Religion's Twelve Deadly Sins

Alternet's Valerie Tarico has written an insightful piece about 12-concepts, integral to organized religions, that "promote conflict, cruelty, suffering and death rather than love and peace."

First up is the concept of "chosen people" - that separates believers from non-believers, the believers alone linked to God.   Then there's the companion concept of "heretics."  Again, non-believers.  Call for the headsman!

Religions have also introduced us to the notion of Holy War.  Gott Mit Uns, that sort of thing.  When Muslims do it we call it Jihad.  When we do it, it's just getting rid of Satan.  Man has been doing it for thousands of years and, it seems, it never gets old.

Then there's "blasphemy" - the crime of saying things that offend religious doctrine.  The Bible has a cure for that - death.

Religions have also introduced us to the notion of "glorified suffering" and who doesn't love a martyr who suffers agony and death in the name of God.  The Catholic church loves them, makes them saints.  Islam goes a step further and provides them with explosive vests.

"Genital mutilation."  Alright, let's get real - circumcision.  No illustration required.

"Blood sacrifice."  It's more than killing goats.

Then there's the trump card, the ace in the hole, "Hell."  It's an awful place.  It's forever and ever.  And it's where you go if you don't do what the nice man at the front of the church tells you to do.  The nice thing is, it never gets old.  We do and, as we draw ever nearer to our final exit, Hell looms ever larger.

Religions that go the reincarnation route fall back on "Karma."  Stay in line or else you'll pay for it in the next life when you return as a toilet seat.

If life on Earth is brutal and nasty, don't fret, there's always the afterlife.  That's your payoff, "Eternal Life."  Now, don't forget to tithe and, remember, the guy with the keys to Heaven, he's counting.

"Male Ownership of Female Fertility."  I'll let you get this directly from Val:
"The notion of women as brood mares or children as assets likely didn’t originate with religion, but the idea that women were created for this purpose, that if a woman should die of childbearing “she was made to do it,” most certainly did. Traditional religions variously assert that men have a god-ordained right to give women in marriage, take them in war, exclude them from heaven, and kill them if the origins of their offspring can’t be assured. Hence Catholicism’s maniacal obsession with the virginity of Mary and female martyrs."

And last, but by no means least, "Bibliolatry."  This is book worship so integral to all modern religions.  It binds the faithful to notions of what is and isn't, right and wrong, as envisioned way back in ancient times when writing was discovered.  We know that the apostles didn't write their chapters of the New Testament.  Somebody else did.  But, hey, it's in writing so it's magical, divine.

It's particularly prevalent in religious fundamentalism whether Islamic, Judaic or Christian.  There are plenty of Christian fundamentalists who hold a fierce belief in Biblical Inerrancy.  No matter how contradictory, no matter how vague or at odds with reality, it's the Word of God and that's all there is to it.

I urge you to read the entire article here.

America's Fundamentalist Taliban

The dark face of America's religions fanaticism is finally coming into the light of day.   To get a look at America's own Taliban, check out this article from al Jazeera.   Also check here and here.

Until recently a fringe evangelical movement, warned against as deviant, "spiritual warfare" is rapidly positioning itself within America's mainstream political right. It's well past time for political journalists to start covering what this movement is up to.

As an example, leaders have bragged online about the destruction of Native American religious artifacts, which their twisted ideology somehow sees as a liberating act, promoting "reconciliation" between estranged groups of people. Critics, however, see it as reflecting an eliminationist mindset, while traditional conservative evangelicals have denounced the ideology as un-biblical. Some even claim it is actually a form of pagan practice dressed up in Christian clothes, according such artifacts a spiritual power that the Bible itself denies.

The ultimate goal is to replace secular democracy, both in America and around the world, with a Christian theocracy, an ideology known as "dominionism". The supposed purpose is to "purify" the world for Christ's return - again, strikingly similar to what the Taliban believe, but also significantly at odds with more common, long-standing Christian beliefs about the "end times", as well as the nature and purpose of prayer, and the roles of human and divine power.
It reminds me of this warning from Chris Hedges in his eye-opening book, "American Fascists":

The moral certitude of the state in wartime is a kind of fundamentalism. And this dangerous messianic brand of religion, one where self-doubt is minimal, has come increasingly to color the modern world of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, used to tell us that we would end our careers fighting an ascendant fundamentalist movement, or, as he liked to say, "the Christian fascists."

Why Religion Has No Place in Politics

An excellent op-ed in today's New York Times.

What is striking on the current American scene  ...is the extent to which people see certain political and economic positions  as required by their religious commitment.  We may understand — even if we do not accept — the thinking of those who condemn abortion on religious grounds. But many conservative religious groups  endorse a wide range of political and economic positions that have no religious basis.  For example, The Family Leader (the group that has called for presidential candidates sign a pledge supporting “family values”) has a Voter’s Guide that specifies the “attributes of a strong Christian leader.”    According to the guide, a strong Christian leader “understands key elements of God’s law,” which means that, for example, the leader “upholds the Biblical principles of responsibility and accountability in civil life, thereby limiting the size and cost of civil government”; “encourages an ethical and free enterprise system, and understands it is the only economic model in accord with Biblical principles”; and “understands the right to bear and keep arms” for defensive purposes.   The guide also specifies that strong Christian leaders must subscribe to various views about how to interpret the United States Constitution.

There is no honest line of argument from what the Bible says to substantive conclusions about the size of the United States government, the need for a free enterprise system, the right to bear arms or the proper interpretation of the Constitution.  Family Leader (and many other religious groups with a conservative political agenda) are disguising partisan political positions as religious convictions. This cripples efforts to have meaningful discussions about their political views.

Proponents of conservative views that require sober argument from empirical facts and generally accepted principles, instead merely assert them with religious fervor.  Opponents are understandably irritated by the irrationality of claims that distinctively modern questions about capitalist economics and democratic government were answered in the Bible 2000 years ahead of time.

In the run up to the 2012 US elections right wing candidates are being coerced by right wing religious organizations into signing some pretty controversial "pledges."  It's becoming a huge problem when fundamentalism, like corporatism, demands - and gets - front bench seats in our legislatures.

They Do It With Dogs

So if people will bet big money on dog fights, why not take it up a notch or two?

Here's what I've got in mind.   A really big arena with a dirt-covered floor (maybe right after a monster-truck event).   Then out of these doors at either end emerge waves of fundamentalists - Muslims from one side, Christians from the other.

No guns, no knives - just baseball bats and bibles.   Bible-thumping, to the death.   They go at it until one side is completely wiped out.   Afterward there's a suitable moment for prayer to the victors' god and then they're whisked straight off to Guantanimo Bay for ten or fifteen years of, well, let's call it rehabilitation.

The television rights alone should be worth a fortune.   And think of the merchandising!

All I Want for Christmas is The Rapture

Dear God:

I would've written to Santa but I think this is more your sort of thing.

Is there any chance of getting you to send The Rapture for Christmas this year? Christmas Eve, Rapture time. That means I'll be able to get up Christmas morning to find you've swept these insane, fundamentalist bastards completely off my planet. Then, once they're gone, fixing the world's problems should be a snap for the rational people who'll be left.

I know this is asking a lot but, while you're at it, could you vacuum up fundamentalists of all stripes? You know, take all the nutjobs - Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Shinto - the lot.

Not only will you scrape that evangelical shit off our boots but you'll turn every agnostic into a true believer - just like that!

Thanks Big Guy, and I hope you have a very merry Christmas.

Defending Tolerance

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destoryed, and tolerance with them. ...We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same was as we should consider incitement tomurder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal." - Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies.

From American Fascists, The Christian Right and the War on America, Chris Hedges

American Fascists

I managed to catch the last few minutes of an interview on CBC yesterday with war correspondent/author Chris Hedges. He was flogging his latest book, American Fascists.

The gist of this book, as I understand it, is that fascism has become a powerful force in today's America. At its core Hedges sees the Christian right, the fundamentalists.

He argues that the Christian fundamentalists have preyed on America's dispossessed in areas hardest hit by globalization, people who once had well-paid manufacturing jobs and now can't find work, people living in the "have not" regions that have spread throughout the United States. Hedges mentioned that there are areas of his country that now resemble the Third World more than the vision of America. It is these people, he claims, who are most vulnerable to the Christian fundamentalist message. They embrace the Christian right's message of intolerance and resentment (a polite word for "hatred") toward specified groups such as gays, the pro-choice movement, Muslims and liberals.

Hedges is clearly concerned at the very real, very powerful political influence gained this way by the Christian right. He fears it continues to expand its power base and it seems he's right.

If you need proof of this just take a look at John McCain's transformation, his embrace of the Christian fundamentalists. In 2000 he called them "evil" and "intolerant" but now he appears as keynote speaker at Jerry Falwell's school and he mouths all the right words, the message the converted expect to hear. McCain realizes that no Republican can win the party's nomination without the support of the Christian right. It's obvious that he's holding his nose but he is definitely talking the talk.

Harper and a lot of the Reform conservatives cleave to this same movement. Canada is not the US and the fundamentalists are less powerful, less influential here so, while our democracy isn't as vulnerable, we do have to realize that the movement here is just as voracious as its big brother in America.

Here are a couple of passages from "War is a force that gives us meaning." I heartily recommend it:

We were humbled in Vietnam, purged, for a while, of a dangerous hubris, offered in our understanding and reflection about the war, a moment of grace. We became a better country.

We often become as deaf and dumb as those we condemn. We too have our terrorists. The Contras in Nicaragua carried out, with funding from Washington, some of the most egregious human rights violations in Central America, yet were hailed as "freedom fighters." Jonas Savimbi, the rebel leader the United States back in Angola's civil war, murdered and tortured with a barbarity that outstripped the Taliban. ...President Ronald Reagan called Savimbi the Abraham Lincoln of Angola although he littered the country with land mines, once bombed a Red Cross-run factory making artificial limbs for the victims of those mines, and pummeled a rival's wife and children to death.

The moral certitude of the state in wartime is a kind of fundamentalism. And this dangerous messianic brand of religion, one where self-doubt is minimal, has come increasingly to color the modern world of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, used to tell us that we would end our careers fighting an ascendant fundamentalist movement, or, as he liked to say, "the Christian fascists."

If you haven't read Hedge's "War" and if the fundamentalist threat interests you or if you're just interested in how war engages modern society, see if you can get your hands on a copy. Once I've digested "American Fascists" I'll do another post.