..... WTF???????
When I moved to Orlando, Florida be with my partner in October 2002, I went on a work trip with him and we drove down to Miami. On the way, I started seeing all these bizarre billboards about abortion - including some pretty horrendous shots of babies that should NEVER be shown in public.
Now - abortion is a topic for an entirely different post - but how the hell did the religious right in my second country get so powerful?? Especially with the supposed separation of church and state ?!?!?
Now - these people aren't getting heard because they are out there 7 days a week manning soup kitchens, or conducting pastoral care in hospitals or even because they are celebrating community based interfaith initiatives - they are being heard because they are vocal encourages of hate!!!
Now - I know a little bit about extreme right religious views - there was a Hasidic family who lived on my street. The youngest son of the 14 children (yes - you heard it right - that poor woman was pregnant for fifteen years straight) if he saw me would point and shout "FAGELAH !!! " - Now I'm not a mincing queen so I was curious as to how he knew (I didnt exactly go outside in a harness after all ) - eventually I found out that the eldest son knew one of the guys that went to my Shule and gossip travelling faster than light in the Jewish community - they knew.
What I don't get about the religious right in America - and their extreme elements - is how these people continue to be sanctioned - not matter how implicity - by their government?!?!?!?!?
Yes - I know there is freedom of speech and religious pluralism - but how can this sanction not just hatred - but the ACTIVE ENCOURAGEMENT AND INCITEMENT TO HATE!!! - Often resulting in violence that truly turns the stomach.
Now I cherish my religious freedom - and I am keenly interested in other religions and how they operate - but I have to say - and I am saddened to say this - I understand the Militant Islamists better than I do the Christian Right in America.
Jesus - whether divine or not - was a good guy. He helped the poor. Took a hooker under his roof and saw the good in her that no one else did. He helped the sick. And yet, in his name, these jokers bomb medical clinics, picket the funerals of dead soldiers who did nothing wrong but served their country with distinction - something these right wing nuts would NEVER do, and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to elect other right wing nuts who, rather than doing the GOOD thing, use their congressional power to further the RIGHT wing.
How is this allowed???
Why isn't there tort reform in my second country to stop this?
Why isn't there someone in the Capitol that will stand up and say - "Look - worship how you will, but incitement to hate is a bad thing and I think you'll be SERIOUSLY surprised when on your Judgement Day, you get bitch-slapped around the room by the big J.C."
I love America. I truly do. I was the happiest I have ever been in my life whilst I lived there. I travelled most of the eastern seaboard and have to say the vast majority of Americans I met were sensible people whose sole aim in life was to live, pay their bills and do so in a manner that did not hurt others.
Which is why the religious right totally scrambles my eggs - it doesn't fit with what *MY* experiences with Americans have been.
Please - do comment and if you wish to, send your comments to me @ damientc@xtra.co.nz - I hope that I will get enough to basically put them in a follow up post so that it can encourage some further debate.
That's my 2 Cents Worth - and I am very, very confused.
Damien
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5 comments:
Secularism has had an interesting and long history in the United States. First, I don't know stats for Australia and New Zealand, by the U.S. is far, far more church-going than Europe. The U.S. is a very religious country. In contrast, the Catholic Church has declared France essentially to be mission country again.
The trajectory of secularism in the United States took a very different road from that of Europe. The religious establishment was never part of the "pre-democratic" state here. If you wanted liberalism in England or France, the church was allied with the monarchy. One always had to struggle against both King and State, especially in France. Churches here in the U.S. have always been "of" society, not the state. Historically, the separation of church and state in the United States was instituted on behalf of protecting the churches, not to force the creation of secular civil society.
There is a strong secular movement, but it is highly urban (as opposed to sub-urban, rural is hardly a category here anymore). Suburban America is very conservative. Around the time of the Scopes Monkey Trial (1926), secularism won a political battle that led to an Evangelical withdrawal from the public sphere. But after television, Evangelicals started organizing a great deal more. They're back. And I doubt they'll be marginalized so easily this time.
> Jesus - whether divine or not -
> was a good guy. He helped the
> poor.
And there is actually beginning to be some pressure from the religious right for a more Christian social policy. They're not thrilled with the deal they've gotten from the Republicans, lately. Social issues and the status of the family are, admittedly, a much stronger focus.
> Took a hooker under his roof
> and saw the good in her that
> no one else did.
Yeah, but he still told her to stop hooking. Some of the people on the religious right want to reach out and teach queers like you and me to see the wrongness of our ways and repent. It's much nicer than them wanting to bash us, but it's still not something I'm interested in taking up. With some of this subgroup, you might get some sort of acquiescence to partnership rights, but the name "marriage" is out of the question.
> He helped the sick. And yet, in
> his name, these jokers bomb
> medical clinics,
That's a very extreme outlier in the group. Most people in the religious right would not support something like that.
Recall that there are out and out fascist parties in a number of democracies. Indeed, several years ago the French soccer team (many of whom are of Algerian descent) threatened to resign en masse is Jean-Marie LePen won in an upcoming election. Intolerance is a universal. It just takes different forms in different places.
Cuphound - did he tell her to stop, or did she stop by choice? This is an interesting question asked by many because many hookers stop hooking when in a relationship - and some sociologists have actually asked whether she stopped BECAUSE they were in a relationship ?? Interesting.
Yes there are facist parties in any group, but why does the christian moderates remain silent when these things happen? I dont remember them speaking out when that poor doctors Lexus was bombed recently.
Thank you so much for your comments. Interesting and very thought provoking.
> did he tell her to
> stop, or did she
> stop by choice?
This is the Gospel of Saint John, versus 1-11 from the New Jerusalem edition of the New Testament:
At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in the middle they said to Jesus, 'Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and in the Law Moses has ordered us to stone women of this kind. What have you got to say?' They asked him this as a test, looking for an accusation to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. As they persisted with their question, he straightened up and said, 'Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her.' Then he bent down and continued writing on the ground. When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until the last one had gone and Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained in the middle. Jesus again straightened up and said, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she replied. 'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus. 'Go away, and from this moment sin no more.'
* * *
The edition of the New American Bible that I grew up with is a little more explicit. It ends, "But from now on, avoid this sin."
It's rough to interpret Jesus as supporting an alternate sexual lifestyle. He was pretty hard on fornicators. Plus, I doubt any serious Christian theologian would accept an argument that Mary Magdalene had a romantic relationship with Jesus.
> why does the christian
> moderates remain silent
> when these things happen? I
> dont remember them speaking
> out when that poor doctors
> Lexus was bombed recently.
The more extreme an act, the more easily it is disassociated from the self. I think most of those Christians would probably not imagine that a bombing was something that was undertaken in their name. Just because some nut job takes your name and acts, it doesn't follow that he represents you.
No one in the Arab world apologized for the 9/11 attacks, yet many condemned them, or said the attack was a shame. Al-Qa`ida doesn't represent the viewpoints of the overwhelming majority of Muslims. That doesn't mean that they like U.S. foreign policy. No one in the Middle East was surprised by the attack. That didn't mean people were senseless to the deaths of innocent people.
Guys who bomb doctors in Lexuses are likewise not heralded as heroes at most churches I've ever heard of.
Groups, especially unorganized groups, are complex. Reconstructing the viewpoints of people in those groups requires patience.
I like your blog, by the way. I'll be sure to pop in more often.
In 1970 Time magazine declared God Dead... the pendulum will swing back. We go through waves of this crap in the U.S.
The evangelicals have pretty much shot themselves in the foot by getting SO involved in politics. They just don't realize it yet. I read a story recently where it was believed that the whole evangelical thing will completely blow over in the next few years. Can't be soon enough for me!
In '66 they ran a cover that asked, "Is God Dead?" I doubt Time ever got colorful enough to come out with Nietzsche's "God is dead!" Correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't think the battle over secularism is anywhere near over yet in the United States. Evangelicals are like us queers in one way: they're out and they're not going to let themselves get stuffed back into the closet again.
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