Discussion for article #234871
Very good article. I am glad to see she traced it back to the nonsense with Hobby Lobby, which, as many predicted, did indeed open the door for all sorts of shenanigans.
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Bravo!
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I was rereading this the other day. It stands on itâs own merits
"Unfortunately, some of the desires [of the religious], may be a little less admirable: the desire to separatism, to schism, to imposing our way of life on others, to finding moral justifications for colonialism, or tribal, or cultural imperialism, and all made guilt-free because done in the name of the Lord. For every peaceful, benevolent mystic, there is an army chaplain, convincing the troops that God is on their side. Myself, I have never seen a bumper sticker saying âHate if you love Jesusâ, but I sometimes wonder why not. It would be a good slogan for the religious rightâŚ
[David] Hume was born less than twenty years after the last legal religious executions in Britain, and himself suffered from the enthusiastic hostility of believers. If in our time and place, all we see are church picnics and charities, we will not be so worried. But enough people come down from the mountain carrying their own practical certainties to suggest that we ought to be."
British Philosopher, Simon Blackburn in his book, âThinkâ
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âIf we donât stand up to this now, they will keep turning up the heat.â
True dat
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The backlash against rampant conservatism is conservatives getting exactly what they said they wanted until it came back to bite them.
The government canât be trusted as far as you could throw it because bungling, incompetent Republicans have too much power. The void is filled by a radical form of internet fueled, free marketeering, cyber mob rule.
But radical cyber free-marketism is a terrible way to govern. The tweeting horde is arbitrary and capricious which handful of stupid assholes gets the massive cyber smack down, far out of proportion to what they reasonably deserve.
It would be far better to just have a sensible nondiscrimination law for everyone to follow, but first Republicans would have to be thrown out.
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God how long must we fight these rear guard actions? Forever?
I know for years Marcotte said the fundamentalists were going to go after contraception. And everyone laughed, like, as if! Thatâs crazy! But of course Hobby Lobby happened.
And now that itâs finally socially unacceptable to be explicitly anti-gay, the Christians are livid - who can they look down on now?
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Unlike being gay, being religious is a choice.
But Iâm guessing that the religious right doesnât want to go back to the eighties to revisit all those arguments they made against gay rights when they assumed being gay was a choice.
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I am a Christian and am sick and tired of these right-wing frauds using their own iteration of sharia law to impose their twisted interpretation of âfaithâ to bully the rest of us into behaving as they decide is appropriate. This Supreme Court is destroying the fabric of our nation by legalizing their attempts to impose a form of fundamentalist Christian sharia law.
The contraceptive decision and the Citizenâs United case enabling the ascension of the oligarchs are frightful. Any self-proclaimed progressive who doesnât see a distinction between the two major political parties with respect to the 2016 Presidential election is delusional and an enabler of the stacking of the next round of SC appointees with more right wing ideologues by a Republican victor.
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Iâm pleasantly surprised to see the scope of this backlash. Perhaps weâre seeing the beginning of a wave of indignation over the co-opting of religion as well as patriotism. Vile people always try to wrap themselves in the finest garments society provides and the Flag and Cross are those icons in America.
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Itâs long been part of movement conservationism to think of themselves as ohhhh sooo clever. They love to cleverly stand rights on their head and throw it back at the âliberals.â They are right-wing Bart Simpsons always trying to get away with something in Mrs Krebappleâs classroom.
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Freedom of Religion has to also encompass Freedom From Religion. Conservatives have wailed long and mournfully this past decade about this being a âChristianâ nation. While it was founded in part on Judeo-Christian principles and values, it was also built into the very foundation that citizens would have Freedom of Religion: there is no freedom if that does not also include freedom from religion and its many permutations. We all meet and interact in the public common and that is by definition a secular place, free from enforced religion. Church is intentionally separated by what should be a firewall from State. What you do in your chosen religious community, so long as it doesnât intrude into the Commons, is acceptable. You are welcome to live out your beliefs in your lives in the Common, but you are not free to impose, coerce, or demand how I live my life.
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But in the past few years, weâve witnessed a dramatic and surprisingly successful effort to redefine âreligious freedomâ to mean âempowering Christian conservatives to force their dogma on the non-believers.â It really started when the HHS passed a regulation requiring insurance plans to cover contraception without a copay. Many conservative employers revolted, claiming their religious freedom should allow them the right to deny workers coverage of procedures or medications they donât like.
Materially, it was no different than an employer claiming he cannot practice his religion freely without being able to go to his employeeâs house and take away any books he disagrees with that she bought with her paycheck. It was arguing that an employerâs âreligious freedomâ requires him to force his beliefs on his employee and try to manipulate her compensation in order to get her to live by his religious rules, regardless of her own beliefs. But the Supreme Court bought it and now the door is open.
Again, AMANDA I LOVE YOU!
Spot on, and you write so well!
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I was mortified by Hobby Lobby⌠and even more by the (non) reactions to the Decision on them.
However, my wife, who is quite perceptive, told me that this would be the year of a Turnaround (which I had not believed would happen). I sincerely hope she is right, and masses of people finally say, âEnoughâ.
Sometimes when certain people go on a rant, instead of their rant RELEASING animosity, the animosity is worse at the end of the rant. The Right has that tendency as a group, I think. Their feelings are those which would naturally result in overreach. The stories we see in 2015 regarding the Right are so much more insane that those of 2009. Although part of this is hatred for the First African American President, along with FOX stoking, I believe that these people are literally drowning in their own bitterness, as TeaBagging pols desperately try to find new ways to satisfy an increasingly xenophobic and insular Base.
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Excellent article, well written.
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Read âThe Familyâ by Jeff Sharlet. The Religious Right has been at it way long before the HobbyLobby mess.
The RRight gained momentum during the surge of HomeSchooling⌠(lot of fundamental religionist glommed onto it). Fundamentalist Xian churches exited the âtentâ and built big churches and brought along their ElmerGAntrys to pull in more people to fleeceâŚ(you have to understand that doG wants his preachers to have their own Lears or Gulfstreams to spread the $$$ more widely) .
Then the infestation of Xian Academies⌠Part of the Privatization policy of the GOTPâŚ
Private : schools, prisons, SocSec, healthcare (think HMOs).
Remember when there used to be Usury Laws??? Straight from the Bible-- businesses were not allowed to charge more than 10% (tithe requirement) âŚ
Religion is an STD
Sect-uallyTransmittedDysfunction
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Reading the article, i was quite taken aback by the similarities between the âChristianâ tactic of using religious liberty to impose their views on others, and the centuries of war between Suunis and Shias, over their ârightsâ to impose their beliefs on others. If this tactic goes on much longer, weâll have religious wars between Protestants and Southern Baptists. Apparently, this would be just fine with them, because BENGHAZI!
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I was contacted a few years ago by a recruiter for a company in Chattanooga, recruiter stated right off the bat that they were having problems getting people interested in the positions available. Then he mentioned that the employer required specific religious activity, specific clubs be joined, specific charities be supported both with $$ and âvolunteerâ activities and more. He was âoffendedâ when I burst out laughing. I then hung up. He called back âoffendedâ that I had hung up on him. Salary was good but nothing would be good enough for me to refute my beliefs for a jobâŚ
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Good piece. Hits a lot of points clearly that need hitting.
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But it wasnât.
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