This is not about religion

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I have seen a number of posts today on Facebook, claiming the Hobby Lobby decision is a victory for religious freedom. Actually, it’s not.

Although the owners of Hobby Lobby say they have religious objections to certain kinds of contraception, the company invests in corporations that manufacture the very kinds of birth control they claim to oppose, which reeks of hypocrisy.

This is about having the power to control other people, in this case, women.

Men can still have drugs for chemically induced erections, they can have penile pumps and they can have vasectomies. But women can’t have the contraception method of their choice.

It doesn’t matter that I may not share their beliefs; I have to live by them anyway. That’s what the separation of church and state was all about.

We know that if Muslims had brought this case it never would have been heard by the Supreme Court. Let’s not pretend it would be any other way.

If you want to talk about Bible, let’s do. I was raised in a church at least as far-right-wing as these folks.

We didn’t go to dances; we didn’t go to R-rated movies. We didn’t try to have them banned, we just didn’t go. If we didn’t like what was on TV, we watched something else or turned it off.

Would they have liked to control everything? Sure, but back then, they knew they couldn’t. Now they can.

So-called Christians have gotten bolder in their quest to impose their religion on the rest of us because they made a pact with Republicans, who gave them power in exchange for voting against their own best interests. Now they believe they’re persecuted if everyone isn’t forced to live by their beliefs.

I rejected the misogynistic, racist beliefs promoted by the church I was raised in when I was a teenager, and I don’t want to live by them today.

Jesus once was asked why anyone should pay taxes. He asked the person to show him a coin.

“Whose likeness is on that coin?” he asked.

“Caesar,” was the reply.

“Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s,” he said.

In other words, government is not your religion. To follow God, you must be the one following and you don’t have the right to force others to practice your beliefs any more than they have the right to impose theirs on you. Government and God are two separate entities. If it wasn’t OK for the Romans to force their beliefs on and persecute Christians, it isn’t OK for Christians to do that to others.

This is about not trusting women to make our own choices about health care. To them, it’s about original sin. See, they believe Eve committed the first sin and therefore no woman can be trusted. Women are to be controlled at all times, in every way. If they have sex, they deserve to get pregnant.

That’s why it’s OK for men to have Viagra and penile implants. That’s why women so often are blamed for rape and domestic abuse. We were the original sinners in their eyes, so it’s always our fault when men abuse them. He’s only asserting his natural authority, after all.

Think about the first two questions that come to mind when a woman is raped: Where was she? What was she wearing?

If you think it’s anything less than this, I think you’re wrong. I grew up among people who thought like this, and I heard their “logic” for my entire childhood and adolescence.

I have re-joined the National Organization for Women. I will join Emily’s List.

I thought women won these battles two generations ago, but I see the fight isn’t over yet.

 

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