Posted by Astra on Nov 9, '09 11:55 AM for group politicalsouls
Folks:
Over the past few days, I've seen the responses I've expected from you regarding Fort Hood and healthcare. It was actually your collective response to the Fort Hood incident which made me pause and reflect on what's really going on here in America, and why we're in such danger now as a nation.
Before you start in - no; we're not in danger from a 'godless Muslim president'; from 'godless heathen raghead 'Muzzies', 'godless abortionist mass-murderers', or 'godless atheists'.
We're in danger from you.
Citizenship 101 isn't taught any more -- never mind the reason. Likely, you were home schooled in that generation after the '70's; an 'army' of 'God's Warriors', ready to pick up the proverbial sword and 'take your country back for Jesus'.
There's a problem here. Your teachers - whether they were your parents, your pastor, or someone else - failed you.
American citizenship isn't for the faint of heart - and frankly, it's not for everyone. It requires something you were never taught along the way - tolerance, and critical thought. Instead, your teachers taught you intolerance, hate, jingoism, xenophobia, and a lot of other things you probably don't understand.
I'm not letting you off the hook with a perverted version of 'forgive them, for they know not what they do' - I'm hauling you up short and telling you why you're the problem, and why you have to get your heads out of your asses and out of the clouds.
First, you're not being persecuted. All of this talk about some grand conspiracy to 'persecute all the poor Christians' is horseshit. Get over yourselves.
Example: Yesterday, I drove by a large church here in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. People were streaming in to the building, and while traffic was a mess at that time, no one was throwing rocks at cars, picketing the place, or demanding that the building be locked and burned with everyone inside.
Those of us who weren't going to worship services weren't there to protest your religion.
We were just waiting in traffic for a few minutes to get on with our day.
I'll wager this went on all over America this weekend - at churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other venues where Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and many other religious affiliations went about the quiet practice of their religions.
What I think personally of religion does not matter.
Its free expression is the law.
No one is telling you that you can't worship. No one is telling you that you have to have an abortion against your will. No one is telling you that you're going to have to pay a tax if you're a Christian.
Secondly, America isn't a 'Christian nation'. All the rhetoric and bullshit from your 'leaders', and all the chest-beating, pulpit-pounding, wailing and other sizz-fizz isn't going to change that.
I'm awfully sorry that your teachers failed you - that you do not understand that America was founded as a secular republic with no religion - but that's the truth, and I have history plus the Constitution on my side here.
Third, while no one is going to take away your right to peaceably assemble and worship, we're also not going to let you change the law so your religion holds primacy. You're not in charge. Get used to it.
To be an American, you have to agree to support the rights of everyone who lives here. Period. Making exceptions by hating on immigrants, bashing the beliefs of others and trashing on people who don't hold your worldview doesn't make you right, better, or even smart.
It makes you bigots and haters -- it makes you part of the problem here, rather than any solution.
Don't want an abortion? Don't have one. No one's going to force you. However, when you stand up and say "Doctor Tiller got what was coming to him!", and "Hooray for the guy who shot Tiller!", you're not making America a better place - you're supporting domestic terrorism.
Don't like Islam? Fine. Don't like it. I don't, either. However, the moment you start calling for laws turning Muslims into second-class citizens - or revoking their citizenship entirely - you're engaging in hate-speech. And, whether that's against the 'law' or not is not the issue -- that sort of thing makes you part of the problem.
Do you want to be real Americans?
Then start supporting the right of someone whose opinion you loathe and despise to voice that opinion in a public forum. Acknowledge that while your 'god' holds abortion to be an evil, support the right of your fellow-citizens to obtain that operation without hindrance - not because you like it, but because it's the law.
Do you support those two wars in the Middle East? Fine by me. However, to be an American, you have to grit your teeth and say, "That's legal, and I support their right to do so" when someone protests against those wars and burns the flag you purport to revere as much as your 'god'.
You're howling about your 'free speech' - when you'd cheerfully silence others who don't agree with you. You're howling about your religion - when you'd subjugate anyone who doesn't accept yours. If you're not willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those people with whom you disagree most vehemently, then you've missed something along the way - and you're living in a state of moral bankruptcy.
Your symbol is a cross. Fine by me. Don't ever even presume to make it mine, because when you do, you are stating by that action that you are against everything America stands for - a nation, founded as a secular republic, which embraced the faiths of many other peoples and made manifest the Latin motto, "E Pluribus Unum" -- One, out of many.
That is America.
Embrace that, or leave.
I'll hold the door.
Re-posted and Shared by The Divine Prince
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