taking you from information to understanding
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taking you from information to understanding |
| if you want to voice your own opinion, please don't send me e-mail. Use the Messageboard instead. This way, everyone will be able to read what you have to say. |
| Introduction |
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-- Joseph Goebbels
Christian political extremists have many different organizations, but only one agenda. That agenda is to establish a christian fundamentalist theocracy in the United States. But you will not hear Gary Bauer or Pat Robertson admit to that on CNN. When they are on national television, Religious Right leaders exercise moderation and restraint. They pledge their "love" for the people they hate (=everyone who doesn't share their views), and their deep concern for this nation, and, invariably, "our" children (as if liberals did not have children). They monopolize the word "family", acting as if only extreme-right, fundamentalist christians can be good parents. They have the impudence to claim that they represent "Judeo-Christian" values, but they do not even represent mainstream christianity. They claim the exclusive monopoly on morality - their own very special brand of "morality". They glorify the "golden 50's", a time when the US were supposedly a "moral" nation. But the truth is that the 1950s were a deeply immoral time. Institutionalized racism, discrimination of women and gays, rampant abuse of wiretapping powers by the FBI and witchhunts against political dissidents were only some of the hallmarks of that "moral" time. Those social ills were finally adressed in the 1960s. But for those who define morality not by "justice and equality for all", but by what is going on in our bedrooms, the 60's mark the begining of the "moral decay" of our nation. According to Pat Robertson, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, inflation, the oil crisis, Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis, the attempted Reagan assassination, the national debt, drug use and the high divorce rates are directly related to the 60's decisions of the Supreme Court to end religious coercion in public schools. source These are the kinds message they have hammered into the minds of the people for two decades, and it is working. An increasing segment of the population is buying into the "moral decay" lie and supports legislation and constitutional amendments that would forever take away the civil liberties that we take for granted. Never mind that many of the social problems that fuel such sentiments, such as youth violence and crime, are exacerbated or even created by right-wing obstructionist policies, designed by Religious Right leaders and their political minions to make sure their own predictions of gloom and doom come true. First block any meaningful reform in the legislatures, than blame the resulting problems on "lack of moral values". The Religious Right's campaign against public education is just one example of that destructive, cynical strategy. In implementing that strategy, christian extremists know no shame. They aggressively blamed liberal values (= lack of values) for the Columbine massacre, as if Littleton, CO wasn't an affluent, conservative community with a disproportionately high number of evangelical christians! It happened right in James Dobson's back yard, but they have the impudence to blame liberals for it. Religious Right leaders make no secret of their utter contempt for the constitution and the freedoms it represents. When Phyllis Schlafly makes her hysterical pleas for "no more Clinton judges", what else is she but saying that the US constitution (which gives the president the right to appoint judges) has no meaning to her? What else is Pat Robertson but an enemy of the constitution when he calls for the impeachment of every judge who disagree with his agenda? What could be more unconstitutional than Gary Bauer's presidential campaign promise to permit state facilities to post the ten commandments? Exposing these people as enemies of constitutional freedoms is easier than taking candy from a baby, but the "liberal" mass media - which are many things, but certainly not liberal - usually shy away from the task. These "liberal" media never expose the hypocrisy of the Religious Right, and the highly selective reading of religious scripture that is behind most of its ideologies. Not that that would be hard - ever wondered why Jerry Falwell is not wearing a beard (Lev. 19[27])? Ever wondered why Pat Robertson is not giving away his millions to the poor (Matt 19 [23-24])? Many other Religious-Right myths just beg to be challenged: Premarital sex is against christian values? Not according to the bible, which condems adultery, but not sex between two people who are both unmarried (see the responses page for a dissenting viewpoint, and this for an excellent rebuttal. ) Abortion is murder? Not according to Exodus 21 [22], which considers killing a fetus only a minor misdemeanor (reference). Homosexuality condemned by "millenia of moral teaching"? Pure fiction. The ancient Greek and Roman civilizations considered homosexuality perfectly normal, so normal that in fact they did not even have a word for it. Many native societies considered it normal and acceptable as well. And even in the Christian world, there was never a universal agreement that homosexuality was wrong. In the words of Ken Collins: Some modern Christian teachers allege that the church has officially considered homosexuality to be morally wrong, but that long dogmatic tradition doesn't extend much farther back than the 1960s, and even then only in certain sects. For example, the current edition of the United Methodist Book of Discipline has a lot to say about homosexuality, but the topic doesn't even appear in 1965 edition or in any earlier edition of the same book. If this is such an important historic dogma of the Christian Church, we might reasonably ask why it is not listed as such in historical documents. We might ask, 'Why were the seven ecumenical councils silent on this topic?' Historically, there has always been a debate among Christians on this topic, and the categorical judgments against gays are recent, not ancient. I would add that even if such universal and long-standing condemnation existed, it would be irrelevant, considering the many grave errors in moral judgement that Christians commited throughout the centuries, of which approval and defense of slavery is only one example. The United States of America: A Christian Nation?When the US House recently passed the "Defense of the Ten Commandments" amendment to the juvenile justice bill, the supporters of the bill reiterated the christian-right mantra that the USA is a Christian Nation, and that our legal system is founded on the Christian Bible. In a press conference attended by Gary Bauer, Rep. Robert Aderholt (R, Alabama), the sponsor of the amendment, said: "The Ten Commandments represent the very cornerstone of the values this nation was built upon, and the basis of our legal system here in America". I challenge everyone who subcribes to this belief to tell me where the Ten Commandments speak of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the form of government, free elections, separation of powers, checks and balances, separation of church and state, and virtually everything else that defines our system of government. The fact is that the very first commandment ("I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me") runs contrary to the establishment clause of the Bill of Rights and is nothing but a sectarian claim to religious supremacy. The fact is that the principles of modern democracy were not laid out in the bible, but by political philosophers such as John Locke in the 17th century. The fact is that our legal system is rooted in the common law of ancient Rome, not in the capriciousness of biblical authoritarianism. Ever wondered why good law schools require reading knowledge of latin, not greek or hebrew? That's why. The fact is that societies in the Mediterranean and the Middle East had highly developed legal systems millenia before Christians walked on the face of the earth. As far as moral or secular law is concerned, there is nothing original or unique about the ten commandments. Why not post the holy laws of all the other religions in public spaces as well?Read this article for an excellent rebuttal of the arguments behind the radical right campaign to impose an ancient Hebrew tribal code on modern society. I also recommend Is America a Christian Nation? by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a short, but excellent article which debunks common Religious Right arguments that supposedly show that the United States were founded as a Christian nation.
I have created this site to contribute my own small part in the fight against the Religious Right agenda. I don't want to live in a "Christian Iran", and I'm sure most people don't either.
If you have comments or criticism, or you discover factual inaccuracies, feel free to send me an email.
As President, I will oppose the political agenda of the organized "gay rights" movement, including same-sex marriage and "special rights" legislation, permit voluntary prayer in public schools, protect religious freedoms and pass federal legislation to permit state facilities to post the Ten Commandments. Gary Bauer on his presidential campaign 2000 website Gary Bauer apparently was too cheap to keep his domain for another 2 years, because going to Bauer2k.com now redirects you to a celebrity porn site. "I am sure that only a Christian-controlled country is going to be able to stand up to the impending threat and avert the approaching disaster that our nation is facing." Rev. D. James Kennedy, president of the Center for Reclaiming America "When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. `What do you mean?' the media challenged me. `You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?' My simple answer is, `Yes, they are.'" Pat Robertson, in his book The New World Order "Those who practice homosexuality should swiftly be put to death by the government. God emphatically condemns the practice of exchanging proper gender characteristics among men and women. God justly calls for the death-penalty for anyone who practices homosexuality. " Citizens for the Ten Commandments "The perversion that follows homosexuality is bestiality and then human sacrifice and cannibalism." (Barbara Blewster, a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and the Arizona State Legislature)
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