Claims Continue that Religion is Societal Asset not a Flaw


When non-believers attack religion the response is, "It gives us our national values" or "It brings us together" or "We'd would have no hospitals." The founding fathers, even those that appear as not religious, said religion keeps people united. Any number of kings and dictators have embraced religion for this very reason, it makes a country more governable easier to stay in power. The link is a modern version of this old argument. It says religion, now it is acknowledged there are many religions in the U.S., in some way unites us.

If one looks at this factually, there can be no conclusion the religion "unites us." Slavery, the Civil War over slaver and the segregation that followed was religion based. I suppose there were preachers during that entire period who were saying, "Let's unite behind the truth that the black man is inferior and will rape white women." Now, it may well be there would have been slavery without Christianity, but Christianity did not eliminate it. It played a role in the long 400 year run of slavery.

There are almost no atheists elected to public office. This may be improving but it is not due to any serious effort by Christianity. Has there been a Christian clergy or official who said, "We need to elect more atheists. They are assets to our communities?" That is the kind of statement that would be unifying. Not happening. 

Treatment of gays is the more recent effort by those in the faith to divide our country. "Homosexuality is sin. We are a unifying faith. We need to unify around demonizing gays and trans citizens."

Then there is the current hot issue abortion. A large part of the faith is admonishing the country to unify around demonizing politicians, women and medical personnel who get abortions or support the rights to women to get abortions. A member of the Catholic clergy published are article after the Supreme Court Roe overturn that now we need to bury the hatchet, come together and move on. Oh yeah. And let you clergy flaunt you influence and power? Not a chance. The chance to unite under a cause of equal right for both men and women has been available for centuries. No chance of Catholics or part of Protestantism to unite around that noble cause. 

Comments

  1. Ardy BAugust 9, 2022 at 2:10 PM

    By many accounts Christian religion played a major role in America’s history of enslaving people of color. It’s influence on today’s sub-cultures of the anti-abortion forced birthing crowd, the fans of demonizing homosexual, transgender, and transsexual citizens, the white supremacy and neo-Nazi tiki torch bearers, the Christian Nationalism bullshit spreaders, and other far right political machinations seems clear enough. To many of us the old adage of “there’s no hate like Christian love” is making sense. Oh yes and the latest x-president, a champion of graft, grifting, gaslighting, and greed is pulling on every teat of the holy cow.

    Jon, I ran across an article, linked below, on what the author describes as a new style of atheism called Communitarian Atheism as a counter to Christian Nationalism. You may have seen it. If you get a chance your comments would be appreciated.

    https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/new-style-atheism-can-counter-christian-nationalism-decline-religion-n1297611

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JonAugust 9, 2022 at 3:08 PM

      Thanks, Ardy--I did read that article a couple of days ago. It is interesting to ponder an atheist "movement" full of purpose and patriotic enthusiasm. The author did not speak of himself starting and running such a group. In decades of going to atheist gatherings I have never sensed a common theme like what he described. In my experience atheists tend to resist becoming organized or finding common purpose. Maybe the time and circumstances will be right for a charismatic personality and a theme at some point in the future. Robert Ingersoll was an example.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maybe the "Original Sin" Should be Reassigned

Image
We can all agree most Catholic priests are fine people and not guilty of sexual abuse. What Catholics must face, however, it that their church harbors executives who are dishonest . There is an incredible story about the Argentine Bishop Zanchetta. The Pope worked with him in Argentina and they are considered friends. Around 2015 Zanchetta sent nude pictures of himself and they began circulating world wide. He also was too friendly with young seminarians and some left because of him.  Three different officials say they made formal complaints to the Vatican about Zanchetta between 2015 and 2017. Yet, in 2018, the Vatican claimed it was unaware of any complaints about Zanchetta. This might be a good time to repeat the Catholic hierarchy claims to have the sole authority handed down from Jesus to what the faith stands for. It condemns as sinners those who practice birth control, have abortions and gay sexual relationships. Handing the hierarchy this responsibility would make som
Read more

The Religious Capitol Invaders May Yet Win

Image
So much about U.S. society and religion can be learned from the Civil War and what happened afterwards. After its defeat, the South started a myth about the unethical soldiers from the North. The South fought for principles of God and states rights. The North did not. It was the South, this propaganda told the country, that had the high moral ground.  The Capitol invaders, encouraged by Trump, swallowed the myth that Biden's election was stolen. Thus, they think they held and still hold the high moral ground. This was reinforced by the cross and prayers during the invasion. Even with Trump is gone, we will see political opportunists like Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley stroking crowds and feeding the same lies as Trump. Like "the South will rise again" these gullible followers will talk of victory over the unclean. After the Civil War the South rallied around the phrase, Lost Cause. For decades, and maybe to this day, there are ceremonies remembering fallen martyrs, Re
Read more

Father Frank Pavone, the Ultimate Crook

Image
Recently, the Vatican defrocked Frank Pavone. His diehard fans are outraged. This is because he cleverly manipulated his fans and the press all the while living well from donations and, apparently, abusing some women. By making abortion the "sin" of the century, and himself the main opposition to this one sin, he himself could get away with any sin he pleased.  As the link points out, Pavone was the perfect priest for the Trump era. Trump is so self-important laws have no role in his life. He felt accountable to no one. Women were there to be had. Pavone and Trump are interchangeable.  Pavone was very successful raising money. In his mind, abortion was so important in Catholic beliefs and he was so important in anti-abortion the money he raised opposing it was his to do with what he liked. The Catholic Church, the brand name he used to raise this money, thought the money belonged to it. When he gave the Vatican the bird, it gave him walking papers. With polls showing the majo
Read more