While I periodically enjoy making sport of what I sometimes refer to as crazy old evangelicals (a distinction I make out of respect to the sincere and well-intentioned ones) and fundamentalists who espouse views that are an egregious insult to people's intelligence, I am by and large a person who is of the opinion that everyone has a right to their own beliefs, as long as they don't try to inflict them on others. I have my own spiritual convictions, but I don't see it as my role to proselytize.
But people cross the line when they insist that their views should form the blueprint for the way people conduct themselves. Evangelical pastor Scott Lively of Massachusetts is one such person who has crossed that line.
As reported in The Raw Story, Lively is facing charges of crimes against humanity, accused of violating international law by inciting the persecution of LGBT individuals in Uganda.
Lively attended an anti-gay conference entitled “Seminar on Exposing the Homosexual Agenda” in 2009 in which he accused gays and lesbians of having genocidal tendencies. His lecture lead [sic] to the introduction of the bill, the lawsuit claimed.
Lively denies having any role in the hateful legislation, and says the lawsuit “boils down to nothing more than an attempt to define my Biblical views against homosexuality as a crime.”
If you have the stomach for it, you can read more about Lively's self-pitying justifications for his religious ardour on his blog.
Unless you are of unusually robust constitution, I suggest you read it sparingly.
Lively is one of a gaggle of U.S. fundamentalist leaders supporting Uganada in its oppression of gays. The laws already on the books are astonishing. 7-years for lesbian sex. Up to life for male homosexual acts and they've been trying to amend that to provide for the death penalty for convictions for repeated gay sex acts.
ReplyDeleteThis attitude has permeated through the society. I believe it was Harper's magazine a year or two ago that ran an article on the subject. It focused on a young gay man in Kampala who was on the run from his own parents who were trying to hunt him down to kill him.
http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2010/11/uganada-ghana-now-kenya-africas-war-on.html
http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2010/11/christian-evangelists-refine-art-of-fag.html
I have long concluded that fundamentalists of all stripes - Christian, Islamic, Judaic, Hindu - are odious and dangerous. They're malignant, the lot of them.
I will check out your links, Mound. The world of the fundamentalists would be find if they didn't feel the need, as so many of them do, to impose their views on society. I often think that many of them would be only too happy to dispense with any semblance of democracy, to be replaced with a theocracy so that could get rid of all who refuse to conform to their narrow and intolerant vision.
DeleteI think that there should be a simple prerequisite for those of the fundamentalist ilk who wish to impose their beliefs on others and want to re-mold society into a theocracy of whatever creed. Proof. They must, beyond any reasonable doubt, prove through incontrovertible, empirical, scientific and evidentiary means that the claims they make are, in fact, factually, scientifically, historically, and for all intents and purposes, true, and that these claims can withstand rigorous, uncompromising, objective and unflinching scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteIf they cannot, then...SHADDUP!
N.
Unfortunately, their 'proof' is their very selective use of the bible, Neil. For them, nothing more is needed, allowing them to impart their pernicious and intolerant brand of religion and spirituality to anyone of like mind. This kind of pandering, of course, debases all religion, thereby precluding in the minds of many the possibility of taking spiritual notions seriously.
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