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What She Should Have Said
Religious Fundamentalists are amazing in their ability to believe things that are completely contradictory to the teachings of Jesus Christ. In truth, more amazing is their inability to even see that their beliefs are contradictory. I might respect someone who says "I know this runs against the teachings of Jesus, but I believe it any way." But that isn't what they do.
Hillary Clinton has gotten into a little trouble for not openly stating that homosexuality is a sin (for the conservatives), or not a sin (for the rest of us).
This from CNN:
- H. Clinton: "Well, I'm going to leave that to others to conclude," she said.
Later, of course, she recanted, came to her senses and said that "I do not think homosexuality is immoral."
All of this commenced with General Peter Pace stating in the Chicago Tribune:
Now, I'm destined to be accused of being some crazy liberal (fair enough) but according to the teachings of Christ I can easliy make the argument that Pace is one of the most evil and sinful men on the planet. Consider this, he is the commander of an army that knowingly went to war over false-pretenses, falsified intelligence, blah, blah, blah and is one of those directly resposible for the death of 500,000+ innocent Iraqis. How would Jesus feel about that? It's one thing to defend yourself, your family, or your country. But to be the aggressor? Hmmm. So my question is this, who is this guy to call others immoral?
All of this of misses the point about who should be asking these questions in the first place. According to the teachings of Christ we are all born in sin and don't have the right to judge others. Remember Jesus' Golden Rule: love thy neighbor as thyself. Where is that amongst the Rightwing thinking? How can a group that professes to be followers of Christ be filled with so much hatred - toward any group? In Galilee their vaunted savior hung out with the dregs of society - lepers, whores, thieves, murderers - to the dismay of his disciples. Have the Fundamentalists progressed so far that what was good for their savior no longer applies to them?
Ahhh, and there it is (again). Fundamentalists aren't followers of Jesus' teachings. They are, quite simply, just religious people. The Bible is the worst book written on morality because you can find justification for any hatred under the sun - slavery, murder, mass murder, gay bashing, etc. Religious people know this and find solace in it. They can always find something in black and white to justify their hatred. But Jesus asked more of them. He asked that they live a spiritual life open to all, accepting of all - a much more difficult task. Why work so hard to be a good human when you can point to the bible and say "see, I'm supposed to hate you. God does!"
Back to Hillary and gays in the military. If she had really wanted to shut up the Fundamentalists using their own tools she could have simply said, "I believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and therefore it is not my place to judge others. But it is my job as a U.S. Senator to protect everyone's right to believe what they will and to pursue their own happiness. It is my job to make certain that no group is discriminated against."
Which means, of course, that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is absurd in that the constitution should preclude its need entirely.
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