Yea, I know this diary is going to end well. Most days when I turn on the news, though, or when I turn on the internet, that is how I feel. Of course living where I do, also adds to that feeling of being completely outnumbered.
All I hear from Christianity right now:
Lets take away women's birth control
Lets shove a wand up their vagina to shame them
Make Rape the prerequisite for a woman to exercise her ability to control her own body.
Lets defund Planned Parenthood
Lets secretly take over and/or coerce charities like Susan Komen to defund Planned Parenthood
Lets tell all women Who use Birth Control that they are Sluts
Lets get rid of Informed Consent for only WOMEN in the doctor's office
Lets make it so we can fire Women from their jobs who use Birth Control for Birth Control--the opportunities are boundless--have you seen the economy?
Lets spread lies about safer sex practices [like it causes cancer or doesn't work]
Lets spread lies about the POTUS religious affiliation, after all we want you to be tolerant of Christians but not "sekret" Muslims!
Lets keep young people [especially girls] in ignorance about how their bodies work via Abstinence Only edu--read Shame Cave Indoctrination
Lets disallow Women to testify at Congressional Hearings regarding Birth Control, but include male Clergy--because celibate dudes are experts on sex and vaginas!
Lets rewrite Public School Text Books to reflect Anachronistic version of history, social studies and science--be sure and make slavery sound quaint and pleasant--FOR THE SLAVES!
If you were a nonChristian, and this is what you saw on the news daily for YEARS--how would that make you feel? Would this incline you to be tolerant and open to Christians or would this scare the living shit out of you and cause you to feel suspicious about their motives, even when they are being nice to your face?
I don't want to hate anyone, but all this [and more] is really starting to piss me off. Whenever someone says Jesus, I feel the need to circle the wagons. Because after the last 20 years or so, I have learned that Christianity isn't a religion, it's a baseball bat that is used to bash gays. It's a philosophy that is invoked to rape and shame women. It is an excuse to burn books and to embrace revisionist history.
Intellectually I understand that the spectrum of belief within Christianity is broad. But in my day to day existence, it doesn't feel that way. It feels like I am completely surrounded by the most bigoted, least tolerant, dangerous, ignorant, scary cult members you would never want to encounter in a dark alley.
Why don't we hear more from Moderate Christians? I think it may be for the same reasons we don't hear from moderate Muslims.
I blame it all on the press.
Moderate people are boring. Their good news, their tolerance and kindness isn't going to get the ratings. Because boring people don't piss me off. Boring people don't scare the hell out of me. Boring people don't make me feel like a hunted animal whenever I leave my house. Boring people don't bomb abortion clinics or try to inspire other crazies to become snipers. Sadly, the word boring is being used as a proxy for notion of SANITY.
So I guess I am asking you Moderate Christians out there--FIGHT HARDER TO HAVE YOUR VOICE HEARD! Fight as hard as you can.
I know these crazies scare you too. But people like me--we need you. We need your friendship. We need you as allies so that we push back so the crazies end up back where they belong--which is to say-on the Fringe.
I am angry and scared right now, like any normal person would be. I am contemptuous of their brand of Christianity, I won't lie. And if I feel bombarded by it long enough without anything to mitigate those impacts--I could become contemptuous of the entire faith altogether--perhaps even just organized religion in general at some point.
So Speak up!
If the press won't hear you, then make a diary here, Make a group, Make an association. Make talking points and counterpoints. Put it on your Church Billboard.
HOW OFTEN DO WE SEE POSITIVE, INCLUSIVE MESSAGES ON CHURCH BILLBOARDS?
Yea, that's what I thought.
Join the Interfaith Alliance or Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
Make your own chapters and SPEAK UP!
Make the counterpoint to the Southern Baptist Convention and speak up!
You and only you can take your religion back.
I can't take it back for you.
Someone taught me a new word yesterday--and it is perfect for this discussion.
We have to join together to resist and overcome the forces of McCarthianity
I want to hear from you. I want to see you out there in their world promoting a better Christianity.
We might disagree on a lot of things on a personal level or a religious on. But I am big enough to let you have your space to be who you are, and all I ask is the same in return.
The people who scare me though? They have made it very clear that they want me and people like me to die already. Die of illness, die on an abortion clinic table, die with ruptured cyst covered ovaries, they want me to die of an ectopic pregnancy or sepsis during a still birth, die die die. And they want my death and the death of my daughters to transpire under a veil of ignorance.
They want us to think we died because of a god's will, and not because we were set up to die by a self-proclaimed, holy mouthpiece.
THE only way to preserve Our Collective freedoms--is to join together and preserve those freedoms for everyone.