Blog Against Theocracy II
Since the "Blog Against Theocracy" blogswarm started on Friday, some have questioned the sensitivity of engaging in what they see as "christian bashing" at the holiest time in the christian year. But this misses the point -- the blogswarm isn't about opposition to christianity, it's about opposition to the influence of religion on public policy. As the dominant religion in western society, christianity can and does exert innappropriate influence on government.
Being a christian is not diametrically opposed to being against theocratic principles. Any christian who believes in religious freedom should be opposed to the imposition of their faith on government. Moderate christians recognize that religious freedom includes freedom from religion, and a society where law is influenced by religion doesn't have that option. For all their whining about persecution, in aggressively pushing government to promote religiously-influenced policies, the "christian right" bears more responsibility than anyone for the restriction of religious freedom.
In fact, the "christianists" have done a major disservice to their own faith by trying to force it on government. This is why so many people respond negatively to religion -- moderate voices are all but drowned out by the shrill, judgmental and idiotic bleating of the Falwells, Dobsons and Donohues. Don't believe in gay marriage? Then don't marry a same-sex partner. Believe life starts at conception? Then you may want to consider other choices than abortion. Don't want your kids to learn about evolution? Keep them out of science class (but be prepared to deal with the results -- medical school might not be an option). Nobody is forcing religious people to act against their beliefs. But believing something doesn't make it so, certainly not by any legal or scientific definition, and it certainly doesn't give one the right to force those beliefs on others. That's what "blogging against theocracy" is about.
As a sidebar, I find it interesting that the 2 posts I've done for Blog Against Theocracy have been the least profane and most respectful of anything I've ever written on a subject that's a constant source of annoyance and frustration to me. Maybe it's because reading the blogswarm posts I've discovered there are a lot of very cool christians out there whose voices are unfortunately seldom heard. We could be onto something here.
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