Salon: It's time for religious people to boycott the bigoted website

With their posting of yet another stridently anti-religious piece today, “Is religion evil?” by Michael Ruse, I have decided to boycott the online news journal Salon. I regret that it’s come to this. But Salon’s editorial decision to continue running such New Atheist demagoguery as Ruse’s piece, the fact they’ve made such articles a standard weekly feature, gives me no choice. I’m not averse to reading atheist writers, nor to reading criticism of religion, but there’s now a kind of atheism flooding the Internet that spills over into outright bigotry. Salon has clearly chosen to promote this New Atheism, and for many months now has offered virtually nothing from progressive religious voices on religion. I’ve written the editors on their lack of balance in this, but got no reply.

I posted the following comments after the Ruse piece and will send a version of them to Salon’s editors tomorrow.

E.M.

As both a Catholic and a person on the political left, I've been reading Salon for years, reading it almost daily, and have appreciated the work of many of your sharp contributors. As a blogger, I've linked Salon articles numerous times--probably more than I've linked any other online news journal. 



But no more. Over the recent year I've seen how the clear editorial decision to post regular anti-religious pieces has shaped the basic meaning of Salon in the online press. Your New Atheist pieces (yes, I think there's a very clear distinction between the New Atheists and other atheists) are among the shabbiest content you post. And they're specifically aimed at convincing people that my religion is 1) moronic and 2) antisocial. I know otherwise.

I've written the editors about this slanted policy (rare to nonexistent pieces from progressive religious writers), but have gotten no reply. And the New Atheist content keeps coming. Weekly.



I'm taking Salon off my bookmarks and will no longer link Salon articles from any medium. I'll also blog my decision and do my best to get other moderate-minded, intelligent people to stay away from Salon. In a year I'll check back to see if things have changed.

There are plenty of religious bigots in the world, and plenty of secular bigots as well. Salon has become a hub for these latter. The pieces featured over the past year are shrill and shallow.

I'm hoping other religious readers here will join me rather than continue to put up with these weekly bigoted rants.

Eric Mader