Imagine There Is No Heaven
Why is it that we can only talk about religious doctrine and influence, as long as that conversation is 'approved' and PC?
We asked ourselves that question and others, after reading posts by The Anchoress and Melanie Phillips.
Everyone admired Mother Teresa, her work and the values she stood for. Every major city and community has hospitals and social services that are administered by various religious organizations and various religious orders and denominations. History and experience have taught us that religious orders and groups are toil away and extend themselves without question or favor. We are so accustomed to that kind of selfless behavior that we have come to expect nothing less.
We have always admired the communal work of religious groups and even we have modeled secular social services after those of religious institutions. Nevertheless, the moment a religious organization make known their opinion on some matters, there is indignation and outrage at 'religious meddling.'
Religious groups are held to a different standard, one where society cannot tolerate or abide religious input into the conversation on those matters that influence society as a whole. There can be 'moderate' left, a 'moderate' right, but religious people are marginalized because of their faith.
Of course, everyone is welcome to to have an opinion that is critical of religion and that seems to be very true. That said, most critics of religion and religious faith aren't exactly credible authorities when it comes to religion. Little or no knowledge of religion or religious doctrine and teachings have never been an impediment or prerequisite to religion bashing. As we noted before,
Don't tell us what you believe or you feel. You are irrelevant to someone who has studied for years and has experience in the field. Have an opinion on religion? That's nice. Are you a theologian? Can you spell Deuteronomy? I didn't think so.
Religious people are expected to be 'understanding' and tolerate 'artistic' depictions that insult faith and God. Crucifixes in urine, crucifixes smeared with feces are no more than an individuals right to self expression. Christian ideas are subject to ridicule and even hate. Some religious doctrine is openly rejected in college classrooms, subject to 'criticism,' by agenda based educators. There is no pretense to fairness or understanding, no airing of ideas to generate discussions that have spanned centuries of philosophical debate. Our classrooms and culture are replete with angst filled literature and art whose entire theme is one of breaking the shackles of religious faith, or of illustrating the hypocrisy of faith.
Religion and faith can be chastised at will. State the obvious truth that behavior can mitigate the AIDS disaster, for example and you become a homophobic bigot.
Of course, all that only applies to Christians, and to a lesser extent, Jews. Advocate the desecration of the Bible, and it's art. Advocate the desecration of the Quran and it's racism. Talk about the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and it's symptomatic of the 'rot within.' Talk about the (many, many times) larger sexual abuse of women and children in Islamic countries and we need to sensitize ourselves to 'cultural differences.' Talk about FGM, well, no one cares. Indeed, if Amnesty International really cared (see this and this), the outrage over FGM would drown out every other conversation. Apparently, 100 million mutilated women and children aren't important enough for Amnesty- or anyone else, for that matter. Then again, maybe it's because caring about FGM won't get you on TV or quoted in the NYT.
Imagine there is no Heaven.
Imagine a world in which religious people finally 'saw the light' and abandoned their beliefs and behaved in the same manner as their non religious neighbors. Do you think a secular Mother Teresa would have existed, doing her work for decades, before garnering public attention? Do you imagine private hospitals might have been founded by groups that weren't religious, would have lasted for decades, depending on the largesse of non religious contributors rather than government aid?
Where are they? Of course there are non religious people who do wonderful and outstanding work, day in and day out, and that is a wonderful thing. And for every one of them, there are a hundred people of faith that do the same.
Here's another truth. Religious groups of all stripes feed millions of people a day, all over the world because if they didn't, people would die. The choice has been made- government funded productions of the Vagina Monologues or feeding the poor. Good thing religious institutions are there to pick up the slack.
A while back, if we recall correctly, Maxed Out Mama had a post on 'Women's Studies' programs funded by a university. It was an eye popping post.
In a perfect world, there would be no double standards and no unequal expectations.
Nevertheless, there are unequal standards and there are more than a few expectations in the very flawed world we live in- and we are all the poorer for it.
Portions of this post have been previously posted.
We asked ourselves that question and others, after reading posts by The Anchoress and Melanie Phillips.
Everyone admired Mother Teresa, her work and the values she stood for. Every major city and community has hospitals and social services that are administered by various religious organizations and various religious orders and denominations. History and experience have taught us that religious orders and groups are toil away and extend themselves without question or favor. We are so accustomed to that kind of selfless behavior that we have come to expect nothing less.
We have always admired the communal work of religious groups and even we have modeled secular social services after those of religious institutions. Nevertheless, the moment a religious organization make known their opinion on some matters, there is indignation and outrage at 'religious meddling.'
Religious groups are held to a different standard, one where society cannot tolerate or abide religious input into the conversation on those matters that influence society as a whole. There can be 'moderate' left, a 'moderate' right, but religious people are marginalized because of their faith.
Of course, everyone is welcome to to have an opinion that is critical of religion and that seems to be very true. That said, most critics of religion and religious faith aren't exactly credible authorities when it comes to religion. Little or no knowledge of religion or religious doctrine and teachings have never been an impediment or prerequisite to religion bashing. As we noted before,
Don't tell us what you believe or you feel. You are irrelevant to someone who has studied for years and has experience in the field. Have an opinion on religion? That's nice. Are you a theologian? Can you spell Deuteronomy? I didn't think so.
Religious people are expected to be 'understanding' and tolerate 'artistic' depictions that insult faith and God. Crucifixes in urine, crucifixes smeared with feces are no more than an individuals right to self expression. Christian ideas are subject to ridicule and even hate. Some religious doctrine is openly rejected in college classrooms, subject to 'criticism,' by agenda based educators. There is no pretense to fairness or understanding, no airing of ideas to generate discussions that have spanned centuries of philosophical debate. Our classrooms and culture are replete with angst filled literature and art whose entire theme is one of breaking the shackles of religious faith, or of illustrating the hypocrisy of faith.
Religion and faith can be chastised at will. State the obvious truth that behavior can mitigate the AIDS disaster, for example and you become a homophobic bigot.
Of course, all that only applies to Christians, and to a lesser extent, Jews. Advocate the desecration of the Bible, and it's art. Advocate the desecration of the Quran and it's racism. Talk about the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and it's symptomatic of the 'rot within.' Talk about the (many, many times) larger sexual abuse of women and children in Islamic countries and we need to sensitize ourselves to 'cultural differences.' Talk about FGM, well, no one cares. Indeed, if Amnesty International really cared (see this and this), the outrage over FGM would drown out every other conversation. Apparently, 100 million mutilated women and children aren't important enough for Amnesty- or anyone else, for that matter. Then again, maybe it's because caring about FGM won't get you on TV or quoted in the NYT.
Imagine there is no Heaven.
Imagine a world in which religious people finally 'saw the light' and abandoned their beliefs and behaved in the same manner as their non religious neighbors. Do you think a secular Mother Teresa would have existed, doing her work for decades, before garnering public attention? Do you imagine private hospitals might have been founded by groups that weren't religious, would have lasted for decades, depending on the largesse of non religious contributors rather than government aid?
Where are they? Of course there are non religious people who do wonderful and outstanding work, day in and day out, and that is a wonderful thing. And for every one of them, there are a hundred people of faith that do the same.
Here's another truth. Religious groups of all stripes feed millions of people a day, all over the world because if they didn't, people would die. The choice has been made- government funded productions of the Vagina Monologues or feeding the poor. Good thing religious institutions are there to pick up the slack.
A while back, if we recall correctly, Maxed Out Mama had a post on 'Women's Studies' programs funded by a university. It was an eye popping post.
In a perfect world, there would be no double standards and no unequal expectations.
Nevertheless, there are unequal standards and there are more than a few expectations in the very flawed world we live in- and we are all the poorer for it.
Portions of this post have been previously posted.
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