A Sorry Religious State of Affairs
- Admin
- Jun 25, 2022
- 4 min read
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, in which the Constitution protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion. It’s a deeply sorrowful day for women globally, and the implications of this decision weigh heavily. I just want to present some brief thoughts.
Where are the ‘pro-life’ Republican crowds protesting against the overruling of life-saving procedures for women? Or the life-affirming procedures to save and help the mothers of dependent children?
Where are the ‘pro-choice’ Republican crowds who protested for the ‘right to choose’ so vehemently when it affected them personally, even despite the fact it was never illegal to decide not to be vaccinated? My body, my choice.
Where are the freedom fighters, ‘free thinkers’ and anti-institutional Republican protesters, now that there is a more obvious threat to women’s rights and freedoms? Gun rights receive higher moral outrage for some people than women’s rights – and this is pro-life?
Where are those who, whether literally or metaphorically, grabbed their pitchforks to oppose government oppression and corruption, and oust the 'lizard people' paedophiles in government, now that the Supreme Court have just chosen to take away crucial support for victims of sex offenders including paedophiles?
Where are those who cry government conspiracy, now that one so tangible is staring us in the face? Doubtlessly this warrants anti-governmental outrage, served up on a plate with all the evidence, and they are not interested.
I’ve seen petty and misinformed tantrums over public health measures, which were never legally enforced, yet a sickening and smug approval as the State just took a liberty from Women, and now truly controls their reproductive health decisions. They take away free birth control with one hand, and control over their own bodies with the other.
Now the government truly is enforcing control. They truly are taking freedom away, with both hands. They offer no solution based in reality or informed by data. Yet there are those who in an athletic display of cognitive dissonance, now stand with them instead of against them.
A Common Thread
There’s a common thread deeply woven throughout (particularly) far right Republican politics and its associated anti-science attitudes, contrarian (not real skepticism) and conspiratorial groups. Religious fundamentalism in politics is a real threat to democracy. A real threat to freedom. A real threat to human rights and more specifically women’s rights.
Religious Fundamentalism
Those who oppose abortion, tend to brandish the word ‘murder’. I won’t go into detail here as it is a very nuanced topic, but this is a strawman argument, oversimplified, ignorant, and not based in reality. Objectively speaking, however one feels about abortion personally, science can and does inform us on how to think about this – to those willing to listen, of course. I will do a longer, point by point future post on this.
To oppose abortion purely on the grounds of being pro-life, fails to acknowledge the bigger picture. What about the mothers’ life? Rape victims, child sex abuse victims, the mortality of those needing the abortion, the families of those people by extension, and the children who depend on those mothers? The argument doesn’t hold water. There are far more pro-life arguments to be made for abortion, than against it.
How about the freedom of people to live their own lives? The freedom to choose, bodily autonomy? This is always a proud (albeit often misinformed/fallacious) stance until it doesn’t suit them – and based on what? One portion of society’s religious views, which are now politically imposed upon all cultures, and celebrated by those who would condemn the same Middle Eastern oppression and contempt for women’s rights, grounded in religious beliefs and dated traditions.
Call for Transparency, Knowledge, and Education
Religious tradition or belief should not be recognised as objective and neutral grounds for the governing of a democratic society, where decisions affect people’s lives directly. Governments can control and divide us very effectively using religion. They can oppress minorities and sidestep the hard truth of emotionally charged topics, because we’re triggered by lies about a vaccine, while talked into ignoring a real human rights scandal. To ignore the science around the topic of abortion is an active suppression of truth where it suits them.
Notice how a lot of people who (usually on wrong grounds) scream for their rights about vaccines, never had that right to choose taken away – nor would it have been. Yet they actively support the government taking away women’s rights to their bodily autonomy. Even worse, this has magnitudes more serious implications for the risk to the individual than the falsely hyped risks of vaccines. A lot of these persuasive, emotionally powerful lies spring up from the fertile soil of religious fundamentalism and Evangelical Christian values.
This is a constant undermining and emotional exploitation of the population (by a government which should protect its citizens), for political gain. It has even been weaponised by political enemies of the USA in an attempt to destabilise western democracy.
What we must value for the benefit of a varied democratic society, is empiricism. Under a religious fundamentalist political landscape, objectivity and truth - along with science-informed politics - die alongside your freedoms.
There’s nothing wrong with choosing personally to follow a religious set of guidelines for your life – and indeed nothing stopping you in a western democracy, as it should be. Catch the irony? It’s a two way freedom street. However, to let a millennia-old set of views and traditions become the legal bedrock of a modern and inclusive society, there is no moving forward – only backwards from whence it came.
Donations, resources, and further information
Comments