On the Contrary

I always have this debate with myself on religion.  Being a confirmed non-believer, I look at many of the problems in our little world that revolve around religious belief and wish it would just all go away.  But on the other hand I also know the sometimes belief is what gets people through impossible situations and helps them overcome what seems like insurmountable odds.  Doesn’t make it true, but does make it useful.  So is there a balance?  Only if the religious can live by and keep their beliefs to themselves.  Just as an aside, I prefer to look at the philosophy of a religion to judge its efficacy and worth, not in its “revealed word” or belief in some personal god guide.  Where religion gets to be a real problem is when the “revealed word” of one religion tries to mandate that revealed word on the rest of us through political action and the power of government.  We have seen three cases of this recently and they speak volumes about keeping religion out of politics.

The New York Times reported last week in “Mormons Tip Scale on Ban on Gay Marriage” that the Mormon Church joined the battle against gay marriage with major fund raising and door to door campaigning:

“First approached by the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco a few weeks after the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in May, the Mormons were the last major religious group to join the campaign, and the final spice in an unusual stew that included Catholics, evangelical Christians, conservative black and Latino pastors, and myriad smaller ethnic groups with strong religious ties.”

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I thought religious freedom meant you could believe what you want, as long as it didn’t hurt anyone, and you didn’t use your religion as a political force to use government to jam your beliefs down the throats of others.  But in this case, that is exactly what they did. Of course the good Mormon Church has a history here as they were a major force in defeating the equal rights amendment back in the 70s.

Another ugly face of religion to raise its ugly head was a Catholic priest in North Carolina who refused communion for Obama supporters.  As reported by MSNBC:

“A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him “constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.””

Now once again, it may just be me, but is this not using the church as a political lever to control you political choice?  Now in both of these examples, the religious see no problem since they are just expressing their religious beliefs, right?  But the reality is they are not just expressing them, but they are trying to force them on the rest of us by the use of the voting box and religious pressure to get government to implement their religious agenda.  This to me is quite all right as long as we now recognize these institutions as political institutions and yank their tax-exempt status.  And that is why you are seeing the picketing of the Moron churches in California and Utah.  They are now fair game as political organizations that have a political agenda to force their beliefs on the rest of us just like any other political action group.

Finally, there is the case before the Supreme court (from Utah) about who can erect religious dogma monuments in a public place.  In a public park there is a monument to the Ten Commandments.  So a fruit loop group wants their own statue that reflects their rather out there views.  Of course the local government rejected them resulting in a free speech suit.  The problem is if you allow one, which one.  When you choose, government is in the business of promoting a certain religion. USA Today.  From my point of view fruit loop is in the eye of the beholder and as a government you either allow all, or you allow none.

If you think life begins at conception, don’t get an abortion, don’t use any advancement of science as a result of stem cell research, and don’t ever utilize artificial insemination to start a family, but don’t prevent others who don’t share your belief from sharing in these practices.  If you don’t approve of gay marriage, don’t marry a gay person, but don’t prevent others from finding a little happiness in their lives. If you want to promote religion or formal prayers in pubic schools, consider whose religion, whose prayer.   How hard is that?  Ah, but they have the only “revealed word” and they must enforce it on the rest of us.  Anybody ever wonder why there are so many different versions of the “revealed word”?

And that is when religion gets very dangerous.  We now have people in the political process who believe compromise is sin and their way is the only way.  Sounds pretty much like Republicans, except worse.