Lawmaking and Religion
The current set of politicians (from all parties, but mostly Republicans) are scaring the living shit out of me. At first I was just amused at the ramblings of the tea baggers and others. It was kinda cute that Sarah Palin thought she could see Russia from her house, but now it seems that some are thinking Rick Santorum has a real chance of being nominated by the Republicans to run for President.
There is a Republican in Indiana that thinks that Girl Scouts sell cookies, lesbian sex, abortion and communism. The Republican controlled Senate in Oklahoma wants to give the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents” to a Zygote (fertilized egg); while, at the same time, withholding the right of marriage to gays.
Virginia has a Republican sponsored bill before it that would require doctors to perform a medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound on individuals seeking an abortion even for nonsurgical, noninvasive, pharmaceutical abortions. The woman doesn’t have to look at the image, but they would have to undergo the procedure regardless.
What happened to the Republicans that wanted "the government" out of our lives? How is the government taking control of a women’s body going to shrink the size of government? How is preventing loving gays from marrying adding jobs to the workplace?
Now my rant – Religion should GET THE HELL OUT OF LEGISLATION! The legal system needs to be secular, not religion based. Laws need to be just and fair for all! The USA is made up of many religions, ethnic backgrounds and more than one sexual orientation. Religious zealots should not be allowed to control someone else’s life in any fashion. They should be free to worship and behave in a manner stricter than the laws, but should never be allowed to tell me how to behave beyond secular, rational guidelines.
If a pair of consenting adults wants to get married, then let them. If your church doesn’t want to officiate over their marriage, then don’t. But don’t outlaw it in total. And don’t even think of starting the argument that this will lead to bestiality – that doesn’t involve two consenting adults. And who decided that a bunch of old men (Catholic Bishops, the Pope, the Ayatollah, Focus on the Family and Rabbinical Councils) should decide what women can and can’t do with their own bodies.
I cannot think of a better closing statement to this discussion then that of President Obama in a 2006 speech delivered at the Call to Renewal conference, then Senator Obama offered these thoughts on the relationship between politics and religion:
Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values.It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason. I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.
Nancy and Barry in Mérida 
Hear! Hear!
Thanks for the bold words Barry – well said.
You might enjoy reading the weekly commentary by James Kunstler – http://www.kunstler.com . His Feb 20th rant is sort of along the same lines…
Excellent!! Get your religion out of my bedroom and my body! Freedom FROM religion is as important as freedom of religion.
The founders wanted a separation between church and state ~ something the Republicans are eager to do away with ~ primarily because they were aware of the corrupting influence that great power and money could have on a democracy. Then it was the church. Now it’s our corporatocracy.
Corporate power and influence run unchecked and our plutocrats are worshiped as if they’d descended from the right hand of God himself. We even have a special language reserved just for them: they’re “job creators,” “producers,” the great benefactors of all of us noncontributing little people.
The US is doomed if we continue to hand over our government to a select few able to buy the government that benefits them. They manage this by keeping all us ordinary folk upset and squabbling about the little things while they’re looting the treasury, ensuring that every policy that does get out of our hopelessly corrupt Congress benefits only them, and by using the always effective cudgel of religion as a wedge between us all.
Still, birth control? Seriously? And state-sanctioned rape-by-penetration? If we’d all mind our OWN business, the world would be a better place. Who my neighbor marries is not my business. Gay marriage has been legal now for years and years … is that what’s destroying our country? Hardly. But it is enough of a distraction that most people miss what’s really going on.
Sorry so gloomy. Nice post. 🙂
Hmmmmmmmmmm, Senator Zahn! Has a nice ring to it, rolls off the tongue without difficulty, hmmmmmmmmm, I’m gonna start makin’ posters! Give em’ hell Oso!!!!!
I liked your post!!
A lot.
Thanks!!
Barry…very well put. Thanks.
Thank you for stating this so clearly and definitively!
Barry, it appears that here in Virginia the governor has backed away from the ultrasound bill due to the overwhelming national outcry. He fears that signing such a bill would end his dream of a Vice-Presidential nomination.
Sadly, I’ve come to the realization that intelligent, rational and reasonable discourse has all but disappeared from US politics.
(As a side note, I have heard that Thomas Jefferson believed that the Bill of Rights would never have been passed if there had been debate. Instead, they were passed quickly to satisfy the masses. According to TJ, not all of the founding fathers believed in the separation of church and state or the right to freedom of speech. Interesting that we give them all the credit when it was the citizens who demanded these rights.)
Now is the time for reasonable people to speak out.
Thanks for the post.
i agree Barry. Rant on!
Barry, Lynette,
Wow! Powerful post; great comment.
Ben Franklin said we had been given a republic, if we can but retain it. Well, we’ve lost it. It is now owned by the ultra wealthy, sold to the highest bidders. Tyranny is rearing its ugly head, epitomized by Lt John Pike pepper spraying seated, peaceful demonstrators. Free speech is gone, unless you are a card carrying member of CITIZENS UNITED COUNTRY CLUB.
The founders protected the church FROM the state because they knew that religion had done much to civilize the world. But today the “protection” needs some serious adjustment, as it is now the religionistas who are the scary zealots who seek to become American ayatolas. The state now needs protection from them, and it must come from the citizenry.
But we need to remember that Obama has not come anywhere near delivering “change we can believe in.” Rather, he has pandered to the wealthy, playing “good cop, bad cop” with his fellow whores on the other side of the isle. WE (“the people’) NEED A VIABLE THIRD PARTY. It is the only way to take back the game.
~eric.
Check this out on NPR, 2/24 “HOW LAWMAKERS LOST THEIR SHAME”
1. Defining life as beginning at ejaculation.
2. Require that men get a rectal examine before being prescribed for erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra.
Gotta admit that politics does have entertainment value!
~eric.
Thanks, Barry!
And what’s even more scary is that the USA doesn’t have the corner on this mindset… here in Mexico, many in the PAN embrace these same sentiments. These old boys are using fear as their arch-weapon. They have the majority of the population so terrified of change that they will sit quietly by and allow these manipulative old men take away our freedoms one by one, and redefine the Constitutions (of more than one country) to suit their corporate, right wing ideals. And even more terrifying is that they will have their way if we don’t stand up and stop them… good for you Barry for giving us some food for thought
“Amen”, “Hallelujah”, “God Bless You”, and all that (although I’m not the least bit religious.) Thanks for that, Barry, and especially for the Obama quote.