BY
JOSHUA WELCH
When crafting public policy and electing public officials
our decisions are driven by our moral principles, as well they should
be. The debate should be focused on what’s right and what’s moral, not
what’s Christian. Unfortunately that’s not the case. The harsh reality
is that many Americans continue to believe that morality is exclusive
to their religion. It’s nearly impossible to win an election in the
U.S. unless voters think the candidate believes in “God.” So we find
ourselves with an evangelical in the White House and a Congress that
is governing based on religious ideology.
A war has been waged on non-heterosexuals, tax dollars
are being poured into “faith-based initiatives,” Oregonians’ right to
die with dignity is under attack, and creationism is finding its way
into science classes. It’s time that we ask some serious questions about
morality.
Why should not believing in “God” be perceived as a
moral weakness rather than a sign of intelligence? Why are religious
leaders, rather than environmentalists among others, automatically granted
moral authority status? There’s nothing in Webster’s definition of morality
that infers that one must be religious to be moral. What makes us moral?
Does religion have a monopoly on morality? Recently I spoke with several
local church leaders and asked them questions like these. The answers
were disturbing.
According to the ministers I spoke with, the answer
to every moral question is found in the Bible. No ifs, ands, or buts.
It’s a one-stop shop for right and wrong.
When questioned about what the most significant moral
threats to our nation are, one issue clearly stood above the rest: Homosexuality.
Apparently, it’s not corporate greed or government corruption we should
worry about. It’s those damned gay people.
As a result of the good work that many Christians do,
Christianity receives a great deal of credit while the enormous problems
that come with this fundamentally flawed, narrow philosophy are largely
ignored.
To begin with, the idea that one book, one person, or
one institution should be the ultimate guide for how one lives is absurd.
Basing your moral principles on a single source of information goes
against basic common sense and is a recipe for disaster.
Catholicism actually has a morality loophole called
Sacrament that is particularly detrimental to accountability. Sacrament
makes it possible for people to commit horrific atrocities in the morning
and by nightfall be cleansed of their sins. All that’s required is that
you confess your sins to a priest and pay penance to God. As long as
you’re sincerely sorry for what you did and you say your prayers, God
will forgive you.
Historically, religious ideology has fueled endless
hatred and violence from the Crusades to Oklahoma City and 9/11. The
most dangerous and destructive homegrown terrorists have been Christians.
Timothy McVeigh and Eric Robert Rudolph were both followers. Despite
the Bush administration’s efforts to demonize environmentalists and
non-human animal rights groups, right-wing Christian organizations such
as the “Army of God” remain one of America’s top terrorist threats.
We cannot place all the blame for terrorism and bigotry on religion
but, we must recognize that it is a common link that plays a major role.
Former biology and geology professor Frank Zindler is
an internationally renowned science writer and linguist, director of
the American Atheist Press, and editor of The American Atheist he said
this about morality: “Our ethics can be based neither upon fictions
concerning the nature of humankind nor upon fake reports concerning
the desires of the deities. Our ethics must be firmly planted in the
soil of scientific self-knowledge. They must be improvable and
adaptable.”
Magazine. In an essay titled “Ethics without Gods,”
Chapman Cohen, the third president of the National Secular
Society had this to say about morality: “The religious theory of morality
simply will not do. It turns what is fundamentally simple into a “mystery,”
and then elevates the mystery into a foolish dogma ) Morality
has nothing to do with God; it has nothing to do with a future life.
Its sphere of application and operation is in this world; its authority
is derived from the common sense of mankind.”
Morality should be about empathy, decency, and compassion.
It should be about ending suffering. It should be about living peacefully
with all forms of life. As long as morality is being judged with draconian
methodology rather than sound rational logic, the possibilities for
progress will continue to be suffocated.
Joshua
Welch is a local free-lance writer and political activist.