A Health Issue
I have a health issue; I see my doctor. She examines me and explains options to take care of my health. I discuss the options with family and trusted friends. I make a decision of which option to follow, whether it's medication or procedure. If needed, I arrive back at the health center, follow the option and go home to heal. This is the United States. This is what we do, day after day after day.
Not so fast. That process isn't so easy for me. You see, I'm a woman. Strangers think they can tell me what to do with my own health. If I choose not to listen to them, they stand outside my health center, hold up bloody signs, yell at me. Some strangers even kill over my health decision. They kill my doctor; they kill other strangers. Yell, intimidate, kill.
My Planned Parenthood Health Center is still here. It's not going anywhere.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: How to Muddy the Waters
"Religious freedom" is a phrase coined by Evangelical Christians and used to practice bigotry and hatred (examples include Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee). How does such a phrase become twisted to meet their own political ends? Here's the recipe.
1. Adopt the identification of oneself as an Evangelical Christian.
Who are Evangelical Christians? According to The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, the Unabridged Edition, A Christian is defined as "of, pertaining to, believing in, or belonging to the religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ" and, "exhibiting a spirit proper to a follower of Jesus Christ: Christ like." The descriptive word of "Evangelical" means, "marked by ardent or zealous enthusiasm for a cause". The key words then in defining an Evangelical Christian are "a zealous Jesus Christ follower who is Christ like in spirit".
Why would politicians want to identify with them? Eighty-three percent of Americans label themselves as Christian. If I want to have political sway over a large number of people, it would seem logical to choose the largest-size religious group within which to work.
2. Ignore teachings of Jesus Christ, Diety of Evangelical Christians; act as if those teachings don't exist.
What are the teachings of Jesus Christ [if indeed he truly existed]? What better place to look than through Jesus' own words? Those words, of course, can be found in the Christian Bible, in the section called, "The New Testament". As a child in elementary school, I received a gift of a Bible from a mother in one of our church families (at the time, my father was pastoring an Evangelical-Christian church in Illinois). What was interesting in that book were the words of Jesus Christ, which were the only words printed in red. They begin in the book of Matthew and continue through the book of John. There is no confusion about which words were those of Jesus.
Another source for identifying words of Jesus Christ is so-called, The Jefferson Bible, authored by Thomas Jefferson, hence the title. In The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, the original title, with Editor, Douglas E. Lurton, and published by Wilfred Funk, Inc., New York, 1944, Lurton explains Jefferson's purpose in separating out Jesus' sayings: "During his first term in the White House, [Jefferson] revealed his dream of separating the sayings which were indisputably the words of Jesus from what he considered to be extraneous matter in the Holy Library of 66 volumes, 1189 chapters, 773,000 words..." (The Jefferson Bible)
Three years later in 1816, Jefferson writes to Charles Thompson, "I, too, have made a wee little book from the same materials, which I call the philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus..." [One has to wonder how Jefferson was able to explain the obvious dissonance between his slave-holding and 'doctrines of Jesus' that he espoused, having freed only a handful of slaves during his lifetime.] "...If I had time I would add to my little book the Greek, Latin and French texts, in columns side by side." Later, such a work is completed and placed in the United States National Museum at Washington in 1895. The 57th Congress in 1904 provided for publication of this work; a limited edition of these volumes was presented to members of the House and Senate. From thence, comes the English section of the text edited by Lurton (The Jefferson Bible).
From Evangelical Christians who truly believe doctrines of Jesus, these are the actions we would we would expect to see: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you... Bless the peacemakers... Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them... Ye shall know them by their fruits [actions]."
3. Focus only on tangential, ambiguous and inconsistent writings that are not credited to Jesus Christ but, instead, are mostly found in "The Old Testament" as well as a few from followers of Jesus in "The New Testament".
Evangelical Christians use the Old Testament to argue for or against many issues. Whether the issue is gun control, Obamacare, or Planned Parenthood, Christians can interpret verses, can find something no matter how ambiguous, to support their argument. [Just as importantly, nonbelievers can cite Biblical verses that counter those same arguments.] The fact remains, however, that the words of Jesus are the "Gold Standard". It is his teachings from which their religion of Christianity arose and Christ is, after all, the namesake of their religion. Old Testament text or Paul's writings (marketing expert extraordinaire) or letters from any other follower do not qualify without exact words of Jesus. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1813, "We must reduce our volume to the simple Evangelists; select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the [ambiguous grammatical structure] into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from Him by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves [my Italics]. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man." (The Jefferson Bible)
"Religious freedom" is screamed only when issues surround use of tangential, ambiguous, or inconsistent writings [call it "extraneous matter"] from both Old and New Testaments to justify behavior toward a particular issue. Imagine these scenarios: Jesus appears at a Planned Parenthood Clinic where mainly women receive all kinds of health care, including abortions. He gets into the face of a patient walking into the Clinic, holds up horrendous pictures of fetuses and screams epithets against women who are actually making a private, legal decision about their own health care. Jesus tells his followers to buy more and more guns because that's the only way to maintain peace and safety. Jesus says that lack of health care for those unable to afford it is just too bad; quality health care is only for those who have money or can afford a good health insurance plan.
These kinds of behaviors don't speak to the writings of the Evangelical Christian's Jesus ("Christ like...exhibiting a spirit proper to a follower of Jesus Christ"). Rather, these behaviors sound like actions of "...those guiding or influencing governmental policy, or of winning and holding control over a government..." and "political affairs...especially competition between groups or individuals for power and leadership." In other words, these behaviors illustrate the meaning of politics (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus).
The recent use of the phrase "religious freedom" is not at all about religion; it's all about politics. It's a misnomer created to draw into the political fold any Evangelical Christians who buy their supposed message of religion. Instead, their goal is absolute power and control. The real meaning of "religious freedom" is the "quality or state of being free" in "relation or devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or Diety." (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus) In no way have Evangelical Christians been kept from the freedom of practicing the words of Jesus, their Diety.
Political shysters have turned the meaning of "religious freedom" on its head, purposefully to confuse, to muddy it, and make its true meaning unclear. In reality, the phrase becomes an excuse to practice bigotry and hatred. Wake up, Jesus-followers! You've got several wolves (like Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, etc.) in your midst. They're not interested in your religion; only in your politics -- and your vote!
"Religious freedom" is a phrase coined by Evangelical Christians and used to practice bigotry and hatred (examples include Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee). How does such a phrase become twisted to meet their own political ends? Here's the recipe.
1. Adopt the identification of oneself as an Evangelical Christian.
Who are Evangelical Christians? According to The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, the Unabridged Edition, A Christian is defined as "of, pertaining to, believing in, or belonging to the religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ" and, "exhibiting a spirit proper to a follower of Jesus Christ: Christ like." The descriptive word of "Evangelical" means, "marked by ardent or zealous enthusiasm for a cause". The key words then in defining an Evangelical Christian are "a zealous Jesus Christ follower who is Christ like in spirit".
Why would politicians want to identify with them? Eighty-three percent of Americans label themselves as Christian. If I want to have political sway over a large number of people, it would seem logical to choose the largest-size religious group within which to work.
2. Ignore teachings of Jesus Christ, Diety of Evangelical Christians; act as if those teachings don't exist.
What are the teachings of Jesus Christ [if indeed he truly existed]? What better place to look than through Jesus' own words? Those words, of course, can be found in the Christian Bible, in the section called, "The New Testament". As a child in elementary school, I received a gift of a Bible from a mother in one of our church families (at the time, my father was pastoring an Evangelical-Christian church in Illinois). What was interesting in that book were the words of Jesus Christ, which were the only words printed in red. They begin in the book of Matthew and continue through the book of John. There is no confusion about which words were those of Jesus.
Another source for identifying words of Jesus Christ is so-called, The Jefferson Bible, authored by Thomas Jefferson, hence the title. In The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, the original title, with Editor, Douglas E. Lurton, and published by Wilfred Funk, Inc., New York, 1944, Lurton explains Jefferson's purpose in separating out Jesus' sayings: "During his first term in the White House, [Jefferson] revealed his dream of separating the sayings which were indisputably the words of Jesus from what he considered to be extraneous matter in the Holy Library of 66 volumes, 1189 chapters, 773,000 words..." (The Jefferson Bible)
Three years later in 1816, Jefferson writes to Charles Thompson, "I, too, have made a wee little book from the same materials, which I call the philosophy of Jesus; it is a paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that I am a a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus..." [One has to wonder how Jefferson was able to explain the obvious dissonance between his slave-holding and 'doctrines of Jesus' that he espoused, having freed only a handful of slaves during his lifetime.] "...If I had time I would add to my little book the Greek, Latin and French texts, in columns side by side." Later, such a work is completed and placed in the United States National Museum at Washington in 1895. The 57th Congress in 1904 provided for publication of this work; a limited edition of these volumes was presented to members of the House and Senate. From thence, comes the English section of the text edited by Lurton (The Jefferson Bible).
From Evangelical Christians who truly believe doctrines of Jesus, these are the actions we would we would expect to see: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you... Bless the peacemakers... Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them... Ye shall know them by their fruits [actions]."
3. Focus only on tangential, ambiguous and inconsistent writings that are not credited to Jesus Christ but, instead, are mostly found in "The Old Testament" as well as a few from followers of Jesus in "The New Testament".
Evangelical Christians use the Old Testament to argue for or against many issues. Whether the issue is gun control, Obamacare, or Planned Parenthood, Christians can interpret verses, can find something no matter how ambiguous, to support their argument. [Just as importantly, nonbelievers can cite Biblical verses that counter those same arguments.] The fact remains, however, that the words of Jesus are the "Gold Standard". It is his teachings from which their religion of Christianity arose and Christ is, after all, the namesake of their religion. Old Testament text or Paul's writings (marketing expert extraordinaire) or letters from any other follower do not qualify without exact words of Jesus. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1813, "We must reduce our volume to the simple Evangelists; select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the [ambiguous grammatical structure] into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from Him by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves [my Italics]. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man." (The Jefferson Bible)
"Religious freedom" is screamed only when issues surround use of tangential, ambiguous, or inconsistent writings [call it "extraneous matter"] from both Old and New Testaments to justify behavior toward a particular issue. Imagine these scenarios: Jesus appears at a Planned Parenthood Clinic where mainly women receive all kinds of health care, including abortions. He gets into the face of a patient walking into the Clinic, holds up horrendous pictures of fetuses and screams epithets against women who are actually making a private, legal decision about their own health care. Jesus tells his followers to buy more and more guns because that's the only way to maintain peace and safety. Jesus says that lack of health care for those unable to afford it is just too bad; quality health care is only for those who have money or can afford a good health insurance plan.
These kinds of behaviors don't speak to the writings of the Evangelical Christian's Jesus ("Christ like...exhibiting a spirit proper to a follower of Jesus Christ"). Rather, these behaviors sound like actions of "...those guiding or influencing governmental policy, or of winning and holding control over a government..." and "political affairs...especially competition between groups or individuals for power and leadership." In other words, these behaviors illustrate the meaning of politics (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus).
The recent use of the phrase "religious freedom" is not at all about religion; it's all about politics. It's a misnomer created to draw into the political fold any Evangelical Christians who buy their supposed message of religion. Instead, their goal is absolute power and control. The real meaning of "religious freedom" is the "quality or state of being free" in "relation or devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or Diety." (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus) In no way have Evangelical Christians been kept from the freedom of practicing the words of Jesus, their Diety.
Political shysters have turned the meaning of "religious freedom" on its head, purposefully to confuse, to muddy it, and make its true meaning unclear. In reality, the phrase becomes an excuse to practice bigotry and hatred. Wake up, Jesus-followers! You've got several wolves (like Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, etc.) in your midst. They're not interested in your religion; only in your politics -- and your vote!
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