Category: Tolerance

Blame the Church?

7/8/2012

There was a time in my life I especially remember that in which I should have said something.

I was in high school and in my English class, one of my classmates (I will call him Tex) made comments about his Christian beliefs on an almost daily basis. We were in a public school and most of the students had the patience to listen to what came off as religious dogmatism.

Others in the class hounded him, told him to shut up and jeered whenever he would start to say something. I sat there in an emotional straightjacket until one day, after class, I started crying.

I felt bad for the fact he was being picked on but did not know quite what to say in class. It took me years, but now I have constructed an imaginary dialogue which I could have started to get the class to understand Tex’s background:

Me:        Tex, where are you from?

Tex:       Texas

Me:        Are you Baptist or Methodist? (Sorry for the stereotype, but it is close to the truth)

Tex:       Baptist

Me:        Did you attend church every Sunday?

Tex:       Yes

Me:        Did everyone else in your neighborhood go?

Tex:       Yes

Me:        Did anyone ever challenge the doctrines of the church?

Tex:       I never heard of anyone doing that.

With my background of having spent several summers in Texas visiting my grandparents, I had an understanding of how most people raised in the South (and especially those who still live there) think about religious and political matters.

I could have told my classmates that people in the South devoutly believe as they do just as much as non-religious people believe. Attacking a person’s beliefs will get us nowhere. It is better to simply ask a few questions and create a dialogue. No one should be made to feel left out.

4 Comments

Homophobes Should Stop Hiding Behind the Bible

2/4/2011

3 Comments

Why does anyone condemn homosexuals?

Some point to passages in the Bible which appear to say that homosexual conduct is a sin. One such passage is 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10, which states: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

But the Bible condemns many activities as sinful. Here is a short list (courtesy of Evil Bible.com):

Kill People Who Don't Listen to Priests

    Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12)

Death for Cursing Parents

    1) If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20)

    2) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9)

Death for Adultery

    If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)

Kill People for Working on the Sabbath

    The LORD then gave these further instructions to Moses: 'Tell the people of Israel to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy. Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.' (Exodus 31:12-15)

Why do Fundamentalists single out homosexuality?

Some Fundamentalists say that their religion tells them that homosexuals are sinners and that they are exercising their free exercise rights when they publicly state this opinion. But what if someone else said that those who believe gays are sinners are homophobic and that their religion tells them to persecute homophobes? The “religious excuse” can work both ways.

It is worth noting that people used to cite the Bible in favor of slavery. Over time, slavery lost popularity when enough people could see that the Bible can be used to excuse or condemn just about anything. Sooner or later, those opposed to gays will have to stop hiding behind someone else’s words and formulate their own.

3 Comments

How a Minority Becomes a Majority

8/17/2010

2 Comments

What does it take to make a minority opinion a majority one?

A year ago Glenn Beck said that gay marriage was really about "going into churches and attacking churches... Then you also have to go into the schools."
http://www.newshounds.us/2009/04/13/glenn_becks_conspiracy_theory_about_gay_marriage_its_about_attacking_churches_and_going_into_the_schools.php

Beck also said that "I contend [marriage] is the building block of the entire universe. If the male and the female don't get together, then the whole universe collapses."

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/sex/139988/glenn_beck:_%27gay_marriage_will_make_the_universe_collapse%27/

But just a few days ago, Beck, in answering a question from Bill O'Reilly, said that gay marriage is harmless to the nation.

http://renwl.org/news/lgbt-rights/glenn-beck-says-gay-marriage-is-harmless-religious-right-goes-bananas

His recent comments came in light of a federal judge's ruling that California's Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage, was unconstitutional.

Less than twenty years ago, the right of a gay man to sue for losing his job over discrimination was hotly debated, thanks in part to the movie Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks.The issue of same-sex marriage was not discussed publicly or polled about as much.

Consider the graph shown in a recent Vanity Fair article to see the history of opinion on this topic:

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/08/is-america-mature-enough-for-this-line-graph-of-gay-marriage-poll-results.html

This shows polls of same-sex marriage since 1988.Note the steady rate of increase of those who expressed support for it (and the corresponding drop of those who oppose) to this very day, where the poll shows a near-even split.

What accounts for this shift in opinion?

Historically, changes in opinions about civil rights have come slowly.For example, in the early days of the United States, most states only gave the right to vote to white men (the Constitution did not specify who could vote at that time).Blacks did not get the constitutional right to vote until the 15th Amendment shortly after the Civil War and women not until the 19th Amendment in 1920.

Other civil rights have also gone slowly in expansion, such as the right to marry inter-racially, the right to go to a public university of one's choice and the right to serve on a jury.All of these waited until the 1960s in some states.The right to vote was extended to citizens at the age of 18 (from the previous age of 21) in 1971.And over the years, more and more states have allowed the right to adopt to gays.

This brings me back to the right of gays to marry.The inclusion of same-sex marriage to the laws appears to be the next logical step of this expansion of specific rights to people who previously did not have them.

Expanding rights, then, is a common characteristic of an opinion that go from minority to majority.What about opinions that express the opposite?

Examples include gun control, term limits for elected officials and the forbiddance of allowing children of illegal immigrants to attend public school.All of these opinions have achieved a peak in support but have since gone down in polls and in becoming laws.

Interestingly, court decisions that went against each of them.The Supreme Court ruled recently in McDonald v Chicago that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment's right to bear arms to state law.In 1995, the same court found that term limits for federal offices are unconstitutional in U.S. Term Limits Inc. v. Thornton.And the 1982 Plyler v. Doe case gave illegal immigrant children the right to attend public school unless the state can show a substantial goal in barring them.

Court decisions have undoubtedly swayed the public opinion.Even talking heads like Beck can figure out that a court decision can tell them which way the wind is blowing.

But the reason why is not necessarily because people look to the courts to guide their thoughts.Rather, the court decisions usually reflect the general rule of law that prefers the expansion of rights and general tolerance over the negating of rights to groups of people.

2 Comments

Blame the Church?

Homophobes Should Stop Hiding Behind the Bible

How a Minority Becomes a Majority

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