A while ago we saw an unusually large spate of religious diaries very possibly related to the advent of the "religious holiday per day" season with passover, good this, ash that, palm something else and the like. There was subsequently a seeming reaction and all which may even have slopped over into Street Prophets, since a messenger from thence popped over to complain about how some secular Kossacks were violating their rights (really, I couldn't make that up) by wandering over there and speaking that which they wished not to hear. This isn't a reaction to any of that, or yet another plaintive wail into the void for a resort to reason, logic and empiricism. This is about a much more common, subtle and invidious meme which I propose to discuss among those who choose to join me over on the bench.
Yesterday, THIS COMMENT in THIS DIARY included the following:
I know many here will not like this, but we also have to learn to talk with church folks. Whether we like it or not, much of the reliable political muscle in the South runs through the churches on both sides of the aisle. The Left must be able to reach these people without contempt.
We hear a lot of this, how we need to solicit, placate, cater to and even coddle the religious and the churches if we wish to win elections. Be that as it may, what does it benefit a political party if it gain the whole of Christendom only to lose its soul, its very being, purpose and raison d'etre? Do we wish to win elections simply to further exalt the rich over the poor, restrict access to contraception and abortion, punish and marginalize those of the GLBT persuasion, require school prayer and the teaching of creationism; or is our goal to achieve a better life and equality before the law for all, to improve this world and move ever forward? With such thoughts in mind, I replied:
1. When they seriously adopt and work for separation of church and state instead of theocracy.
2. When they stop calling everybody who is living in the 19th century or later "sinners".
It is a two way street, you know.
The response was overwhelming. Crickets. Pure bleeping silence. A most telling and informative response, IMHO.
Well, I am a remnant of a a different, less subtle left. We didn't “frame” things. (Framing was what the pigs did to lefties and dopers.) We were not afraid or even reluctant to draft and issue “manifestos”, and even “non-negotiable demands”. So here goes ...
1.Churches and the religious must enthusiaticallly embrace the ideology of Separation of Church and State and work affirmatively to perfect it. I'm not simply talking about cessation of attempts to impose their beliefs, practices, mores and the like, but of their actually working to overturn their prior successes in that regard. It is not enough to merely quit pushing for school prayer, it is necessary to work to revoke and eliminate things like the natinoal day of prayer and the nasty habit of opening public meetings of governmental bodies with prayers and invocations.
2.Churches and the religious must enthusiastically embrace Legal Equality for All. That means actually working to bring about legal equality for all. They must help to make Marriage Equality a reality. They must help make women fully equal by giving them the same control over their bodies, their health, including reproductive health, and their medical decisions, including contraception, as men have over their own, if not more.
3.Stop shunning and boycotting backsliders, those of other sects and non-believers. Stop calling them sinners, publicly pitying them and praying for their miserable souls, and trying to save or convert them. If you don't like being called backwards superstitious reactionary trogdolytes yearning for the dark ages, then quit acting like it.
The bench is yours.
Updated by enhydra lutris at Tue May 17, 2011 at 12:44 PM PDT
UPDATE: It appears that this is being consistently and insistently misinterpreted. It isn't about all churches, all Christians, all religious persons, etc. It is about the meme that there is a need to pursue the religious, especially those not already Democrats and the need, given that it is widely known that some are dominionists, theocrats and the like to always assert that we stand for separation of church and state and legal equality for all lest we become false to our ideals.