An open letter to all christians:

Dear christian,

One, of course, can be adamant toward a concept without attacking the person, even though most people fail to discern the difference between venomous and inflammatory dissent against a despicable conceptual view and a personal attack. I have found the patterns of some organizations are often clouded by demanding the right to attack, defame, denigrate, diminish, demonize, and vilify without the focus of their attack having a right of dissent, or rebuttal. It is my intent to answer the attack on human beings by christian concepts, not to initiate an attack, nor to attack individual christians.

Christianity assumes the right to condemn without being considered unduly hostile, but when an individual within the attacked group, usually a minority group, objects, then that individual is said to inflamatory. I will gladly wear the inflamatory label rather than give a by-your-leave to attacks by conceptually flawed religions.

It is more than a little amusing that I have used direct quotes from well known and famous men, especially the founding fathers, in my rebuttals! These men were not constipated. They raised their voices in clear and precise language with intent to offend. Unbeknown to my dissenters they have often denigrated words I've written that were spoken by people they claim to admire.

I defend dissent ... strong and powerful dissent! I object to keeping the peace by intellectualizing atrocious and unacceptable behavior and I do so in good company. As for those I oppose, I prefer a vociferous enemy (in debate) to a silent friend, for in conflict the opportunity for expression permits revelation. If the facts about a group or a concept offend the individuals in that group, maybe they should reconsider their membership.

As example: The christian attack against homosexuality. They have a wicked past wherein they stoned to death anyone caught having sex with their own sex. Their present condemnation of homosexuals as abominations is equally wicked. Christians claim the moral high road and relegate homosexuals to a realm with murders, rapists, and child molesters. Dissent by homosexuals is discouraged, denigrated, and dismissed.

When one of us, queer people, point out the heinous, bloody, and evil history of the religion we are informed we are creating waves, making a war. To an extent it's true ... the jews in concentration camps could not be accused of making a war. They endured! They didn't fight back and the nazis had free reign to do as they wished. Some nazis were, of course, good guys and helped some jews escape, but in general we recognize the evil of the concept behind nazism. It is the same with most organized religions. Christianity, judiasm, catholicism, and the moslem religion, all have a bloody, barbaric, and savage history that they prefer to keep hidden while they continue the same religious views into the present. That a few christians regret the corruption of other christians doesn't change the horror of that corruption.

In 1786, in some states, it was still illegal to be an atheist (an atheist was defined as anyone who didn't believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour) ... the punishment for expressing disbelief in god was confiscation of property, imprisonment, and execution. The churches , of course, acquired the confiscated property. In Massachusetts, blasphemy was still punished with a red hot poker through the tongue. This is, of course, only the tip of the oppression, then and now. The Dark Ages of Church domination has lessened its grip, but look around you ... it has not ended, not yet. We still suffer from legal and social regulations that have no purpose except they have continued from the time of religious domination. Our nation, perhaps more than any other, still has a boot on the neck of the citizens. It's deplorable when the religious try to shut me up! I do nothing more then reveal the past and ask, "Are these the concepts we want deciding what is right and proper conduct among civilized people?"

I find christian views to be largely reprehensible and the actions that follow from those views to be equally reprehensible! I will not silence my voice because of their censure. They, after all, choose to be christians! I have not chosen to be a gender variant. They recruit children to their wickedness and then claim that I, and others like me, recruit children. They cloud reality with volumes and volumes of self-justification in an attempt to hide their wickedness and no matter how nicely one presents the truth about them, it damns them far more certainly and with greater force than anything I could say.

And yes, I have personal reasons for focusing my attention and "affection" toward christianity, although not toward christians (the latter, I contend, are often unaware victums of their victimization.) I have seen the damage religion brings to the lives of good people, not just in the past, but in the present. I can't sit quietly and allow such heinous things without an accusing finger. If you ever held a gay kid in your arms while he sobbed his heart out because his fundamentalist family had thrown him out at 15, you might understand. Or if you ever spent an evening talking a gay kid out of suicide because his pastor told him he was an abomination and deserved to go to hell, you might understand. If you ever talked to a woman who had been terrified as a little girl because the preacher made her feel she was a murderer, personally responsible for the cruci-"fiction" of their god, or tried to help her past the self-vilification she retained as an adult, you might understand. If you ever objectively thought about the damage done by telling little children they will go to hell for nothing more than natural inclinations, you might understand. How dare these people tell children all people are sinners, all doomed to hell unless they believe in a fairytale, and the rest of us stand idly by and let them do it without a single voice raised in objection. What they do deserves social censure, but it is religion so we remain silent. Deplorable! A pastor often has more respect and authority than the parents! If parents verbally beat up on their children we would have social workers on their case so fast their heads would spin, but religion, in the name of god, is permitted to tell children the most horrible lies about human behavior and we do and say nothing!

Nor do the cries of some christians resolve the issue, "That isn't christianity!", That isn't us! Those parents, people, pastors, aren't acting like christians." Wrong! They are christians! They are acting like christians act, and doing what christians do, even the ones that say they go too far and that they should love the sinner are still filled with condemnation. When a parent takes a gay kid to church and has him get down on bended knee to beg god to help him stop being evil, do they really think they are any better than the ones who threw the kid out of their home?

And in a long life of confrontation ... I am told to shut up, not to say anything, not to make waves. I submit ... it is not I who make the waves, I merely point at the waves and say, "Look, you made these waves, not I." I can not sit silently and watch while those waves destroy lives. Yes, I do fear the return of religion to government. I know the terrible laws they would pass in the name of their god. I know the ones they would pass now, if they could. Abortion would be murder, same sex love would be equal to child molestation, multiple lovers would be also, blasphemy would be punishable by torture, non-belief would be revocation of citizenship, imprisonment, tortue, and death. Women would be second class citizens! And that would be just the beginning. It is that way today in moslem countries, it was that way here less than two hundred years ago, and if we don't keep the memory fresh in everyone's mind it could happen here again! Believers will keep trying. Fortunately, there are many who give lip service to belief, but who know better than to allow religion back in control.

Still, until we, as a people, raise our voices and make laws regulating how far religions are allowed to go in their indoctrination of children, recruitment of children, their attacks on children, and their attacks on groups they wish to vilify, we are a long way from achieving the maturity and wisdom we are seeking. In a free nation people have the right to believe what they will, but that doesn't give them the right to bring it into a public forum and establish those beliefs as law. Nor should children be subjected to assaults from religious sources! I would zone churches much as we do porno stores! The latter is far less damaging to society than the former. No church should be permitted within a thousand yards of a school, a playground, or any place where children congregate.

Warmly,
Laura

The Philosopher's Stone
The Face of God: A Paramythic Vision
A Rational Perspective on Life
Ten Rational Commandments
Quotes of the Founding Fathers and Other Notables on Religion
The Inner Circle