.