In the Middle Ages, religion played such an important role in the lives of many societies that even the slightest deviation from the letter of traditions, rituals, and attributes could actually blow up everything. The history of the Holy Inquisition is written in ashes and blood. However, today we live in a much more enlightened time... Or do we?
Our story today, first told by the user u/Low-Librarian8340, casts serious doubt on the triumph of social progress and tolerance in our times. At least, her new sister-in-law turned out to be a militant atheist, uncompromising about a mere cross on a wall at home. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
More info: Reddit
Turns out, religious intolerance is in fact a two-way street, and atheists can play this game as well
Image credits: Freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author of the post and her husband live with the man's elderly parents, who are both Catholic and have a cross on the wall at home
Image credits: pvproductions / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Recently, the husband's elder stepbrother and his new wife came over for a few days, and a whole drama arose
Image credits: wavebreak media / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author's sister-in-law claimed she's an atheist and demanded they take down the cross and other small religious attributes immediately
Image credits: Low-Librarian8340
The author and her mother-in-law said a flat-out "No," so, after a huge drama, the guests left in anger
So, the original poster (OP) says that she and her husband are living with his parents, trying to save up for their own house. The author's spouse has a way older stepbrother, in his fifties, who got married a couple of years ago, and our heroine has only seen her sister-in-law once—at their wedding. Now, the couple has come to visit them.
The author's in-laws are both Catholic, so they have a cross hanging on the wall in their living room, and various knick-knacks with prayers can be seen throughout the house, sitting on the mantel or hanging on the walls. Our heroine never thought this would be a problem for anyone—but she was obviously wrong.
Literally from the first minutes in the house, the author's sister-in-law loudly declared that she was an atheist and would not tolerate any religious stuff in the house where she was staying. The woman demanded that the owners remove everything until they left. It's not that the author and her household were ultra-religious, but this lady behaved so entitled that drama was literally brewing.
Our heroine said they wouldn't take down anything, and her mother-in-law supported her in this. The atheist lady threatened to leave immediately, but also said she and her husband couldn't afford a hotel room. So, our heroine's stunned mother-in-law had to fork out the cash for his eldest son and daughter-in-law, who left in righteous anger. And the OP decided to vent online a bit.
Image credits: dimaberlin-1 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Interestingly, while atheists in Western society previously preferred to simply be skeptical of religion, showing no signs of intolerance, in recent decades, the whole situation has clearly begun to change. The polarization of society is also observed in people's attitudes toward religion.
For example, this article at BioLogos notes that apologists of the so-called "new atheism" exhibit and cultivate intolerance toward even the slightest religious attributes. And while the authors of this study by the University of Minnesota say that religious Americans are generally comfortable with atheists, the opposite is increasingly becoming the case.
Even though data from this 2023 survey conducted by the Pew Institute claim that almost all U.S. atheists (98%) say religion is not very important or not at all important in their lives, sometimes, as we see, completely extreme cases occur. Or perhaps this was just a case of ordinary human entitlement...
Be that as it may, most commenters on the original post massively sided with the author and her in-laws. For at least one simple reason: their home means their rules. So the only one in the wrong here is the author's sister-in-law—the responders are pretty much sure. So what do you do about this case? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Most commenters supported the author and said that the in-laws shouldn't have given the guests any money for a hotel
