Spurred by the monstrosity that is the Supreme Court's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, I write this post. In all my life, growing up in church, and being surrounded by Christianity 24/7 and in finding a church for myself when I moved to college to having Christian colleagues at work in my adult life, I can safely say that the majority of Christians I met all have one tremendous flaw in common: they are the epitome and the halfhearted embodiment of the phrase do as I say; not as I do. |
When it comes to society, Christians can't seem to accept tolerance. At one of the last church sermons I ever attended in high school, the preacher shouted for 20 minutes about tolerance. He communicated that he saw tolerance as a threat. "Being tolerant is synonymous with aiding and abetting," he shouted from the pulpit. "When you are tolerant, you are as good as guilty! When you are tolerant about another person's sin, well, you might was well have committed the act yourself." From all around me, heads bobbed, men around the auditorium shouted their "That's right!" or "Amen"'s with hearty gusto, all ingesting his words as if they were honey-dipped truffles.
Here's the catch 22 and my biggest problem with Christianity today: Christians want, need, demand and manipulate everything so that everyone is tolerant of them and their religion. They wouldn't have it any other way. Christians push and push and push against something, no matter what it is is, insistent that everyone squint and squabble until they too see it through the goggles of Christianity. That's no holds barred, dogged determination. It's brilliant. Good on them for having that level of devotion.
It becomes a problem, however, when Christians are put in a situation when they need to be tolerant of people who believe differently from them. That's when the majority of them become petulant two year olds, insouciantly disregarding the opinion of anyone who believes differently from them. That's when issues occur and they force their hand.
Modern Christianity begs for the right to live life in obedience to their own morals and faiths. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Modern Christianity fails to afford this same basic right to anyone of differing faith. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM.
Here's the thing about this ridiculous Hobby Lobby nonsense. It doesn't matter what Mr Hobby Lobby was lobbying for. I don't care if he was after the right to pay women who wore pants to work 25% less than should be paid because of their "immodest" dress. I don't care if he was trying to get the Supreme Court to rule that he could legally fire any employee who didn't pray over their sandwich in the break room. What he wanted doesn't matter. What matters is that this whole situation is another unfair example of Christians shouting, "Tolerate me! You must tolerate my beliefs and you must submit to being governed by them, whether you agree with them or not!"
Instead of standing up to Mr Hobby Lobby and saying, "No. Your beliefs are personal and you cannot force them on anyone else, employee or not!" The Supreme Court simply submitted the floor. Their actions perpetuate the most dangerous and scary mentality a majority of Christians have. Now, it is all going to get out of hand.
The separation of church and state exists in America for one reason and one reason only: to protect everyone from everyone's beliefs. The separation of church and state was implemented to give individuals space to practice whatever they believed and to not have that practice nor those beliefs legalized and worked into mainstream legislation. Every time the Supreme Court or any court or any politician passes a law that uplifts one religion over the other or that says this religion is right and the rest are wrong, we're in trouble.
Mr Hobby Lobby doesn't have to agree with IUD and the morning after pills. But he does have to understand that he may employ people who do agree with it. And those people who do agree with it have every right to have access to those forms of contraception and they have every right to access them through their job and their medical insurance. What's going to be next? Employers refusing to pay for insurance for employees who want to receive treatment at a facility with gay nurses and doctors? And anyway, what's the difference in if Hobby Lobby employees take their pay check and buy the contraband on their own? Mr Hobby Lobby's money would still have been used to pay for it. This is a moot argument. You cannot agree to employ people and pay them a salary and then make demands on how they spend the salary you gave them! This ruling is absurd, from all accounts. Whether you look at it from the feminist viewpoint or from the religious aspect, the Supreme Court have opened up a can of worms. Poisonous worms.
And they have, in one fell swoop, obliterated the notion of a separation of church and state. They have put one religion on a pedestal above all other religions. They better be ready for other religions to start demanding the same favoritisms that Christians get. Because from here on out, tolerance is out the window. And it's going to be scary as hell.
Here's the catch 22 and my biggest problem with Christianity today: Christians want, need, demand and manipulate everything so that everyone is tolerant of them and their religion. They wouldn't have it any other way. Christians push and push and push against something, no matter what it is is, insistent that everyone squint and squabble until they too see it through the goggles of Christianity. That's no holds barred, dogged determination. It's brilliant. Good on them for having that level of devotion.
It becomes a problem, however, when Christians are put in a situation when they need to be tolerant of people who believe differently from them. That's when the majority of them become petulant two year olds, insouciantly disregarding the opinion of anyone who believes differently from them. That's when issues occur and they force their hand.
Modern Christianity begs for the right to live life in obedience to their own morals and faiths. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Modern Christianity fails to afford this same basic right to anyone of differing faith. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM.
Here's the thing about this ridiculous Hobby Lobby nonsense. It doesn't matter what Mr Hobby Lobby was lobbying for. I don't care if he was after the right to pay women who wore pants to work 25% less than should be paid because of their "immodest" dress. I don't care if he was trying to get the Supreme Court to rule that he could legally fire any employee who didn't pray over their sandwich in the break room. What he wanted doesn't matter. What matters is that this whole situation is another unfair example of Christians shouting, "Tolerate me! You must tolerate my beliefs and you must submit to being governed by them, whether you agree with them or not!"
Instead of standing up to Mr Hobby Lobby and saying, "No. Your beliefs are personal and you cannot force them on anyone else, employee or not!" The Supreme Court simply submitted the floor. Their actions perpetuate the most dangerous and scary mentality a majority of Christians have. Now, it is all going to get out of hand.
The separation of church and state exists in America for one reason and one reason only: to protect everyone from everyone's beliefs. The separation of church and state was implemented to give individuals space to practice whatever they believed and to not have that practice nor those beliefs legalized and worked into mainstream legislation. Every time the Supreme Court or any court or any politician passes a law that uplifts one religion over the other or that says this religion is right and the rest are wrong, we're in trouble.
Mr Hobby Lobby doesn't have to agree with IUD and the morning after pills. But he does have to understand that he may employ people who do agree with it. And those people who do agree with it have every right to have access to those forms of contraception and they have every right to access them through their job and their medical insurance. What's going to be next? Employers refusing to pay for insurance for employees who want to receive treatment at a facility with gay nurses and doctors? And anyway, what's the difference in if Hobby Lobby employees take their pay check and buy the contraband on their own? Mr Hobby Lobby's money would still have been used to pay for it. This is a moot argument. You cannot agree to employ people and pay them a salary and then make demands on how they spend the salary you gave them! This ruling is absurd, from all accounts. Whether you look at it from the feminist viewpoint or from the religious aspect, the Supreme Court have opened up a can of worms. Poisonous worms.
And they have, in one fell swoop, obliterated the notion of a separation of church and state. They have put one religion on a pedestal above all other religions. They better be ready for other religions to start demanding the same favoritisms that Christians get. Because from here on out, tolerance is out the window. And it's going to be scary as hell.