A Dangerous Ascendancy: The Religious Right In Modern America
So this Terri Schiavo thing really got me mad while it happened. Not only because of what the out-of-control Republican congress did, but also because of the fact that a personal tragedy was promptly turned into a national spectacle. This didn't have to happen - and the ensuing controversy was largely unnecessary. But this country cannot truly be free if the Religious Right is to attain power as it is currently attempting (almost successfully) to do. Now, this is how I see it: The people in the Religious Right (or as Randi Rhodes would say, the Religious Wrong) have the perfect right to be twisted, loony neoconservatives who believe that Islam is "satanic" and that America needs to be saved from itself. They have the right to believe that - but what they do not have the right to do is to impose their will and their values on the rest of the American people.
I will not be hesitant in admitting that I am a proud member of the reality-based community, that I am a liberal, that I reside in a blue state. I will be just as passionnate as the Religious Right - and I will not, above all, permit a double standard. The Religious Right can try to push me around as much as possible, but when I fire back - that must go unchallenged from my side. Now, anyways, as I was saying about the Schiavo case. The really sad thing is that we had these loony radical conservatives (radcons) who actually are so caught up in their own theology that they had the audacity to say that Schiavo could recover, that she could do well with speech therapy, that she was minimally conscious, etc. Well, those were all lies. It is the plain and simple truth that the Religious Right outright lied to the country for two straight weeks. Now, I'm not at all surprised, because the Religious Right tends to do a lot of lying. But they refuse to face medical evidence and pure fact. Apparently, they do not seem to understand the fact that you do not regrow a brain. They refuse to accept the fact that once you are in a permanent vegitative state, you are basically dead. They still refuse to understand, mainly, that people have the right to die.
Of course, its all based on ridiculous theology and sacrements, etc. Since the Christian conservatives all believe that all life is sacred, they went so far as to say that the death of Terry Schiavo was "murder" and "sanctioned killing." How utterly ridiculous! Abominable, I tell you. Murder is deliberately inflicted *pain* on someone in order to force their death - but in the state that Schiavo was in, she didn't feel pain in death. She was not conscious enough to have any sense of pain or discomfort! Of course, the loonies over at the Religious Right will do absolutely *anything* to spin the country into buying into their own agenda. Let's face it - that is really the only aim of the Religious Right, and it is what they do best (unfortunately). The Christian conservatives will not let the rest of the country believe what they want to believe - there is no right to believe anything other than a deeply twisted version of Christianity, according to them. That is supremely scary - the encroachment upon the freedom of religion, and the freedom from religion as well.
What is even more ridiculous is the fact that these people have elected congressional leaders who are right in bed with this terribly reactionary agenda. Tom Delay, the rapist of ethics, only so boldly and clearly illustrated this when he said that "the men who allowed [Schiavo's death] will pay." I think that those are pretty threatening comments, do you agree? Well, people like DeLay, Bush, Frist, etc. are among the most dangerous when it comes to the right-wing Christian agenda. Of course, absolutely no one in America seems to understand this, as they just keep voting against their self-interests. DeLay was actually the one who suggested that Schiavo would recover with speech therapy - and to me that is purely insulting, as well as his claim that Congress will be confronting an "arrogant, reckless, and out-of-control judiciary". Well I guess he means a judiciary that is *enforcing* the law! Then the Christian agenda also has Randall Terry - another freakoid - on their side. In my personal opinion, I think that his comments were among the most disturbing:
These religious fundies do not realize their arrogance (and ignorance). The now-infamous post-election headline in The Daily Mirror serves to show it -- how can 59,000,000 people be so stupid? Well, its because they don't *want* to hear anything other than their own agenda. Conservative and close-minded, I know, but it is the unfortunate truth. All they'd really like is to overthrow the judiciary and convert this country into a true Christian theocracy. At the rate they're going now, it is scarily a de facto theocracy. This is one of the things that secularists *must* rail against, at all costs. It is not worth moving to the center of the Democratic party in order to calm these people down - because in fact, they really never will. That's how far to the right - how far out of the mainstream - they are. And I really believe that it is time for the Democrats to start waking up and realizing that the Religious Right still constitutes a minority faction in this country! Until *someone* realizes this, the ascendancy of the Religious Right and their anti-constitutionalist agenda is only going to continue. And it is most saddening to me and millions of my fellow Americans.
I will not be hesitant in admitting that I am a proud member of the reality-based community, that I am a liberal, that I reside in a blue state. I will be just as passionnate as the Religious Right - and I will not, above all, permit a double standard. The Religious Right can try to push me around as much as possible, but when I fire back - that must go unchallenged from my side. Now, anyways, as I was saying about the Schiavo case. The really sad thing is that we had these loony radical conservatives (radcons) who actually are so caught up in their own theology that they had the audacity to say that Schiavo could recover, that she could do well with speech therapy, that she was minimally conscious, etc. Well, those were all lies. It is the plain and simple truth that the Religious Right outright lied to the country for two straight weeks. Now, I'm not at all surprised, because the Religious Right tends to do a lot of lying. But they refuse to face medical evidence and pure fact. Apparently, they do not seem to understand the fact that you do not regrow a brain. They refuse to accept the fact that once you are in a permanent vegitative state, you are basically dead. They still refuse to understand, mainly, that people have the right to die.
Of course, its all based on ridiculous theology and sacrements, etc. Since the Christian conservatives all believe that all life is sacred, they went so far as to say that the death of Terry Schiavo was "murder" and "sanctioned killing." How utterly ridiculous! Abominable, I tell you. Murder is deliberately inflicted *pain* on someone in order to force their death - but in the state that Schiavo was in, she didn't feel pain in death. She was not conscious enough to have any sense of pain or discomfort! Of course, the loonies over at the Religious Right will do absolutely *anything* to spin the country into buying into their own agenda. Let's face it - that is really the only aim of the Religious Right, and it is what they do best (unfortunately). The Christian conservatives will not let the rest of the country believe what they want to believe - there is no right to believe anything other than a deeply twisted version of Christianity, according to them. That is supremely scary - the encroachment upon the freedom of religion, and the freedom from religion as well.
What is even more ridiculous is the fact that these people have elected congressional leaders who are right in bed with this terribly reactionary agenda. Tom Delay, the rapist of ethics, only so boldly and clearly illustrated this when he said that "the men who allowed [Schiavo's death] will pay." I think that those are pretty threatening comments, do you agree? Well, people like DeLay, Bush, Frist, etc. are among the most dangerous when it comes to the right-wing Christian agenda. Of course, absolutely no one in America seems to understand this, as they just keep voting against their self-interests. DeLay was actually the one who suggested that Schiavo would recover with speech therapy - and to me that is purely insulting, as well as his claim that Congress will be confronting an "arrogant, reckless, and out-of-control judiciary". Well I guess he means a judiciary that is *enforcing* the law! Then the Christian agenda also has Randall Terry - another freakoid - on their side. In my personal opinion, I think that his comments were among the most disturbing:
We've seen the Pledge of Allegiance under attack because of 'under God', the Ten Commandments have been removed from the public square, homosexual marriage has been created out of nowhere, and it is time for America to tell the judiciary: No. No more.
Okay...so apparently, he is not for the total seperation of church and state, given his comments. He apparently is a gay-basher, discriminatory and probably racist as well towards other minorities, but on top of all of that...he clearly does not want the law of the land to be enforced. Since he claims that the judiciary needs to be put in its place by an angry Christian citizenry upset with the current status quo, it is more than obvious that he does not want to uphold the rule of law in a secular society. Rather, Randall Terry and his flock of 4 million evangelicals would prefer the "Christian nation in a war with Satan" version, put forth by General William Boyken. The fact is that the Religious Right is one of the most potent and dangerous forces ever to confront this country and this society. Freedom of belief is a granted right, yes - but there is no freedom written in the Constitution that gives people of a specific creed or belief system the right to impose *their* will on others who do not wish the intrusion upon themselves. I find it even more disturbing that many Washington politicians are pandering to these people, but hey, that's why they are there.
These religious fundies do not realize their arrogance (and ignorance). The now-infamous post-election headline in The Daily Mirror serves to show it -- how can 59,000,000 people be so stupid? Well, its because they don't *want* to hear anything other than their own agenda. Conservative and close-minded, I know, but it is the unfortunate truth. All they'd really like is to overthrow the judiciary and convert this country into a true Christian theocracy. At the rate they're going now, it is scarily a de facto theocracy. This is one of the things that secularists *must* rail against, at all costs. It is not worth moving to the center of the Democratic party in order to calm these people down - because in fact, they really never will. That's how far to the right - how far out of the mainstream - they are. And I really believe that it is time for the Democrats to start waking up and realizing that the Religious Right still constitutes a minority faction in this country! Until *someone* realizes this, the ascendancy of the Religious Right and their anti-constitutionalist agenda is only going to continue. And it is most saddening to me and millions of my fellow Americans.
posted by Terramax721 at 10:20 PM
1 Comments:
"I will be just as passionnate as the Religious Right - and I will not, above all, permit a double standard. The Religious Right can try to push me around as much as possible, but when I fire back - that must go unchallenged from my side."
Not to be too much of a critic, but I must confess I don't really know what point you're making here :-\
"The really sad thing is that we had these loony radical conservatives (radcons) ..."
Hahaha radcons is a terrific neol, and it's exactly parallel to radiclib (it has an entry at Wikipedia). Paradoxically, though, the act of calling someone you fear a "radical" is something that *conservatives* primarily do ... hmm ...
"[Terri Schiavo rant]"
I tend to approach this issue from a different perspective. Assuming that the judicial system based on a jury of one's peers, etc., works (and I think in the vast majority of cases it does), then if the courts repeatedly found Schiavo's husband not guilty of any abuse or other activities that might constitute a conflict of interest, next-of-kin law should apply and he should have the right to determine his wife's fate (after all, when people become adults, it's understood that they exit the custody of their parents or guardians). Because this verdict is exactly what the courts found, then I think Schiavo should have been allowed to die with dignity; however, I think it must be brutal for a patient's family to watch her starve to a skeleton, and therefore painless euthanasia by injection ought to be legalized in this case and others. Needless to say, I am appalled by the religious right's attempt to use this case as an excuse for the fundie-dominated legislative branch to be able to boss around the judiciary, because obviously, breaking down the barriers separating Baron de Montesquieu's three branches of government is a direct path to tyranny. Given Bush's record of killing 154,500 people in his profit- and hegemony-oriented invasion of Iraq as well as the Advance Directives Act he signed in Texas that allows the plug to be pulled on patients who cannot pony up enough cash to continue being supported, it's sickeningly obvious that Bush would completely dismiss this case if he weren't able to use it as a political tool to win continued backing from the backwards fundies.
"[In this section I'm responding to Randall Terry's antidemocratic Christian supremacist hogwash in the case that his sympathizers see nothing wrong with his remarks.] We've seen the Pledge of Allegiance under attack because of 'under God' ..."
Because of this little thing called the First Amendment that states Congress cannot make laws involving religion, and for the government to issue an oath of fidelity openly espousing theism would be in violation of this amendment, which was written so that the U.S. could avoid the horrendous apartheid, persecution, and human-rights abuses that automatically follow from theocracy.
"the Ten Commandments have been removed from the public square" ...
That's public *property*. For a courthouse to display the Commandments is even worse than the "under God" case, because any party entering the building is blatantly told that their government wants them to "worship no other gods besides me," etc. It's sickening. How on Earth is an atheist, a pagan, or a Hindu to expect fair treatment in a court of law with such a medieval display? Theocracy is *out* ... in the civilized world, that is.
"homosexual marriage has been created out of nowhere" ...
It's called equal rights. Government cannot deny a right to a person when such a right would neither infringe on the rights of someone else nor cause undue harm to society (I added the last bit because my strong social liberalism has a leftist bent: I oppose prostitution because it's extremely destructive to social equity, but that's another topic). Homosexual marriage does neither of these things. Plus, if you don't want an argument from rights, just think of it in terms of common sense and parallelism: we don't deny coed couples the right to marry, so why should we deny it to same-sex couples? It's inconsistent.
"and it is time for America to tell the judiciary: No. No more."
In other words, people unhappy with the law should be able to disregard it without going through the time-consuming process of changing the law in accordance with the principles of democracy and human rights. The thieves and murderers will keep that in mind the next time you try to sue them for attempted robbery and murder: "And it is time for America to tell the judiciary: No. No more." *criminal skips off scot-free*
"At the rate they're going now, it is scarily a de facto theocracy."
A good example of this fact (and nice that you used de facto, I say it all the time) is that whenever I complain about Stuyvesant, my mom harshly reminds me (translated from Spanish), "In other states, they would teach you Creationism." What a sad state of affairs that *not* having religious dogma stuffed down our throats at school is a privilege in this country, not a right.
If a country's status quo is a good indicator of the principles it was founded on, then the principles the U.S. was founded on are going to need some serious defending whenever an American converses with a foreigner, because it's hard to believe pure ideas like religious tolerance and representative government could translate into the opinions of people like this Randall Terry being taken seriously. Oy vey.
Post a Comment
<< Home