The War between Freedom and Fundamentalism
It may not be what you think
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
07/08/02
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/Religion/waronsecularism.htm
Any number of observers have commented on the war between secularism and fundamentalism. Most frequently, they envision it as a war between the free and secular nations of the west versus the Islamic republics of the middle east, Africa and Asia.
As is often the case, there are a lot of over generalizations involved in the lineups. In the so-called "Islamic world," there is a wide range of governments, ranging from the intense theocracies of Saudi Arabia and Iraq to the more-or-less secular regimes in Iraq and Libya. The "Islamic World" even includes democracies of a sort, such as Pakistan and Egypt.
This is not a part of the world where individual rights have ever been a big notion, so none really approach western ideas of freedom.
The "Western World," which includes Europe, Russia, the Americas and Anzac, is more homogenous. Nearly all nations are democracies, and most have varying degrees of individual rights and personal freedoms. But to say they all do is an over generalization. There is one exception, but that exception is so major that it cannot be disregarded.
The exception is America.
The world, and non-fundamentalists in America, watched uneasily while the figurehead of the right wing junta made a huge production of religiosity, as a part of his program to convert America from a free nation to a theocracy. To that end, he mentioned god no less than nine times in various Independence Day statements, and went so far as to go to a church to pledge allegiance to the flag. It may be the only church in Christendom in which the supposed president of the United States goes in and makes a production of worshiping the flag as a Christian artifact, but that's what he did.
Now, some of it is just silly political posturing by a phony. Putsch is about as religious as most politicians, which is to say not very, and he sees the fundamentalist demographic as being a voter bloc that is easy to lead by their noses. But they are a powerful voting bloc, and Putsch is perfectly willing to sacrifice the freedom of Americans to toady to them, in order to consolidate his own power.
But Christian fundamentalists aren't just a threat to American freedom; some are slopping over into treasonous activities. The following article http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A61275-2002Jun16¬Found=true appeared in the June 17th edition of the Washington Post:
Colum Lynch Page A01
UNITED NATIONS -- Conservative U.S.
Christian organizations have joined forces with Islamic governments to halt
the expansion of sexual and political protections and rights for gays, women
and children at United Nations conferences.
The new alliance, which coalesced during the past year, has received a major
boost from the Bush administration, which appointed antiabortion activists
to key positions on U.S. delegations to U.N. conferences on global economic
and social policy.
But it has been largely galvanized by conservative Christians who have set aside their doctrinal differences, cemented ties with the Vatican and cultivated fresh links with a powerful bloc of more than 50 moderate and hard-line Islamic governments, including Sudan, Libya, Iraq and Iran.
Now, unless I miss my guess, I see a couple of "evil-doers" in there. Iraq, certainly. That's Saddam Hussein, although the American fundies probably see him as being suspiciously secular. Oh, sure, Saddam has some good ideas in the eyes of the Fundies–he cracked down on drug use and abortion, and he opposes the government in Washington–but he doesn't press his populace to pray, or even to pledge allegiance to the flag.
Iran? We're all over that little misunderstanding of a few years back, and Iran, with their stances on promiscuity and cussing in public, is as good as any Christian in the religious right. Except for the fact that they're all going to fry in hell, of course.
Libya is Khadaffi. If Khadaffi didn't have that "thing" about Ronald Reagan, he would probably make a pretty good Republican. OK, so American bombers killed his three year old daughter. It wasn't like she was still unborn or something awful like that. The guy should lighten up.
Sudan stumps me. Sudan is such an utter hell-pit of tyranny and deprivation it's impossible to come up with even irony.
Those are the new buddies of the religious right of America, in their never-ending war against individual rights that offend their pseudo-religious squeamishness.
Excuse me. I mis-speak. According to the article Austin Ruse, president of the hilariously-named Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, said, "We look at them as allies, not necessarily as friends, We have realized that without countries like Sudan, abortion would have been recognized as a universal human right in a U.N. document."
Yeah. Sudan has done so much for human dignity and quality of life. Thanks for setting such a good example, Sudan. Christendom is proud of you.
So the religious right has aligned itself against the countries that are, according to El Presidente, America's enemies, evil-doers and terrorists, every one, against the human rights enjoyed by Europeans, Canadians, Australians . . .
. . . and Americans.
The religious right is anxious to show that America shares "many of the same social values" as places like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Places where people have no rights and women are treated like dogs and worse than dogs. Places where it is acceptable to kill a woman for the crime of being a rape victim, and a man is expected to kill his wife if she philanders.
Of course, the Bible is silent on this sort of thing. No mention exists of individual rights, freedom, democracy, or women's rights. Abortion -is- mentioned once, tangentially, when the Bible, in Exodus, states that if two men get in a brawl and force a slave girl to miscarry against her will, they can be fined. Lucky they aren't in "permissive, liberal" America: not only would they be facing jail time, but they would probably get sued.
The values of the Bible are not congruent with the values of America. Indeed, Jesus urges Christians to throw out the old laws of the Old Testament, an exhortation that is roundly ignored by the religious right.
America, with her values of human rights, civil liberties, and freedom, came about despite the Bible, which is silent on all those issues.
The religious right leaders who are consorting with the Moslem fundamentalists to defeat western secularism are lucky they are in America: in other countries that embrace their type of values, they would be hung as traitors. Here, we just give them disgusted looks and put the word out about what sort of values they hold, and who their buddies are.
There is a war between freedom and fundamentalism. But it's not the West vs. the Islamic world. It's human freedom, decency and progress against a widespread, crippling emotional disease, one that afflicts religious especially hard.
These people call themselves Christians, but they are as much a disgrace to Christianity as they are to America. Christian values and American values are different, and most people realize that they supplement each other, rather than offer two competing sets of values. Most Christians realize that America doesn't prevent them from being good Christians. If you want to pray, go to church. You have that absolute right. But don't expect the state to lead your prayers for you. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. You have that absolute right. But don't demand that the state back you up on it. America exists for freedom of religion. It doesn't exist to support religion. The fundies just don't get that, and wave the flag and pound the bible and demand that the rest of us sacrifice our freedoms for their mania.
This makes them no different from Osama bin Laden and the Mullahs of Teheran.
If we must fight fundamentalism in order to remain free, we need to realize that some of our most poisonous and vicious enemies are right here, holding a Bible and exhorting Americans to rise up and defeat America.