The American Taliban Speaks
The Rightwing Pundits are at it again....
One of the primary problems here is that these people think they have "granted" those with other faiths the right to believe as they do. As if we merely accepted the blessing from our Overlords (them of course, more even so than God) on high.
Uh... no.
We TOOK BACK that right in a little thing called the Revolutionary War. The right to be free is the natural state of Man. It isn't "granted" by anyone. You as individuals are ENTITLED to freedom - and not just toleration, but respect. It is your very birthright as an American, and it came at the price of much blood. Freedom is TAKEN, not given.
And it was taken, ironically, from Europeans who in the 1700's, thought EXACTLY as Ms. Parshall does. That freedom and justice was theirs to dispense or withhold at their Lordly discretion.
These Fundie Rightwingers don't even know what country they're living in. They don't even understand what "America" is as a CONCEPT. They don't understand that the entire American experiment is a BREAK with the Church -- ANY church, or mosque, or temple, or synagogue, or even any atheist organization. It is APART from that discussion entirely. Those matters are for individuals to decide, and with that freedom comes the RESPONSIBILITY to respect the rights of others to do the same.
I think Ms. Parshall's religious views are impossibly ignorant and deluded. But my REAL problem with her isn't even her religion - as wacked as I personallly believe that is. Indeed, I would fight to the death to protect her right to believe in her notion of God, in the hopes that one day she would find happier thoughts upon which to base her life, rather than a mindless devotion to a small, vengeful, petty Deity she created in her own image.
My real problem with Ms. Parshall and her ilk like John Gibson, is that they have abbrogated their RESPONSIBILITIES to the other half of that American bargain - that they do more than merely "tolerate" those with differences, but that they understand that it is our very differences that make this country RICH. And I don't mean monetarily, though frankly, it's helped. I mean wealthy in the sense that wondrous diversity is the very REASON why America possesses any greatness AT ALL.
Diversity isn't something to be grudgingly "tolerated", it is something to be CELEBRATED.
JOHN GIBSON: "Minorities ought to have the same sense of tolerance about the majority religion -- Christianity -- that they've been granted about their religions over the years."So you stay nice and quiet in the closet with whatever you do and believe, and we won't bash your head in..... Yeah. That has the aroma of freedom. More like "Eau 'd Fascism"....
JANET PARSHALL: "And number two, I have to tell you, I don't know when they held this election and decided that tolerance was a transcendent value. I serve a god who, with a finger of fire, wrote, he will have no other gods before him. And he doesn't tolerate sin, which is why he sent his son to the cross, but all of a sudden now, we jump up and down and celebrate the idea of tolerance. I think tolerance means accommodation, but it doesn't necessarily mean acquiescence or wholehearted acceptance."
One of the primary problems here is that these people think they have "granted" those with other faiths the right to believe as they do. As if we merely accepted the blessing from our Overlords (them of course, more even so than God) on high.
Uh... no.
We TOOK BACK that right in a little thing called the Revolutionary War. The right to be free is the natural state of Man. It isn't "granted" by anyone. You as individuals are ENTITLED to freedom - and not just toleration, but respect. It is your very birthright as an American, and it came at the price of much blood. Freedom is TAKEN, not given.
And it was taken, ironically, from Europeans who in the 1700's, thought EXACTLY as Ms. Parshall does. That freedom and justice was theirs to dispense or withhold at their Lordly discretion.
These Fundie Rightwingers don't even know what country they're living in. They don't even understand what "America" is as a CONCEPT. They don't understand that the entire American experiment is a BREAK with the Church -- ANY church, or mosque, or temple, or synagogue, or even any atheist organization. It is APART from that discussion entirely. Those matters are for individuals to decide, and with that freedom comes the RESPONSIBILITY to respect the rights of others to do the same.
I think Ms. Parshall's religious views are impossibly ignorant and deluded. But my REAL problem with her isn't even her religion - as wacked as I personallly believe that is. Indeed, I would fight to the death to protect her right to believe in her notion of God, in the hopes that one day she would find happier thoughts upon which to base her life, rather than a mindless devotion to a small, vengeful, petty Deity she created in her own image.
My real problem with Ms. Parshall and her ilk like John Gibson, is that they have abbrogated their RESPONSIBILITIES to the other half of that American bargain - that they do more than merely "tolerate" those with differences, but that they understand that it is our very differences that make this country RICH. And I don't mean monetarily, though frankly, it's helped. I mean wealthy in the sense that wondrous diversity is the very REASON why America possesses any greatness AT ALL.
Diversity isn't something to be grudgingly "tolerated", it is something to be CELEBRATED.
posted by CTF Editor at
8:36 AM
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