Actually... No.

Do you ever notice how Christians are almost expected to traipse about and exclaim their faith, while the mere mention of disbelief on the part of a rational individual is enough to have him labeled an "aggressive atheist"?

Why do you think that is? It's probably due to the fact that atheism, by the nature of its most popular definition, is openly antagonistic towards fairy tales. This offends people, and they believe they can use the "freedom of opinion" to quash it.

It is an unfortunate truth that people seem to believe they have to respect others' opinions. This is actually not the case; one is merely obliged to respect anothers right to their opinion.

This is where I'm having an issue. I think it highly frustrating when I meet fellow atheists who "respect other peoples' opinions". I mean, really, why would you? If it's stupid, it does not deserve respect. If I say sin and vice are the devices of the Cosmic Leprechaun and his gang of evil fairies, do you respect that? Or do you tell me that you think I'm a fucking idiot, in lieu of any actual evidence in support of my claim? I desperately hope it's the latter.

You do not need to respect other peoples opinions. You are free to call their opinions stupid. You can choose to not be an intellectual pussy, and do the right thing instead of the easy thing. Yes, I know that it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to think that you can avoid conflict with your unenlightened friends, but really you're just seeking desperately for the justification for your cognitive cowardice. Don't be an asshole; educate!

Now, I know that this may sound a little extreme, and I'm not suggesting anybody try to collect and burn theists at the stake (not that I believe you could or are ignorant enough to try, but disclaimers never hurt). The point I'm trying to get across is this: the Christians of this country are not willing to show you respect for your logic, and so you really don't owe them anything. Oh, sure, you'll meet the ones who say that they respect your opinion, and then about five seconds later they'll tell you they just think it's so sad that you're so blind to the obviousness of the existence of their skydaddy. That, or they'll be kind enough to tell you that they don't hate you, per se, because their book-of-tales tells them to hate the sin, not the sinner. And that really grinds my gears.

When I was young and a naive, I wondered how the bible could call free thought a sin; and then I thought about the genesis story, and realized that the whole concept of not only Christianity, but all Abrahamic religions (I would say all religions, period, but I need to save such a claim until I am better educated about them) are predicated upon the machinistic, uninspired behaviours of their subscribers. In short, you have to be sheep to follow one of those religions (Surprise! I'm sure you've heard the sheep/shepherd metaphor before).

While I hate to belabor the point, I feel compelled to offer a summary: there really is no point to holding opinions on anything, if you are not willing to place them above the opinions of others. Not only are you allowed to do so, you are allowed to vocalize your ideas and challenge others. Your freedom to do so is limited only by your opponents right to live a peaceful life; you can't threaten to blow up their cars because they believe some hippy got nailed to a beam. Not only would be lowering yourself to their level, but you'd damage the reputation of freethinkers as kind, thoughtful, intellectually superior individuals, and we'd be happy to disown you.