I have tried to back up every statement of fact that I make. For the most part, I have linked to respected unbiased organizations and news sites and resisted posting to blogs and advocacy groups, and when I couldn't find an original source, I tried to state that. That doesn't mean I always did; sometimes an advocacy group has a much better presentation of facts in a format that is easy to read and understand. You can judge for yourself the legitimacy of the information, but remember: you are always entitled to your own opinion, but you are never entitled to your own facts.
Republicans are usually considered the "Pro-Life" party. They certainly are anti-choice, though of course there are a few pro-choice Republicans and more than a few anti-choice Democrats (remember Bart Stupak?) But as a national party, the GOP takes a strong stand against abortion, and accomplished many legislative victories across the country, while for the most part, Democrats aren't nearly as committed. Oh, they say they're for reproductive freedom, and there are Democrats in both state and federal legislatures that fight for choice, but they don't have near the amount of victories (just an impressive string of failures) or passion as their Republican opponents.
But are Republicans really Pro-Life? I decided to take a look at the newly approved party platform. You can read the entire platform here. I will be quoting the relevant bits.
Showing posts with label christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christianity. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Religiously Motivated Child Absue
This is an OLD post (about 5 years, now) that I pulled from the blog I kept back then.* It's still, unfortunately, quite relevent.
[Trigger Warning: Descriptions of Child Abuse--ESPECIALLY in the linked articles.]
I strongly recommend giving at least a quick glance at the series dogemperor has put together over on DailyKos about religiously motivated child abuse (Part One, Part Two, Part Three). As someone who is a survivor** of this type of environment, I'm always amazed when people don't know about the culture of violence that many, many children are brought up in. Like all survivors of child abuse, people who grow up in households with religious child abuse believe (for the most part) that what they went through is normal...and, worse than that, they believe the abuse is justified by being a Christian, that they deserved it. If they are unable to get help and healing, they may start their own family believing that such abuse is the only way to truly raise good Christian children, and the cycle continues.
I think it is especially important for people to be aware of how isolated children in conservative Christian families can become. Because parents are justifiably afraid that teachers and doctors will report child abuse (or, as these folks call it, "discipline"), kids are pulled out of public and even private schools, and sent to pediatricians who are dominionist Christians. While my parents weren't so extreme, many children I went to church with never encountered a non-Christian in a meaningful way. They were homeschooled, played sports with Christian groups, went to church (and were pulled out of the youth group when non-Christian kids began to attend), were not allowed to participate in outreach activities, only saw Christian doctors, and were always under the watchful eye of their parents or a trusted, like-minded adult.
So, folks, when you see your neighbor abusing his or her child, don't assume that a trusted adult will catch it. For many kids, that may be the case: they'll see teachers, doctors, and coaches, all of whom are mandatory reporters (though there are news reports every day about how these stop-gap messures fail). Children raised in these very conservative, quiverfull-type homes, may never see an adult they can trust. Call in suspected abuse. You can do it anonymously. Better safe than sorry, and while a visit from a social worker can suck, annoying an innocent parent is a hell of a lot better than allowing a guilty parent to continue to torture their child in the name of God.
And that's today's PSA.
* I changed this a bit in the repost. I wrote it back in 2007, when I was still a very committed Christian. At the time, I took great pains to say that this type of abuse is against Christian values, and no true Christian would abuse their child like that. I've since changed my opinion on this, and while their brand of Christianity still seems like a perversion of the faith I was brought up in, I realize that they have just as much biblical justification for thier position as I ever did, such behavior is perfectly in line with a certain type of Christianity.
** My parents (my father especially) were quite abusive during my early years. I don't think they were abusive out of malice, but out of ignorance. They followed books like "Dare to Discipline" and the advice of older Christians who insisted that beating us would make us obedient kids. (Honestly, if anything I would say that it made us a lot angrier.) We were hit with metal spoons, slapped, pinched, forced to stand straight up (not leaning against a wall) for over an hour (and spanked if we leaned or sat down), left in dark rooms, and humiliated in public (that was and remains a favorite tool for dominionist Christians in like-minded settings...public humiliation and spanking of children in church is not uncommon).
My mother, around the time I was eight or nine, realized that what she was doing was wrong, and stopped. She said that it was because she heard God telling her that their behavior was wrong. It was a brave step: she ignored the advice of everyone around her (including the pastor) to do what she felt was right. (Of course, I think that "still small voice" was her innate empathy and consience rather than the voice of God, but that's not an argument I can win.) She's since apologized to me, and that relationship has been more than healed. I recognize that I'm lucky in that respect. My father, likewise, stopped his abuse. He had an anger management problem (like a lot of cops) and was also raised in a very physically abusive environment (his mother used to hold his head under the bath water if he mis-behaved, among other things). So he took a step back from being the disciplinarian until he got that under control. My parents got a lot of flack because my dad didn't take the active roll in discipline, which other church members considered to be his job as the spiritual leader of the family. But he couldn't trust himself to discipline without it becoming abuse, so he did the right thing by stopping. By the time my youngest brother came along, my parents no longer used physical discipline at all, having discovered that other ways of parenting worked much better, and didn't violate their ethics. (Or, my mom would say, they started following God's direction in discipline. BLECH.)
I've forgiven both my parents, and I have a good relationship with them, but some scars can never be erased, and that's why I'm so passionate about this issue.
[Trigger Warning: Descriptions of Child Abuse--ESPECIALLY in the linked articles.]
I strongly recommend giving at least a quick glance at the series dogemperor has put together over on DailyKos about religiously motivated child abuse (Part One, Part Two, Part Three). As someone who is a survivor** of this type of environment, I'm always amazed when people don't know about the culture of violence that many, many children are brought up in. Like all survivors of child abuse, people who grow up in households with religious child abuse believe (for the most part) that what they went through is normal...and, worse than that, they believe the abuse is justified by being a Christian, that they deserved it. If they are unable to get help and healing, they may start their own family believing that such abuse is the only way to truly raise good Christian children, and the cycle continues.
I think it is especially important for people to be aware of how isolated children in conservative Christian families can become. Because parents are justifiably afraid that teachers and doctors will report child abuse (or, as these folks call it, "discipline"), kids are pulled out of public and even private schools, and sent to pediatricians who are dominionist Christians. While my parents weren't so extreme, many children I went to church with never encountered a non-Christian in a meaningful way. They were homeschooled, played sports with Christian groups, went to church (and were pulled out of the youth group when non-Christian kids began to attend), were not allowed to participate in outreach activities, only saw Christian doctors, and were always under the watchful eye of their parents or a trusted, like-minded adult.
So, folks, when you see your neighbor abusing his or her child, don't assume that a trusted adult will catch it. For many kids, that may be the case: they'll see teachers, doctors, and coaches, all of whom are mandatory reporters (though there are news reports every day about how these stop-gap messures fail). Children raised in these very conservative, quiverfull-type homes, may never see an adult they can trust. Call in suspected abuse. You can do it anonymously. Better safe than sorry, and while a visit from a social worker can suck, annoying an innocent parent is a hell of a lot better than allowing a guilty parent to continue to torture their child in the name of God.
And that's today's PSA.
* I changed this a bit in the repost. I wrote it back in 2007, when I was still a very committed Christian. At the time, I took great pains to say that this type of abuse is against Christian values, and no true Christian would abuse their child like that. I've since changed my opinion on this, and while their brand of Christianity still seems like a perversion of the faith I was brought up in, I realize that they have just as much biblical justification for thier position as I ever did, such behavior is perfectly in line with a certain type of Christianity.
** My parents (my father especially) were quite abusive during my early years. I don't think they were abusive out of malice, but out of ignorance. They followed books like "Dare to Discipline" and the advice of older Christians who insisted that beating us would make us obedient kids. (Honestly, if anything I would say that it made us a lot angrier.) We were hit with metal spoons, slapped, pinched, forced to stand straight up (not leaning against a wall) for over an hour (and spanked if we leaned or sat down), left in dark rooms, and humiliated in public (that was and remains a favorite tool for dominionist Christians in like-minded settings...public humiliation and spanking of children in church is not uncommon).
My mother, around the time I was eight or nine, realized that what she was doing was wrong, and stopped. She said that it was because she heard God telling her that their behavior was wrong. It was a brave step: she ignored the advice of everyone around her (including the pastor) to do what she felt was right. (Of course, I think that "still small voice" was her innate empathy and consience rather than the voice of God, but that's not an argument I can win.) She's since apologized to me, and that relationship has been more than healed. I recognize that I'm lucky in that respect. My father, likewise, stopped his abuse. He had an anger management problem (like a lot of cops) and was also raised in a very physically abusive environment (his mother used to hold his head under the bath water if he mis-behaved, among other things). So he took a step back from being the disciplinarian until he got that under control. My parents got a lot of flack because my dad didn't take the active roll in discipline, which other church members considered to be his job as the spiritual leader of the family. But he couldn't trust himself to discipline without it becoming abuse, so he did the right thing by stopping. By the time my youngest brother came along, my parents no longer used physical discipline at all, having discovered that other ways of parenting worked much better, and didn't violate their ethics. (Or, my mom would say, they started following God's direction in discipline. BLECH.)
I've forgiven both my parents, and I have a good relationship with them, but some scars can never be erased, and that's why I'm so passionate about this issue.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Hating God
Since being out as an atheist, I have been accused many times of hating God.
No matter how many times I explain that it’s rather impossible to hate someone
that I believe doesn’t exist, the same allegation still comes up, many times by
the same person. Maybe there are people who honestly can’t comprehend that
some people just truly don’t believe in a god, and view my stated disbelief as a
sort of rebellion, a childish way of lashing back at God out of anger. They cannot conceive of never believing, because in their mind God is as real to them as the air they breathe, so it's impossible to accept actual disbelief from others.
(Unfortunately, they don’t take this far enough to examine why I might be angry with God if that were the case…usually I’m told some variation of “you want to sin without feeling bad about it” or “you’re angry that God doesn’t give you everything you wanted.” These are both wildly inaccurate, and make me look like a petulant teenager, which might be why some believers I've encountered are so dismissive and condescending towards me. I want to explore both of these in more detail later, so stick a pin in them. Right now, all I can say is that this characterization is just plain wrong. For more insight, you can read a little about why I no longer believe in God.)
I also think that there are some believers who confuse my hatred of the atrocities of religion, and my hatred of how some believers treat other people, as a hatred for God. And while it would be too strong to say I hate religion, because I do think that good things have come out of religions (maybe in spite of the religion itself), I do hate irrationality, intolerance, cruelty, evil, and the many, many other negative effects that religions have had on our world. (I don’t have the time for a total overview; that would take a book, many books. The best book I know on the subject and one I recommend everyone read, religious, atheist, or indifferent, is: Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless
.)
Yesterday, however, I came the closest I've ever come to truly hating God.
(Unfortunately, they don’t take this far enough to examine why I might be angry with God if that were the case…usually I’m told some variation of “you want to sin without feeling bad about it” or “you’re angry that God doesn’t give you everything you wanted.” These are both wildly inaccurate, and make me look like a petulant teenager, which might be why some believers I've encountered are so dismissive and condescending towards me. I want to explore both of these in more detail later, so stick a pin in them. Right now, all I can say is that this characterization is just plain wrong. For more insight, you can read a little about why I no longer believe in God.)
I also think that there are some believers who confuse my hatred of the atrocities of religion, and my hatred of how some believers treat other people, as a hatred for God. And while it would be too strong to say I hate religion, because I do think that good things have come out of religions (maybe in spite of the religion itself), I do hate irrationality, intolerance, cruelty, evil, and the many, many other negative effects that religions have had on our world. (I don’t have the time for a total overview; that would take a book, many books. The best book I know on the subject and one I recommend everyone read, religious, atheist, or indifferent, is: Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless
.)
Yesterday, however, I came the closest I've ever come to truly hating God.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
God Saved Me?
This is a repost of something I posted on facebook.
I need to talk about something that is deeply upsetting and problematic to me, but I'm afraid that it's going to offend people that I care about. So let me state up front that offending people is not at all my intention.
A year and a half ago, I nearly died. That's not hyperbole; it's fact. It took three emergency surgeries before the doctor believed I even had a hope of surviving, but for the first couple days, my loved ones were told that there was a good chance I wasn't going to make it. In fact, if I had been older, not in good health otherwise, or were it three years ago (before the technology used to save my life was invented), they wouldn't have even attempted to save me. I would have died.
Almost immediately, I was told in one way or another, "God saved your life."
To which I have to respond: "I don't have the words to convey how offensive that is."
(Let me try to find the words.)
I need to talk about something that is deeply upsetting and problematic to me, but I'm afraid that it's going to offend people that I care about. So let me state up front that offending people is not at all my intention.
A year and a half ago, I nearly died. That's not hyperbole; it's fact. It took three emergency surgeries before the doctor believed I even had a hope of surviving, but for the first couple days, my loved ones were told that there was a good chance I wasn't going to make it. In fact, if I had been older, not in good health otherwise, or were it three years ago (before the technology used to save my life was invented), they wouldn't have even attempted to save me. I would have died.
Almost immediately, I was told in one way or another, "God saved your life."
To which I have to respond: "I don't have the words to convey how offensive that is."
(Let me try to find the words.)
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Why I Don't Belive in God
It wasn’t because of a tragedy.
It had nothing to do with those who call themselves followers of Christ, and yet do evil.
It’s not youthful rebellion, or a way to get back at my parents. (Note: I mean, it's really, really not. My biggest regret about losing my faith is the hurt it causes my folks. I get really fucking tired of this assertion.)
It wasn’t because I wanted carte blanche to run my life as I wanted.
It wasn’t because I wanted to be different.
It wasn’t because I wanted to cause trouble.
It wasn’t something I went looking for.
And when I finally accepted it, it was with deep reluctance, and I still wished there was some way to go back.
It had nothing to do with those who call themselves followers of Christ, and yet do evil.
It’s not youthful rebellion, or a way to get back at my parents. (Note: I mean, it's really, really not. My biggest regret about losing my faith is the hurt it causes my folks. I get really fucking tired of this assertion.)
It wasn’t because I wanted carte blanche to run my life as I wanted.
It wasn’t because I wanted to be different.
It wasn’t because I wanted to cause trouble.
It wasn’t something I went looking for.
And when I finally accepted it, it was with deep reluctance, and I still wished there was some way to go back.
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