Kellie Powell (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} wednesdayview) wrote,@ 2006-04-24 15:14:00 |
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Freedom of religion means freedom from religion
I am one of millions of people in America who were not raised in the traditions of any particular faith. As a child, I went to any church and every church, attending mass or Sunday school or the bar mitzvah of anyone who invited me. My roommate summed it up nicely: I slept around with religions. She, on the other hand, is currently separated from Catholicism and thinking about seeing other churches. I’ve never felt like I was missing anything by not belonging to one specific church. I know what I believe, and my beliefs comfort me and help me through the hard times in my life. But this column is not about what I believe. What I believe about God(s), sin, and what happens after we die is no one’s business but mine. If someone asks me, I will tell them, but I feel it would be wrong for me to cram my beliefs down anyone else’s throat, especially in this public forum – a public newspaper for a public university.
There is a time and place for religious discussion. My personal preference is three in the morning, on a futon, drinking wine, but any private place where all parties involved can feel comfortable is fine. But right now in America, religious evangelism is taking place where it does not belong. The uber-conservatives are on a mission to turn America into a Christian theocracy by any means necessary. They are determined to eliminate anything they perceive as “sinful” without any regard for the civil liberties or well-being of this country’s many non-Christians.
There is a faction of America that, instead of learning from the world’s oppressive fascist theocracies, is trying to re-create the 1950s by emulating the most ass-backwards among them – Saudi Arabia, anyone?
This country cannot legislate morality, no matter how much Pat Buchanan and Jerry Falwell would like it to. And even if it could, we wouldn’t want it to. It would turn our leaders into fascists and replaces liberty with fundamentalism.
How did we get to a point where evangelism is free speech, but dissent is treason? And more importantly, why can’t anyone understand how dangerous this is for our nation?
Evangelism is a dangerous thing. Evangelism comes from the arrogant, judgmental, intolerant belief that everyone who doesn’t agree with you needs to be “saved.” I’m sure evangelists mean well. I’m sure they rationalize their behavior as an attempt to reach out to others who are different than they are. But every action they take displays the fact that they are not interested in a dialogue, and they are not interested in listening. Whether an evangelist is preaching fire and brimstone on the Quad, or cornering people in elevators to ask, “Do you agree with Kyle? Well, why not?” their intent is the same: To eliminate all perspectives but their own.
Evangelism may recruit a few more members to a religion. But it makes that religion seem judgmental and intolerant.
Being religious does not mean you have to persecute, mock, or try to persuade and intimidate others into your line of thinking. There are plenty of religious faiths and spiritual organizations that welcome and support all views.
According to the Unitarian Universalist Association, “Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion - that is, a religion that keeps an open mind to the religious questions people have struggled with in all times and places. We believe that personal experience, conscience and reason should be the final authorities in religion, and that in the end religious authority lies not in a book or person or institution, but in ourselves.”
There’s the United Church of Christ, whose advertisement for their organization that has been censored by numerous broadcast and cable networks. In the now famous-on-the-Internet “ejector ad,” a series of people – an Arabic man, a single woman with a child, and a gay couple – are ejected from their seats by an unseen party. Text then appears on the screen: “God doesn’t reject people. Neither do we.”
We’re living in a bizarre time, if this message of acceptance, tolerance, and inclusiveness can been called “too controversial” to air.
I am asking everyone reading this column to accept one simple thesis: There is wisdom to be found in any religion.
Can’t we all find our own path, and let others do the same, without mockery, persecution or intimidation?
The Wicca faith has one rule: “Do what thou wilt, lest thou harm none.”
Sounds kinda like, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” doesn’t it?
I am one of millions of people in America who were not raised in the traditions of any particular faith. As a child, I went to any church and every church, attending mass or Sunday school or the bar mitzvah of anyone who invited me. My roommate summed it up nicely: I slept around with religions. She, on the other hand, is currently separated from Catholicism and thinking about seeing other churches. I’ve never felt like I was missing anything by not belonging to one specific church. I know what I believe, and my beliefs comfort me and help me through the hard times in my life. But this column is not about what I believe. What I believe about God(s), sin, and what happens after we die is no one’s business but mine. If someone asks me, I will tell them, but I feel it would be wrong for me to cram my beliefs down anyone else’s throat, especially in this public forum – a public newspaper for a public university.
There is a time and place for religious discussion. My personal preference is three in the morning, on a futon, drinking wine, but any private place where all parties involved can feel comfortable is fine. But right now in America, religious evangelism is taking place where it does not belong. The uber-conservatives are on a mission to turn America into a Christian theocracy by any means necessary. They are determined to eliminate anything they perceive as “sinful” without any regard for the civil liberties or well-being of this country’s many non-Christians.
There is a faction of America that, instead of learning from the world’s oppressive fascist theocracies, is trying to re-create the 1950s by emulating the most ass-backwards among them – Saudi Arabia, anyone?
This country cannot legislate morality, no matter how much Pat Buchanan and Jerry Falwell would like it to. And even if it could, we wouldn’t want it to. It would turn our leaders into fascists and replaces liberty with fundamentalism.
How did we get to a point where evangelism is free speech, but dissent is treason? And more importantly, why can’t anyone understand how dangerous this is for our nation?
Evangelism is a dangerous thing. Evangelism comes from the arrogant, judgmental, intolerant belief that everyone who doesn’t agree with you needs to be “saved.” I’m sure evangelists mean well. I’m sure they rationalize their behavior as an attempt to reach out to others who are different than they are. But every action they take displays the fact that they are not interested in a dialogue, and they are not interested in listening. Whether an evangelist is preaching fire and brimstone on the Quad, or cornering people in elevators to ask, “Do you agree with Kyle? Well, why not?” their intent is the same: To eliminate all perspectives but their own.
Evangelism may recruit a few more members to a religion. But it makes that religion seem judgmental and intolerant.
Being religious does not mean you have to persecute, mock, or try to persuade and intimidate others into your line of thinking. There are plenty of religious faiths and spiritual organizations that welcome and support all views.
According to the Unitarian Universalist Association, “Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion - that is, a religion that keeps an open mind to the religious questions people have struggled with in all times and places. We believe that personal experience, conscience and reason should be the final authorities in religion, and that in the end religious authority lies not in a book or person or institution, but in ourselves.”
There’s the United Church of Christ, whose advertisement for their organization that has been censored by numerous broadcast and cable networks. In the now famous-on-the-Internet “ejector ad,” a series of people – an Arabic man, a single woman with a child, and a gay couple – are ejected from their seats by an unseen party. Text then appears on the screen: “God doesn’t reject people. Neither do we.”
We’re living in a bizarre time, if this message of acceptance, tolerance, and inclusiveness can been called “too controversial” to air.
I am asking everyone reading this column to accept one simple thesis: There is wisdom to be found in any religion.
Can’t we all find our own path, and let others do the same, without mockery, persecution or intimidation?
The Wicca faith has one rule: “Do what thou wilt, lest thou harm none.”
Sounds kinda like, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” doesn’t it?
