Neither Moral nor Majority

[Sfedler]

Reposted from http://friendlyatheist.com/.

Neither Moral, nor Majority
This post is by Jesse Galef, who works for the American Humanist Association

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James Dobson is throwing in the towel.  He announced on his radio program:

I want to tell you up front that we’re not going to ask you to do anything, to make a phone call or to write a letter or anything.

There is nothing you can do at this time about what is taking place because there is simply no limit to what the left can do at this time. Anything they want, they get and so we can’t stop them.

We tried with [Health and Human Services Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius and sent thousands of phone calls and emails to the Senate and they didn’t pay any attention to it because they don’t have to. And so what you can do is pray, pray for this great nation… As I see it, there is no other answer. There’s no other answer, short term.

I’m sure that the Senate paid attention.  They listened to you and still disagreed.  It’s called “living in a society with other people.”  You’re not always calling the shots.

I’ve been on the air for 32 years and I’ve never seen a time quite like this. It just illustrates what happens when we don’t have what the Founding Fathers referred to as checks and balances, where the excesses of one party or one branch of government limit the reach of power hungry and self-serving people and keeps them form doing things that are harmful to the country. That’s the way the system was designed.

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And why, Mr. Dobson, do you think the left controls the legislative and executive branches of government?  Because your fellow citizens voted them in.

I shouldn’t be too snarky.  I understand the sentiment.  I do.  During the Bush administration, I called and wrote my representatives but knew that the policies I hated would probably continue.  Feeling helpless is not pleasant.

But that’s what it means to be in a democratic society.  If you truly believe that the new hate-crimes bill is “utter evil that’s coming out of the United States Congress” then you should do what you can to persuade us.  You haven’t done a very good job of it so far, but that’s no reason to give up.

So please, tell me the secular reasons our government should prevent same-sex couples from marrying.  Tell me the secular reasons we can’t use embryonic stem-cells for medical research.  Tell me the secular reasons not to teach our children about contraceptives.

If you care about our country, persuade us of your point of view.  Don’t just pray.