In defense of Ben Carson

Actually I like Ben Carson.  He seems like a nice guy.  During the last debate I was not quite sure whether he had just awakened from a nap or was about to take one, but he comes across as a decent man who certainly says what he thinks.  I mean this guy is a distinguished neuro-surgeon—which would surely qualify him as a scientific person—yet he says with absolute conviction that he believes in creationism and that evolution is a myth.  You can’t be more say-what-you-think than that.

What got him into big trouble was when he said on Meet the Press he would not want to see a Muslim in the White House.  Kabam!  All the other candidates, Republican and Democrat, immediately wrapped themselves in the cloak of self-righteousness and attempted to drown him in a tsunami of political correctness.   The Republicans waxed indignant declaring that he did not represent the pristine principles of their highly moral party and the Democrats said:  Ha! See what real bigots and racists the Republicans are!

To make matters worse, Ben would not back off, and in a subsequent interview with Yahoo News he said: “I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country.  Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.”

Well technically speaking he is absolutely right.  I will not subject you to a litany of just how weird Islamic Sharia is. You can Google that yourselves.   So, unless stoning your adulterous wife to death or killing your daughter for kissing a non-Muslim or giving me 80 lashes because I had a cocktail last night is something that appeals to you, I think you will find that there are some valid reasons to say that Sharia is not, in fact, “consistent with the Constitution of this country.”  But that same principle applies no matter what the religion happens to be.

Consider this:   If you take his second sentence and substitute “Evangelical Christians” for “Muslims” you can make a valid, rational comparison.  They, the Evangelicals, think that “their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official.” 

All the Republican candidates have fallen over themselves trying to impress the public how Christian they are (see my blog of April 27, 2015 Republicans Running for Christian Ayatollah) and Jeb Bush quite blatantly admitted his Catholicism influences his political decisions.  Republican Presidential candidates are still bringing up whether Obama is a Christian or not.  For secularists like myself, who are adamant about the separation of church and state, I am alarmed at the insidious way religion is creeping into our civil liberties.

The current instances of Evangelical disruptions to our civil society—county clerks refusing to issue gay marriage licenses, threats to shut down the government over funding Planned Parenthood—are essentially encroachments of religion on civil government and, while not nearly so peculiar as Sharia, the concept is the same.  A religious sect—Evangelical Christians-- is attempting to make “their religion” “a part of your public life.” 

For me the question of a Muslim in the White House is a moot point.  I don’t really care what religion the President is.   The President’s religion itself is irrelevant to me, but imposing any religion’s laws or beliefs on all citizens is, indeed, not consistent with the Constitution. So Ben, you’re right on that point.

American soldiers, sailors and marines did not fight to deprive women of their right to abortion

Here is what Representative Trent Franks, R-Ariz. said about the impending Republican threat to shut down the government over funding Planned Parenthood:  “Our response as a people and a nation to these horrors shown in these videos is vital to everything those lying out in Arlington Cemetery died to save.” I don’t give a damn what your position is on abortion.  Personally, I think abortion is none or your business, my business, nor the government’s business.  But what I really find despicable is Franks’s reference to our dead military personnel in Arlington.  This asshole was born in 1957 and never served a day in the military.  I’m old enough to remember WWII and all our subsequent wars.  My uncle Bill was on the beach at Iwo Jima and my uncle Cliff was in the battle of the bulge (Bastogne) and I can assure you my uncles and all America was not fighting to deprive women the right to an abortion.  This is the kind of disgusting pseudo-patriotic crap the Republicans are foisting on the American people to justify their repressive policies.

Give us this day our daily absurdity.

The bikini costume worn by princess Leia in Star Wars, Return of the Jedi will be auctioned off.  Starting bid is $80,000.  It is expected to reach $120,000.  Now if there are people rich enough to spend that kind of money on a bikini why do they bitch about paying income tax?  Just asking. 

Kim Davis and the Immaculate Perception

Where are the moderate, rational, intelligent Christians?  Why aren’t they opposing the elected Kentucky clerk who has claimed god’s authority for refusing to do her job?   Evidently, they endorse her bigoted interpretation of Christianity.  Evidently, they accept her as the ultimate interpreter of god’s will.  We now have the Gospel According to Kim.

She’s certainly not a virgin—married four times--but she seems to claim she has an immaculate perception of what god thinks and that he grants her the divine authority to discriminate against gays.

Consider the thousands of letters to the editors, blogs, op-ed columnists, talking heads, network and cable news  anchors and legal ”experts” commenting on her refusal to grant gay couples marriage licenses.  Almost without exception they deal with the legal, secular aspect of an elected county official refusing to follow the requirement of her office.  No one seems to question her contention that she is justified by god. 

What about the moral, theological questions?  What gives her the authority to determine what god wants and how, according to her immaculate perception, his wishes can override civil law.  This is where “real” Christians seem to be missing in action.  Since they limit their arguments against Davis to “legal” grounds, they safely avoid pointing out that she is using theological arguments to justify her bigotry and the “real” Christians haven’t got the balls to confront her on that.

Conceptually, it’s similar to Muslims arguing that theirs is a loving, peaceful religion then one of their brethren goes out and blows up a bunch of people.  The Muslims reply, of course, “That’s not real Islam.”  Well, the Christians sing “Jesus loves you,” every Sunday then someone like Davis comes along and qualifies that on Monday by adding “unless you are gay”.  Christians might reply, “But that’s not real Christianity.”   Really?  Then why don’t they have the courage to stand up against an obscure Southern county clerk who claims to have an inside track to the mind of god?  By omission the “real” Christians are silently endorsing Davis’s as some kind of theological authority.  The fact that presidential candidates Huckabee and Cruz endorse the new high priestess of Christianity is so stupid it is not worth discussing.

I did some research looking for any conservative who is pushing back against Davis and I found this written by conservative columnist Michael Gerson in the Washington Post: "Whatever their intentions, these people are doing great harm to the cause of religious liberty and to the reputation of their faith.”

In other words, this kind of “Christian” behavior is further alienating thinking, rational Americans and contributing to the growing number of “nones” in America—those who ascribe to no religious faith.  So, if you already had a rather low opinion of Christianity in America, Ms. Davis just gave you another reason to lower it even more.

God vs. Government in Kentucky

There are actually some good things coming out of the controversy over Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis’s refusal to grant gay marriage licenses.  It is showing just how detrimental religion is to our social order.  It is making a mockery of Christianity.  And, it is showing just how ridiculous some Republican presidential candidates can be.  The secular backlash against this religious and political foolishness will hopefully lead to eventually getting god out of our government.

Our social order is based on civil laws.  Whether you like them or not does not make them optional.  Ms. Davis, who is a rather low-ranking elected public official, decided she can refuse to comply with a civil law because her god says so.  She does not seem to realize many people do not acknowledge the existence of her god and, even some who do, do not recognize his authority to override civil law. 

Regarding the mockery of Christianity, Ms. Davis’s defiance of the law in the name of god is yet another example that American Christians are pathetically hypocritical.  No matter how many times anyone points out to them that Jesus said, “feed the sick, clothe the naked, help the poor, feed the hungry,” and above all “love one another,” American Christians seem to think those were nice things for Jesus to say , but they do not apply to people currently residing in America.  Aside from Republican policies diametrically opposed to Jesus’s teaching, the American neo-Christian doctrine states that god does not approve of homosexuals so that permits a judgmental, self-righteous clerk of courts to refuse granting gay marriage licenses in defiance of civil law.  Most rational, thinking people see that for what it is—using god to justify bigotry and hatred.

Now what about those Republican presidential candidates? Here are a few of the really absurd things Republican candidates have said:

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: “Having Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubt of the criminalization of Christianity in our country.  We must defend religious liberty and never surrender to judicial tyranny.”  Did you get that?  “Criminalization of Christianity”?  “Judicial tyranny”?

Ted Cruz:  “Those who are persecuting Kim Davis believe that Christians should not serve in public office. That is the consequence of their position. Or, if Christians do serve in public office, they must disregard their religious faith — or be sent to jail.”  What was that?  “Persecuting Kim Davis”?  People believe Christians should not hold public office?

Bobby Jindal:  “We are seeing government today discriminate against whether it’s clerks, florists, musicians or others. I think that’s wrong. I think you should be able to keep your job and follow your conscience.”  Government discrimination?  What about religious (hate gays) discrimination?  Actually, the government is saying you can’t discriminate because of religious beliefs.

Scott Walker:  “I read that the Constitution is very clear that people have freedom of religion — you have the freedom to practice religious beliefs out there, it’s a fundamental right.”  It’s too bad Walker doesn’t understand the Constitution he claims to have read.  You have the constitutional right to practice your religion of course, but you do not have the right to impose it on anyone else and if you do so as a public official required to follow the law you are even more in violation of the religious freedom principle because you are imposing yours on others.

These politicians, of course, are desperately pandering to the religious righteous to get their votes, but there is something radically wrong with our society when we have candidates for our highest office and arguably the most powerful person in the world who believe god overrides our civil laws, who believe the world is 6,000 years old, who believe in creationism and not evolution, who deny climate change despite overwhelming scientific evidence and who think days of prayer accomplish something.  These politicians are disingenuous at best and liars at worst.   Religion is the most destructive force human beings have ever invented, and, as this most recent gay-marriage-county-clerk incident shows, our country would be better off is we could get god out of our government entirely.  If this current Kentucky clerk incident motivates more Americans to insist on a secular, rule-of-law based government, it will have been worth enduring the media-hyped stupidity.

Oh, if any of this irritates some of you readers, god made me do it.