Excerpt #58 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women’s emancipation. – Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The word and works of God are quite clear, that women were made either to be wives or prostitutes. – Martin Luther, Works 12.94
The primary foe of reproductive rights for over a century has been the RomanCatholic church. During the last decade in particular, the Vatican has had a staggering process in stifling family planning programs worldwide and especially in the United States. – Roland Van Liew, “Pronatalist Zealotry and Reproductive Rights”
The union of religious and political ideologues forms the perfect obstacle to human progress.
They are a lethal combination.
As the former president of the Washington-based Population Institute, Werner Fornus (2003 Laureate of the U.N. Population Award) said on a trip through China, “President Bush’s denial of the $34 million that Congress appropriated this year for the U.N. Population Fund is a cruel travesty — an act that bypasses rationality and fairness to placate religious ideologue constituents who oppose both family planning and women’s rights. Several inquiries into allegations of the fund’s support of coerced abortions and involuntary sterilizations to carry out China’s one-child family policy . . . have revealed the charges to be unwarranted.”
Similarly, religion and politics have joined forces to thwart beneficial (and inevitable) stem cell research.
One of my favorite fantasies is that next Sunday not one single woman, in any country of the world, will go to church. If women simply stop giving our time and energy to the institutions that oppress, they could cease to be. – Sonia Johnson
If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being. – Rev. Jerry Falwell
IGNORANCE COMPOUNDED BY ARROGANCE IS EXHIBITED AS STUPIDITY.
The trouble with born-again Christians is that they are an even bigger pain the second time around. – Herb Caen
BELIEF SYSTEMS VIE FOR RECRUITS.
“In the fundamentalist view, unbelievers have only two relevant attributes: They are potential converts and sources of temptation. As objects of evangelism, they are called ‘crops to be harvested,’ ‘sheep to be found,’ and ‘fish to be netted.’
“Because of the danger of worldly influence (much like a contagious disease), relationships with ‘them’ must be handled gingerly. Contact must be superficial, geared toward evangelism only, and cut short if there is not a positive response. Since Christians are already full of truth, there is no need for them to listen, nothing for them to learn, and much for them to lose by admitting alternative views into their consciousness.” – Marlene Winell, Leaving the Fold
EXTREMISTS SEEK DOMINANCE NOT DIALOGUE.