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Why Organized Religion Should No Longer Be Used to Shape American Culture

21 Apr 2012 1 Comment

by Little Queen in The Living Room - Personal Blog Tags: American culture, Barack Obama, Bisexual, faith, gay marriage, GLBT (Gay, GOP, Jeremiah Wright, Lesbian, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, organized religion, Rick Santorum Blunt amendment, Ron Paul, SB 101, society beliefs, The Audacity of Hope, Transgendered), Trinity United Church of Christ, women suffrage, women's right to vote

First of all, let’s get one thing straight before we proceed.  This is not a rant against any one religious sect.  It is, however, meant to point out that we all need to wake up to the realization that the world is not black and white, meaning, it’s time we learn to think for ourselves and begin to question all of the things we’ve been told/taught to believe, especially around organized religion.

I spend an enormous amount of time on social networks, making business contacts and meeting new friends. Because I interact with so many people on any given day, I’ve had the opportunity to expose myself to all kinds of different people, as well as, their points of view. Being the social butterfly and always inquisitive person that I tend to be, I will get into discussions on various controversial topics, which leads me to seeing things from the other person’s point of view. That, in turn, opens my mind to other possibilities regarding what I may have always believed about any given topic, and allows me to see things from another angle. Unfortunately, many people refuse to open their minds to other possibilities, which leads to social discord among groups of people, whether it be a simple Facebook discussion, or an all-out religious war.  For the purpose of this article, I’ll focus on how this type of close-mindedness slows the growth of society, spiritually and mentally, and how it leads to violence in the world. I’ll focus on how organized religion brainwashes it’s followers, facilitating a manner of being that hinders the personal growth of those who operate their lives, using written scripture as their guide to living.

Let’s begin with the current Presidential race happening in America. Currently, the entire GOP, aside from Ron Paul, are using their faith to recruit voters, making organized religion the focus point for their public policies and legislation. Ever since President Obama first ran for the position, and since he’s been elected, the Republican party has tried to discredit his religious beliefs, calling him a Muslim (as if that’s a horrible thing to be) and playing the scandal and propaganda cards to entice the American public to not trust him.  Because Barack Obama’s family relocated to Indonesia while he was in elementary school and was enrolled in a Muslim school for a short time there, his Christian faith has been treated as, nothing short of, a farce.  During his first presidential campaign, Obama attended the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where pastor Jeremiah Wright came under fire for his controversial statements during his sermons. Here are a few excerpts from one of Wright’s sermons, entitled “Confusing God and Government”:

“The government lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq being a threat to the United States peace. And guess what else? If they don’t find them some weapons of mass destruction, they gonna do just like the LAPD, and plant the some weapons of mass destruction. Governments lie.”

“[The United States] government lied about their belief that all men were created equal. The truth is they believed that all white men were created equal. The truth is they did not even believe that white women were created equal, in creation nor civilization. The government had to pass an amendment to the Constitution to get white women the vote. Then the government had to pass an equal rights amendment to get equal protection under the law for women. The government still thinks a woman has no rights over her own body, and between Uncle Clarence who sexually harassed Anita Hill, and a closeted Klan court, that is a throwback to the 19th century, handpicked by Daddy Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, between Clarence and that stacked court, they are about to undo Roe vs. Wade, just like they are about to un-do affirmative action. The government lied in its founding documents and the government is still lying today. Governments lie.”

During the 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright came under such enormous media fire over these comments, simply because the Republican and Democratic incumbents running against Obama decided to use these statements by Wright to prove that Obama was unpatriotic, lied about his religious beliefs, and was planning to destroy America with some sinister agenda he’d probably cooked up with middle eastern Muslims.  The American people were forced to figure out which were lies and which were propaganda, therefore, hindering our ability to really know who it is we’re voting for. In other words, they played on the American terrorism fears, in order to sway votes, using organized religion to do so.  This kind of “play” on American fears has been heavily used since 9/11, which is sick in itself, but to use God to do it is even more repulsive.

Women’s rights are also constantly under attack by the overly religious groups throughout America. Ever since the formation of our government by the Founding Fathers of the United States, organized religion has been used to try and deny equal rights to women.  Although the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights were all drafted and signed in the 1700′s, it wasn’t until 1904 when women even got the right to vote.  Those who tried to deny a woman’s right to vote were all heavily involved in their religious faith and operating on the basis of those beliefs.  First of all, why would anybody follow a religion that denies the fact that women are just as equal as human beings as men?  Do we not both have brains, hearts, bodies, needs, contribute something valuable to society, etc?  The only significant difference between men and women are their physical bodies, with women usually being the physically weaker sex, but that should never be used as a reason to claim that God thinks women are less-than and should have less rights, or respect, than men. Native Americans, you know, the ones who were here before the white man, believe that women are superior to men, simply because they are the “carriers of human life”, meaning they can bear children.  For Native Americans, women are held to the highest esteem.

Take a look at what The National’s John Derbyshire, a conservative, religious Republican, thinks about womens suffrage.  It should be noted that Derbyshire was fired from The National for his views.  An excerpt from his 2009 interview with Alan Colmes:

DERBYSHIRE: Among the hopes that I do not realistically nurse is the hope that female suffrage will be repealed. But I’ll say this – if it were to be, I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep.

COLMES: We’d be a better country if women didn’t vote?

DERBYSHIRE: Probably. Don’t you think so?

COLMES: No, I do not think so whatsoever.

DERBYSHIRE: Come on Alan. Come clean here [laughing].

COLMES: We would be a better country? John Derbyshire making the statement, we would be a better country if women did not vote.

DERBYSHIRE: Yeah, probably.

Today, we have the latest Presidential race happening in America and the GOP side is full of over-zealous bible pounders, all trying to turn this country back to the dark ages, with respect to women’s rights. Let’s begin with Republican candidate Rick Santorum who, went on FOX News last month to defend his position on the Blunt amendment, which would have allowed employers to deny contraception and other health coverage for moral reasons.  Here is Santorum, in his own words:

“I’m reflecting the views of the church that I believe in,” he said. “We used to be tolerant of those beliefs. I guess now when you have beliefs that are consistent with the church, somehow, now you’re out of the mainstream, and that to me is a pretty sad situation when you can’t have personal held beliefs. But that’s not the issue — the issue is whether the government can force you to do things that are against your conscience, and that’s what we’ve been talking about on the road. We haven’t been talking about my own personal beliefs.”

Santorum’s statement is a great example of someone using their religious beliefs to control public policy. First of all, the government does not force people to use, or not use, birth control, so how does denying employer coverage for birth control NOT control those rights, especially when using religious morals as a reason for doing so?  Second of all, who determined that being a religious person was mainstream? The only people that want it to be mainstream are those that insist on forcing everyone to live by morals believed to be supported by some religious sect.  How is this “Freedom of Religion”, and how hypocritical is it to call the United States a free nation when our only choices during election season want to control everything we do, including our reproductive rights?

Rick Santorum, along with Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich have all used their religious beliefs to push public policy, thereby alienating the rest of society, instead of bringing a nation together, when we seem to need it so badly.

Although women’s rights are constantly under attack by religious groups, they are not the only people who risk having their human rights denied by those groups.  The GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered) communities throughout the nation have been the main target of the GOP, and never quite get the backing they’re promised by Democratic parties, usually because of pressure from their adversaries and because they want to remain in office, so Democrats just don’t rock the boat enough.  When does it become more important to allow fellow human beings to have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts as it is for a politician to get him/herself re-elected?  Here is an example of how President Obama has skidded around on his personal views of gay marriage, depending on the political climate at the time and what he was trying to accomplish, which is his election to office.  Taken from The Republic, a timeline of Obama’s views on gay marriage:

• 1998 – When asked if he believed the government should recognize same-sex marriage, Obama said he was ‘Undecided”
• 2004 - Obama mentions the religious dimension of the gay marriage debate, says he supports civil unions, and indicates that his stance is dictated in large part by political strategy
  • Obama: I think that marriage, in the minds of a lot of voters, has a religious connotation. I know that’s true in the African-American community, for example. And if you asked people, ‘should gay and lesbian people have the same rights to transfer property, and visit hospitals, and et cetera,’ they would say, ‘absolutely.’ And then if you talk about, ‘should they get married?’, then suddenly…
  • WCT: There are more than 1,000 federal benefits that come with marriage. Looking back in the 1960s and inter-racial marriage, the polls showed people against that as well.
  • Obama: Since I’m a product of an interracial marriage, I’m very keenly aware of …
  • WCT: But you think, strategically, gay marriage isn’t going to happen so you won’t support it at this time?
  • Obama: What I’m saying is that strategically, I think we can get civil unions passed. I think we can get SB 101 [which would add “sexual orientation” to Illinois’s non-discrimination laws] passed. I think that to the extent that we can get the rights, I’m less concerned about the name.”
• 2006 – Obama releases his book,  The Audacity of Hope, and makes the following statement about religion and gay marriage:
  • For many practicing Christians, the inability to compromise may apply to gay marriage. I find such a position troublesome, particularly in a society in which Christian men and women have been known to engage in adultery or other violations of their faith without civil penalty. I believe that American society can choose to carve out a special place for the union of a man and a woman as the unit of child rearing most common to every culture. I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights no such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount. …The heightened focus on marriage is a distraction from other, attainable measures to prevent discrimination and gays and lesbians. (pp. 222-3)

As of today, it is unclear as to whether or not Obama will step forward and support real gay marriage, the same kind the heterosexuals have.  According to recent reports that Obama campaign officials have held discussions with leading Democrats over the possibility that the President will come out for gay marriage before the election. There’s a simmering controversy over whether marriage equality language will be included in the party platform at the convention, which could increase pressure on Obama to complete his evolution on the issue.

Lastly, I believe this article could not be complete without touching on the subject of organized religion and the American education system. There have been major debates happening for decades about including prayer in public schools and whether or not we should have to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in elementary school. Without getting into a rant on the psychological effects this kind of conditioning can have on a young person, let’s talk about why the debate is even happening.

In America we’re supposed to have the right to raise our children with whatever beliefs we feel are appropriate for those children. Each parent has this right, provided their methods are not abusive. Up until the 1960′s, most of mainstream America went to school, stood up beside their desks, placed their hands blindly over their chests, and recited their pledge of allegiance to the United States, affirming that we are “one nation, under God” and being “indivisible”, without even questioning what they were doing.  Parents went along with it, and so did educators. Am I the only one who sees the problem with being forced to pledge allegiance to a country you are too young to understand, then brainwashing those young people to believe that, by everyone believing in God and following the teachings of the bible, we are indivisible?  There are entirely too many people in this country for that to be realistic, let alone truthful.

The bottom line here is that we are a national ‘melting pot’ of diverse races, cultures, and beliefs.  That is what this country was built on, the pride of being a nation that would welcome immigrants from all over the world and show them how to have a better life in America. Instead of this, we’ve glorified slavery, gone through the horribly barbaric civil rights era of the 1960′s, women have had to march by the thousands for equal pay and personal rights, and we’re always involved in some kind of greed-fueled war that’s costing this country trillions of dollars that we cannot afford to spend anymore.  What’s worse, each time we are faced with cultural and worldly crises, organized religion is always at the root of the issue.

Organized religion facilitates hate, intolerance, ignorance, self-righteous behavior, and war.  When one takes the time to stop and pay attention to what is happening to today’s American people, sees the kind of suffering and pain they are going through because of the power struggle between those who push organized religion and those who don’t, it is not hard to see that people in this nation need so much healing from what they’ve been forced to live through and deal with as a result of it all.  When one type of religious belief does not apply to us, yet is forced on us, it leads to a person feeling shamed and unworthy of being accepted by their peers. This is basic psychology, folks. Today’s culture is changing, the new generation is coming out into the adult world and most of them do not follow organized religion.  Most of them are getting in touch with their own personal spirituality, not trying to convert others to think and believe as they do, but are facilitating tolerance.  Much can be learned from today’s generation and it will be interesting to see how the face of organized religion and politics changes over the next few decades.  Until then, we all must learn to have respect and tolerance for those who are not just like us, those with beliefs that are different from our own.  Until we do that, nothing will improve.  It is time for Americans to enlighten themselves, to evolve, and to grow.  Holding on to antique beliefs and morals no longer fits this society.  The sooner our political and religious leaders realize this, the better off the Unites States will be.