For the most part, contemporary organized religion--not just Islamic terrorism or militarism-- is a scourge that imperils 21st Century global civilization more than ever before in history. Lunatic religious zealots--and I include some of our own leaders--have never before had the technological capability to blast us all into oblivion. And it is for that reason that I find the response of so many secular--democratic and otherwise--governments to religious influence and demands to be so illogical, so outrageous and so frightening. Who will ignite the Third and final World War? Hindus? Muslims? Jews? Christians? With a Huckabee in the White House, I would very much fear the Christian bomb more than any Islamic bomb.
What's this got to do with homosexuality, you ask? Nothing and everything.
Homosexuality is the red herring strategically played to destroy democracy. And while some fear the impact of anarchy and Islamic fundamentalism on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, I say we should be much more fearful of the impact of Christian fundamentalism on our own arsenal.
Free nations can say no to religion. They're doing it in the EU. Latin America and in the other "civilized" North American nation. So what's our problem? Why are American politicians so cowed by the God factor?
The future of this planet, the survival of our species and the spread of nurturing civilization will grow out of secular humanism and the containment of superstition and a belief in the supernatural. It won't happen the other way around. And it is exactly the other way around that seems to be prevailing in too many places, especially our own nation.
When you consider the millions of innocent lives around the globe and throughout history that have ended tragically, brutally and senselessly as a result of organized religion and when you consider the millions of refugees who fled to these shores over the past 400 hundred years to escape persecution, oppression and slaughter at the hands of organized religion, you must wonder how and why in 2008 we can so ignore facts and the repeated lessons of history and allow organized religion to define politics, culture and civilized behavior in a modern democracy. It defies logic, sense and the supposed human survival instinct.
Some would say that religion is also about love, compassion, tolerance, mercy and peace. For a small minority that is clearly the case, but for the vast majority that is a saccharine cover story.
And be very clear that I am not speaking of an individual's right to spirituality as a private matter. I do not force my sexual tastes on others; if I did it would constitute sexual abuse and even rape. I wish the same restrictions were placed on religion. Do what you want in the privacy of your own space involving consenting adults but leave the rest of us alone.
Your religious beliefs end where my freedoms begin. No exceptions. The Constitution tells me so.
You also need to wonder how decent, intelligent democratically elected officials sworn to uphold constitutional law can so easily be bullied and guilted into putting the irrational views of organized religion before constitutional law and the very core principles of democracy.
The latest manifestation of this spreading insanity comes from Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico's governor said Wednesday he would not block a referendum to toughen a ban on same-sex marriage in the U.S. island territory even though he believes the proposed constitutional amendment is unnecessary and divisive.
Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila told reporters he would sign the bill authorizing a May referendum if the measure gets the required two-thirds majority of votes in the island's House of Representatives. It has already passed in the Senate.
Acevedo claims that he told the leaders of an association of 2,300 Puerto Rican churches, the Pentecostal Brotherhood, that "the people [of Puerto Rico] need more agendas that unite them rather than divide them." And then he told them that he would support this religion driven initiative to deny constitutional rights to American citizens.
Why? For God's sake, why?! Why is the governor of Puerto Rico afraid to stand by the constitution that he is sworn to uphold?
Resolution 99, as the measure is known, would amend the Puerto Rican constitution to establish that marriage is between a man and woman and that no other types of unions could be recognized as a marriage. It would make it harder in the future to allow civil unions or grant marital rights to unmarried couples.
Critics of the proposal, including the governor, argue the amendment is wrong. Many argue that it is discriminatory.
But what religion wants in American culture, religion gets and with each grab, our future grows bleaker and the Constitution of the United States grows weaker; and one day it may be nothing more than a piece of paper blowing in the wind.
It may seem far-fetched to associate the religious crusade against civil rights with the threat of nuclear holocaust, but if you fear the reality of nuclear arms in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists in control of various nations, you would be a fool not to fear the same of nations under the control of Christian fundamentalists.
Institutionalizing constitutional discrimination against even one group of American citizens will open a flood gate that will surely wash away our democracy. It's an obvious truth and one must wonder why it is not so for so many of our political leaders.
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