Tis the Season


Every December the Christian press is full of articles lamenting the commercialization of Christmas and use of the greeting, "Happy Holidays." It's humorous that some Christians suffer so much about the use of this cheerful greeting.

Now is it June. This is the season for some Christians to complain about Pride Week. There are wall to wall articles "quoting scripture" about abomination and such. These are as funny as the anti "Happy Holidays" complaints.

To begin with, it's obvious that if someone objects to Pride Week there is a good option. Don't celebrate it.

The more interesting way to engage anti-gay people is to ask where in the Bible homosexuality is condemned. Oh yes, there is the man shall not lie with a man as with a woman. Exactly, what did writers mean by that. It does not say a thing about sexual relationships. The same with all the other scriptures used against gay people. They all require the preface, "What this means is..." 

It always comes back to the oldest question of all, do humans have a choice about which gender they are attracted to? On top of that question is another, what business of anyone else which gender I am attracted to or what gender you are attracted to. It is of no business to anyone else. 

If there were no money attracted by being anti gay there would be no anti gay. Jerry Falwell said the most profitable issue in the history or "The Moral Majority" was one with a male in drag on the cover. Being anti gay is, or has been up to now, a gold mine. Maybe this is finally changing, but not fast enough.

That anti gay is still profitable can be seen on Christian sites. Capitalism is the best friend the Religious Right has. And, the rainbow flag is a gift to the right that keeps on giving--it's the enemy.  

Comments

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

Religious Freedom Arguments Ultimately Will Fail

Image
We are very early in the period of arguments about religious freedom. When every person can have her own god how can the rest of society accommodate all of them? While courts have often dismissed arguments other than the religious liberty of those opposed to abortion and gays, the argument is being used more often these days by liberals. Recently a doctor who provided water and food for migrants crossing the border illegally quoted scripture as justification for what he was doing. Back in the day, a similar argument was used by anti war advocates who burned draft cards. Everyone knows the list of passages in the Bible advocating peace is as long as your arm. As the flag waving political right Christians carry on about their religious freedom, they have little to no interest in that of others. Being a conscientious objector today is harder than it was when I was of draft age. If ever there was a clear violation of religious freedom, the belief that Jesus was about peace and Jesus
Read more

A Split in Anti Abortion: Christians Who Want to Help Women

Image
There are a couple of facts we all must face in the politics of abortion. One (A.) is that anti abortion politics are driven as much by the desire to punish women as it is about so called "life." The other (B.)is many decisions to get abortions have a large economic component. Many women terminate a pregnancy because giving birth present what they see as economic setbacks that are intolerable. A Christian group has decided it should focus on (B.) instead of (A.). This is going to anger those whose main focus is sin and the punishment of women who sin by having sex. This split among anti abortion people was highlighted in a great book about abortion, Her Body, Our Laws: The Front Lines of the Abortion War from El Salvador to Oklahoma.  The author spent years traveling and listening to women in the most restrictive countries in the Americas and in States of the U.S. She spent considerable time with women who run homes for pregnant women in conservative states. She foun
Read more