Thursday, December 4th, 2008 |
I am for gay marriage. You may not be, and I’d like to know why. For now, I’m focusing on the “Christian response”.
Can a Christian who is against gay marriage answer the question below?
Working under the assumption that gays should not be allowed the legal right to marry because the Christian God of the bible does not approve of that marriage, why is it that the legal right to marry is granted to all other non-Christians or other “immoral” people such as Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, alcoholics, drug-users, the mentally insane, child abusers, KKK members, neo-Nazis,the severely uneducated or illiterate, the violent, or the suicidal? Does the Christian God of the bible approve of those marriages?
Indeed, most of those people are not only granted the legal right to marry, they are also permitted the right to raise children.
(via Tim Ponce (Missouri))
Please answer the question directly using a template like:
“Unlike those other groups, gays do not deserve the legal right to marry because…”
Keep it polite and please – no personal attacks. Let’s have some positive, intelligent discourse on this subject. I am honestly interested in what the Christian argument would be in response to the question I have posed above.
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
Saturday, January 5th, 2008 |
Arthur Miller recently said, “The religious overlay of patriotism is in fashion,” and I believe this to be absolutely true.
The evidence is clear going back to at least 1988 when George (H.W.) Bush stated that he didn’t believe atheists should be considered as patriots or as citizens. This seems to be the vocal beginnings of what I call ’sacred patriotism.’ It certainly seems as though the politico-religious fervent of America claim a sole right to patriotism. It may not be blatant or in your face all the time, but it exists.
“In the U.S., no public figure and certainly no one who wishes to enjoy popularity as a politician could risk it being said that he was a disbeliever. This would very nearly be political suicide.” – Johnathan Miller
Never has the sense of sacred patriotism been more present than in the current presidential race of 2008 where Huckabee and Obama have emerged as the front-runners for their respective parties. As David Domke and Kevin Coe explain, The God Strategy works. (If you want to find out more, they recently published a book on the subject.)
I’d like to remind people that our country was founded by people who were escaping domination from what was basically a governmental religion. They came here to breathe the free air and not have to obey a church. George Washington was a very unenthusiastic churchgoer. The presidents who followed him were considerably less than devout.
You can see their desire for separation …
“God is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.”
– John Adams (quoted from Ira D Cardiff’s What Great Men Think of Religion. According to Cardiff, “this awful blasphemy” that Adams refers to is the myth of the Incarnation of Christ.)
The clergy [...] believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.”
- Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800)
I have seldom met an intelligent person whose views were not narrowed and distorted by religion.”
- James Buchanan
Source:from Rufus K. Noyes, Views of Religion
“My earlier views at the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them” – Abraham Lincoln
Given the beginnings of our nation, it’s surprising that we have made such a departure from those ideals about the separation of religion from politics. With the standard set by George Bush Sr., and his belief that religion is a prerequisite for patriotism, it would be very doubtful if any of these great presidents I quoted above would have been considered for the presidency, much less voted into office today. None of those great presidents would have been given a voice at all to speak.
With this trend of sacred patriotism, I should feel uncomfortable here as an Atheist, but I don’t. Fortunately, the majority of Christians in this country aren’t radically fundamental. That doesn’t mean we can rest. We need to disconnect politics from the grasp of organized religion and move towards progress.
Another reason we can’t rest? H. res. 888 is up for a vote soon. It further blurs the line between religion and politics. read here for more. If this gets voted in, we’re one step closer to a Theocracy.
Posted in Politics | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 |
I’ve called this part 1, because I envision many posts on this subject.
In it’s latest nationwide survey of religion and politics, the Pew Research Center uncovered how polarized the public is with regard to opinions on religion. Their research finds that most Americans (59%) say that religion’s influence on the country is on the decline, and most of those who express that view think this is a bad thing. To me, this is telling. It says that the U.S. populace wants more involvement from the religious. The public is more divided on the question of whether religion’s influence on government is increasing (42%) or decreasing (45%). Most of those who think that religion is increasing its influence on government leaders and institutions view this as a bad thing.
Regarding faith, 62% of white evangelicals say the Bible is the actual word of God, to be taken literally, while only 35% of the public (including 24% of Catholics and 17% of white mainline Protestants) share this literal view of the scriptures, with most believing that although the Bible is God’s word, not everything in it is literally true.
Tension in the public’s views of science and religion, especially in opinions about evolution and the origins of life, are still present. However, there is broad agreement across the religious spectrum that scientific advances will help rather than harm mankind. Nearly two-thirds of all Americans (65%) express a positive opinion of scientific advances, compared with 19% who feel such advances harm mankind. With that much of an approval rating for scientific advancements, it is hard to understand why they find such stiff opposition when it comes time to vote for bills that would fund further projects in those fields of science. I can only surmise that this means there exists a percentage of people who are favorable towards scientific advancements still reject them on same basis due to their ideas of morality.
With numbers like these, it’s apparent why political leaders, and presidential candidates would want to cast themselves as religiously pious as possible.
I’d like to see our government make a commitment to separate religion from politics, but when so much of the voter base is religious, and the government IS the people, what more can be said against religion in the political realm?
Image Credit: Pew Research Center
Research Statics by:
PEW RESEARCH CENTER FOR THE PEOPLE & THE PRESS
AND PEW FORUM ON RELIGION & PUBLIC LIFE
JULY 2006 RELIGION AND PUBLIC LIFE SURVEY
July 6-19, 2006
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
The Evasion-English Dictionary
