The Thinking ‘Kat: Intrusive Attitudes
With inspiration from Ark’s post here, I examine the intrusive nature of organised religion.
I should add a disclaimer. Not everyone of a religious persuasion operates under the idea that they have a right to interfere in the lives of others. Unfortunately, not only to some believe they have an absolute right to involve themselves in the lives of others, they seek to invoke political support in order to do so. They also argue from a place of ‘moral’ duty. They have an unwavering faith in their beliefs, and in the moral authority their beliefs give them.
This gives rise to all sorts of shenanigans. As per Ark’s example, some Christians took up positions outside an abortion clinic, breaching a legal directive to stay away, so they could pray. Maybe it did not occur to them that their presence was intimidating to people attending the clinic (who would likely be stressed and emotional anyway), or maybe it did occur to them, but either way, they were defying the law, and in doing so, intruding upon the legal rights of others. Intriguingly, their actions appear to actually violate a Biblical instruction, namely Matthew 6:5:
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men … but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your father who is unseen.”
The clinic situation is an extreme example, but there are plenty of others.
I have been approached on the street, more than once, by people wishing to speak to me about God. If I wish to speak about God, I will seek out a church (or for that matter, a synagogue or mosque, among others), or I will seek out theologians to converse with. Approaching random people on the street is not, in my view, an appropriate gateway to religious discussion! To offer one particular example, once I asked a guy where to find a bank. He told me, and then proceeded to not only talk to me about God, Jesus, and religious beliefs, but he followed me through town as he did. I humoured him for a time, but when he started asking about my sex life (yes, seriously) I drew the conversation to a close.
If there is one defining difference between the religious and secular worlds, it’s that generally speaking, the secular world does not care what you do behind closed doors. If you are in same-sex relationship, trans, bi, black, white, religious, non-religious… none of it matters. You are generally free to be you. The religious world is not satisfied with that. They wish to impose their belief system upon everyone else. They want to get involved in who marries who. They demand a say in the private lives of others, and do not mind intruding upon the lives of others to get their message across. There is an entitlement complex here.
I can already predict the frothing-at-the-mouth responses from the peanut gallery. ‘Christians deserve a voice in politics too!’ Well, no one is saying otherwise. This is a classic example of a Red Herring argument, so to pre-empt it, let me say it again: no one is saying Christians cannot be involved in politics. What anyone entering into politics needs to understand is that you cannot freely trample on the rights of those who do not share your beliefs. Christians have no right to remove rights from others in a secular society. Unfortunately, whilst many Christians (and followers of other faiths) do understand this, others do not, and dogmatically cling to the idea that if they do not get their way over all of society, society is being unfair. Live and let live is a a concept beyond the ability of fanatics to understand.
