A biblical story familiar to everyone is of the man walking along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell among robbers who "stripped him and beat him, leaving him half dead." A priest walked by , saw him, and walked by "on the other side of the road." A
Levite, servant of the priest, also saw the man in the ditch but chose to walk by "on the other side of the road."
How much of the violence, bigotry, persecution and ignorance in our society today is due to the silence of those who pass by "on the other side of the road.?"
The silence...of those ministers and officers in the Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and Presbyterian churches who know that the bible says very, very little about homo-sexuality. Jesus said absolutely nothing about it. And as with the human slavery issue of past years...they choose to "pass by on the other side of the road."
The silence...of those who refuse to speak up and be counted on the evil of bigotry, disrespect and the hate that is born of ignorance.
The silence...the silence of those in the Christian church and Jewish communities who know that biblical passages are tortured out of context to support the agenda of intolerance and who refuse to challenge such dishonesty. Choosing to "walk by on the other side of the road."
The silence...of those who know that the anti-abortion violence and hysteria is a direct assault on women and their rights as United States citizens and still choose to "walk by on the other side of the road."
The silence...of those whose silence promotes ignorance. A woman told me that she could not tell her bridge club that she came to my Sunday Symposium or she would lose them as "friends". In silence she chose to walk by "on the other side of the road."
The silence....that speaks far, far more eloquently than words. This silence must must not have the final word...not for gays and lesbians...not for women's rights and anti-abortion violence...not for blacks, Jews and Hispanics...not for Humanists...Agnostics and Atheists and not for any human being in our society who has been singled out for persecution and bigotry.
It is all of those millions who choose to pass by "on the other side of the road" that
create and allow an atmosphere of intolerance to exist that is intolerable.
H.L. Mencken was one of the most respected scholars, writers and nationally syndicated columnists in American journalism. He wrote for the Baltimore Sun. His observations on "religious opinions" should be on everyone's fridge door. He wrote:
"The most unbelievable social convention of the age in which we live is the one to the effect that all religious opinions should be respected." (no matter how ignorant.) The insidious and seductive cliche that seems to saturate our society is..."you should not be critical of another persons religious belief. They all deserve respect." No matter how ignorant...how bigoted...how ugly...how destructive...how false...how cruel...how superstitious...they all deserve "respect" even if they are destroying human lives.
We are so pathologically afraid of stepping on other people's toes that truth is unknown. This thing called "tolerance" can be only an excuse to avoid dealing with the truth head on. For instance, "creationism" or "intelligent design" their new buzz word, is NOT science. The earth is billions of years old, not thousands. That is a FACT. And yet today, our George Bush national park service has allowed books be sold in the book store of the Grand Canyon saying that the canyon was formed by the biblical flood of Noah. And the literature says that pieces of Noah's ark are in the Smithsonian museum.
A Christian fundamentalist education official in Arizona said this: "If parents tell their children that the earth is flat...teachers have no right to contradict them".
Oklahoma Christian psycho-ceramics (crack pots) forced the State Textbook Committee to put a disclaimer against evolution on all science textbooks.
This pathology of "acceptance" and "respect" for ignorance in our society even motivated nationally syndicated conservative columnist George Will to write:
"The principle of which all intellectual freedom depends is this: there is nothing wrong with offending someone in the pursuit of truth." Put that on your fridge door.
Why all the screaming from those being "offended?" The answer is so simple. Ignorance cannot survive informed and intelligent criticism. Any, and I repeat "any" organized religious tradition is always in danger of collapse through dissent. And so they stigmatize dissent by crying how "offended" they are.
The ABC evening news with Peter Jennings is outstanding. He often picks a subject and spends some time with it. He recently did that with the "don't ask...don't tell" policy for gays and lesbians. He told the story of a Christian fundamentalist Navy chaplain and a gay young sailor who was thinking of suicide due to being harassed. In desperation he went to the Chaplain who told him this: "you are a sick human being and if you do not stop being gay you are going to die from AIDS, and worse yet you are
going to burn in hell forever." Peter Jennings told this story on national television. He did not pass by on the "other side of the road" but let the whole country be exposed to the monumental ignorance, bigotry and cruelty of one fundamentalist Navy Chaplain religious "beliefs".
The disease that is spreading in our society is the feeling you should "accept" and "respect" other individual religious beliefs no matter how ignorant...cruel...destructive...or
damaging they might be.
This is a most dangerous principle in that it threatens free inquiry...even science and truth itself. The danger is that far too many, dozing in apathy, are passing by "on the other side of the road"...in silence...while this cancer spreads.
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