If you look at the course of western history, you'll see that we're slowly granting rights to everyone. A long time ago, kings had rights. Then rights were extended to property owning white men, then all men, then women, then children, then the mentally retarded. Now, we're agonizing over the extension of basic rights to homosexuals and animals. We need to finally accept that all sentient creatures are deserving of basic rights. I define basic rights as this- the ability to pursue life without having someone else's will involuntarily forced upon you, or, as the framers of the constitution put it, the ability to have "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".
By what criteria can you justify denying basic rights to any living things? Realize that by whatever criteria you employ, someone could deny basic rights to you if they objected to your species, sexual preferences, color, religion, ideology etc. Would you eat your housecat, or force a mentally retarded child to ingest oven cleaner? If not, then why is it okay to eat cows and test products on sentient animals? I believe that to knowingly commit actions that cause or condone suffering is reprehensible to the extreme. I call upon you to be compasionate and treat others as you want to be treated. If you don't want to be beaten, imprisoned, mutilated, killed, or tortured, then you shouldn't condone such behavior towards anyone, be they human or not.
Somehow, I've ended up on the mailing list of the Christian Coalition. I receive their fund raising letters fairly regularly, usually written by Pat Robertson. It's important to know your enemy, and I consider the far right Christian Coalition to be my enemy. Should I mince my words and try to be conciliatory? Maybe that would be diplomatic, but it would not be honest, the Christian right makes me sick and here's why...
1) They are dishonest. Masquerading pro-business, pro-greed, racist, sexist, homophobic bigotry under the banner of "Christianity" is disgusting. As far as I can tell, their agenda has nothing to do with the teachings of Christ, and as far as I can tell, the leaders of the Christian right only procliam theirselves as Christians because it is a politically expedient way to further their warped agenda. So, although they claim an interest in furthering and preserving "Christian culture", it is all just a ruse to restucture the world according to their narrow-minded social aesthetic and at the same time protect and increase their wealth.
2) They prey upon people's weakness. We live in very unstable times, socially and economically, many people are eager for some sense of stability and the Christian right preys upon this. Rather than encourage people to go forward with open minds and a compassionate approach, the Christian right urges its followers to scapegoat the easy victims and focus on trivial or irrelevant issues. How is fighting gay rights and blocking multicultural education going to benefit anybody or meet people's needs? The agenda of the Christian right is anachronistic and irrelevant and by forcing it upon the fearful and the unstable they are doing a great deal of harm.
3) They are shortsighted. One of the steps in dealing with any set of problems is prioritizing. You don't worry about fixing the gutters on your house if your house is on fire. Likewise, you don't worry about gays in the military or immigration when the basic environmental and existential needs of the people are not being met. People eat terrible food and lead miserable lives and breath carcinogenic air and drink polluted water. We are poisoning this planet and ourselves. If you were God, what would upset you more, bare breasts on t.v. or the destruction of healthy and beautiful eco-systems? I agree that people would be better off if they were more spiritual, but not in the capitalists/status-quo way that the Christian right promotes.
4) They tend to be hateful and judgemental, both of which are anathema to the teachings of Christ, Christ said quite specifically, "judge lest not you be judged". I challenge the Christian right to work out their own salvation in fear and trembling and not worry about the supposed sins of others. Hate, voilence, judgementalism, bigotry, homophobia, and misogyny are all ugly things. But, for me they're particularly ugly and upsetting when they're atteched to the name of Christ, whom I love. Humility is a healthy and wonderful thing and something that seems to be in short supply within the ranks of the christian right, Christ preached love and humility and compassion, not hate and judgementalism. My message to the Christian right would be to put aside any part of the ideology that is hateful or judgemental and go forth in a spirit of love and humility. If you're going to base your life on the teachings of Christ, then do so. So the world could use some true Christians, the world doesn't need any more hate and blame and violence, especially not in the name of Christ.
Very powerful words, and so true, IMO. The perfect example would be the preacher on television referring to Ellen Degeneres as "Ellen Degenerate" I can't believe that someone who proclaims themself to be a "man of Christ" would make such a statement. So much for Christian compassion...
You covered a lot of territory so I'll just ask one question from each of your points.
1) Why is a pro business attitude incompatible with Christianity? That would seem to imply that Christians can not start their own businesses and become employers. Malcom X said that Christianity was a slave religion and I guess you agree with him.
2) You say that the Christian Coalition preys upon people's weakness and desire for stability but in your next point you say that people's existential needs are not being met. I would suggest to you that Christians who are secure in their faith do not have an existential crisis.
3) I do not share your view that we are at the edge of environmental apocalypse. I guess when the big die off of the human race due to smog storms, environmental degradation and running out of resourses did not happen in the mid 80's as predicted by the Club of Rome, I kind of lost faith in the ecology doom sayers like Ted Kaczynski and Al Gore.
4) Jesus also said that if your hand was an occasion of sin
that you should cut it off and that anyone who harmed a
child should be pitched in the water with a millstone
around his neck. In other words, He is not an anything goes
kind of guy.
To the others who responded - I am so impressed with the number of open minded and thoughtful attitudes I have seen here under Jimbo's post. Too often, when religious topics come up, I expect to see the usual fire and brimstone that have dominated the board in the past. This is refreshing.
The latest problem I had with Pat Robertson was his position in the Karla Faye Tucker case.
It wasn't his position on the death penalty per se or his belief that she had reformed, but his insistance that KFT was derserving of a pardon because she had become a born-again Christian was over the line.
This doesn't square with any sense of equal protection --- or application --- under the law for non-Christians and any Christians who may not share the same views of Christianity or the Bible.
You also see this intolerant attitude among Catholics who protest the advances made by Vatican II and rail against the Pope meeting with leaders of other, non-Christian religions. One priest actually went on record as saying the greatest threat to Catholicism was Buddhism.
The way I look at it, despite their claims of an uninterupted two-thousand year "moral majority"; they admit they were wrong about the Crusades, Joan of Arc, Galileo, the Inquisition, Darwin, Facism and their own treatment of the Jews.
Hopefully one day the Vatican will realize that they "got it wrong" about gays, too.
Replies:that should read ''Fascism''...eom...Mitch
Replies:churches
Thanks..I'll check one out....T'K eom
If you like the ''Going to'' part of believing, try Unity Church or the Unitarian-Universalists