Marie Castle - Culture Wars: The Threat to Your Family and Your Freedom

Copyright 2013 by Marie Alena Castle. All rights reserved.

For information contact:

See Sharp Press

P.O. Box 1731

Tucson, AZ 85702

www.seesharppress.com

Castle, Marie Alena.

Culture wars : the threat to your family and your freedom / Marie Alena Castle ; introduction by Tim Gorski - Tucson, Ariz. : See Sharp Press, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

235 p. ; 23 cm.

ISBN 978-1-937276-47-8 1937276473

Contents: Introduction -- Preface -- 1. Interpreting the Constitution -- 2. The Theology of Sex -- 3. Dumb as a Rock: Theology and Natures Sexual Diversity --4. Women and Religion: An Abusive Relationship -- 5. Theology Based Healthcare -- 6. No Right to Know: Science, Education and Free Expression -- 7. Religion and Taxes: Freeloading at its Finest -- 8. The Nations Most Favored Welfare Recipient -- 9. Public Religion: Insults and Injuries -- 10. To the Barricades.

1. Social values - Political aspects. 2. Culture conflict - Religious aspects. 3. Social conflict - Religious aspects. 4. Church and state - United States.

Dedicated to the memory of
Sue Rockne

religious liberal, political activist, friend and mentor,

and formidable lobbyist for reproductive rights

and separation of religion from government.

Her file folder on authoritarian religions

assaults on our liberties was labeled,

Tax the Bastards!

She died too soon.

There are not enough like her.

We need so many.

If you are a believerif you are committed to a theologyyou should read this book. Yes, it is written by an atheist. But, no, it is not just about finding fault with theological doctrines, though it does that. This book is not so much against believers as against believers imposing their religious beliefs on others. Most believers do not want that. In fact, most believers will be surprised and deeply distressed at how well-meaning ideas are sometimes result in dreadful public policies with horrifying effects. Culture Wars explains how this is happening, right now, in our nation.

If you are an unbeliever, you have much to learn from this book, as well. Yes, it will explore the substance and absurdity of many theological doctrines, though not in such detail or at such length as in many other books. But unlike other books criticizing religion and its doctrines, the purpose here is different. This book is unique in not only showing how silly and wrong many religious beliefs are, but in showing how and why they affect the laws and legal institutions we live under. Culture Wars shows how these entanglements corrupt our government and hurt all of us.

If you simply do not care about religion or do not have strong opinions about it, then you really, really need to read this book. We stand, here in the early 21st century, at the doorway of a world filled with new technologies and innovations that promise to improve human life and diminish suffering and misery. Stem cell research, to name just one example, could greatly reduce or eliminate many chronic degenerative diseases. And religious authoritarians are trying to stop it dead in its tracks. Even if you dont care much about other peoples religious convictions, you can rest assured that the most zealous and unreasonable religious believers are doing their best to deform and destroy our future and yours.

Of course, everyone knows that here in the United States we enjoy religious liberty. Our Constitutionthe First Amendment, specifically, backed by the 14th Amendmentmeans that were supposed to have complete separation of state and church at all levels of government. Thomas Jefferson called it a Wall of Separation between the government and religion. This wall guarantees (or should guarantee) that no one is forced, via law and our legal institutions, to obey religious dictates. Marie Alena Castle shows in this book that current reality is far from this ideal. In fact, she shows that what everyone knows about this subject is in some cases devastatingly wrong, that we are, in fact, continually subjected to legal strictures and public policies that violate our religious liberties and state/church separation.

The United States was founded on the self-evident principle that everyone possesses intrinsic, inalienable and equal rights. Thomas Jefferson ridiculed the idea that some people are born with saddles on their backs while others are naturally booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately. Yet Jefferson himself owned slaves. It took a bloody civil war to end the appalling institution of slavery, and we still suffer from its legacy. What will it take, and how long will it take, for us to finally make concrete the First Amendments guarantee of state-church separation and religious liberty? There is already a war underway, the outcome of which is uncertain, that will answer this question. This book outlines some aspects of this culture war that politically powerful religious groups and leaders are waging against our liberties. At stake are not just important principles of American freedom, due process, and equal treatment under the law, but, in some circumstances, our lives.

There are those who dismiss complaints about violations of state-church separation as frivolous, especially when such protests come from atheists. So what if a creche is displayed in a government building? they say. So what if The Ten Commandments hang above a judge in a courtroom? So what if our money has In God We Trust on it? So what if everyone must recite under God in the nations official loyalty oath? But the question is not whether these things are worse than chattel slavery. It is whether these things are at odds with and undermine our nations founding principles. They are and they do. All of these things are violations of our religious liberties.

But, as this book explains, there are much worse consequences of state-church entanglement. Religious groups and leaders actively promote government intrusion into the most private and personal aspects of our lives. How and whom we love; our reproductive rights; how we choose to form families and have children; protection of children from neglect and abuse; and even the choices we make when we face serious health problems or are dying. Religious authoritarians want massive government intrusion in all of these basic aspects of life. Objections to these intrusions are not frivolous.

Religious leaders offer a multitude of reasons why their religious doctrines should be the law of the land. We are a Christian Nation! is usually the first explanation. Never mind that one could just as easily argue that Iran is a Muslim nation and should therefore be under shariah law. This is so obvious that many on the religious right promote their authoritarian claims as scientific rather than religious. The most blatant example of this is the labeling of creationism as Intelligent Design. Many religious groups go far beyond such deceptive labeling and endlessly repeat demonstrably false claims, such as that birth control pills and abortion cause cancer, that gays are pedophiles, and that legitimate rape (as Missouri Congressman Todd Akin put it) cannot cause pregnancy. They then cite these specious claims as justification for meddlesome, intrusive laws.

Worse, religious leaders claim that defenders of state-church separation are anti-religious bigots or even persecutors of religious believers. For example, the public policy that requires medical insurance to include contraceptive coverage is being challenged as going against the religious convictions of Catholic employers (who provide insurance to their employees). This is like saying that employers religiously opposed to the germ theory of disease (it is just a theory after all) should be able to exclude antibiotics from insurance coverage. In fact, what such claims reveal is that the religious zealots making them are not persecuted in any sense of the word (in an 80% Christian nation!), but rather seek special privileges for religions and religious believers.