Do you agree with this quote about Evangelicals and the religious right?

Question

"Expending so much energy on school prayer, 'intelligent design' and gay marriage in the face of genocide and slave trading n the Third World is the moral equivalent of trying to enforce vegetarianism when most of the world doesn't have enough food to begin with." ~Newsweek

Answer 1

>Great. Wish I had written it.<

Answer 2

I don't agree, even though I'm not a fundamentalist.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and accept their limitations and areas of interest. Baptists in Alabama probably have more hope of preventing gay marriage than stopping the cacao slave trade. Just like the Vegetarians have more hope of limiting beef sales than feeding people in Ethiopia.

The arguments concerning School prayer, gay marriage, and Intelligent Design need to be about how those ideas are either right or wrong.

Answer 3

The vast majority of christians in the US are catholic. Catholics do not push for school prayer in public school. Instead they created catholic schools. Catholics won't fight for teaching intelligent design in public school. They can understand that evolution could be a god designed process. Catholics won't perfom a gay marriage ceremony but any one is welcome to attend services. I belive that focusing on such issues is a basically preaching to the choir desperately trying to appease the hard right. These aguments have no effect on society. It would ne nice if we could do something to end genocide or slave trading. However that only way that will happen is if 100 million people in rich countries forgo all personal wealth building and donate all their time and effort in solving such problem. Would you do it. Are you??? Strangely enough all of the people who have done such things are very pious. Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Dali Lama. Where are the journalists. Have you ever seen the Newsweek writer cleaning feces off a dying AIDS baby??? Is writing a article designed to placidate people with politcal views more important that making a baby's last hours comfortable. This leads me to the root of the problem the worship of ideology. People should be rewarded for what they DO, how they LIVE and not for just spewing propoganda.

Answer 4

Not sure how this quote is about evangelicals & the religious right (don't know what that refers to) but it is a provoking quote. While we're spending energy in the U.S. debating on the "moral issue" of religion and government, the human rights issue around the world is being neglected. Slavery & genocide don't even make the headlines anymore.... at least not compared to the latest debate between Donald & Rosie. It shows our priorities as a society.

Answer 5

Yes, I do agree. I am distressed at the amount of money, time, and energy that went into the recent vote in VA to ban gay marriage....how many children and poor elderly could have been fed or given medical care with that amount of money!? Gay anything is between that person and their God...hunger, loneliness, poverty, lack of medical care, abuse, genocide, slavery, (I could go on and on) are between ALL of us and God. Even if a person doesn't believe in God there is an innate compass (in most humans) that urges us towards the right direction in life...and that is to treat other humans with dignity, respect, concern, care, and love. When we don't...we are hurting all humanity.

Answer 6

Great quote, and completely true. But oh, man, are the thumpers going to flame this one. Chances are they'll ask if the speaker is an atheist.

Answer 7

I agree 100%.

Answer 8

Apples & Oranges

Answer 9

Yeah, pretty much.

Answer 10

Sounds about right to me.