There are people out there – not many, I don’t think, and certainly not the majority of religious folk, but I’m talking the end of the spectrum religious people – who believe that using birth control is wrong. And I don’t mean wrong in a I don’t want to use it<\/i> or an it doesn’t work for my family<\/i> kind of way. I mean they think it is morally wrong<\/i> to use any form of birth control. It’s not really hard to understand how they theologicially got to that perspective, either: these are the people who believe that life begins at conception and, furthermore, that God wanted this child to exist<\/i>. So it’s really not hard to take another step back and for them to say if you use birth control you are getting in the way of what God wants<\/i>. To them, using birth control is against the word of God. (And I am not making this up – I just had a discussion with someone who believes this.)<\/p>\n
The problem I have with this whole line of thinking is how very egotistical it is. I have yet to find two people who believe the exact same things, even two people who go to the very same church. One church-goer fully believes in no birth control, the one sitting beside them says, weeelllll, maybe that’s not exactly<\/i> what God intended. So who is right? Well, obviously, they both believe they are right and the other person is misinterpreting something. The other person… but not themselves.<\/p>\n
I have no issues with people who live their lives according to whatever rules they feel are appropriate, if they are good people. I try very hard to judge people based on what they do, not what they believe. If someone is respectful, is kind, is compassionate, then I don’t really care if you worship Shiva or the Earth Mother or God.<\/p>\n
What really, really bothers me is when people start telling me<\/i> what I need to do in order to be a good person – what I<\/i> need to believe. When politicians start making legislation based on a religious ideal<\/i> – say, gay marriage is wrong because god said so<\/i> – then I start to have some very serious problems with it.<\/p>\n
I’ll tell you, readers, that I am scared by much of the politics of this country. I abhor the lies and half-truths that both sides are doing. But most of all I am nervous that people who drive their politics from their religion will get in office. McCain doesn’t really strike me as one of those. Palin, however, does.<\/p>\n
I wonder, does she think birth control is wrong? Or does she just fear that if we give our daughters information that they will run away and have more sex? Or maybe she believes that sex should only take place within a marriage, so birth control isn’t necessary. This is very troubling, because these ideals stem from religion<\/i>. And you might be saying, but Natalie, most peoples’ beliefs and ideals stem from religion. And I agree – it usually does. But trying to pass laws like abstinence-only sex education affects my<\/i> kids… my heathen, Atheist kids. And my friend’s Pagan kids. And so on. Why should MY children be limited on what they can learn in public school<\/i> because of a religious belief that my family does not share?? This makes no sense to me. There are private schools, religious schools, for people to enroll their children in if they feel that offended by public school. If they do not wish their child to be taught certain things, then I fully accept their right to bow out of that class, that day, those discussions. I will feel like their child is missing out, but that is their choice for their family. I do not feel like I should force it on someone else… yet they want to remove the choice entirely from me. The public school should be respectful to all<\/i> the religions in this country, not follow the restrictions of any one.<\/p>\n
Same with same-sex marriage. My position has always been very simple: separate the church-wedding and the legal marriage. So if a religion<\/i> disagrees with a marriage – for whatever reason – then I feel they have the right to not agree to do the marriage in their church, by their ministers. The church<\/i> does not sanction the marriage. Fine. That’s their perogative. But keep that separate from what is allowed under the law<\/i>. Some of my friends in Europe had two weddings: a wedding in a courthouse presided over by an official, which made the union legal under the eyes of the law; and then a wedding in a church, presided over by a minister, that made the union legal under the eyes of their god and their church. And to me that is the perfect explanation. They are two separate events<\/i> that, in America, has been mashed together for far too long. The churches complain that allowing same-sex unions is interfering with what their<\/i> image of a holy<\/i> marriage is. I just think we are blurring a line that shoud be made far more distinct.<\/p>\n
Just keep religion out of my laws. That’s all I ask. ‘Cause, hey, I happen to have a different one than some of you. And, you know, I think we should all be included. I just think that’s fair. Maybe I’m crazy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are people out there – not many, I don’t think, and certainly not the majority of religious folk, but I’m talking the end of the spectrum religious people – who believe that using birth control is wrong. And I don’t mean wrong in a I don’t want to use it or an it doesn’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-1291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}