Transgender London

The Wrongs of the Right

This piece is written not as a condemnation of Christianity or any other religion. It is written to protest those who use the pulpit to foster ignorance, prejudice, bigotry and hatred based on narrow interpretation of scripture. It is to protest the integration of Church and State.

There are many many good religions and churches who encourage faith, hope and charity for all. They encourage a personal relationship with their God and respect the diversity of humanity in all forms. These faiths can live and let live, help others in need and distress, accept difference and most importantly, live their lives as a testament to their religious beliefs. They believe in love above all; love of their God and of their fellow man.

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A major player in today's political realm is that of the Conservative Religious Right. In the opinion of this writer, they may be well intentioned but they are seriously misguided. This movement originated in the United States primarily under the tutelage of Gerry Falwell and Pat Robertson along with a few others. They believed that government was ignoring the Christian base of the country, its values and they honestly believe that the Constitution of the United States was written with a Christian value in mind. They saw the country straying from those values and so they united in an effort to exert political pressure on lawmakers. They had no idea of the scope of what they started.

The one thing they seem to have overlooked was that the original settlers who landed at Plymouth Rock were fleeing persecution; religious persecution. That religious persecution came from government. It was this very act of leaving England to start a new colony where they would be free to practice their religious beliefs away from government interference that eventually led to the founding of the United States. They believed that government had no place in religious practices and vice versa. It was the separation of Church and State.

This truly is the hypocrisy of today's religious right. They are trying to integrate Christian Fundamental values into government and law. It would be a very safe statement that without their support, George W. Bush would never have been elected as President of the United States, not once, but twice.

As I stated, they may be well intentioned but equally misguided. First of all, not all citizens are religious and of those who are, not all are Christian, and of those who are Christian, not all ascribe to Fundamentalism. Recognizing this, it is safe to state that they represent a minority although it is a significant one. So, if they are in such a minority, how do they wield so much power?

First, they insist upon their followers to be politically active, but that activism has to be within their dictates. In other words they attack laws and societal norms that they see as oppositional to the word of God; their God, and unfortunately, their interpretation of God's word. Remember, that man "interprets" the "teachings" of the Christian Bible. This is true of all religions.

The question I ask is this: How do they know their interpretations are correct? And secondly, since the Bible was written by men (often centuries after the Crucifixion) how do they know it is accurate? Sorry but divine inspiration doesn't cut it for this writer. One could equally make the same argument for the writings of Isaac Asimov the science fiction writer.

Next, they unify in common causes. The gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community have been targets of their venomous direction as well as abortion laws, non Christian religions, secularism in schools and government among others. What they appear to be trying to do is establish a religious government. Oddly enough they see the religious governments of Islamic belief as being wrong and many see Jewish law as being wrong. How is it possible to ascribe to the singular belief that only they are right when equally the Muslim or fundamentalist Jew says he is right? Do they have different gods?

Perhaps they should let their Gods fight it out and let man know who won the war. I digress with my sarcasm.

Without going into scripture there is no doubt of Jesus Christ's support of the oppressed. Today we would call them disenfranchised. Nice politically correct term is it not? Christ's message was to love God then one another. Of all his teachings, only the Sermon on the Mount where he delivered The Beatitudes could be even remotely the equivalent to The Ten Commandments handed down to Moses as God's Law. Accepting that Christ was the Son of God as a part of the Holy Trinity, then he spoke for God as God. It is not a stretch of the imagination to accept this concept. Believe it or not is irrelevant; it is the concept that is important here.

The idea that the narrow interpretations of the (Ultra) Conservative Religious Right should be imposed upon all people is therefore folly. It is misguided thinking. While they may quote scripture as the source of their arguments often a counterpoint can be made from elsewhere in scripture. Man's love of God must supersede all else. That is the primary Judeo-Christian teaching.

Therefore the actions of the Religious Right to impose their beliefs on the larger majority of the population presents itself as discrimination. It is that simple. When they fight to ban marriage between gays they are discriminating. When they fight to deny healthcare to transgender they are discriminating. When they fight to ban stem cell research that will save lives, they are killing people. There is no argument they can possibly use to turn these prejudicial actions into positive actions except in their own views. Those views are not those of the majority.

By what right do they have to impose their narrow views on others? Equally important is that they are least affected by the laws they oppose. They outright reject homosexuality, transgender, women's rights to abortion among other issues. They reject scientific study unless it reinforces their beliefs; stem cell research is a good example.

They promote Creationism (now known as Intelligent Design) rejecting Darwin's Theory of Evolution. In this argument alone they ignore the overwhelming body of scientific evidence that refutes their strict fundamentalist interpretation of Creationism. They honestly believe man and the dinosaurs coexisted despite the evidence that man has existed for only 15,000 years while the dinosaurs died out 75,000 years previous. They ignore the empirical DNA evidence of evolution. The problem is they have nothing to reinforce these beliefs except these beliefs. Therefore, their beliefs are irrefutable truths in their views.

Science does not hold the same view obviously and continually strives for more answers in this area. If anything, scientists can be accused of being lax in not confronting these views over time. That these views are now shared by a large minority of the American people should prove the effectiveness of the Religious Right's methodology. They even offer post secondary university educations in their own universities with their religious views embedded in the curriculum. Often these "degrees" are accepted without question by business and industry. Why? Are their degrees based in traditional research and publication then held up to peer review? This doesn't mean peer review by their own, but by the accepted academic norms and legions of academia globally.

Canadians cannot afford to be complacent either. While the fundamentalist movement here is not yet as well organized and funded as in the US, it is no less a danger to our secular society. The logic used is often venomous and disagreement or debate is vehemently rejected with those who oppose them suffering personal attack. (This approach has been used openly in political argument in an effort to avoid debate) Ideological debate is impossible when being personally attacked. This writer has suffered such indignities, however, I have been able to defend myself and often turn their arguments against them.

The debate over same sex marriage was one such case and the continued attack on Canada's abortion laws is another. Human Rights only exist as they on the Religious Right define them. Many in fact would prefer to see Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms put in the trash can.

A recent event where they organized a campaign to outlaw same sex marriage in California stands as a testament not only to their ability to organize themselves, but to draw mainstream churches into their ideologies. They were able to finance the single largest campaign promoting this law outside of a Gubernatorial or Presidential campaign. Why? Were or are they affected? They believe in heterosexual marriage but dont believe that gays are capable of making the same kind of commitment based in the same kind of love? That is hypocrisy at its best definition. They are entitled to not condone gay relationships but they are not entitled to force those beliefs on others.

Perhaps others in the center and to the left will organize and fight this threat to our very Canadian heritage. Failure to do so is to hand over much of what we enjoy as Canadian heritage and value. The line between this divisive attitude and ideology and secularism is very narrow and easily crossed if the mainstream doesn't combat it at every turn.

The Conservative Government of Stephen Harper has already made significant assault on our secularism beginning with their assault on social programs and support of scientific study. Canadians allowed it to happen and in fact approved with a reelection of Mr. Harper and his government. They ignored the actions and were hooked into the rhetoric of the election.

The only remaining question is: Why would we willingly allow this to happen? Ask those who refuse to engage in protecting our society. Ask those whose apathy is so great they refuse to vote. That is exactly a tactic the conservatives employ. Generate apathy and the opposition will stay at home. It works; until the apathetic voters become enraged. Canadians deserve better. Canadians deserve a balanced secular society and government.

Kimberley

November 2008

This site was last updated 08/11/10