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Not a politically correct post
Nov. 6th, 2008 10:01 pmSo, we liberal leftie types are supposed to tolerate difference, and accept individuality and yadda yadda. Well, I think we mostly do try. But after this Proposition 8 thing - and actually, I'm not a person who is interested in fighting for gay marriage, per se - it's time to point the finger and say that tolerating difference is fine up until the point that others start to impinge on our lives.
I hate what the LDS church is doing. I dislike the Mormon hierarchy and most of their doctrines. I think their interference in politics is dangerous, unethical and frankly revolting. There are plenty of people around who hate the Scientologists and what they do. Ok, they prey on vulnerable people, run questionable programmes, and try and scalp lots of money off the gullible. This is pretty much in common with plenty of religious/cult practice. As far as I know, however, they do not interfere in national politics, except to try and protect their tax-free status by maintaining they are a religion, and using copyright law to censor people.
I think the LDS, Catholic and Open Brethren (the latter, especially in the antipodes) churches are some of the more pernicious influences in the political landscape. They demand all the privileges of their status as religious bodies, while using their special influence on people's lives to attempt to direct their political choices. While demanding those legal privileges, they do their best to avoid any areas of the law of the land (taxes, anti-discrimination legislation, etc) that don't suit them, because, really, they only answer to a superior Law (the one that they invented).
They have a dangerous ethos that is like the Bush/Monroe Doctrine of ethics - we feel threatened, so we will invade your privacy and your rights, and we will do our best to create law that supports our particular line of moral judgement. It disgusts me and angers me.
I know people who are Catholic, and Mormon, and even a former Open Brethren. Most of them are decent people who say "live and let live", even if they don't precisely approve of my lifestyle. That's fine. I don't need their approval, I need their non-interference (where my life doesn't impact on theirs). What I don't understand is how such decent people can support institutions that go out of their way to interfere in my life. I don't know how they can revere the individuals who run these institutions and who make the decisions to invade my domain.
I know some of their members are "fighting from within" to achieve change (and look at the changes in the Anglican church over these last 30 years) - but now, in the present, regarding that vast majority in such institutions who support their political aims, tithe, attend services and cheer the hatred, and who then go along to the ballot box, just as their pastor has told them, and vote to take away our rights... right now, they disgust me. I don't ask for their acceptance, support or love. I want to live my life. I would love to be tolerant and say that I will be happy to let them live theirs. But when a prime focus of these churches, the Catholic, the Mormon, the Brethren, and many others, seems to be to deny me the right to live my life, then, I'm afraid, my tolerance for the quirks of others, and my tolerance of their living their lives at the expense of mine, disappears without a trace.
There are some words by Oliver Wendell Holmes that these churches could do to remember (in non-gendered language):
The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins.
If we swap "fist" with "unmandated political influence", and "nose" with "life", the analogy is obvious. In sum, butt the fuck out, and I will accord the same courtesy in return.
I hate what the LDS church is doing. I dislike the Mormon hierarchy and most of their doctrines. I think their interference in politics is dangerous, unethical and frankly revolting. There are plenty of people around who hate the Scientologists and what they do. Ok, they prey on vulnerable people, run questionable programmes, and try and scalp lots of money off the gullible. This is pretty much in common with plenty of religious/cult practice. As far as I know, however, they do not interfere in national politics, except to try and protect their tax-free status by maintaining they are a religion, and using copyright law to censor people.
I think the LDS, Catholic and Open Brethren (the latter, especially in the antipodes) churches are some of the more pernicious influences in the political landscape. They demand all the privileges of their status as religious bodies, while using their special influence on people's lives to attempt to direct their political choices. While demanding those legal privileges, they do their best to avoid any areas of the law of the land (taxes, anti-discrimination legislation, etc) that don't suit them, because, really, they only answer to a superior Law (the one that they invented).
They have a dangerous ethos that is like the Bush/Monroe Doctrine of ethics - we feel threatened, so we will invade your privacy and your rights, and we will do our best to create law that supports our particular line of moral judgement. It disgusts me and angers me.
I know people who are Catholic, and Mormon, and even a former Open Brethren. Most of them are decent people who say "live and let live", even if they don't precisely approve of my lifestyle. That's fine. I don't need their approval, I need their non-interference (where my life doesn't impact on theirs). What I don't understand is how such decent people can support institutions that go out of their way to interfere in my life. I don't know how they can revere the individuals who run these institutions and who make the decisions to invade my domain.
I know some of their members are "fighting from within" to achieve change (and look at the changes in the Anglican church over these last 30 years) - but now, in the present, regarding that vast majority in such institutions who support their political aims, tithe, attend services and cheer the hatred, and who then go along to the ballot box, just as their pastor has told them, and vote to take away our rights... right now, they disgust me. I don't ask for their acceptance, support or love. I want to live my life. I would love to be tolerant and say that I will be happy to let them live theirs. But when a prime focus of these churches, the Catholic, the Mormon, the Brethren, and many others, seems to be to deny me the right to live my life, then, I'm afraid, my tolerance for the quirks of others, and my tolerance of their living their lives at the expense of mine, disappears without a trace.
There are some words by Oliver Wendell Holmes that these churches could do to remember (in non-gendered language):
The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins.
If we swap "fist" with "unmandated political influence", and "nose" with "life", the analogy is obvious. In sum, butt the fuck out, and I will accord the same courtesy in return.
