Sender: -2.599 (spamval) -- NONE
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.58.0411071427560.14576 &AElig boston.eecs.umich.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 13:12:07 -0500 (EST)
To: improvetheworld &AElig umich.edu
cc: Nicole Poellet <poelnico &AElig umich.edu>, pwu61556 &AElig comcast.net,         Sarah Nuss-Warren <sarahrn &AElig umich.edu>
From: Daniel Reeves <dreeves &AElig umich.edu>
Subject: 9/11 and gay marriage
Status: O

After 9/11, Jerry Falwell said on the 700 Club (1 million viewers per
day):

"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the
feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make
that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all
of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their
face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

The host, Pat Roberts, agreed and prayed for the de-secularization of the
United States government as our best protection against terrorism.

I bring this up again because I strongly feel that *that* is the root
cause of what is wrong in this country [1].

What do 9/11 and gay marriage bans have in common?  Religious
fundamentalism.

Let's keep pointing this out until people start to feel the embarrassing
irony when President Bush says things like "God is on our side" [2].

Danny


Footnotes:

[1] I know that post-election analysis revealed "religious values voting"
to be less of a factor than "fear of terrorism voting".  Nonetheless,
without the fundamentalist religious right we would not have Bush or gay
marriage bans.  As Lee Newman argued a while back (I'll dig up the
references if anyone's interested), the difference between Bush's
popularity in the US vs everywhere else in the world is explained by our
much higher degree of religiosity.

[2] actual quote along the lines of "God is not neutral in this conflict
between freedom and fear"

PS: to get on or off the improvetheworld list:
 http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/improvetheworld

-- 
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -  google://"Daniel Reeves"

"In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" -- Homer Simpson