Posts Tagged ‘religion

08
Dec
09

What I Want for Christmas

By Courtnay 1 Comment
Categories: Politics and religion
Tags: ,

I ran across this piece by Robert Green Ingersoll today when I was looking for secular Christmas cards and I was struck by how, in some ways, little has changed since he wrote these words in 1879.  Sure, some of the issues we face today are different but at the core are the same fundamental problems we’ve always dealt with: separation of church and state, corruption, lack of public trust in politicians, slander – sound familiar?  Check it out:

Boston, Massachusetts. 1879

If I had the power to produce exactly what I want for next Christmas, I would have all the kings and emperors resign and allow the people to govern themselves.

I would have all the nobility drop their titles and give their lands back to the people. I would have the Pope throw away his tiara, take off his sacred vestments, and admit that he is not acting for God — is not infallible — but is just an ordinary Italian. I would have all the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and clergymen admit that they know nothing about theology, nothing about hell or heaven, nothing about the destiny of the human race, nothing about devils or ghosts, gods or angels. I would have them tell all their “flocks” to think for themselves, to be manly men and womanly women, and to do all in their power to increase the sum of human happiness.

I would have all the professors in colleges, all the teachers in schools of every kind, including those in Sunday schools, agree that they would teach only what they know, that they would not palm off guesses as demonstrated truths.

I would like to see all the politicians changed to statesmen — to men who long to make their country great and free — to men who care more for public good than private gain — men who long to be of use.

I would like to see all the editors of papers and magazines agree to print the truth and nothing but the truth, to avoid all slander and misrepresentation, and to let the private affairs of the people alone.

I would like to see drunkenness and prohibition both abolished.

I would like to see corporal punishment done away with in every home, in every school, in every asylum, reformatory, and prison. Cruelty hardens and degrades, kindness reforms and ennobles.

I would like to see the millionaires unite and form a trust for the public good.

I would like to see a fair division of profits between capital and labor, so that the toiler could save enough to mingle a little June with the December of his life.

I would like to see an international court established in which to settle disputes between nations, so that armies could be disbanded and the great navies allowed to rust and rot in perfect peace.

I would like to see the whole world free — free from injustice — free from superstition.

This will do for next Christmas. The following Christmas, I may want more.

That’s a Christmas wish I can believe in!  To learn more about Robert G. Ingersoll, click here.

11
Nov
09

Why are so many American Christians against health care reform?

By Courtnay 1 Comment
Categories: Politics and religion
Tags: , ,

During my summer of health care rallies and town hall meetings, I had the opportunity to talk to many people on both sides of the health care debate and it never ceased to amaze me that most people who identified as Christian were against health care reform.  I don’t consider myself a Christian now but I have more than a passing familiarity with the Bible, having spent my fair share of time in Sunday school growing up and even attending private Catholic school for a while.  Didn’t Jesus spend most of his time ministering to the poor and downtrodden?  He was all about feeding the hungry and caring for the sick.  I get the sense that universal health care is an idea he would have liked…so why is it that so many of his American followers see health care reform as somehow un-Christian?  It never made sense to me.  Tonight I came across an article by a progressive Christian that discusses just that.  I recommend reading the whole article but here is my favorite quote:

Forgive the note of bitterness, but my word to American Christians who show more devotion to John Locke than to Jesus in respect to their “I’ve got mine” ideology: We’ll see you in Hell with your good buddy, Dives. And to the patriarchal types who told Speaker Pelosi late last week that they could not support any legislation giving them less than total victory on the abortion issue: Why not be man enough to just come out and say it? You have never liked women, you fear women, and now you would even sink the chance of providing coverage for 36 million currently uninsured persons—including many of the children and immigrants you claim to love—rather than accept a carefully-negotiated compromise on women’s reproductive health.

With Christians like these, who needs other enemies? And will anyone wonder why, with each new poll or census, more Americans will be marking “none” or “atheist” or “anything but Christian” on the religion section?

via Bad Religion Leaves Big Bruises: When Christians Threaten Health Care Reform | RDPulpit | ReligionDispatches.

26
Oct
09

Words of Wisdom from John Shelby Spong

By Courtnay Leave a Comment
Categories: Advocacy and religion
Tags: , , ,

I’ve admired retired Episcopal bishop and Biblical scholar John Shelby Spong for years but as I read his recent manifesto, my admiration of him reached a whole new level.  Spong has long been a critic of the Christian Church’s treatment of women and homosexuals but  in recent years, he has become even more outspoken.  Here are a few of my favorite passages from his manifesto:

I will no longer seek to slow down the witness to inclusiveness by pretending that there is some middle ground between prejudice and oppression. There isn’t. Justice postponed is justice denied.

In my personal life, I will no longer listen to televised debates conducted by “fair-minded” channels that seek to give “both sides” of this issue “equal time.” I am aware that these stations no longer give equal time to the advocates of treating women as if they are the property of men or to the advocates of reinstating either segregation or slavery, despite the fact that when these evil institutions were coming to an end the Bible was still being quoted frequently on each of these subjects. It is time for the media to announce that there are no longer two sides to the issue of full humanity for gay and lesbian people. There is no way that justice for homosexual people can be compromised any longer.

We will and we must learn that equality of citizenship is not something that should ever be submitted to a referendum. Equality under and before the law is a solemn promise conveyed to all our citizens in the Constitution itself. Can any of us imagine having a public referendum on whether slavery should continue, whether segregation should be dismantled, whether voting privileges should be offered to women? The time has come for politicians to stop hiding behind unjust laws that they themselves helped to enact, and to abandon that convenient shield of demanding a vote on the rights of full citizenship because they do not understand the difference between a constitutional democracy, which this nation has, and a “mobocracy,” which this nation rejected when it adopted its constitution. We do not put the civil rights of a minority to the vote of a plebiscite.

I have been part of this debate for years, but things do get settled and this issue is now settled for me. I do not debate any longer with members of the “Flat Earth Society” either. I do not debate with people who think we should treat epilepsy by casting demons out of the epileptic person; I do not waste time engaging those medical opinions that suggest that bleeding the patient might release the infection. I do not converse with people who think that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans as punishment for the sin of being the birthplace of Ellen DeGeneres or that the terrorists hit the United Sates on 9/11 because we tolerated homosexual people, abortions, feminism or the American Civil Liberties Union. I am tired of being embarrassed by so much of my church’s participation in causes that are quite unworthy of the Christ I serve or the God whose mystery and wonder I appreciate more each day. Indeed I feel the Christian Church should not only apologize, but do public penance for the way we have treated people of color, women, adherents of other religions and those we designated heretics, as well as gay and lesbian people.

Click on the link below to read the manifesto in its entirety:

A Manifesto! The Time Has Come!

If you like Spong’s take on faith, I highly recommend checking out some of his books as well:

 

19
Oct
09

The best argument I’ve read for marriage equality

By Courtnay Leave a Comment
Categories: Advocacy, Politics and religion
Tags: , , ,

As I was reading up on the Mormon opposition to gay marriage, I came across several references to Stuart Matis, a gay Mormon who took his own life after a life-long struggle to reconcile his faith and his sexual identity.  Before his death, Matis was despondent over the Mormon Church’s decision to support and fund the Knight Initiative, an anti-gay marriage ballot initiative in California that was a precursor to last year’s Proposition 8.  Matis was passionate and outspoken in his opposition to the Knight Initiative, which he explained in this letter to a young cousin who had asked Matis to share his thoughts on the issue.  The argument that Matis presents against the Knight Initiative is one of the best I’ve ever read and even though it was written over 9 years ago, his points are just as valid and timely now as they were then.  It is heartbreaking to read his intelligent, thoughtful words and then remember that the pain Matis lived with because of his homosexuality and lack of acceptance in the Church led him to take his own life at the age of 32.  Read his letter and share it with anyone you know who still opposes marriage equality – his powerful argument is even more poignant when you realize just how much it cost him to make it:

Letter to a Cousin: Distraught Young Man Shares His Thoughts.

19
Oct
09

Maybe there’s hope for the Mormons after all

By Courtnay Leave a Comment
Categories: Advocacy, Politics and religion
Tags: , , ,

I have to admit that I find the Mormon Church’s extreme opposition to marriage equality a bit baffling.  Of course I understand that the Mormons are a conservative group but they are also a group who have experienced firsthand what it is like to be persecuted and discriminated against.  Have they forgotten their own history?  The fact that they have now come full circle, so to speak, and are actively trying to discriminate against another group – all the while claiming that the reason for their campaign against gay marriage is to protect their own beliefs and way of life – well, it just doesn’t make sense to me.  Even so, it is clear that gay marriage is an issue that gets many Mormons riled up – in fact, I experienced this firsthand when a discussion about Prop. 8 led to my Mormon cousin de-friending both me and my husband on Facebook.  At any rate, I was pleased to learn last week that not all of my Mormon neighbors are passionately against marriage equality.  Apparently, a group called Mormons for Marriage was formed back in 2008 to oppose Prop. 8 because, as they explain on their site,

Just as progressive LDS Church members in the 1960s and 1970s had an opportunity to speak out on the denial of priesthood to blacks — this is our chance, in our day, to express our thoughts and feelings (respectfully) in support of gays within the LDS Church, and of gay marriage within the U.S. (and abroad).

I wasn’t aware of the group until last week, when someone forwarded me the Mormons for Marriage response to recent comments by Elder Dallin H. Oaks.  Their concise and well-reasoned response reads, in part:

Support of policies that seek to force the morality of our belief system on others who believe differently and strip existing rights from individuals and religions is contrary to core doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as outlined in the Articles of Faith: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all [people] the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may,” and the Doctrine and Covenants: “We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government …” (Doctrine and Covenants 134:9). Our prophets, scriptures, and the history of our own people warn us of the destructive force caused by such actions. We are dismayed at the dilemma of choosing between our allegiance to leaders of the LDS Church such as yourself and the doctrine of the LDS church on this matter. We are also dismayed at the necessity of defending our friends in other faiths from attacks supported by our own church with money we thought had been consecrated for the work of God.

I was sorely tempted to forward the site to my ultra-conservative Mormon cousin, especially the heartbreaking excerpts from letters written by Stuart Matis, a gay Mormon man who took his life on the steps of a Mormon church.  I don’t know if any of it would convince my cousin but at least I can take comfort in the fact that there are Mormons willing to challenge the Church on this important issue.

26
May
09

10 Reasons Atheists Are More Moral Than Religious Fundamentalists

By Courtnay Leave a Comment
Categories: Personal
Tags:

10 Reasons Atheists Are More Moral Than Religious Fundamentalists

This piece sums up many of the reasons why I find most religious fundamentalists to be so hypocritical.  Here in the US, the far right Christian conservatives have tried to portray themselves as the party with moral authority and frequently cite morality as a basis for their position on a variety of issues.  Ironically, however, it seems that the more these fundamentalists try to push their moral agenda on the rest of the country, the more immoral their own behavior becomes.  Although I do not consider myself to be a religious person, I do have more than a passing familiarity with the Bible and I believe that Jesus would be appalled at what many of his followers are doing in his name.

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