Guestzilla Orders In Laws To Purge Religious Decor In Their Own Home, Gets A Hard “No”

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

Couple sitting on couch holding mugs, woman looking at man with a smile in a cozy living room setting.

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

Woman demands in-laws remove religious items affecting her atheism, upset when they refuse to comply.

Woman helping in-laws clean house, upset about religious items affecting her atheism and their refusal to remove them.

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Woman holding a religious book with a cross, reflecting conflict over religious items and atheism in family setting.

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

Woman looks upset asking in-laws to take down religious decorations that affect her atheism beliefs.

Woman discussing atheism and requesting in-laws to remove religious items affecting her beliefs during a family conversation.

Text on a white background reads a woman telling Tammy her mother-in-law looked offended and reminding her it wasn't her house.

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The author’s sister-in-law claimed she’s an atheist and demanded they take down the cross and other small religious attributes immediately

Woman asks in-laws to take down religious decorations affecting her atheism, in-laws refuse and feel offended.

Text excerpt showing a woman upset about religious items affecting her atheism and in-laws refusing to take them down.

Text on white background asking Are we the jerks, referencing woman demanding in-laws remove religious items affecting her atheism.

Text excerpt explaining in-laws usually travel to visit and stay in a hotel, related to woman demanding removal of religious items.

Text excerpt discussing family dynamics amid a woman demanding in-laws take down religious stuff affecting her atheism.

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.

Woman with red hair and man in green shirt looking thoughtfully out window, reflecting conflict over atheism and religious items.

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

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