Difference between revisions of "Our Strategy"

Latest revision as of 16:58, 14 July 2021

This is a training manual for non-violent subversives engaging in an asymmetric conflict against their particular house of worship. This guide was primarily intended for Catholic and Protestant audiences, because the author was the most familiar with those particular traditions. Readers from different backgrounds are encouraged to use this manual as a template for writing follow-up guides to address other religions.

The plan is simple. Waste your priest’s time. Every hour of their time which you consume is an hour they can’t spend indoctrinating a young person. If we (justifiably) assume a priest works a full shift every day, then they would produce 2,912 man-hours per year of priestcraft. 56 people wasting one hour of their local priest’s time each week is equivalent to having one priest renounce their vows for a full year. A subversive-to-priest ratio of 56:1 would thus render the entire clergy inert. This is realizable, since the current nonbeliever-to-priest ratio in the US is 81:1,^[1][2][3] and every extra hour wasted per week is equal to recruiting another subversive. Domination is not requisite; victory only requires a slight advantage. This is why bringing out the worst in your opponent has the same effect as bringing out the best in you.

Additionally, priests are already overworked, underpaid, and lead tumultuous personal lives. Any wasted time cuts into their already-small amount of leisure. Each little time delay is like a grain of sand in a gearbox.^[4] Most priests are already teetering on the brink of burnout; while no one pestering question will persuade a priest to leave their position, no one raindrop causes the flood. Having a priest leave for any reason traumatically impacts a church -- on average, this leads 28% of parishioners seek another parish, and 19% will cease going to any church altogether. The replacement priest must often schedule fewer services to create the illusion of filling seats. Up to 40% of the remaining parishioners will tithe less, and many church programs will be eliminated as the church enters survival mode.^[5]

Asking time-wasting questions subtlety stresses and eventually burns out your priest. Every hour spent talking about a feigned spiritual crisis was an hour they could have spent on something else. This approach is ideal, since you can act against your priest and church without repercussions.^[5] Likewise, this approach shields subversives from retribution, since they are not rebelling per se; they are desperately trying to obey and follow.^[6]

This strategy has been proven to work; it is a variation of the popular sit-in strike and the administrative overload technique -- the meatspace analogues of a DDoS. The sit-in occupies an area and renders it unable to be used for it intended purpose. Sit-ins were greatly effective in the Civil Rights movement to place economic pressure on segregated restaurants and other businesses, by preventing racist store owners from completing transactions until they changed their policies. Administrative overload was used by the Vietnam War protesters to great effect. The Selective Service required draft-age males to submit a 10-day written notification whenever they moved. Protesters wrote to inform Selective Service about every trip to the store; every time they moved into another room; or that they planned on moving, only to change their minds a few days later. This overwhelmed the Selective Service offices with meaningless work, impeding their productivity.^[7]

The methodology is simple, and has been outlined below:

Get the Clergy's Attention

Winning an audience with a priest is simple -- just ask for help. You must phrase it like that -- by asking for help, they cannot resist without seeming like an unhelpful person.^[8] Additionally, this forces the priest into a helper role, which is awkward and/or difficult to back out of.^[9] Helping people with spiritual crises is the priest's reason-for-being; it is literally their function in society to hear you out. Your "issue" must be of a spiritual concern, so they cannot turn you away -- it must be something that only they can help you with. This will make the priest feel important, and by feeding their ego, they will become more compliant and willing to work with you.^[10]

Start out by asking a number of innocuous questions. This creates a “momentum of compliance,” which leads them to lower their defenses and become more likely to answer further questions.^[9]

Then, tell the priest that you’ve had a crisis of faith, causing you to lapse as a Christian because of your inability to reconcile your questions about Christianity or faith itself. Act depressed and distraught by this, especially during your first meeting. The younger you are, the more likely this scheme will work. It is normal for young people to be confused and questioning, which are both normal parts of the growth and maturation processes. Even if a young person were discovered to be a subversive, their deviant behavior can be written off as part of a rebellious “piss and vinegar” phase; a certain amount of deviance is expected from the young, as another normal part of the growth and maturation process. Adults can also implement this strategy, but they must face the full consequences if they are found out, unless they have earned a reputation as a successful eccentric. Deviant behavior is tolerated from successful eccentrics -- not because they are eccentric, but because the successful are too valuable to get rid of.^[11]

You Cannot Seem Hostile

Hostility is doubly unproductive. Direct confrontation will push the priest away,^[10] close the lines of communication, and minimize your results. Because Christ promised his followers that they would be persecuted (JOH 15:20), your hostility will be cited as proof that the Bible is true.^[12] For best results you need a familiarity or rapport, but these are easy to develop. By hanging around an area long enough, people will assume that you belong there.^[9] Giving a receptionist a $5 bill, and telling them “I found this on the floor. Did anyone say they lost money?” imbues you with the qualities of honesty and trustworthiness.^[9] This is important, since it exploits the Fundamental Attribution Error -- the human brain tends to overestimate the importance of character traits, and underestimate the importance of situations and contexts.^[13]

Take a Soft, Long-Term Approach

Burnout is a process of erosion, not a display of force. Non-believers are expected to be angry, hostile, and reliant on overt in-your-face tactics. The clergy’s standard responses do not apply to our indirect approach. Even if you proven to be a subversive, you will be somewhat protected by Philip Zimbardo's “Not-Me Syndrome” (i.e., The Illusion of Personal Invulnerability). People tend to ignore direct evidence that they’ve been cheated simply to avoid the pain and shame that comes with admitting that they’ve been cheated.^[14]

Furthermore, there is no way for priests to stop these time-wasting conversations without alienating the spiritual community which they exist to serve. By maintaining a soft approach, you can subvert your church while maintaining a safe, unassailable position as an active and valued participant. A hardline approach can defeat opponents, but soft power conquers them. Soft power is borne from a sensitivity to changing forces, fluidly and flexibly redirecting them as needed.

Maintain a Good Rapport

You must use soft approaches to maintain power over others; you must work with human nature, not against it.^[10] To ensure this, follow these guidelines:

Start on a Positive Note

Never begin with an apology.^[15] Always make your most important comments first, and be specific.^[16] Do not let the priest suspect you are there to waste his time.

Don't Argue or Debate

Previous atheist activists failed not because of their weaknesses, but from the overuse of their strengths. Citing data makes the conversation seem rehearsed, which raises suspicion. Most priests have already encountered confrontational "firebrand" atheists, and they will quickly write you off as being one if you lay it on too thick or too strong. As such, don't go all-out -- only give it 60-70%.

• Christianity protects itself by being inherently non-disprovable. There is no way to confirm or deny any of Christianity’s claims; their claims only appear strong because Christians frame non-belief as passive and noncommittal. Rather than trying to disprove religious claims, hold your priest to them. This creates the illusion of mutual agreement, but you can use this to force your pastor into taking on absurd, indefensible positions.^[17]
• Religious debates are unwinnable, since neither side can verify their claims; theologians have no labs.^[18] No one is totally competent in a religious debate, because it spans history, philosophy, psychology, morality, biblical criticism, medicine, astronomy, biology, linguistics, economics, and politics.^[19]
• The “thou shalt not debate” rule does not apply to “Creation scientists.” Creationists actively seek out debates, because simply agreeing to debate them automatically grants them a partial victory, by acknowledging that their views contain a quantum of merit.^[20] Even a non-scientist can lock Creationists up for hours by just asking them to explain Creationism to you. If you want to engage them on a follow-up visit, visit websites such as Talk.Origins for highly-polished refutations to Creationist talking points, written by scientists for you to use at no cost. Alternately, reading basic astronomy, geology, and biology textbooks from your local public library will give you the scientific background to keep them intellectually engaged in fruitless activity for days. (While reading three introductory-level textbooks sounds like an insufficient science education, it doesn’t take much to throw Creationists into a spin).
  • Additionally, meta-discussions of Creationism are also fair debates; ask what constitutes a science, and debate the philosophy of science with them. These are some favorite topic among creationists, who dismiss evolution is as being “just a theory,” but that sets up a number of fun and time-consuming discussions, like:^[19]
    • What is the definition of a theory?
    • Why the Theory of Creationism is not equally discredited?
    • How does this affect other disciplines? (e.g., does music theory imply the non-existence of music?)

Don't Read from a Script

Do not read any prepared statements. Instead, just try your best to remember what you’ve previously read. In general, being well-read is what makes you credible.^[21] Reading from a script comes across as inauthentic, and will reveal yourself as a troublemaker. Additionally, if you make an error, or if the conversation goes off on a tangent, your whole routine unravels. Instead, just be comfortable about the topic and have a general idea of what to say, and improvise.^[15] Clergymen can detect if you are working from a script, because evangelist training mostly consists of memorizing scripts for ideal social interactions covering their basic arguments and talking points.^[22]

Don't Try to Impress or Persuade

Never try to convince people that you are smart, or that you are trying to change people's minds -- these will be taken as challenges, since most Christians automatically assume that curiosity and doubt are equivalent to ridicule and rage. Christians think questioning their beliefs is rude, so this must be done indirectly.^[23] Only use soft approaches and focus on long-term goals.^[24]

Don't Discuss Political Issues

Involving politics will only compound and complicate things, and it will out you as a troublemaker. If the priest goes off onto a political tangent, it is only because they are trying to divert you from the religious topic at hand, usually to escape the discomfort of your question. Try to direct the priest back onto some faith-based discussion. Focus on faith; by targeting faith, you will simultaneously target all faith-based political topics (e.g., LGBTQ issues, school prayer, stem cell research, abortion, etc.).^[20]

Avoid Simplistic Persuasive Techniques

You are not trying to persuade anyone; you are talking for talking’s sake. Avoid the following techniques, which will undermine your credibility:^[16]

• Name-calling.
• Glittering generalities (e.g., appeals to patriotism, being a good mother, etc.).
• Testimonials (i.e., the viewpoints of actors, athletes, etc.).
• The “plain folks” approach (e.g., “...you should do this because I’m just like you...”).

Maintain Intellectual Rigor and Integrity

If you act like a fool, people will treat you like one. So, if you feel compelled to use one of the following techniques -- don’t:

• Making arguments based on false premises.^[25]
• Making a priori (circular) arguments, which “beg the question” by using the desired conclusion as a premise.^[25]
• Putting a spin on a negative thing.^[25]
• Lashing out and taking the offensive when trapped by facts.^[25]
• Intimidating and/or making accusations.^[25]
• Focusing on irrelevant points or minutia.^[25]
• Using invalid analogies.^[25] C. S. Lewis was notorious for this, frequently using analogies in place of structured arguments.^[19]
• Demanding proof of self-evident facts (e.g., 1+2=3, Reagan winning re-election in 1984, etc.).^[25]
• Excessively using intellectual and/or esoteric language to feign intelligence.
• Failing to define the terms you discuss.^[26]
• Assuming that the nature of the thing is a result of its definition.^[26]
• Assigning physical properties to the immaterial.^[26]
• Assigning broad general properties to an entire class of things.^[26] C. S. Lewis was notorious for this, working only in absolutes and making no room for special cases and/or situational ethics.^[19]

Avoid Direct Eye Contact

Finally, although this sounds strange, do not look in the priest’s eyes. Looking anyone in the eyes gives them an opportunity to mesmerize you, creating a sensation of losing yourself and melding into one being. Instead, look at their chin or neck.

Maximize Muda in a Non-obvious Way

The efficiency and high productivity of Japanese manufacturing plants is not the result of working harder; it's from working better. Efficiency is optimized by identifying and eliminating waste and inefficiency, or muda (無駄, literally: “futility/uselessness/wastefulness”). Unlike “value-added work,” which describes any process that "adds value" by helping to produce/provide goods or services that a customer is willing to pay for, muda is any process that unnecessarily consumes resources. The 8 forms of muda are:^[27]

1. Overproduction. Producing products with no demand creates overstaffing, storage, and transportation problems. Additionally, overproduction makes productive tasks unaffordable, since the needed capital is tied up in unsaleable products.
2. Waiting. Anything which is not being improved, worked on, or generating value is wasteful, because storage is an expense, and idled workers still draw wages.
3. Transportation. In addition to shipping and handling costs, transportation introduces additional time delays for loading, unloading, and transit.
4. Over-processing or incorrect processing. Introducing extra steps into a process increases the time needed to complete the process. Additionally, these additional tasks create the possibility for additional defects, and require additional transportation to their unnecessary workstations.
5. Excess inventory. This applies to raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods. This introduces losses from obsolescence, damaged goods, and transportation and storage costs. Extra inventory hides the effects of other process inefficiencies (e.g., production imbalances, late deliveries, defects, equipment downtime, and long setup times).
6. Unnecessary movement. Inefficient processes cause unnecessary wear-and-tear on both machines and on workers.
7. Defects. Inspection and rework introduces extra steps into a process. Scrapping and replacement production consume additional resources.
8. Unused creativity. Those who are intimately familiar with a process are aware of its shortcomings; their insight is invaluable to process improvement.

The goal of a secular subversive is to increase muda within your church whenever possible. This is best achieved by wasting your priest’s time -- removing his effort, focus, and expertise away from value-add activities. This is achievable via the following processes:

Let the Priest Completely State Their Case, Without Interruption

This gratifies their ego, and it's harder for them to build a defense once they've laid their cards out on the table. Soft power is still power. If you keep quiet, people will think that you’re a philosopher.

Pause Before Answering

This creates the illusion of considering their talking points, further gratifying their ego.

Use Three-point Communication

Once you get an opportunity to speak, say “let me sure I have this right,” then paraphrase what the priest just said, and allow them to confirm that you heard everything right. Not only does this prolong the conversation by redundantly repeating everything they say, it has a psychological impact that pulls the clergyman further in to the conversation:^[28]

• This automatically hooks other person, forcing them to assume a listening role, and allowing you to dominate the conversation.
• This allows for communication errors to be corrected. This clarifies the situation, and prevents others from twisting your words, or claiming that you said something which you did not.
• The priest's perspective changes; now he must listen to his own words.
• The process allows for the re-inclusion of any omitted details.
• This induces a modeling behavior, which will cause people to paraphrase you, and thus granting you the time and repetition needed to etch your facts into their mind.

State Your Case Moderately and Accurately

Do not repeat the same thing over and over. If it didn’t sink in the first time, it won’t sink in the second time; you must approach the situation from a different angle. If your point did not sink in, rephrase it.

Speak Through Third Persons

Invoking and quoting others prevents others from arguing, since they must argue against people who are not there.

Priests are notorious for exploiting this trick, quoting scriptures or eminent theologians as a “hit and run” tactic to end tricky conversations. Priests also invoke biblical authority to dismiss any non-priests from using the scriptures as endorsements of their particular views; by claiming the Bible is being quoted out of context. If your priest does either of these, use it as a jumping-off point for follow-up questions:^[19]

• Who wrote the verse, and how do you know? Scholars continue to debate much of the Bible’s authorship.
• Why was the verse written, and to whom?
• When was it written?
• Is the translation accurate?
• Does the author offer any clues to the meaning, or is this just a personal interpretation?
• Are there any literary allusions or parallels involved?
• If liberal scholars are blind to the “true” context, then why would an intelligent God have a chosen book that he knew could be so easily misunderstood?
• Remember that Christians cannot write off, ignore, or rationalize their way out of any Old Testament laws, or the horrors which they have spawned, since Christ explicitly taught that every character of the old law is true and correct, and must be obeyed (MAT 5:17-19; JOH 7:19; LUK 16:17). Any attempt to dance around this problem defies Christ’s direct teachings.^[23]

Partial answers to these questions are listed in another section.

Give the Priest an Opportunity to Save Face

Give the priest a loophole which allows them a safe escape via their own logic. When applied cleverly, this can be a smooth transition from their mode of thinking into yours. Priests will become hostile when their arguments fail and have no means of escape. This makes the priest reluctant to talk with you further, limiting the amount of their time which you can waste. You must concede to succeed, sacrificing a pawn to lure them into checkmate.

• All arguments can be turned back on themselves, and a good argument must be able to survive this test. Make the priest defend their own beliefs against their own logic -- give them enough rope, and they’ll hang themselves.^[19]
  • Rather than attacking the priest’s premises and evidences, accept their arguments at face value, and discuss their unintended consequences.^[19]
  • It’s easier to find flaws and contradictions in certain or absolute statements than from ambiguous ones.^[20]
  • This technique cannot be used on a questioning or non-believing person, since they make no assertions. The burden of proof lies on those who make the claim; the skeptic is not required to say anything.^[19]
  • If the priest asks you to display knowledge, dismiss this by saying that you are interested in following their lead.^[19]
• The religious have no evidence to back up any of their claims. As such, apologists are trained to argue about the necessary criteria for something to constitute evidence.^[20] Asking for evidence will never result in evidence, but it will eat up a brick of their time.
  • If we allow miracles as proof, we should also allow the miracles of other religions.^[19]
  • There is no evidence for any of Christ’s miracles outside of the Bible.^[19]
  • Stories are not evidence.^[23]
• If your priest has you completely stumped, ask them to define the terms they used.^[19] Not only will this consume time, and create new discussion topics -- but defining things limits them.

Get Invited Back to Induce Faith-Breaking Processes in the Sheltered or Overprotected

Do not expect immediate, dramatic, or tangible results. Victory is not your priest burning out; victory is the process of burnout. It is the process, not the outcome that is crucial. Progress is always incremental; this is why the persistent always beat the talented. The summation of numerous small forces acts the same as a large force, just as how no single raindrop causes the flood.^[7] You must be welcomed back to have many, many further discussions for this strategy to work. Hostility kills all hope of success; while people will forget what you did for them or what you gave them -- they will never forget how you made them feel. It is therefore essential to give partial concessions and find mutual agreements. Undamaged egos keep lines of communication open for later conversations. There are no unrealistic goals, just unrealistic deadlines,^[29] but every hour you consume of your priest’s time is an hour they can’t spend indoctrinating some kid.

Being invited back integrate yourself deeper into their community. This is of the utmost importance; only then can you befriend the most sheltered and overprotected members of your community. The church's fellowship and many summer camps are numerous enough can isolate them from society as a whole, while providing them with enough friends to not feel isolated. While many non-theist books have been written in the past 20 years, they have done nothing for those who cannot (or would not) access them.^[20] This is rebellion in purest form, which awakens the hearts and passions of everyone involved -- and it’s easier than you could possibly imagine. Parents are so over-focused on shielding their children from vice, that they will inadvertently expose them to conversations which induce spiritual dissolution.

It is not strange for outsiders to attend church functions (e.g., youth groups) just to be social; many of these activities are designed to draw such people in. Local recreational sports leagues or music lessons are other ways to befriend the sheltered or overprotected.

Older teens make the best subversives, because they can easily win the respect and rapport of the younger teens which disproportionately comprise church youth groups. Older teens are close enough age-wise to have many mutual commonalities, and their additional life experience grants them an aura of expertise. While the latter part seems inconsequential, it isn't for young people -- a 16 year-old has significantly more life experience than a 14 year-old (12.5%). Additionally, older teens are sought after because they can drive -- and giving people rides car gives a subversive a captive audience. The physically gifted create inadvertent audiences via infatuation. While using the prospect of love (or lust) as a motivator seems improper, people have no say in who they are or are not attracted too, and teenagers will be driven by love (or lust) regardless of how you or anyone else acts. The quest to find a suitable mate is a driving factor for unattached young people to attend any social function.

If you have a chance to speak to a sheltered or overprotected person, do not “witness” or otherwise sell non-belief to them. Christ prophesized the suppression of Christianity, so selling non-belief only validates their faith. Instead, the concept of faith itself must be devalued until people eventually discredit and discard faith on their own.^[30] Religious debates only confirm the “atheists are angry people, and they are angry at god” talking point. Disproving the atheist anger myth will itself introduce a tiny crack into their faith. Do not change people’s beliefs, change the way they form beliefs, because if a person was not reasoned into their faith, they cannot be reasoned out of it.^[20] No amount of logic can shatter a faith consciously based on a lie;^[14] if anything, it causes a deeper belief, because faith allows emotion to be used in lieu for evidence.^[23] This is a sore spot for many Christians, who already face sleeping giant of doubt in their inner thoughts and quiet moments. This insecurity drives preachers to constantly reiterate that their parishioners must keep their faith strong.^[19] Secularizing forces do not directly confront religion; it bypasses and undercuts religion and moves on to other things,^[31] like water flowing around a rock.

This is why the process of deconversion is wholly unlike conversion. Non-believers who become Christians usually experience a sudden, highly-emotional event, be it personal (e.g., death of a loved one) or societal (e.g., the 9/11 terror attacks). Those who deconvert do not “lose their faith,” it crumbles and blows away. Deconversion is a slow path, which occurs after several years of reading, conversing, and personal reflection. While some may claim that an abrupt life change caused a loss of faith (e.g., death, divorce, job relocation), deconversion is actually caused the secondary effects of these events, which exposes people to new friends and ideas (e.g., moving to a new town, attending a new church, starting at a new school, or from the general shuffling and rebuilding of cliques which occurs in and around the 7th grade). Our interviews and personal conversations with the hundreds of non-theists have found no single root cause for deconversion; they are all unique, personal experiences. However, deconversion stories to touch upon a few re-occurring themes:

Discovering Small, Disconcerting Cracks Within Their Religious Teachings^[20]

This typically occurs in adolescence,^[32] upon re-hearing a childhood Bible story with mature ears(e.g., Jonah and the Whale), and it now seems so outrageous that it defies credibility, leading the young person to scrutinize religious claims from then on. This pushes the snowball down the hill, leading to further scrutiny and discovering additional cracks in their religion. These cracks widen with additional life experience, and over late-night conversations with friends.

This is why Sunday School is a leading cause of deconversion. The more devout a person is, the more closely they examine scriptures, and become more likely to discover a cracks. If their priest is unable to answer that questions, the parishioner is forced to seek answers elsewhere, and exposes themselves to alternate theologies and worldviews.

Stand-up comedians are the best at this, since they can pose confrontational ideas and alternate worldviews under the façade of joking around (e.g., George Carlin, Ricky Gervais, Sam Kinison). These bawdry acts often go undetected by overprotective parents because, weirdly, the most profane and vulgar comedians eventually become children’s entertainers (e.g., George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bob Saget).

The Realization of Religious Manipulation Within Their Life or Family^[33]

Historically, religion has been used to subjugate populations by convincing them that suffering is a blessing, while maintaining that the social elite have a divine right to their positions. Realizing that the elite exist at the expense of others draws scrutiny to religious claims. People respect priests because their priests tell them they should. The crux of every religion is promoting a need for that religion. Priests only act in self-beneficial ways^[19] because priests have no power of their own. They must convince, cajole, coax, or condemn others into acting on their behalf. Even then, the fact that no one ever tried to burn down or drive-by shoot Anton LaVey’s Black Mansion is irrefutable proof that Christians are more bark than bite. Priests maintain their illusion of power through the following mechanisms: ^[34]

1. Fear of sanctions (e.g., social pressure).
2. Moral obligation, due to:
   • The belief that obedience contributes to the common good of society.
   • The belief the priest has superpowers (e.g., granting sacraments, being “a holy man,” or a cult of personality).
   • Legitimacy, as defined by law, tradition, or a constitution.
   • Conformity to accepted norms.
3. Self-interest (i.e., rewards of money, power, and prestige on Earth and/or in the afterlife.)
4. Psychological identification with the priest (i.e., charisma, hero-worship, idealization).
5. Parishioners indifference and/or lack of self-confidence needed to stand against the priest.

These manipulations have a delayed, but profound effect on maintaining faith. Realizing manipulation requires acquiring and contemplating life experience, which is those who leave their churches usually do so after the ages of 17-19.^[35]

The Inability to Reconcile Science with Religion

Contrary to popular belief, school science classes are not the vector for faith-compromising scientific ideas. These ideas are typically transmitted by a popular science author (e.g., Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, Desmond Morris, Gary Zukav, etc.) or TV host (e.g., Carl Sagan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye), who proposed challenging questions and ideas in a non-threatening manner.

Frustration with the Ineffectiveness of God and the Church

Modern life is characterized by two motifs: worldliness and pragmatism (i.e., “Will it work?”), because the world constantly imposes unique challenges.^[31] Churches addresses neither of these motifs, as they tend to be filled with passivity activists who devote most of their energy to fighting change,^[36] and each unanswered prayer causes young people to question the efficacy of prayer.

Ineffective Indoctrination

This is not a cause per se, but many who’ve “lost their faith” didn’t have much faith to lose. Modern preaching is ineffective because calls to worship are in general and non-specific terms, and the “good news” of Christ’s death and resurrection happened so long ago that it no longer qualifies as news.^[31]

While many Christian youths had positive religious retreat experiences, these events usually take on standard “cookie-cutter” formats, causing the effectiveness of each subsequent retreat to wane as they become “old hat.” The resulting boredom leads to troublemaking, mostly for a want of stimulus, and not actual malice. Any subversive act or discussion gives permission for others to join in, and the resulting Butterfly Effect evokes change.^[7] This effect is magnified by the fact that most Sunday school classes have no system or means of enforcing discipline. Excluding parochial schools, religious education has no grading; no one can be failed or held back, since that would only drive people to join another denomination.

Discussions can be easily derailed by invoking a relevant scriptural inconsistency (typically, a conflict between the New and Old Testaments, or with the New Testament and itself) or some thought-experiment. This is effective because it conceals subversion as a thoughtful discussion. You can easily assume control of the class in this manner because Sunday school teachers and youth group mentors are typically lay volunteers, and they tend to be poorly trained in theology and/or its presentation.

Another effective way to subvert a Sunday school class is to steer the discussion into how to deal with non-believers and their worldviews. This manipulates the teachers into introducing our ideas into their classes, spreading our message to closeted or potential non-believers.^[19] Getting Sunday School teachers to talk about atheism is not unrealistic -- it’s the Rumspringa Principle -- even the most sheltered people must be provided knowledge of the outside world and its influences, so that they know what to avoid.

Additionally, expressing faith requires expression, which requires an artistic medium -- be it fine art, writing, theatre, or music. Cultivating artistic skill requires meeting artists, who have widely-varying perspective and worldviews (to say the least). Additionally, artistic disciplines have their own rich, deep lores which have already has grabbed the young person’s interest. Additionally, these arts provide young people with an outlet to explore emotions like anger and lust, for which Christianity provides no outlet.

Perseverance is a successful secular subversive's most important attribute. Those who try will fail repeatedly, but if one keeps trying, then they’ll hit upon the right time and place to be heard and evoke change. In the end, the shotgun approach always works.^[7]

Santa Claus

When many children discover that Santa Claus isn’t real, they asked about the other invisible characters in their lives -- the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy -- and God. Unprepared parents have to awkwardly explain how everything they said about Santa Claus is false, while everything they said about God is true. While it sounds silly, our interviews indicate that ~5% of non-theists were set on the path to non-belief by their parents inadequately answering this question.

Enable and Enlist Existing Malcontents

Getting rid of your pastor is easier than it seems; churches are rife with malcontents who already want to see them gone. 43% of people who leave their church do so because of issues with their pastor.^[37] While the pastors seem to be modern Pharisees who uphold religious laws and traditions,^[38] this is really an illusion. Priests are leaders, not bosses; priests have no authority beyond their ability to persuade people.^[39]

Malcontents evoke the most damage to their churches not through direct opposition, but indirectly by destroying the necessary enthusiasm for church health and growth. The malcontents create a tense “us-vs.-them” dichotomy which keeps other from even wanting to invite their friends to worship services.^[6]

Enlisting these malcontents to serve your hidden agenda is easy, because they are first-and-foremost reactionaries, who can be infinitely distracted with silly non-issues. Ideally, these issues should have some bearing on the priest’s ability to run their parish, which is controlled by:^[34]

1. The parishioner's desire to listen to their pastor.
2. The strength of the pastor’s independent support organizations and institutions.
3. The parishioner’s ability to withhold their consent and assistance.

Drama will be the inevitable result. Drama begets drama! Drama cannot be avoided, but it can be mitigated. Drama is the cause of all human suffering. Drama is unavoidable, because drama is the prelude to conflict, and conflict is unavoidable -- but it can be delayed to alter the balance of power. Drama appears anytime resources must be distributed; wherever there is scarcity, drama will follow. Humans are drawn to drama, seeking it and creating it as an alternative to the monotony and boredom of their lives.

If pastors become preoccupied with avoiding drama, minimizing any challenges to the malcontents, and “only fighting the battles that need to be fought,” then they will lose their spontaneity and creativity. Church growth is then stunted, and the ministry directs itself along the path of least resistance -- which is the course that makes rivers crooked. Outreach falters, because when a pastor is more focused on damage control then spreading Christianity, the ministry fails its mission. However, hostile parishioners are allowed to thrive, prosper, and assume critical operational roles because of:^[37]

• The fact that volunteer and paid leaders undergo little or no pre-hire screening.
• Secondary channels are used to work outside of established procedures. This confers special privileges to individuals, robbing the existing political structure of its power.
• Failed attempts to quell a parishioner’s anger which did not address the root cause.
• Support systems failing to address issues and/or defend the pastor.
  • Allowing the “collateral damage” of drama/conflict to compromise a support system.
• The denomination and/or bishop failing to intervene, because their limited power and/or situational involvement. However, even if these authorities can’t directly intervene, they should still be able to assert their authority and/or mandate compliance.
• A failure to understand how unresolved past issues continue to influence the present.
• A failure to quell gossip.
• Seminaries fail to teach their students how to deal with hostility.
• Pastors fail to explore other options and opportunities.
• Pastors often have no other pastors to turn too or collaborate with.
  • This does not apply to Catholic priests, who are procedurally required to have their own designated confessor.
• Pastors fail to assert their authority.
  • Pastors are unusually prone to guilt, which makes them more vulnerable to manipulation from con artists or others who extort money and/or services.
• Pastors often delude themselves into thinking that Christian love can conquer all; and will deny, pamper, or excuse subversive actions. Likewise, this mentality renders pastors completely unable to deal with the mentally ill, or with the truly evil.
  • Rational arguments, love, and negotiations are ineffective against the truly evil.
  • The mentally ill become completely predictable once they’ve been diagnosed.
• An uninformed and theologically-illiterate laity are vulnerable to the threats, flattery, cajolery, misrepresentation, etc. of those who are trying to undermine their pastors.

Identifying Traits of Malcontent Candidates

Church-disrupting malcontents have been found to exhibit the following traits:

Powerlessness

A common thread among all malcontents is a sense of frustration stemming from their inability to act or invoke change. These poignantly frustrated individuals who are condemned by circumstances to rust away in idleness, despite having the talents and temperament needed to equip them for a life of action. As such, disaffected malcontents tend to come from the following groups:^[40]

• The Recently Impoverished. Those who have been poor their entire lives feel no frustration -- they don’t want to challenge the status quo because they crave order; they have no grievances because they have no dreams. It is only the recently destitute who are frustrated, since they have recent memories of better things. The taste of better things is what excites people to revolt; not the avoidance of actual suffering.
• Misfits. Misfits are too self-aware to be true zealots; however, they can conceive autonomous existences which are purposeful and hopeful, so they’ll never fully buy-in to anyone’s message.
• Outcasts. The barbarians who overthrew Rome were few in number, but once they invaded a country, they were joined by the oppressed and dissatisfied in all walks of life: “it was a social revolution started and masked by a superficial foreign conquest.” As such, immigrants can be easily recruited, since they were already frustrated for want of a new beginning.
• Minorities. The least and most successful (economically and culturally) are likely to be more frustrated than those in-between. Unsuccessful people see themselves as outsiders, especially among minority group members who want to blend in with the majority. Likewise, minority members who attain fortune and fame find it difficult to enter the majority’s exclusive circles, making them conscious of their foreignness. Furthermore, having evidence of their individual superiority, they resent the admission of inferiority implied in the process of assimilation.
• Adolescents. Movies and comics have pre-conditioned young people to overthrow any perceived tyrant.
• The Ambitious. This applies to those who are ambitious in the face of insurmountable obstacles, as well as those who are ambitious in the face of unlimited choice.
• Those in the Grip of Vice or Obsession. They are predictably unpredictable.
• The Impotent (in Body or Mind). The man who wants to write a great book, paint a great picture, create an architectural masterpiece, become a great scientist, etc., and knows that never be able to realize this innermost desire, will never find peace in any social order. They view their life as irrevocably spoiled and the world perpetually out of joint, and they will only feel at home in a state of chaos.
• The Selfish. The fiercest fanatics are often selfish people who were forced, by innate shortcomings or external circumstances, to lose faith in themselves. They separate their sense of selfishness from their ineffectual selves and attach it to the service of some noble cause -- this is why the persuasive champions of love and humility tend to be neither loving nor humble.
• The Bored. Dollar for dollar, trouble-making is the best form of entertainment.
• Sinners. Who else is guaranteed to revolt against the church?

Religious Zealotry

Zealots overcompensate for their own lost faith. The less justified someone is in claiming personal excellence, the more ready they are to claim excellence for their group (e.g., nation, religion, race, etc.), so they can become great by proxy. Apologists aren’t trying to convince others; they are trying to convince themselves.^[20] Proselytizing fanatics convert others to strengthen their own faith; to justify themselves, rather than to convince others. Therefore, those who hold creeds with an easily-challenged legitimacy are the most likely to develop this impulse.^[40]

Past Middle-Age or Elderly

Older people seek traditional church experiences, because it is one of the few things that remain from their youth.^[39] These childhood religious influences are imprinted on their minds, permanently influencing their thinking.^[33] The joy and calm that they associate with their religious practice results from completely disassociating themselves from the world around them.^[17]

A Life of Self-denial

Self-denial seemly confers the right to be harsh and merciless toward others.^[40] This is likely related to self-righteous behavior; the self-righteous have a need to condemn others as immoral, to make themselves seem moral by default. They can rationalize the disapproval caused by their earthly actions by convincing themselves of approval it will win in the afterlife.^[41]

“Sunset Values”

“Sunset Values” are passionate, highly-prized values that gain intensity from the fact that they are about to disappear or be forever changed. Much like a setting sun, these values are overlooked until they make a flamboyant show at their end.^[42] The belief that homosexuals should not marry is one example of a sunset value.

Those who still cling to these values after their sunset will be overlooked and marginalized by everyone in their church, because religions must change whenever culture changes or the religion loses its influence and its ability to propagate. No moral issue is so large that it cannot disappear in the face of cultural change; no one preaches against racial integration anymore, and few pastors have preached against birth control in the last 10 years.^[33]

A Fear of the Future

Middle-aged and elderly people develop conservative worldviews which constantly looks for signs of decay, simply because they have nothing left to look forward too; any changes in their lives are usually for the worse. Likewise, the abjectly poor tend to be conservatives because they have no faith in the future, which they see as an unending series of boobytraps that they must walk through.^[40]

Those with power will always resist growth; growth always upsets the established balance of power, and thus threatens their position.^[5]

Previously Slighted or Overlooked