Sunday, June 12
There's hope for religion after all.*
To be honest, I've known there was hope for religion all along; I know too many good religious people to think otherwise.** But knowing that only makes the actions of the Religious Right that much more frustrating. They're pulling so many good people in behind them... but let's face it; the whole platform is geared towards a return to the Good Old Days of the 50s, when rock hadn't been invented yet, abortion wasn't legal, good girls only put out in the back seats of cars and never told anyone, the black people were in their proper place (as were the women) and the Cold War was keeping everyone tractable.
Take abortion, for example. If the RR was really interested in the welfare of the children, they might be supporting programs like this one, that give poor, underage mothers a chance in hell of coping. They might be pushing for reforms of the adoption laws that would make adoption a viable option, or ad campaigns that trained Americans out of the idea that adoption was only for sterile couples. They'd be supporting the notion of planned parenthood and advocating birth control.
They're doing the exact opposite - which suggests that the RR has no interest in the actual welfare of these children. No, what they care about is returning to the Good Old Days, when sex was scary... for women, that is. Men were, of course, having sex quite regularly and fearlessly. But it was so much easier when you could seperate women into Good Girls and Whores. It saved you having to think about them except as categories.
Or look at it this way: while there's some very interesting religious science fiction out there (Orson Scott Card, anyone?), there's only one series that's in line with the RR: the Left Behind books.
The best, indeed the only, future the RR can imagine is one in which Armageddon has happened and they have been whisked up to heaven, leaving the unbelievers to scream and suffer in agony. In fact this screaming, suffering Armageddon is such a comfort to them that they've written upwards of ten books describing the horrors that beset the unbelievers.
This is their idea of a positive future.
And these people are running our country.
So it is a relief to me to hear someone saying
...it is time for Christianity to choose whom it will follow: an angry exclusionary God or the loving God who opens the path to wisdom.
Yes, please! More like you! I know you're out there. For the love of God, speak out!
---
* link nicked from oletheros.
** I myself am an agnostic in the old sense of "honest doubter." For those who're interested.
Revision Progress: 97 pages (of 337)
Changes: Finished up the scene with Joey's commander. Copiously revised yet another interview scene (are these all going to suck in draft? Damn) and blocked out the medical expo scene (which is going to be a delicate balance between "enough info that the readers are satisfied" and "not so much that the readers are bored. Arrg.) Revised the scene where Joey talks to the Ambassador with an eye to Gord's comments on translation; another delicate balance, but I think I've got it better at least.
Up Next: Revise the computers scene - which mostly means getting the right data in there. Cut the smuggler scene - I like it, but it just doesn't fit the main storyline - and find something to replace it. Depressing, because most people who read the manuscript liked the scene too.
To be honest, I've known there was hope for religion all along; I know too many good religious people to think otherwise.** But knowing that only makes the actions of the Religious Right that much more frustrating. They're pulling so many good people in behind them... but let's face it; the whole platform is geared towards a return to the Good Old Days of the 50s, when rock hadn't been invented yet, abortion wasn't legal, good girls only put out in the back seats of cars and never told anyone, the black people were in their proper place (as were the women) and the Cold War was keeping everyone tractable.
Take abortion, for example. If the RR was really interested in the welfare of the children, they might be supporting programs like this one, that give poor, underage mothers a chance in hell of coping. They might be pushing for reforms of the adoption laws that would make adoption a viable option, or ad campaigns that trained Americans out of the idea that adoption was only for sterile couples. They'd be supporting the notion of planned parenthood and advocating birth control.
They're doing the exact opposite - which suggests that the RR has no interest in the actual welfare of these children. No, what they care about is returning to the Good Old Days, when sex was scary... for women, that is. Men were, of course, having sex quite regularly and fearlessly. But it was so much easier when you could seperate women into Good Girls and Whores. It saved you having to think about them except as categories.
Or look at it this way: while there's some very interesting religious science fiction out there (Orson Scott Card, anyone?), there's only one series that's in line with the RR: the Left Behind books.
The best, indeed the only, future the RR can imagine is one in which Armageddon has happened and they have been whisked up to heaven, leaving the unbelievers to scream and suffer in agony. In fact this screaming, suffering Armageddon is such a comfort to them that they've written upwards of ten books describing the horrors that beset the unbelievers.
This is their idea of a positive future.
And these people are running our country.
So it is a relief to me to hear someone saying
...it is time for Christianity to choose whom it will follow: an angry exclusionary God or the loving God who opens the path to wisdom.
Yes, please! More like you! I know you're out there. For the love of God, speak out!
---
* link nicked from oletheros.
** I myself am an agnostic in the old sense of "honest doubter." For those who're interested.
Revision Progress: 97 pages (of 337)
Changes: Finished up the scene with Joey's commander. Copiously revised yet another interview scene (are these all going to suck in draft? Damn) and blocked out the medical expo scene (which is going to be a delicate balance between "enough info that the readers are satisfied" and "not so much that the readers are bored. Arrg.) Revised the scene where Joey talks to the Ambassador with an eye to Gord's comments on translation; another delicate balance, but I think I've got it better at least.
Up Next: Revise the computers scene - which mostly means getting the right data in there. Cut the smuggler scene - I like it, but it just doesn't fit the main storyline - and find something to replace it. Depressing, because most people who read the manuscript liked the scene too.
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