Impure Evil (original) (raw)

One Bible verse I’ve heard a fair amount recently is from Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Mostly just the first part, really. Kirk Cameron likes to use it a lot, and this past February, there was something similar at the National Day for Prayer and Repentance stated by Mary Miller. Right Wing Watch quotes another speaker from that event talking about “the sins of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, and sex confusion.” One thing the attendees apparently didn’t do was repent, instead leaving that for other people to do. And one of Cameron’s main causes recently has been opposing drag queens reading to kids, something that seems totally harmless to me. I’m sure it’s partially an attempt to maintain the patriarchy (if gender isn’t rigid, how can we use it to say men are better than women?), but it’s also scapegoating and a way to try to control people, as with racism and misogyny. I would have thought creating arbitrary divisions and treating people who aren’t hurting anybody as dangerous was about as evil as you could get. Isn’t that what the Devil is supposed to do?

So I guess it’s more projection, which is what Republicans do best. “Sin” is a pretty meaningless word except when you’re around people with the same religious beliefs, and “evil” isn’t really all that helpful either. Not that people aren’t evil, but there are probably better words to use that don’t make it sound like they’re burning kittens for fun. And I’m not entirely sure how gender and sexuality are inherently moral or immoral. If you belong to a religion that considers sex sinful outside specific parameters, I would say that’s still an issue of ritual impurity rather than of ethics.

Another verse I recall hearing on Christian radio (Beth and I went through a period of listening to some of that, mostly just because it was so weird to us) was Romans 1:22: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” which I think they were using against people who teach evolution, or something like that. Combined with the next passage, it kind of sounds more like Paul was talking about idol worship, but whatever. It’s probably no coincidence that the same chapter is used to condemn homosexuality. It’s amazing how people today still seem to have the same attitude about how everyone secretly knows that God (and their God specifically) is real, but pretends otherwise because it’s more satisfying and they don’t have to follow all the rules. I mean, sure, it IS more fun not to have someone set limits on your leisure activities, but as far as I know, that’s not generally WHY people don’t believe in God. It’s just a bonus that, if you already don’t believe, you also don’t have to obey the rules. But then, people who DO believe apparently don’t either, just as long as they’re sorry afterwards. The whole thing about redemption by faith is confusing as hell, at least to me. I wrote the other day about how making an animal sacrifice to atone for a crime doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but at least you’re actually DOING something then. It’s not really fair for me to knock ritual when I have so many personal ones that don’t even make sense to me, but I don’t think they’re going to get me into Heaven, just maintain my own comfort.

While it’s rather old hat at this point, I also wanted to say a bit about how Republicans love to use “woke” as an insult. As far as I can tell, the term comes from Black vernacular, so I’m not sure it would be appropriate for a white guy like me to use it anyway. But I also figure it’s aspirational, not something you can really claim to be. Christians claim to want to be Christ-like, which is presumably impossible by their own theology, as Jesus was superhuman. But it’s still something you can aim towards. And of course the idea of “waking up” or “opening your eyes” or the like to mean becoming aware of what’s going on in the world is a really old one. I’ve seen some right-wing comments about “taking the red pill,” which is much the same thing. And it’s from a movie written and directed by two trans women. It’s ultimately what religion tends to be based on, the idea that there’s something going on beyond what we can garner with our senses that we can only learn by attuning our minds the right way and doing the right things. Conservatives are big on hidden knowledge, but it seems to usually be in ways where they can blame someone else for what’s going wrong, like Jews secretly ruling the world, Gay Agenda, or child sex trafficking in a pizza parlor. I guess recognizing systemic inequalities like the marginalization of Black people is more complicated, not only because it questions the status quo, but because it means we have to look at ourselves and our own prejudices, and not just say it’s all the fault of people who are naturally evil.

This entry was posted in Christianity, Conspiracy Theories, Current Events, Education, Gender, Language, Philosophy, Politics, Prejudice, Religion, Sexuality and tagged bible, faith, homophobia, homosexuality, idols, isaiah, jesus, kirk cameron, mary miller, morality, national day for prayer and repentance, patriarchy, racism, ritual, romans, sin, st. paul, transphobia. Bookmark the permalink.