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The Religious Right Plays the Victim

A Humanist View

The Religious Right Plays the Victim

Hopefully a time will come where people can believe what they want to believe without telling others what they should believe or how they must behave.

By Roy Speckhardt, May 08, 2012

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said, "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." Former Supreme Court Justice Holmes had some curious ideas, but this one was on the mark—as was his disregard for ancient texts and divine revelation—for it is basic to our understanding of justice that we don't have a right to harm others. You can get arrested if you do. Nor do we have a right to limit others' freedom. That's why it's also illegal to keep people in place against their will, or deny people employment based on their ethnicity, gender, and other irrelevant factors. When we're trying to convince people of our position, we can't force them to concur, we can only try and make a persuasive argument. Everyone knows this, right?

Not everyone. The Religious Right regularly tries to force others to comply with their own limited concepts of morality. We've seen these groups railing against contraceptive coverage provisions for employers and opposing same-sex marriage and gender equality, all the while trying to claim that their religious liberty is being limited. It takes tortured logic to see it from their perspective, but the Christian right has played the victim card in their attempts to impose their views on the rest of us. While the Religious Right cries foul, who is really hurt by their sectarian policies?

To read the rest of this article on Patheos, click here.

Tags: Birth control, Contraceptives, Equality, Freedom, Oliver wendell holmes, Religious right, Same-sex marriage, Supreme court, Victim card

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on May 9, 2012 at 1:28pm

Brian, powerful statement. I agree. Many religious people persecute those who don't bow down to their god. The church community rescues child molesters with little or no rebuke or consequence. Religious communities play the victim when challenged with their nonsense.

One article lists top five anti-gay ministers accused of being homosexual and then prays for their redemption. Some of them say "Mistakes were made!" Notice the passive voice. Could they not say "I made a mistake," or "We are wrong in not making child molestation known," or "We failed to protect children abused by our church leaders who are known child molesters" ?

http://newsone.com/780135/top-5-anti-gay-ministers-accused-of-being...,

1. John Geoghan, a convicted child molester, murdered by a white supremacist. "His church had paid $10 million to settle 84 complaints against him. He had been tried and convicted in the criminal case. He had admitted, to a psychiatrist, that he had fondled children since the early 1960s, and that he was still sexually attracted to little boys. Yet he carried himself as an innocent."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/12/01/...

2. Paul Crouch, a man and wife with strong conviction and charismatic qualities to those unwilling and unable to think critically. "I say, ‘Get out of God’s way, quit blocking God’s bridges (Apparently, he defines God’s bridges as the One World Church and ecumenism.); or God is going to shoot you if I don’t.’"

~Paul Crouch

http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/crouch_confused_world.htm

I returned to the site of the list to complete out the list of five, and the page is no longer there. HMMMMM!

"Top 5 anti-gay ministers accused of being homosexual" Well, you get the picture

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