I've started writing a story, a kind of 'what-if', counterfactual thing about what life might be like in the UK in a few years time if this country jumped on the coattails of a theocracy being set up in and exported from the US in the wake of a fundamentalist Christian being elected president. And it seems that our esteemed Prime Minister isn't even going to wait for that eventuality before banging the religious drum. According to Cameron, the UK is a 'Christian country', and all the evils of modern society, from MP's fiddling their expenses to Islamic terrorism are due to the country not following 'Christian values'. 'Christian values'? What a complete oxymoron that phrase encapsulates. Ask anyone, from Hypatia of Alexandria to the latest gay teen bullied and hounded into suicide, about 'Christian values'. Nauseating hypocrisy, and nothing more.
Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B
A very stupid and foolish thing to say since the UK, like many Western countries, is made up of many different religions and ways of life (and that's not even the half of it)
ReplyDeleteJust more reason to show that Cameron shouldn't be running a country.
Rowan <3
Hi Sammy;
ReplyDeleteI laugh now as I hear these candidates call out that they are so very moral and upright based solely on their religion and therefore the one to lead this country on in a Christian charge. It is ironic, really...
First, as this country was founded, in great part, by the desire of men to be free of state religion.
Second, a true "Christian" realizes that he is not only no better than anyone else, but is called to be humble and to seek within that which needs perfection and that without which needs love.
In both of thses issues, it seems the politicians are having it backwards. But, accuracy and truth are the first casualties...
hugs;
randy.
Hello Rowan
ReplyDeleteNice to hear from you.
Cameron is playing to the gallery, it seems to me - he won a lot of kudos from the 'Little Englander' xenophobes after his sabotage of the EU treaty negotiations, 'putting Johnny Foreigner in his place', and all that, so he's evidently decided it' now safe for him to ditch his 'man of the people' mask and be what he's been all along, like all Tories - 'man of his people', looking after his own. As you say, he shouldn't be running a grotty corner shop, never mind the country.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B
Hello Randy
ReplyDeletePoliticians falling over themselves to appear more 'Christian' and 'moral' than the rest of us might be laughable, if it didn't have the potential for real world consequences for those who are deemed to be less worthy of equality, even of humanity. Maybe I'm excessively pessimistic, but as an atheist and a boylover, I've got two good chances of finding myself on an indefinite 'holiday' in a 'reeducation facility' if these theocrats ever manage to take power and mould the world in their bigoted image.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B
Hi Sammy;
ReplyDeleteNo, I laugh at them because they are a joke, but a potentially dangerous one even still. And, yet... what is the draw? What are people so hungry for to find this "joke" attractive? I think it's fear... and while fear seems to be the call word of American society - tv especially- it is one of those sneaky things that, like cockroaches, can't stand the light of truth. So, I say call them out and laugh at their antics to remain shadowed and pointing at others.
Now, what is going on in Merry Ole' to warrant such fear? And, what can be said to cast light upon it and call it out?
hugs;
randy.
Hello Randy
ReplyDeleteThe fear you describe seems to me to be the supposedly innate distrust people have of the 'other', those who are outside their own 'tribal' group, those who aren't like the generic 'me' - the person whose skin is a different colour, the person who worships a different god, or none at all, the person who chooses to love in a different way, a way that is disapproved of, can be portrayed as 'unnatural'. Politicians and other elites since time immemorial have traded on such fears, to manipulate their constituents, and by doing so maintain their own power and privilege. If such behaviour is merely self-seeking cynicism, maybe someone like Gingrich, to use an example from your country, perhaps it is susceptible to attack by ridicule. What I find genuinely frightening, though, is the sort of candidate who really believes 'God told me to do it', and who might actually attempt to govern accordingly, the so-called 'dominionists' who want to impose their Bronze Age mythologies on everyone, the Bachmanns of this world. If they're deluded enough to believe an imaginary deity has 'called' them to espouse their bigoted values, a little laughter from the very individuals they consider to be 'subhuman', is hardly going to deflect their purpose.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B