The sad thing is that I’ve heard this argument before. I let my Jewish friend listening to something similar from my own youth pastor, thinking it was the right thing to do.
I cannot believe how stupid and ignorant and anti-Semitic that was. I cannot believe that I let myself be so blinded by the good intentions of my church at that time that I allowed myself to miss the negative effects of what I was doing in trying to proselytize my friend.
As with any -ism, it is the EFFECT, not the intent, that matters to the people who you hurt.
I wish Pat Hagee and John McCain could realize this, too.
There are now 462 children, some of whom are young mothers in their teens and others no older than five, who are in temporary foster care in Texas today after acourt in San Angelo ruled that their parents cannot have the children back until DNA tests are done.
The Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a breakaway Mormon sect that practices polygamy and marrying off its girls when they are underage or barely legal, has its own batch of lawyers. What sounds like a “class-action child removal” may bring about legal challenges to the state’s right to remove children based solely on the treatment of a smaller number of girls and women from the Yearning for Zion Ranch.
The Washington post has an article about the Constitutional challenges Texas may face when the case splits into individual child-custody hearings. There is no question that were the children to be returned to their parents, they would be forced to conform to the sect’s religious and sexual practices. What is not so clear is whether or not the government has the right to take children away from their parents if the abuse has no yet occured. The Supreme Court has consistently upheld the freedom of religious expression in previous cases.
In my opinion, practising your religious freedoms is one thing; forcing a teenage girl to conform to them is not. Hoever, it sn’t difficult to say that there is no clear line in the sand as to how much religion one is allowed to insert into a child’s life.
Thanks to the pillars of moral hypocrisy like Alan Keyes, a preacher and politician who disowned his own daughter after she came out as a lesbian, the public knows all about the horrible ordeals that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people endure when they choose to reveal their sexual identities to their parents. What may not be as obvious to the American people is that 86 percent of this country is Christian, and a great number of Atheist and Christian families have extremely emotional fights over the religious choices of children and parents. I myself fought bitterly for the right to go to a church that my parents thought was a cult because I went there so often. In truth, it was because people didn’t have as many catfights on holy ground.
Well, there’s this video going around the internet where someone — presumably a disillusioned sibling — covertly taped a fight between a mother and her son about his assertion of Atheism. It’s both hilarious and frightening: hilarious, because the mom is obviously an uptight, hypocritical tyrant who threatens to cancel Christmas (”because Christmas is about JESUS!”) and frightening because it show how common it is for weak-minded individuals to resort to verbal and/or physical threats when faced with the possibility of co-inhabiting a house with someone who disagrees with their beliefs. The video is a great example of how NOT to behave when discussing your religion with others.
This really isn’t the way to convert your kid back to Catholicism.
Everyone hates someone else they haven’t met because they never think they’ll walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Maybe you’re certain that all veterans are gun-loving warmongers until you go on a camping trip with one of them who happens to be an environmental pagan. Maybe you view all foreigners with suspicion until you find out that the wife of that grocer down the street teaches your children. It’s hard not to take cues from those around you who have already formed intractable opinions on people who they dislike.
Try.
That’s what I want to say when I see these conservative ‘family values’ politicians and their ilk exposed for the liars and cowards they are. Sure, some of them are just misguided ignorant people, but most of them are willfully ignorant and intolerant, especially towards non-Judeo-Christians, leftists and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. How many times must we remind those who insist on dragging religion into the public square that Christ himself said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?” (John 8:8)
For those of you still hung up over Bill Clinton, let’s take a look at the recent role call (if I’m leaving anyone out, which I’m sure I am, please let me know):
The Young Turks, a liberal-leaning blog that does a segment on Air America, has reported on a GOP sex scandal every week for a while now and never run out of material. Now THAT’s sad.
I don’t have a problem with gays having sex. I don’t see why Craig was arrested. It’s the fact that Ol’ Larry has been campaigning to pass anti-gay rights legislation in Congress that really sticks in my craw.
I don’t know, maybe, just maybe we’re all human beings who make mistakes and we shouldn’t try to legislate flawed ideology and force-feed it down the throats of our fellow citizens? Just a thought.
Well, that’s what President Bush will essentially say if and when he vetoes his third and fourth bills, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would make persecution and discrimination of employees based on their sexuality illegal, and H.R. 1582, also named the Matthew Shepard Act, which would enhance existing hate crime legislation. Current hate crime laws state that violent crimes committed with motivations based on race, gender, religion, etc. are especially heinous and therefore subject to stiffer penalties; the House bill that has just passed would add sexual orientation to that list.
Of course, the anti-gay hate speech, which is still perfectly legal in this country as long as it doesn’t incite violence, has flared surrounding the issue, with several right-wing groups urging Bush to veto both bills. They argue that the legislation would forbid preachers from citing biblical references to homosexuality as a sin.
This whole issue makes me furious, but I’ll refrain from saying exactly how I feel about these people. Instead, I’ll quote Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese from an article on Southern Voice:
“It’s no surprise the religious right is so concerned about hate speech — for them, hate appears to be a cottage industry,” Solmonese said. “But they have nothing to fear. Even after the hate crimes legislation is passed, the religious right will continue to have the federally protected right to preach hatred from the pulpit.”
Pwned.
The problem to me is, how can you reconcile teaching ignorant, gullible parishioners to hate their fellow citizens and human beings and still claim to serve the will of God?
Ruth Malhotra, president of the College Republicans, argues that Georgia Institute of Technology’s tolerance policy that requires its students to be respectful of and to not discriminate against GLBT people violates the civil rights of Christians. Malhotra believes that homosexuality is wrong because of her interpreation of the people; therefore, forcing her to be tolerant of homosexuals (here used as an all-inclusive term) is in itself intolerant of her religious beliefs.
One does not need to point out that the Bible has been used to justify racism and segregation less than half a century ago. Jon Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal, a gay rights group (NOT to be confused with NAMBLA, for all of you South Park watchers), says that if Christian conservatives claim a right to discriminate against gays, what’s to stop others from claiming the freedom to hate people on the basis of race, religion, social status, gender, etc? Jeremy Gunn, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, goes even further. He posits that “they’re [religious right-wingers] trying to devlop a
persecution complex.”
Malhotra argues that being gay is not the same as being African-American. Presumably, this point of view derives from an assumption that people ‘choose’ to be gay. It is not certain exactly what she said to this effect, but the College Republicans did send a letter to the Gay-Straight Alliance, calling their group something akin to a ’sex club.’ As in, like a strip joint.
This is only one instance in a large number of defiant actions the religious right has undertaken nationwide. Many of them also wear anti-gay slurs on T-shirts to high school, denounce Gay Pride Week at work, refuse to attend diversity training…the list goes on.
So, what do you think? Do religious conservatives have the right to be bigots?
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are
back to make another buck off of their megahit Left Behind series, a collection of eleven (and counting) books that chronicle the events in “Revelations” from the Bible. Left Behind Games, a startup multimedia company devoted solely to the series, will soon releasse the first video game translation of the plot in the first book.
The game is an apocalyptic adventure with black and white portrayals of good and evil. Players must convert neutral groups of non-believers before the Antichrist’s followers do. The violence is supposed to be gore-free, and sexuality is minimal or non-existent. In other words, it’s Grand Theft Auto without the blood, prostitutes, and profanity, instead injected with more ambiguous morality.
Some fundamentalist groups think the game is too much of a compromise and that LaHaye’s company is conforming to the world rather than forcing the world to conform to its views. They want to advocate quitting video games entirely, I suspect. LaHaye’s associates believe they are providing a Christian alternative to the mindless bloodshed of popular entertainment.
I can just hear the religious right drawing in breath to scream! Hold on just a second! What’s that? All the schools offering up courses for credit have to pass a three-part requirement test? Who’da thunk it?
It turns out that the male basketball players at Lutheran Christian, for example, didn’t attend classes at all. They received credit for them anyway, though. Maybe that’s why the College Board removed LCA as an ACT and SAT test site, and why LCA lacked accredation, state oversight, and membership from a state high school athletic association.
Redemption Christian Academy in Troy, NY is facing the same problems and its principal is considering shutting down the basketball program.
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