Reclaiming Morality from the Conservatives...

It is heartening to hear that progressive religious people are starting to speak louder about how "morality" has been hijacked by a few folks whose morality, frankly, leaves much to be desired.

Today's Guardian (don't have a link yet, can't really reach the site at the moment) in their "Comment" section has 2 good articles on the subject.

They note that in the UK, they, too, used to think their empire was "God given," and they have lived through the results, which explains why so few people hold that view today.

Today's Daily Kos raises the issue, too, in the context of the racist, anti-semitic, anti-non-Christian Bob Jones.

I believe the most important thing that people of faith need to challenge the religious right on is their fundamental dishonesty.

It is dishonest to accuse someone of being "intolerant" because they speak out against intolerance, bigotry, and hate. "Intolerance" is the word we use because the results of the actions advocated by the religious right are harmful, and therefore immoral. And it is a lie to say that one is "intolerant" for pointing that out.

It is dishonest to say that our country was founded by evangelical Christians. It wasn't. It was founded by Deists who benefitted from the slave trade, land theft, and murder. Those fundamentalist Christians who did come here to escape religious persecution wound up engaging in the worst kinds of witch hunts, and exercised deep prejudice against Catholics and Jews.

We need to challenge those on the religious right to refrain from slandering other people on the basis of religious or political beliefs, and to refrain from attempting to get special rights for themselves.

We need a level playing field in America, where people don't care what religious beliefs one has, as long as the mettle of their character is strong.

Above all, we need to continue to bear witness to the ongoing abuses by the religious right, and call on them to rather than sinking into sanctimony, to actually practice what they preach, and to be aware of all that their religious tradition entails. IOW, it's about truly loving and caring for the other, not hating them.