The Religious Not-Quite-Right

I wish to preface this with a disclaimer. My views to follow in this particular blog are aimed at the vocal majority of the off center (so to speak) religious right. They drive me crazy. Be aware that some of the following may be a bit blunt due to my current state of agitation. I don't think I'd be able to sleep tonight without getting some of this off of my chest.

So tonight I went to Warrenton, Mo. with my sister to switch cars with my folks so Tina could get Sally ('96 purple Mustang). I hit a deer in my car, she bought Sally from a friend, long story, for another blog. Before dinner I wanted to go to the outlet center to check out a few shops. Specifically Book Warehouse, Perfumania, and yes The Bible Factory Outlet. Odd assortment you say? Indeed. I like to 'bargain/treasure' hunt for books. I can spend hours upon hours in a book store. I needed cologne. Perfumania has all the good stuff at lower prices.

Which leads us to The Bible Factory Outlet.

As a good catholic boy growing up, of course I never read the bible. I don't know of many who did. For a religion that quotes the bible so often, uses scripture in daily mass/consecrations/prayer, and has its parochial school students take a religion class every year, this might seem a bit surprising. Indeed.

To get a driver's license, one needs to read the manual and be tested on its contents.
To get an A in reading class, one has to read a book and do book reports.
To become a lawyer, one has to read brief upon brief, and their state's code of laws.
Hopefully you get my point. To be a Catholic one would think you would require someone to read the book upon which the religion is based. Yet another example of how the old Catholic church liked to keep its constituency ignorant an unlearned so as not to threaten their power structure. I digress....

So I decided I want to read the bible. To do this, I figure I should own a bible. (Btw, should I be capitalizing that word?) I wanted a bible that didn't have a lot of references in the margin and took up half the page referring to other texts. I had that in high school, and it didn't help. I wanted a plain text bible. So, I found one. Hardcover, New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. As I grew up Catholic, I figured this to be the best way to go. I did some research and learned that the NRSV's motto is 'as literal as possible, as free as necessary'. In other words, formal enough to convey the meaning of the original scripture texts, yet contemporary enough to meet the needs of today. Oddly enough, the reading of this is directly following the current book I am reading, A Modern Buddhist Bible : Essential Readings From East To West. Needless to say I am exploring faith in general. I digress again....

Following dinner my parents, sis and myself hop in the car and go over some of the items they brought with them. One item was a bulletin from our parish, St Joan of Arc. In it was a letter from the pastor, thanking those that assisted in the preparations of the church for Advent & Xmas. This was interesting in that he specifically thanked my mother, my father, and us kids for the work we do every year. I wonder if they still welcome my help with all of this ranting!

Well, near the end of the bulletin their was a full page ad taken out by 'Missouri Right To Life'.

'Beware of lies and deceit, half truths and false information, dangerous advice and smooth-talking promoters

STOP MISSOURI STEM CELL RESEARCH & CURES INITIATIVE

A ballot initiative has been proposed in our state by Missouri CURE that seeks to put into the Missouri Constitution the legal right to clone and kill human embryos - and possibly forces you to pay for it.

~picture a big stop sign with the words 'the stem cell initiative repeated four times underneath with the following sentences following each repetition....~

...because it would create in the Missouri Constitution a constitutional right to clone human beings.

...because it would allow taxpayer dollars to fund human cloning.

...because it would redefine human cloning to allow experiments and destruction of a human embryo as long as it is not implanted in a uterus.

...because human life is sacred at every moment of existence - from the very, very beginning. No matter how it begins or where it begins, it is sacred.

DO NOT SIGN THE PETITION TO PLACE IT ON THE BALLOT!

If it is presented on a ballot, oppose this initiative with your 'no' vote.

If you have questions about human embryonic stem cell research, if you want to stay up-to-date on the efforts to stop the initiative, if you would help in this life-saving fight, please contact: etc,etc,etc...

.....wow. Unbelievable. When something like this is placed in a parish bulletin, I worry. I'm sorry, but something like this can easily be seen as a religious mandate. If you don't vote against this, you are going against the churches wishes and are a bad Catholic. It doesn't ask you to look into the issue yourself. It doesn't ask you to vote your conscience, or to your personal beliefs. It doesn't ask you to think period. Just says don't do this, its killing human embryos. Don't do this its cloning human beings. The beginning of the sheet, the 'beware' part, makes me think of the guy in Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade telling Dr. Jones not to trust anyone, especially when he meant him.......

So that started a discussion with my mom and sister. A very lively discussion, good points on both sides, and I think we all came away more aware of the situation, more educated on the topic, and on the whole better off in general. Huh...discussion....crazy.

So after a quick ride home, I set to trying to determine why my DVR is set to record Law & Order. I like Law & Order, don't get me wrong. I love SVU. But, the time slot was supposed to be for The Book of Daniel. I hop on the internet and lo and behold, it has been cancelled. I am shocked. Very good acting. Aidan Quinn, of Benny & Joon, Legends of the Fall and many other films. Ellen Burstyn, enough said. A very good cast of mostly unknowns. Good writing, very funny, and endearing. Shows a side of people one usually doesn't get to see.

Let me try to set this up for you.

Daniel Webster - Episcopalian pastor of St Barnabus. Married, three kids, one of which is adopted. Brother in law had a reputation for being in trouble, runs away with the new school buildings funds. Found dead, funds recovered by mob with the assistance of a Catholic priest who 'doesn't ask questions, just knows they can find things when others can't'. Money back so long as mob contracting business gets to build school. Loving father, devoted husband, idyllic view of people and what they are capable of. Has a bit of a pain-pill problem. Talks to a version of Jesus as if he is a real person.
Wife - bit of a boozer. coping/trying to change.
Daughter - caught selling pot to get enough money to buy animation software for her excellent drawing ability. draws about the family issues going on
Son #1 - 22 yr old med student. gay. not out of the closet publicly, but is privately to family. good kid.
Son #2 - asian adoptee. wise-ass. falls in love with girl from parish, sexually active with girl.
Father - Episcopalian bishop, dealing with a wife with severe alzheimer's. falling in love with another bishop, played by Ellen byrsten.

So basically all the general problems people can undergo as a family stuffed into one family who's head of the house happens to be a parish pastor. I had watched every episode. The family loves each other. The husband and wife are faithful to each other. The kids screw up like kids do, but they are all generally good people, and very accepting. They find out at a family dinner that one of their aunts is gay. They all take it in stride and have a discussion with a genial/sarcastic/funny atmosphere. a loving family at dinner. Shows people have faults, but at the end of the day, if you are good to each other that is what matters most.
The Jesus thing. Daniel talks to Jesus as kind of a sounding board. It is a portrayal of one mans way of talking to Jesus, of praying. Praying isn't just being on your knees, hands clasped. It is talking to god/Jesus/Buddha/Allah. Jesus happens to be a little sarcastic, but gets his point across to Daniel in this way. Shows Jesus as, gasp!!! Human!

Due to all of this, the religious right had a field day and went around boycotting NBC, and all of the businesses who advertised during the show. Saying it was blasphemous. Saying 'such filth should not be allowed to be shown on TV'. Some local station execs actually refused to show it on their station due to the content and clamor created.

Censorship anyone? Missing the point? Its amazing how often i notice people missing the point. What happened to Jesus being 'one of us'. Human. God forbid he have human qualities like sarcasm. What happened to 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.' How is it that these over-fervent religious beliefs overthrow one of our most treasured rights. When did freedom of religion become right of the majority religion to overthrow other rights??? Isn't what is happening exactly what the founding fathers tried to avoid? A religious state?

Hopefully I blew out the storm there and can get to sleep without my mind racing. I missed a lot of what I wanted to say, I'm sure i said more than i wanted to say and got off the topic a couple of times as well. I just get so upset when the ability that separates us from common animals, the ability to think, and think for ourselves gets overlooked by strict black and white morals from organized religion. Religion became part of society because we began to wonder, and ask questions. Why? How? What? and now we don't ask anymore.....we just listen to whoever is talking the loudest.....