I was attempting to discuss religion and abortion with this anti-abortion person over at
Commonwealth Commonsense
but it was typical of all such discussions: pointless. It was hard to say whether his religious understanding or his logic was more unsound. And I was thinking of the old saying about not teaching a pig to sing-- it wastes your time and annoys the pig. So maybe, I sez to myself, I should give up.
But then I thought "Screw that. The pig's going to sing if I have anything to do with it."
What I mean is, we have ceded religion to the right for way too long. fanatics on the right think they own religion, and they are making a hash of it, and I am on a mission to neutralize this weapon.
Now, I am not really a religious person, but religious belief fascinates me. Door to door missionaries tend to get invited into my house (or sometimes they catch me weeding the garden and I ask them to hunker down beside me to chat). I just want to know what they believe, why they believe it, where it comes from, how it all fits together, how it makes the world work better for them. Quite a few of them are very nice people. I don't see any conversion in my future--and I always make this clear--but why pass up the chance to learn something?
I enjoy these moments and I generally respect religious belief. However, I cannot respect the religious right and its perversion of Christianity, any more than I can respect Osama Bin Ladin's cooption of Islam to support his terrorism. And I do mean perversion; these people spout fanaticism and hate, hidden under a religious mantle for the sake of legitimacy.
So anyway, I was discussing abortion with this person over on Bob's blog, and this person was doing something that is really annoying: he was insisting on strict Biblical interpretations when it came to the part of the Bible he likes, yet insisted that the parts he found inconvenient didn't need to be interpreted so strictly. (He also misinterpreted everything I said; it had to be on purpose because nobody is that dumb.) And he alluded to Bible verses but couldn't cite chapter and verse, and he misinterpreted what he quoted, and he wouldn't tell me what denomination of Christianity he gets this all from, all of which makes me think that his religious pose is a sham he uses to push his misogynistic, anti-family, anti-choice agenda. It's like Bush, claiming God and never going to church.
So I have a new mission; I want to find all the Biblical ammo I can to support the liberal agenda. All the verses about helping the poor, sharing, loving each other, all the verses that talk about not judging, etc. Everything anti-greed and love thy neighbor and no coveting allowed. We have gotten really good at fact checking their claims; I want to do the same thing with their use of any sacred texts. We need to stop this abuse of religion; it is one of the right's most effective weapons-- just look at Islamic terrorists to see what happens if it goes unchecked.
So I am fishing for ideas. Anyone?