"Two gay Iranian teenagers -- one 18, the other believed to be 16 or 17, were executed this week for the 'crime' of homosexuality, the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported on July 19."
My personal "religious belief" is one of non-theism. Despite receiving the typical Christian indoctrination during my formative years, I never found religion had any bearing on my life whatsoever. I had huge doubts about God from around 8 years old and declared myself agnostic during my teen years.
With that background, I've been spared from idiocy of religious intolerance most of my life. (Full disclosure, I was a homophobe for a few years in high school... based on personal stupidity, not religious doctrine.) I have no use for religion, but I understand its existence and agree that if it did not exist today, it would quickly be invented because it is needed by many people. There is no denying that a lot of good arises from expectations forced on people, or goals set by people, due to their religion.
What I don't get is how low the fundamentalist Christianists have taken the religious vision in this country. Common criminals like Fred Phelps, political shysters like Spongedob Stickypants, and flat-out windbag nutjobs like Roberts and Falwell have been allowed to speak for the Christian population and denounce just about everything their savior stood for.
Because the decent majority of the American faithful are not heard or do not speak out against these cardboard mouthpieces, it allows the RightWingNuttia agenda to push them further and further into condoning the lunatic elements in their group.
Do you think Phelps has any problem with Iran's policies against gays? Do you think Spongedob cares if his sheep murder a few doctors? As long as there is no hue and cry from red state True Believers when Santorum fires off his latest psychotic hallucination about gays, the religious in this country must shoulder the responsibility for hate being committed in their name.
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