The way I see it, there’s nothing good going to come from allowing a minority group of small thinkers to determine big decisions for the rest of us based on their limited understanding of a topic. I bet you could still find people that think the Earth is flat, or that the Sun revolves around the Earth. Just because these people believe what they believe with all of their hearts and souls, doesn’t make their conjecture right, right?
To give another example of small-minded thinking that is not only wrong in its supposition but runs contrary to the values that it states to purport, are the assorted Religious Freedom Bills that are being proposed in various states around the country.
First we have to lay to rest this silly idea that the Christians in this country are being persecuted and that they need a special bill to “make them free”. Nothing further could be true.
Sadly, the only the example that I can give for the Christians behavior is similar to when a child tries to run across the street against the light and you grab them and keep them from being crushed by a truck. Rather than thanking you, the child screams “you don’t love me”. The child doesn’t understand that society has created rules for behavior that are for the betterment of the group, not just him.
The reality of living in Democracy or a civilized society is that not everyone gets their way all of the time. At least that’s how it used to work before this group of simple-minded politicians took office. Now the zealots are trying to claim their “religious freedoms” are being impinged on when they are required to allow others their basic civic freedoms.
According to the title, “SB 129 “Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act”; provided for the preservation of religious freedom” and was pushed through the legislature ahead of other bills more worthy of consideration. The immediacy of the bill was that “religious” shop owners needed the “right” to tell gay people to go to hell when they requested service. Perhaps, I oversimplify, but I like to cut to the quick of the matter.
People who have been taught to “love others as themselves” want to deny service to gay people because their “holier than thou” sensibilities are offended. I’m not sure how religious people resolve the “what would Jesus do?” component of this question. Maybe they’re tired of trying to do what Jesus would have done because it doesn’t feed their bigotry and homophobia. Maybe this group of “Christians” just needs to bash folks who are different in some way to feel better about themselves.
Outside of reestablishing segregation, I don’t know what the long-term purpose of this bill, and these simple-minded individuals, hope to accomplish. You can’t make gay go away. You can’t pray it away, and it won’t starve to death because you didn’t make it a wedding cake. It is the Civil Rights issue all over again with a different victim, a different face. It is quite easy to see how these types of bills can be extended to refuse service to blacks, Hispanics, anybody that didn’t pass the shop owners narrow spectrum of approved people. That’s fine if it is a private club, but, once you are open to the public, you must serve the public. A lot of people lost their lives to gain this right. We don’t need to relive this period of time again.
The overreach of the persecuted Christians has now gone to reproductive rights. Tantamount in their view of their persecution is the belief that blacks and browns will outnumber the “superior white race” and that the white Christian’s “way of life” will come to an end. I won’t get too deep into the illogical assumption that denying people the ability to control their population will somehow help reverse the demographic trend, I’ll just point out that nothing short of genocide will change the “minority” becoming the majority. I guess the “persecuted” will be ok with the genocide component. There’s probably some Bible verse that can be re imagined for their use.
I’ll leave you today with the definition of persecution from the webmd website: “The most common is delusions of persecution. It’s when you’re convinced that someone is mistreating, conspiring against, or planning to harm you or your loved one. Another type is grandiose delusions, where you have an unrealistically inflated sense of yourself or your achievements.”
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms please report them immediately to your health care provider, not your preacher. The world will be a better place.
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