Election day looms, so here’s a blast from the past:
She has never attended our domestic violence support groups as she is too tired at night and goes to bed early but the bible study was not optional.
She was excited about “God’s message” when she came back.
This week she moves into low income subsidized housing. Her newest crisis is she has found out when the college is closed for the Christmas holiday (one month) she has no employment. She is hoping to find temporary employment as a seasonal retail worker if the Christmas sales are brisk to tide her over. She doesn’t know what she will do when the baby is born, hopes she can work up till the last week (she is on her feet all day with this job). She will be eligible for subsidized daycare.
She voted for Bush because of his “family values.”
Religion is a public health crisis.
(It’s not a crusade, it’s a rescue mission).
November 3, 2006 at 8:53 pm
We will not win anything if we continue to position ourselves as enemies of religion. Rather than that we should of course point out how OUR politics fits with their religion
November 3, 2006 at 8:54 pm
This can only work as a short-term solution.
November 3, 2006 at 9:07 pm
What we must do, in the long term, is create communties that can can provide the benefits of religion – inclusion, a sense of purpose, etc.
To heal this sickness, we must be both doctor and patient and determine the root causes of the problems. I certainly wouldn’t advocate institutionalizing the religious. First of all, there’s too many of them. And secondly, we’d be no better than those we criticize.
But before we can begin evaluation and treatment, we must make a diagnosis. I agree that we won’t get far positioning ourselves as enemies of religion – but faith hurts people and we shouldn’t continue to tolerate it. In the short term, we’ll have to continue to try to “hack” religion, but we must also consider long-term solutions.
November 3, 2006 at 11:21 pm
I was thinking in an immediate context of electoral politics. However, what we need to do in the long term is something a kin to mutating religion or people’s reaction to religion so that it doesn’t have such a powerful affect on them. I don’t believe that we can eliminate religion from people who already have it. Remission is about the best we can hope for.
November 3, 2006 at 11:26 pm
In the immediate context of electoral politics, the only hope seems to be to do as you suggested (which is more or less what center-left politicians are doing world wide anyway).
In the long term, we can create alternative, we can work to create healthier, more nourishing alternatives to religion.