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An Open Letter to the Christian Right
By Robert Weitzel
I am writing to you because you are my last hope.
Let's understand each other. I am an atheist. I believe that if all fundamentalist religions disappeared tomorrow, we would be in a better place the day after. That said, I think it's possible for atheists and the Christian right to put aside our mutual antipathy and join in common cause to protect the sanctity of human life.
The idea for this unlikely collaboration came from a recent New York Times op-ed piece written by James Dobson of Focus on the Family. He wrote about a meeting in Salt Lake City at which he and fifty other Christian right leaders voted unanimously to join in supporting a minor-party candidate "if neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life . . .."
In the 35 years since Roe v. Wade made abortion legal, your side has been tireless, some would say ruthless, in the defense of the sanctity of potential life. Along the way, you have acquired the clout that makes politicians ask, "How high?"
No more than a cursory glance at your accomplishments is sufficient to convince the most skeptical atheist of your worth as an ally.
You have succeeded—in many states—in dismantling reproductive rights in all but name. Your muscle has pushed politicians to pass legislation allowing health care providers to refuse a patient legal services related to abortion, sterilization, and other forms of contraception. Even in cases of rape and incest, you have supported laws that allow medical personnel to refuse victims access to emergency contraception for religious reasons.
You have been successful in replacing comprehensive sex education programs in public schools with faith-based, platitude-laden, abstinence-only programs, which study after study have shown to be ineffective, if not counter-productive. More to the point, you have convinced the government to fund these religious programs exclusively.
By far your biggest success to date has been cowing the Bush administration into recognizing the "rights" of a blastocyst—a mass of undifferentiated cells—over those of human beings suffering from Alzheimer's or spinal cord injuries or any number of diseases whose treatment and ultimate cure may be enhanced by stem cell research.
In your battle to protect the sanctity of life, you have often triumphed where reason and basic humanity would have dictated otherwise. Now you have the opportunity to use your considerable clout to accomplish something that any reasonable, humane person would consider categorically good, though we'll need to tweak your no compromise definition of life to include postpartum humans of all ages and races and nationalities to be successful.
What I am proposing is nothing less than a constitutional amendment. We'll call it the "conscience clause"— think rape victim and emergency contraception and religious beliefs.
It reads as follows:
Amendment XXVIII
Section 2. Citizens of the United States shall have the right to allocate their tax dollars to government agencies proportionately as their conscience dictates.
To get a visual of the impact this amendment could have, go to the interactive tax chart at www.nationalpriorities.org. If you paid $15,000 in federal taxes last year, $4080 was dedicated to the destruction of human life, $675 to education, $390 to nutrition programs, $225 to environmental protection, and $285 to housing. Now, reallocate your tax dollars according to your conscience.
This "conscience clause" amendment will allow the American people to decide our national priorities. If we choose life, we will pay for it. If we choose death, we will pay for it. Either way, the credit or the blame for our priorities will rest squarely on our heads. We will no longer be able to hide our culpability in a corrupted political process.
My question and my challenge then: can Atheists and Fundamentalists put aside our significant differences and work together to protect the sanctity of all human life?
I have to be honest here. I need you guys. You know how to get things done.
If you're on board, we'll need to act quickly and decisively. Every indication is that the "faith-based" administration you've supported these last seven years is about to expend more of our gold and our children's lives on a new round of bloodletting in Iran.
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97% of what I heard...was anti-abortion.
no mention of the death penalty...(where society, collectively, take a life)...
no mention of war...(where citizens, collectively, participate in killing the innocent, with the quilty)...
no mention about justice for the handicapped...
a brief mention of opposition to euthanasia...
no mention about violence inflicted on others...
no mention about justice for the oppressed...
no mention of respect for the poor...
there are new edicts from Rome...about health care professionals were siners, excommunication, etc...for participating in reproductive services (ie pharmicists dispensing of The Pill).
no mention to selling out, for political reasons, those who favor capital punishment, abandoning the poor, the week, the truly dependent, or who favor not only war, but, esentially, genocide.
"mind your own fucking business and quit pushing your ideology onto everyone else"
You don't like abortion? ...you're free to NOT have one.
You don't like condoms? ...you're free to NOT use one.
You don't like condoms given to your children?...you're free to teach your child to refuse
and to NOT use one.
You want the rapture to come so jesus will return?...great, pack up everything and move to the holy land. You're free to do that.
You ARE NOT free to kill millions of people
with your ignorance and hypocrisy. Sorry, there are just some things that humans should not be free to do. Hurting others is one.
But please, leave the rest of us out of your nightmare.
I wish you luck in you endeavor to link up with the God fearing Christian Right to prevent all that killing. Trouble is Christianity has never been big on the respect for life. They have a poor manual for guidance, the Bible; full of death and mayhem, participated, and encourage by Yahweh. Thus their history is full of slaughter, and burning, and so on. I wish you luck, if you really want to find some allies, best to give that lot a miss, stick with the atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, you know, people who have compassion.
Mike
Lets first discuss the carnage in mayhem, in the "old testament"
The people Yahweh wanted annihilated are explicitly labeled as so evil that they burned their own children as sacrifices. Yeah, they deserved to live right?
Secondly, the new testament lacks all carnage and mayhem.
The bible also states that we will be judged in heaven. Now, those people, if not killed by God's people, would continue to live horrible, evil lives right?
Now, if they continued, wouldn't their punishment be that much worse? So their deaths could be looked at in a merciful way?
Secondly, every religion has it's problem followers, but the prospect of Christianity is perfect! Christianity, unlike some other religions, was formed under the sword, it's followers raped, violated, burned, soaked in burning oil, and crucified. Islam however, was formed by Crusades. Regardless, idiots have used Christianity for stupid reasons, like the Catholicism's crusades.
And guys, we can't do morals by society's conscience. What if society said rape was ok? Somebody explain when a situation like that would be ever ok.
Once again, Christianity has it's own problem followers, but there are people who are absolutely amazing.
By the way, I was reading a study about how religion affected social values, and lack of it reduced those values. So I don't think an atheistic society would help anybody.
Just my 2 cents.
Islam however, was formed by Crusades. Regardless, idiots have used Christianity for stupid reasons, like the Catholicism's crusades.
Crusade happened much later in Islam history. Every religion has been subject to cruelty at first. Christianity is not an exception.
Thanks for backing up my argument.
Theres Yahweh's Flood,
and the First Born genocide. Barely scratches the surface. That which thought ALL into being, can surely unthink those not wanted out of existence. Who said that these people were so evil that they had to be killed, smash babies on rocks rip pregnant women asunder, Yahweh? Like I said I don't think I like Yahweh.
In the New Testament there is a lot of death in Revelations.
The Christian right supports Bush, fits perfectly with what I have written about slaughter.
Did he (Bush)not veto a health bill for children, perfect!
Oh! One other thing, is the God of the New Testament the same God as the Old Testament.
Mike
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