NO TIME FOR RELIGION

My personal beliefs intrude. My intolerance and total incredulity are showing. I read that there is a meeting of prominent Christian Conservative convening in New York. Of principal concern is the takeover of Washington by the forces of the anti-Christ, specifically left-leaning Democrats.

I confess my own bias. As a total unbeliever I have trouble reconciling my sense of fairness with my sense that fraudulent science lurks behind the extremes of theology. How, I have always wondered, does being a “Christian” imply belief in less government, lower taxes, and intolerance of anyone who disagrees?

Setting aside the reality that there is little room for civilized discussion on matter like “Choice” and same-sex marriage, because the “Christian” people (I put the quotes there because these extremists have seized what they think is a monopoly on the title) are as firm in their beliefs as I am in mine. My intolerance stems from the unalterable fact that my beliefs are based on scientific and human reality, theirs seem entirely based on what they call “faith,” suggesting that only their version of faith is the True Faith. Which means that mine, which exalts the primacy of man and of the measurable achievements of man – is not?

From the conference comes this tired old dogma: “Sexual relations outside the marital bond are contrary not only to the will of God but to the good of man. Indeed, they are contrary to the will of God precisely because they are against the good of man.”
My question is: who decided that the “good” of man is? But I don’t even want to argue definitions. I can argue that the presence of same-sex marriage does not in any way cast a pall over traditional man-woman-make-babies marriage. The great majority of couples are man and woman. Heterosexual people will continue to marry, and most of them will have children. They will, in the view of the conservative Christian, be fulfilling their role as defined by god. So here we go again. It all comes down, not to human understanding, but to entrenched dogma.

By the way, did anyone else, except Jews, complain that Pius XII might be headed for sainthood - the man who was complicit in issuing Vatican passports to thousands of Nazis who fled to Argentina and Paraguay at the end of the war.

So much for deeply held “belief” and “faith.”