Saturday, February 18, 2012

Religion In Politics And God Help Us All

Religion.  If you asked ten different people to define religion, you might very well get ten different answers. "The eye of the beholder" is certainly in play when it comes to how people view religion. Religious faith is not bad or evil, and in fact is a guiding principal for many good and decent people who live their lives dedicated to fairness, honesty and helping others in need. I have no quarrel with people who are guided by religion to live their lives in that manner. I also have no quarrel with people who have no religious faith, but still live good, decent, and honest lives, as there are also many of those people in our country. Religious faith is not a prerequisite to being a good person, and never has been.

However, (you just knew there was a however coming, didn't you) religion in the United States has an ugly, dark and quite destructive side, which seems to be growing more dangerous each year. There is a segment of religion that seems not only to know how to live there lives, but are also convinced they know best how the rest of us should live our lives, as well.  Call them the religious right, the Tea Party, hard liners....whatever you like, the end result is the same.

The Republican party candidates for president are falling all over themselves to prove that each of them is a religious zealot more dedicated to moral(?) values than the next one. With a bible in one hand and a bolt of lightening given to them by god in the other, each of these people feels they must champion every religious dogma precept of how each citizen of our country should live.

These candidates, as an example, are quick to jump on the bandwagon that says marriage is only to be sanctioned between a man and a woman, and its main purpose is procreation. Really? Does this mean that a married couple that decides not to have children, has less of a marriage than those that do? They proclaim that gay marriage is a great threat to traditional marriage. Silly me, and here I thought divorce was the greatest threat to marriage, as fifty percent of all marriages end up that way. These doom's day marriage prophets also tell me that my marriage is somehow threatened if two men or two women get married. How this threatens my marriage, or anyone else's, is a total mystery to me. Am I to announce to my startled wife some day, "Honey, Bob and Ted, were just married and moved in down the block, so I'm afraid our marriage is over." What utter nonsense. If Bob and Ted love each other, they have as much right to get married as anyone else, and it is no one else's business if they do. Finally, these misguided candidates and their followers are hell bent on passing national laws that prohibit gay marriage. Fortunately, I live in Washington State, which this week became the seventh state to formally legalize gay marriage. Yes, our weather may get us wet enough to rust, but the thinking of the majority in this state is fair and just.

Birth control is another hot button for the religious right kooks who want to define our nation's direction. They don't want it and God forbid (no pun intended) that medical insurance pay for it, or that hospitals dispense it. One only need look at all the unloved and un-cared for children in our nation (and the world) to understand the real need for giving people the choice of birth control. In fact, a survey of Catholic women showed that the vast majority are in favor of birth control, and a majority of those in their child bearing years use some form of it. Sorry Vatican, but even your own people don't agree with you. Birth control should be a choice, without undue pressure (either way) from outside sources.

Abortion? Oh boy, the hard right religious folks go nuts over that one. Yes, without question, an abortion is a tough choice for any women. Should they or shouldn't they is not a question I can answer, nor is it a question the nay saying religious right people can answer. Only the woman can answer that question for herself after receiving all the information and counseling from the sources she chooses, and no advice or pressure from those sources she doesn't choose. It is her choice, her body, and non of our damned business. Pro-choice doesn't always mean abortion. It simply means what it says, with the key word being choice.

The religious right wants desperately to run our lives. Hey, some moral values and a little guidance....what could be the harm in that? Plenty! For proof, take a look at those Middle Eastern countries where Islam runs the government. Religious police roam the streets so that a man and woman do not hold hands, kiss, or show any form of affection towards one another. TV content is tightly censored, Gays can be jailed or worse, women are not looked upon as the equal of a man, and Islamic courts and Islamic law take precedent over civil courts and civil law. No, we do not have those conditions in our country, but "give them an inch and they will take a mile" holds true here, and religious right oppression must be opposed at ever turn so that we never experience those conditions, or any that even come close.

The constitution gives us a guarantee of religious freedom. That means a person is free to follow any religion they wish in their personal lives, or no religion at all. It can be Christian, Muslim (without the draconian laws of some of the Middle Eastern countries), Buddhist, any other faith, or no faith at all. As long as we obey the laws of the land, religious faith, or lack of same, is (like abortion) our individual choice and not the business, or responsibility of anyone else.

It seems quite strange to me that the Tea Party is forever saying they want the government out of their lives. Yet, many of these same folk are only too quick to want the government to ban for all of us anything they deem is wrong. They also claim that each life, including the unborn, is precious, but seem to think that arming each citizen with enough fire power to kill dozens is OK. They are indeed speaking out of both sides of their mouth (although I suppose they speak more out of the right side than they do the left).

Please understand, I am not an anti-religious faith person by any stretch of the imagination.  My wife belongs to a Christian faith church, in which many of it's members have become friends of mine. The majority of the members of that church believe that religion should keep out of government and government should keep out of religion.  Amen to that, brother!

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