Tuesday, June 20, 2006

The march of the theocrats.

A few months ago the Christianist controlled legislature of South Dakota passed the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the United States. Now the Christianists in Louisiana have rushed to join them. How restrictive is it?

Consider this: if you are a young girl in either state who is brutally raped you will be required to give birth to the child of your rapist. It matters not what trauma this may inflict on you. What if you were the victim of violent incest, raped by your own father. Tough. You will be forced to give birth to your own brother because in the world of fundamentalism there are rules that apply to everyone regardless of circumstances. As the fundamentalist is known to say: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it."

There is no debate with someone who believes that God is talking to them and directing them. Their moral code is not their moral code since they are unhappy unless everyone is forced to live according it to. Fundamentalists Muslims want all women to cover their head not just Muslim women. Fundamentalist Christians do not care if you are not one of them. You will be forced to live as if you were.

Consider how they have treated the marriage issue. They oppose marriage rights for gay couples. Why? Because they think it sinful to be gay. So everyone must follow this moral code whether they think it is a sin to be gay or not. These Christianists have passed laws in several states which don't just ban gay marriage or even civil unions. They ban private companies from granting any benefits to the spouses of gay employees. So if X corporation says they want to offer health insurance to all employees and their spouses (legally married or not) these laws prevent them from doing so. I presume that to give health insurance would be a crime then. Just as the young girl who doesn't wish to give birth to the child of her rapists would be a criminal under these laws.

Now if this is the kind of power trip these people are on now what would it be like if they actually controlled the state completely? Christian theocrat Gary North was quite honest when he said, that if people "fully understood the long-term threat to their civilizaation that our ideas pose, [they] would be wise to take steps to crush us."