5 Big Lies About the Phony 'War on Religion'

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/story/154059/5_big_lies_about_the_phony_%27war_on_religion%27/

Republican candidates have been traveling the country pledging to end Obama's war.

Sounds great, except for one tiny problem—the war they're railing about doesn't exist. They're not calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan or the abstract “war on terror.” The candidates claim that Obama and Democrats across the country are waging a “war on religion”-- and, of course, they're the “civilian casualties,” along with the rest of America's white Christian majority.

***snip

1. Catholic employers complain about having to provide birth control coverage with health insurance.

Republican politicians and religious-right leaders—particularly the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, known previously for its willingness to tank healthcare reform over private abortion coverage that women could purchase with their own money—are claiming, incredibly, that the Obama administration's ruling that birth control should be covered by health insurance without a co-pay infringes on their freedom of religion.

Santorum, a Catholic, pitched a fit over the contraception rule in Colorado on the campaign trail this week, calling Obama "hostile to people of faith, particularly Christians, and specifically Catholics."

And Mitt Romney, whose church explicitly permits birth control, nevertheless had to get in on the fun, writing an op-ed for the Washington Examiner claiming Obama is trying to “impose a secular vision on Americans who believe that they should not have their religious freedom taken away.”

[DCKit]

1. If MY religious freedom hinges on being allowed to tell other people what to do....

I say "Tax the churches, their real estate, their aircraft, their limousines and housing subsidies beyond a reasonable level."

[unhappycamper]

2. K&R n/t

[Champion Jack]

3. tax the churches, all of 'em

[chervilant]

4. hmm...

Are there any moral relativists out there? Any meta-ethical relativists? Are We the People doomed to pious subjugation by the relentless adherents of Judeo-Christian Mythology?

The arrogance of 'Christians' never ceases to amaze me. I am reminded of the iconic Koan about confusing the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself. With so many fingers pointing, one hears a cacaphony of descriptions of the moon, the finger, the myriad experiences of 'pointing' at the moon...

Perhaps, it's the proselytizing that puts me in mind of the finger....