136. caparison

Dunno about anyone else, but I’m always relieved whenever a religious holiday finally passes. Christmas and Easter are probably the toughest to get through, mainly because they’re the two holidays that have entered our national consciousness. Even non-Christians observe them, though for them it’s more about the family gatherings, the food and the gift giving at Christmastime than it is about the birth and death of Jesus Christ, who doubles as a swear word for those of us who don’t accept his deityhood.

I’m often asked, “If it isn’t true, if we’re just deluding ourselves why does it bother you so much?” And it’s a fair question. We don’t begrudge the people who think that they’re Napoleon, or that nefarious government agencies are secretly plotting against them. To be safe, of course, we give them a wide berth, but thankfully we’re past the days when we persecuted people for their delusions. Today we acknowledge that these are symptoms of a malfunctioning mind, and hope for recovery and that the affected individual will someday be a fully-functioning and productive member of society again.

That’s mental illness. In most cases it’s a matter of genetics that comes down to a chemical imbalance in the brain, or even some kind of damage to the brain itself (in the case of something like post-traumatic stress disorder), and people can’t be faulted for that. You’re not going to blame someone for hearing voices or experiencing severe depression. There are drugs and treatment programs to help.

In the case of religion, though, we accept behavior that would normally get a person locked up. We think it’s acceptable to mutilate the genitalia of male infants because a 2,000-year-old book commands it. We tolerate street preachers standing on sidewalks and telling people that they’re wicked and awful and going to hell unless they say a magic prayer to an imaginary god and stop drinking, swearing, and having sex. We allow children to be taught that the earth is 6,000 years old, that dinosaurs and humans co-existed, and that some deity in the sky is watching their every move and can read their thoughts (especially when they reach adolescence). We permit parents to deny their children medical attention because of the belief that to intervene is to interfere in the will of their god, dooming the child to a life of otherwise preventable but excruciating suffering and even death.

Of course, not everyone holds such extreme beliefs. Not every religious person goes around openly judging everyone who doesn’t believe what they do. Not every religious person rejects scientific evidence or proof. Not every religious parent circumcises their male children because of their beliefs (and if they do, it’s often in the interest of hygiene). Nor does every religious parent believe that god would send them and their children to hell for going to the doctor. It’s wrong to generalize, no matter how tempting it is to do so.

My problem with Easter is that it stands for two appalling lies. The first is that Easter itself is really a pagan fertility festival. The name can be traced to several ancient gods and goddesses, including Ēostre, the Saxon-Germanic goddess of the dawn, whose festival fell around the end of March and early April, and her observances involved both hares and eggs. Other possible candidates include the Greek goddess Demeter and the Assyrian fertility goddess Ishtar.

The second lie is that Christ’s death was a noble sacrifice. Noble sacrifice? As if having yourself butchered up for an imaginary sin that you invented in the first place is noble! It’s a bit like creating an imaginary virus, telling everybody that they were in terrible danger and then waving your hands over them in order to cure them of said virus. But this is something that people truly, sincerely, deeply believe! They think that, as John 3:16 states, “god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (I can still quote it in the King James Version.)

What I object to is the fundamental belief that many Christians have of the certainty of the existence of god. Sure, some atheists may be certain that there is no god—but how can you be sure of something for which there is no evidence? Atheists can’t disprove god any more than theists can prove it, so what does it really matter?

I don’t have much of a problem with religious people who shrug and admit that they don’t know, that they want to believe, and refuse to force that belief on others. That I can at least respect. Sometimes you can’t help who you love, as I should well know, and that probably extends to belief as well.

What I object to the kind of mindless bible thumping that’s been going on lately in conservative circles, especially where women’s and gay rights are concerned. I object to the kind of magical thinking that allows religious people to retreat into their places of worship and leave the fate of the world and their fellow human beings to their imaginary god. I object to the kind of extremist, political, dominionist ideology that leads them to think that this world is theirs to take back; that we all ought to strap ourselves into their subjective straight jackets; and that, by virtue of their birth, all children ought to be likewise fettered as well before they have a chance to learn to think for themselves. I object to the kind of theist who looks at evidence and rejects it based on the fact that it contradicts something in their holy book written thousands of years ago by pre-scientific people.

I object to living an unexamined life, to never questioning what you’re taught or what you believe, and to not being true to the essence of who you are as a person. At best, we live a hundred years, and a life is a terrible thing to waste.

70. restructuring

This afternoon there was a story on WHYY’s Fresh Aire about the radicalized Evangelical movement that’s been behind Rick Perry’s campaign, gathering support and adherents to both their movement and to Perry himself, who doubtless they see as the man raised up by God “for such a time as this” (to quote Esther 4:14). And it’s their mission to “take back” politics, business and culture for Jesus. This is apparently a group of true “prayer warriors” who literally go around conducting spiritual warfare, driving out demons they believe have dominion over an area. (This also includes praying the demons out of gays.)

I’m reminded of what the Angel tells Prior in Tony Kushner’s Perestroika, the second part of Angels in America: “YOU MUST STOP MOVING!” Fact is, if this extremist Christian movement has their way, this is precisely what would happen. We would be hurled back decades. No further progress would be made as humanity waits for the return of Christ and the “end of all things.”

What they want is a theocracy—which is as much to say a theocracy with themselves at the top, just beneath God, to oversee these “seven mountains of culture” the article references with an eagle eye as the God-appointed Morality Police, much in the way that Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans cracked down on what they saw as immorality in England after they sacked Charles I.

So here’s my Crom-Orwellian, worst-case-scenario imaginging of an America run by these “Ravangelicals” (Radical+Evangelical):

Arts and entertainment would be highly censored and flung back into the 1950s, or even further back to a Victorian era morality; where all entertainment is wholesome and “family friendly;” and all to the “glory of God.” The media itself would be tightly regulated, with censoring standards even stricter than they currently are. No “alternative” lifestyles would be portrayed: only that which the Church deems “appropriate for God-fearing Americans to aspire to.” In extreme cases, blasphemy would be a capital offense.

Family would be the cornerstone of society, with single-parent homes penalized and women forced to return to their pre-Feminist roles as homemakers. Divorce would be strictly illegal, even in cases of spousal abuse, and adoption limited to homes only with a husband and wife. DOMA’s legislation would be expanded to not only protect and elevate the nuclear family, but also recriminalize fornication and sodomy. Abortion, family planning and contraception too would be illegal, since to engage in any of these would be to interfere with God’s design for life and sexuality.

Government would be stripped down to its essential functions and run strictly according to Biblical precepts, with Christianity the strong-armed law of the land. Only those who espoused Godly values (regardless of the prohibition of a religious test in the Constitution) would be allowed to hold public office. Business too would be tightly regulated and Old Testament governances, including the Sabbath, reinstituted.

Education would be overseen by the Church, as it once was, and would be largely religious in nature as it used to be in Colonial and 18th-century America. Curriculum would be subject to the approval of the NEA, who would regulate what information is to be taught in the classroom. Creationism would be taught as fact, and any science that does not promote a theocentric universe would be banned. Sex ed would not be allowed since that is the purview of parents within the home.

No religion other than Christianity would be tolerated. Tax-exempt and non-profit status would be stripped from any organization that was not Christian in nature or function. Church attendance and a minimum 10% tithe would be mandatory (the IRS overseeing implementation and enforcement). Any non-fundamentalist or liberal theology would be either censored or closely monitored.

Well, that was fun. Taking the peep-stones off now.