True enough Skot. Those who don't are a tiny segment of the whole. Tiny and fascinating! For example, Dr. Gerald Schoenewolf, author of a paper called Gay Rights and Politcal Correctness: A Brief History.
When interviewed last week for this article, Schoenewolf stood by his comments on the intellectual inferiority of civil rights movement supporters. "The civil rights movement has from the beginning and today seen itself as good and others are evil, like slave owners are evil," he said.
During the interview, Schoenewolf lambasted civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights. "All such movements are destructive," he said. He also claimed the American Psychological Association, of which he is a member, "has been taken over by extremist gays."
A website that published this quote, run by the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), is now in trouble with African Americans for another great pull quote: "those (slaves) brought to America... were in many ways better off." Just like all those poor people in the Superdome! NARTH has selectively apologized for the opinions expressed in the piece, without going into the civil rights movement. Perhaps the civil rights thing just hasn't been settled yet at their office.
For the record I have no problem with organized religion, which I think does a tremendous amount of good for a great number of people. However, it has been put to some pretty terrible ends by a small number of people, and these people certainly give the whole enterprise a bad name. I'm talking to you, Jerry F. and grand inquisitor T.
Alright, point given. The tiny but vocal fraction of social and religious fundamentalists are the ones making with the hilarious, ill-thought-out quotes. Most religious conservatives tend to stay in the quiet middle, and many hold rather liberal views on helping the poor and whatnot. Which is why the GOP is poopin' paving stones right now.
ReplyDeleteWe just authored a DVD for an athiest group out of Utah (talk about a tough crowd!). The video was staged thusly: A lady who didn't believe in God giving a presentation in a high school class. I think it was done that way so the lady could answer the usual high-school level questions ("Aren't you afraid of going to hell?"). But one quote struck me, and you should bear it in mind. She said "If I had a magic wand that would make all the religions and religious belief in the world vanish instantly, I wouldn't use it. Too many people base their morals on religion, and for the most part the good effects of that far outweigh the bad."
Hey, you're in the blogging biz. People out there need to still say looney shit, or you're back to diary form. More first-amendment power to ya!
--Skot