Oct 08 2008
Christians start your engines
I have been thinking about the subject matter for this blog for awhile now. It is not going to be popular and I will probably get crucified for it (sorry, couldn’t help myself) but here it goes.
Is the current warpath of conservative Christianity compatible with Americanism? How is it that you can exercise a freedom for yourself (of religion) and then demand that others lose theirs?
If marriage is to be a licensed institution then it needs to be offered to all people regardless of their sexual orientation. Anything less is discrimination. I hope that one day children will read history books in wonderment that this right was ever up for debate. Saying that gay marriage will degrade the “family” is ridiculous. By denying same sex partners the right to marry we are degrading thousands of families every day.
Abortion. I have recently been in a debate with a fellow blogger about this issue. His feeling is that abortion is a universal “secular sin” (his words, not mine). Let me just say look at the word secular, meaning not connected to religion and then let’s look again at that word sin. Hmmm…….if I am not connected to any religion, do I believe in sin? Probably not.
What I am getting at here in an unorganized fashion is that today’s Christians seem to feel that their only way to impact others is to legislate their own morality. This contradicts everything that this country was built on. If they cannot go to sleep at night knowing that the other citizens get to live with beliefs other than their own maybe they should start shopping for another country.
I don’t think that Jesus left Mary Magdalene and immediately sought for harsher legislation against prostitutions. He would have dined with anyone, embraced anyone. That was how he reached out to others, that is how he helped them. If the question truly is “What would Jesus do?” what are they doing?
You can’t place people in a tiny little box, shut the lid, and expect them to see the light. There are good Christians and bad Christians, just like there are good agnostics/atheists and bad ones. The problem that you addressed, the legislation of “morality”, is the crux of the problem. This is why a progressive agenda is a positive one. Joe Biden said that if you look at all of the countries and nation states ruled by theocracy, you’ll find that they still adhere to centuries old practices that prohibit the freedoms we take for granted. It is virtually impossible to hold the flag in one hand and the Bible in the other and not have a conflict of interest.
Cheers
I actually am a Christian, just not one that is going to demand that every person adhere to my beliefs (does that make me one of the good ones?). My problem is with fundamentalists, which can be dangerous in any religion.
I’ve found the best way to deal with people who want to turn their religious beliefs into law is to ask them if they would be willing to make X religous beliefs law. They almost always say no. When they say no point out that by opening the door to laws based on religion they are opening the door to another religion being the basis of law in the future. The laws of Rome changed with the religious fancy of the rulers…unless they want to one day be forced to worship a pink bunny because the ruling party wants them to, they should back off
good post. It really annoys me how (and I’m going to make a generalization here, but it’s backed up by plenty of people) the christian right gets all gung-ho about certain aspects of our society yet ignores others. Pro-lifers who support war and the death penalty, practicing discrimination against gays. I’ve always felt everyone has a right to believe what they want, but a little bit of consistency would be nice, ya know?
btw and completely unrelated one of the words I had to type in to approve the comment was LABORBOARDOFFERS - wtf?
It’s been my experience that the Christian Right is neither.
Off the bat, I just read you comment about the man at your office who died b/c he couldn’t afford treatment. I’m with you on that one in FULL.
To your point, I was the one who used “secular sin.” But I didn’t necessarily mean it in the Judeo-Christian sense. i meant to say it is what I believe to be a secular wronging in the case of stopping a healthy process, i.e., Pregnancy is not a sickness in any way. Second, you can’t ask a “potential” human life if i.t wants to live or die and that is why I’m pro-life… but not in any hateful way. I see the pro-choice point in not wanting to harm a child by birthing it without being ready and without resources available. It’s just an opinion. I don’t have any beef with ya.
http://waxingpoetically.today.com
http://artfromtheoutskirts.today.com
mikey- I understood what you meant, just thought that you used judeo-christian terminology to respond to a debate against imposing ones religious morality on other people and I chose to jump on it.
I don’t have anything against you either, nor do I have any problems with anyone that posts a contrary belief on my blog.
Lets agree to disagree on Abortion. That “healthy process” could turn out unhealthy for a mother and child especially when that child is unwanted. Have you had to look into the eyes of an abused child and send them home with a mother that clearly doesn’t deserve them? Why don’t we focus on fixing another ailing system called foster care and decide how to help these children instead.
Amen on that last comment.
I started to respond to your blog, then when I realized it was over 400 words long I decided it deserved a blog on its own!
Basically I wanted to say that the whole christian thing is being way overstated on this election. So many branches of christianity each believing slightly different things to the next, and two parties who both break the major commandments and so cancel each other out on the main things the christian left and right are flag waving about. 
I’m sure you wore your flame retartant clothing when posting it (as did I), but I thought it was a good post.
Your right about the focus needing to come away from these issues that will never be agreed upon, and look at things that are getting forgotten and which could be fixed if time wasn’t being wasted on the other stuff.