Soapbox

Debunking the Bunk

    "The world's worst persecution complexes belong to the persecutors"
                                                                                         ~Tweet Of God

I'm so so tired of hearing the same bogus arguments used to justify the awful, backward legislation being proposed all around the country to allow people to discriminate against anyone who doesn't comply with their religious worldview.
    All this pious talk of freedom of religion is of course nothing more than xenophobic entitlement and hate hiding behind a bible, but social conservatives repeat these excuses ad nauseum.
   There are two "go to" accusations used to prop up their oppressive agenda: here is a modest attempt to push back, and unpack the logical fallacy.

#1 Our religious freedom is under attack!

   This is a huge, all-purpose gripe, also used to excuse denying a woman access to insurance coverage for contraception if her bosses religion forbids it, and to let pharmacists refuse to give medication that they find religiously objectionable— to people who do not share their religion.
    From a biblical standpoint it is hogwash, because it implies that your pure faith would somehow be tainted by simply doing business (aka Your damn job!) with someone with different beliefs.
    Have you people ever read that New Testament thing? Because when I read it, Jesus Christ was always running around eating with and talking to and even healing people whom the religious authorities of his time assured him were unclean and unworthy. The Pharisees got offended and said Christ should refuse to 'do his job' with them. He did it anyway and informed them that God his Father was, in fact, just fine with that.
   Ah, but there is so much of the bible that gets abandoned by people using the Bible to justify what they're doing. So lets' move on to the legal/constitutional reason why they are full of hot air and martyr's tears.

Here are things that might happen if religious freedoms were actually under attack:

  * Amish people would be required to buy cars and use electricity.
  * Kids would not be allowed to attend Young Life after school, and parochial schools would be shut down.
  * Divorcees would not be allowed to re-marry.
  * Street preachers would be forbidden from waving their bibles and shouting that we're all going to hell for fornicating or drinking or not being born again.
  * You could get a ticket for believing in Creation or decorating your nursery with Noah's Ark.
  * Your boss could force you to use birth control.
  * You could be denied a job if it was known that you attended a church- or attended the wrong church.
  * Your church would be required to perform same-sex marriages… or interracial marriages, or interfaith marriages, or marriages between divorcees, or whatever type of marriage your church currently has the right to refuse to perform.
  * The entire Westboro Baptist church would be in jail  and you could be punished for standing up and saying that homosexuality is an abomination.

    If and when ANY of those things happen, I personally will be right alongside you protesting, because brothers and sisters, you have the right to believe whatever jack-up s**t you choose to believe, and to make your life choices accordingly. No one can tell you what to believe, or (as long as you aren't hurting others) how you must live.
There is no law against hating people and blaming it on Jesus.

     But simply telling you that you cannot force other people to live as if they follow your religion or punish them (by withholding services you provide to everyone else) if they do not– sorry. That's not an attack on your religion.
      That's called "Living in A Democratic Society".
   See, unless you live in a cabin in the wilderness, we all must make some accommodation to the various people we share this society with. You do not have to live like them or think like they do, or even respect them! But you DO have to treat them the way you treat everyone else.
    I, for example, cannot refuse to do business with a customer who walks in wearing a confederate flag shirt, or one with a threatening NRA slogan, even though my fervently held religious beliefs include peace and equality. That doesn't infringe on my rights: I do not have to be a bigot  or own guns myself, but I must rent those people a hotel room or serve them a meal, just as I do the people with whom I agree.

#2  We have to protect traditional marriage!
 
    Oh Wow- is someone trying to unmarry you and your spouse?
    Seriously- what's going on? To need protection, traditional marriage must be under attack, so… how are you being attacked?
    In states where same-sex marriage is allowed, are heterosexual marriage licenses being rationed now? Are you forced to get married in secret and pretend that you are not a couple,  not allowed to list your husband/wife on your death certificate as your spouse?
     Are you discouraged from getting married, told that yours is not a 'real' marriage? Do people try to talk you into getting therapy to discourage you from joining in such a strange union?
    Or perhaps heterosexual marriage is like Tinkerbell, and the fewer people who believe in it, the weaker it becomes until one day- poof!- straight couples will just wander away from each other forever?
No?
No. Of course not.
    Straight marriage is no more under attack from gay marriage than me eating chocolate ice cream attacks your vanilla cone.
Not taking the same life path as you in NO way blocks or damages your path.

    You folks speak as if there are a limited number of marriages available in the world and the gays are going to hog them all and soon there won't be any left for straight people.  Do you hear how whiney and silly you sound? The gays are coming for my family!! Grow up and stop talking like a 4 year old who needs a nap.

    Marriages are not like cookies. There are plenty to go around for everyone, in all varieties: straight and same-sex marriages, open marriages, inter-racial and interfaith marriages, angry marriages, loving marriages, childless marriages and quiver-full marriages, cathedral marriages and court house marriages, sudden marriages and year-long betrothal marriages. What a wonderful world, huh?

.   I pity you for the weakness of conviction and fear that drives you to try to make the whole world in your image. The world must be a scary place for you, with all us weirdos in it. But people with other beliefs are not attacking you by simply not agreeing with you.
    In fact, by trying to legalize discrimination against those who do not conform to your world view, YOU are the ones doing the attacking! So knock it off.