Get The Hell Out Of Our Bedrooms!

Recently, I read an opinion article by Zoe Williams from the Guardian. In it, she argued that politicians use their religious faith to justify their bigoted and misogynistic views instead of using them to justify doing things for the greater good. She suggested that the solution is not to prevent religion from being an influence in politics, but rather that sex in politics is the actual problem; and that people that share the same faith as these politicians need to stand up and reject such intollerance. Finally, she argued that to call out intollerance, whether fueled or not by religious faith, does not make one intollerant. I agree with her on all of these points.

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Moog, of the British House of Commons was her target here. Recently, Rees-Moog came under a lot of fire when he suggested that his Catholic faith to implores him to reject abortion in all circumstances and to disavow same-sex marriage.

Now, I was not baptized Catholic, and I don't necessarily subscribe to a specific religious denomination; but recognizing that both sides of my family are Catholic and have been for what seems like since Creation, I identify culturally as a Catholic, or perhaps more broadly as a Christian. Being raised within that culture, my value system is influenced by it. Being a Catholic, whether a cultural one or a religious one or not, one is ingrained with a sense of social justice and a love for all beings, and of course, that infamous sense of guilt. Jokes aside, in Catholicism, one especially values life, perhaps more so over everything else other than God.

At first glance I can see why Rees-Moog says his Catholic faith compels him to reject abortion under all circumstances. He's a Catholic. The teachings of the Catholic Church are pretty clear about abortion. The Catholic Church is also pretty clear about same-sex marriage. However, Rees-Moog is not consistent with his beliefs.

If his Catholicism truly compels him to do anything, how come he doesn't do more to pass laws that help the poor and downtrodden in his constituency or in Great Britain? Why does he advocate such regressive policies like zero hour contracts, which give so much flexibility to employers that employees have nothing set in stone to guarantee that they have consistent hours? Why does Rees-Moog reject the teachings of the church when he advocate s for the abolition of environmental regulations? Does he not know who St. Francis of Assisi is? Has he not read Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si' ? Why does Rees-Moog affiliate himself with the anti immigrant party UKIP and why did he endorse the racist Donald Trump? What kind of life does he value? I thought that all lives mattered.

Look, I don't mean to make Jacob Rees-Moog the whipping boy of this blog post. I'm not British, and his backwards views don't personally affect my life. But Rees-Moog is not alone in being a hypocrite. Here in the United States, we are full of people who hide behind religious faith to push their specific agendas, but then completely ignore the rest of it to suit their purposes. Look at the so called "pro-lifers" in the Republican Party. They are so hell-bent on defunding Planned Parenthood and making abortion completely illegal, or at best almost impossible to get one. They want so badly to regulate what goes on in our bedrooms. But beyond that, they don't actually care about life.

Why doesn't their Catholicism, or Mormonism, or Evangelism, or other religious faith compel them to ensure 20+ million Americans don't lose their health insurance? If life is so important, why don't the "pro-lifers" do something like create a universal health care system, so that everyone, rich or poor, has equal access to the proper health care? Why doesn't their faith compel them to do something about Climate Change? We just had two major hurricanes that hit the southern United States, but the only discussion from the so called "pro-lifers" are worthless thoughts and prayers. Where's the interest in insuring every child can receive a college education or an education at a trade school if they so desire? Why don't they do more to help single parents raise their children?

The answer is simple: these people are self-serving assholes who don't give a damn about life. In their minds, life only exists in the womb or in the bedroom. Beyond that, they have shown no real interest in life.

Looking beyond the self-serving politicians who bastardize religion for their own purposes, we absolutely should have some religious influence in our politics. Remember that during the Civil Rights movement, it was the clergy that were a big driving force behind ending segregation. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself was a Baptist minister, and died a martyr for civil rights. Dorothy Day led a Catholic movement in favor of workers rights called the Catholic Worker Movement. Those things are all great; but when you want to use religion in politics to deny people their own basic free will to love who they want and to live with who they want to live with, and to deny people the right to make their own reproductive choices; get the hell out.

Religion's place in politics should be to help people, and not litigate morality in our private lives. The idea of free will permiates through Christian theology and philosophy. To borrow from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints terminology, we have free agency, meaning our choices are up to us; and as my Grandmother, a staunch Catholic and secular Franciscan says: "We all have choices to make in our lives." Therefore, I think religion should not be involved in matters of the bedroom, especially when they relate to politics. To top it all off, all of the Christian denominations and all of the theologies of this world have different views on morality. A Catholic should not make a Catholic law for something like Abortion and make it apply to Jews and Episcopalians and other people who may disagree with that dogma, etc. Respect your religious faith and what it says, but don't impose your religious morality and dogma onto everyone else.

Finally, I'd like to address the final point, on how those in these religious faiths need to call out their fellow parishioners and how it doesn't make them intollerent. When Pope Francis spoke about the need to protect the environment and trust the scientific research on climate change, politicians like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio had no problem criticising the Pope for his views! And he's the Pope! For clarity, I'm not saying that their criticism of the Pope was intollerance. I will say though that their criticism was ignorant though because he's the Pope. In Catholicism, he's literally the closest man to God and you're gonna dismiss what he's saying?

Again, forgive my terrible comparison, but my overall point is that if people like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have no problem criticising the Pope, the closest man to God in the view of the Catholic faith, then I don't see what's wrong with calling out the ignorance and ultimately, the intollerance of those parishioners. If the Pope is fallible (which according to Catholic dogma, he is infallible), then certainly the parishioners are too. People like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio need to see that their views are wrong. When someone like Chris Christie, a devout Catholic, still stands by Donald Trump, even with his race baiting and bigotry, then he needs to be called out, because though he may be against abortion as Catholic dogma may require, Chris Christie needs to be against bigotry as well because that is also a part of that dogma.

One final thought: I'd have more respect for people like Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and others if they had more consistency with how their faith influences their political positions and actions, but I have yet to see such Senators like Marco Rubio, Dan Sullivan, Pat Toomey, or even people like Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, saviors of the Affordable Care Act, co-sponsor a universal health care bill, like the one Bernie Sanders introduced in the Senate today. By the way, all of these Senators are all Catholics and Republican. Murkowski and Collins deserve more credit for their views on reproductive choice and care for the environment, but when will the rest of these Catholic, Republican Senators answer the Pope's call for human stewardship and respect for the environment?

I have a simple request for those people: put up or shut up!