Quote of the Day: Dan Savage on the Fallibility of the Bible

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In the image above, Dan Savage asks an important question.  It's a question that ultimately goes to the heart of religious based bigotry against LGBT individuals and our rights.  Namely, if the Bible was so wrong on the issue of slavery, how can it be deemed trustworthy on anything else? It also means that if the Bible is wrong about sexuality and sexual orientation, it becomes pretty clear that NONE of it is really reliable and that causes the Christianists' whole house of cards faith construct to collapse.  Which in turn means that they (i) must think for themselves rather than being told like children, and (ii) formulate their own moral standards.  This prospect scares the living crap out of them and they attack gays because we are living examples of their false and artificial world.

The Fear Basis of Fundamentalist Religion

(Above: Victim of the attack on the gay youth center)

Readers of this blog know that I am no fan of Christian fundamentalists who in my opinion not only betray the Gospel message of Christ but also limit God to conform to the mindless, check off the box belief system that they and their fundamentalist forebears have constructed. Contemplating the recent attack on the LGBT teen center in Tel Aviv - which some are blaming on ultra-orthodox Jews and their message of hatred towards gays - and events in Iran what struck me is that all three religious fundamentalist groups, be they Christian, Muslim or Jewish, have the same basis: fear and hatred of those who are differen. Added to that is a contempt for modernity, and in the final analysis very weak faith on the part of the fundamentalists. I say they have weak faith because they cannot tolerate anything or anyone who challenges their fragile belief system construct. They fear people and things - like modern knowledge - that might raise questions in their minds or the minds of their children that just perhaps their fundamentalist beliefs are wrong. Combined with that is a fear/hate of those who live their lives openly as who they are and accepting a God/Allah that is not a limited vengeful being. Indeed, at times I think they want everyone else to be as miserable and unhappy as they are in their own lives so that they can more easily beat back the doubts that subconsciously creep into their minds.

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All three of these religious belief systems base their beliefs on writings that track back to centuries before modern knowledge of the scope and size of the universe, the complexities of the human body and mind, the germ theory of disease and a host of other matters. Yet all three religious groups resist acknowledging the limitations that are therefore inherent in their sacred texts and/or that a literal reading of the same is unwarranted. They are fearful - terrified in fact - that the beliefs they have clung to and in many cases have sacrificed their individual happiness for may not be true. Rather than admit doubt and the failings of the human authors of the sacred texts, they reject knowledge, denigrate others, disseminate blatant untruths, and even commit murder - as may well have been the case in Tel Aviv. And in this process, they become the antithesis of what their alleged religions are intended to represent.

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Fundamentalist Christians, Islamists and ultra-orthodox Jews all hold a similar contempt for freedom of religion for others and ultimately democracy. They all seek theocracies and the subjugation of other citizens to their house of cards religious belief system so that no one can call into question the veracity of their beliefs. Behind all of it is fear. And hatred of those who are different because they fuel the flames of doubt that the religious adherents so desperately seek to beat back. Fear and hatred become their true God/Allah.

Christian Fear Or Christian Love?

Andrew Sullivan has a post with the caption set forth above and it deals with the fact that the faith of most Christianists is defined by fear and/or who is excluded and hated. It is a far cry from the example of Christ in the Gospels who condemned the self-satisfied and self-righteous who liked to define others as sinners and/or unworthy. Check out the websites of organizations like Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, etc., and what is the most stark is that these organizations hate and demonize all who are not far right white evangelical Christians. Historically, the Roman Catholic Church is not much better. Growing up, there was constant emphasis of "us" Catholics versus them, the Protestants. Here are some highlights:

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"Civil marriage for all; religious marriage for all who want to supplement it with God's grace. Why is that so hard for some people of faith to grasp? Why are their marriages defined not by the virtues they sustain but the people they exclude?"

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Because -- as you well know -- their faiths themselves are defined by the people they exclude: the unbelievers, the unsaved (or let's be blunt: the "damned"), the always-demonized Other: without that division, that exclusion, their entire theology, indeed their entire worldview, collapses. . . . And why? Because despite their fine words, and their closely-guarded self-images, the actual and real ruling principle of their lives and their theology is fear, not love.

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Everything flows from that original orientation, that original choice (because it is, finally, a choice). For them, to be inclusive is to expose themselves to what they fear; and what they fear most is summarized in their mythology of hell and eternal damnation: an eternal torture of body, mind, soul and spirit administered by an angry, vengeful, psychopathic god. It is all pure projection.

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And irony of ironies, it is precisely the opposite of the message the Christian Savior tried to bring: that salvation is found only through love, through inclusion, through openness of mind and heart and spirit, through, ultimately, trust -- that this world, with all its difficulties and pain and imperfections, built through evolution, and including endless Others, is as it should be, as it was intended to be.