5 Most Absurd, Self-Pitying Gripes of the Christian Right

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/belief/5-most-absurd-self-pitying-gripes-christian-right



***SNIP

1) The issue: Whether or not states should ban “gay conversion therapy” for minors who cannot, by definition, give their consent.

Who the right claims is being hurt: Christian parents whose supposed “freedom of religion” requires that they be allowed to try to force their kids to be straight. Matt Stave of the Liberty Counsel denounced banning this practice, calling it a “slippery slope of government infringing upon the First Amendment rights of counselors to provide, and patients to receive, counseling consistent with their religious beliefs.”

***SNIP


2) The issue: The new HHS regulations requiring insurance plans to cover, without a copay, an assorted list of preventive care, including contraception.

Who the right claims is being hurt: Religious business owners, whose “religious freedom” the right claims includes being able to deny earned benefits to employees, if they disagree with those employees personal choices. When Hobby Lobby sued to be exempted from the mandate, the suit cited the family that owns the business’s religious beliefs: “The administrative rule at issue in this case runs roughshod over the Green family’s religious beliefs, and the beliefs of millions of other Americans, by forcing them to provide health insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs and devices, as well as related education and counseling.” (“Abortion-inducing” is a bit of rightwing speak that should be translated to “pregnancy prevention”.)

***SNIP

3) The issue: Businesses and the government taking an inclusive or even secular approach to the holidays. The right objects to a wide range of inclusive or secular behaviors, from governments sticking to secular expressions of the holidays season (Santa and Christmas trees instead of nativity scenes) and businesses that stick with greetings like “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”

Who the right claims is being hurt: Christians, who are supposedly being oppressed by not having their particular faith affirmed at every turn. The fact that Christmas is included in the holidays that are supposed to be happy doesn’t matter; for some reason, Christians supposedly need special recognition. Nowadays, it’s not the holiday season without right wing media waxing on about the “ war on Christmas."

***SNIP


4) The issue: Schools leading students in prayer, whether it’s the teachers or the students offering the officially sanctioned prayer. The Supreme Court bans it all.

Who the right claims is being hurt: Religious people, and apparently all that is good and true in the world. Ronald Reagan defended school prayer in 1984 by calling bans on officially sanctioned prayer “government tyranny.” Modern religious conservatives echo the call. Creation Today blames all manner of social ills on the lack of official school prayer, saying that without it, “there is no absolute basis for morals, and a free society drifts toward anarchy.” Politicians and school officials around the country still periodically try to find ways to sneak it back in.

[unblock]

1. the core is the complete dismissal of the rights of non-christians

eventually these people will be able to defend the practices of a concentration camp as an expression of the prison owner's religious freedom.

[demwing]

2. Creepy quote: "“there is no absolute basis for morals, and a free society drifts toward anarchy.”

Copy and search Google for the quote (or just click on this link: http://tinyurl.com/mxm8mq4)

From what source did this quote originate? It's all over the damned place!

A free society drifts toward anarchy? Holy Shit, Batman, we better get rid of free societies, before the socialist anarchists do it for us!

People say the stupidest things when they stop listening to themselves.

[dembotoz]

3. good read k and r