On Franklin Habit

I'm home sick today, so I was browsing blogs to fill up my day. (I'm achy and coughing and fuzzy-headed, so reading and knitting seem like too much for me right now) I got to the Panopticon, and stopped. I love his humor, I marvel at his skill, I enjoy his style. So, today, it surprized me a bit to experience a vague sense of shame after reading this post, It Gets Better.

Not personal shame. I've never done anything like what he describes in his post. It's just shame that anyone who shares my profession, teaching, could ever say the indescribably sick, cruel things that Franklin describes. And that it was supported by the school itself just leaves me gasping.

I know that there's a large group of self-proclaimed "Christians" who feel the way the teacher felt. I know they are loud in proclaiming their right to tell us all how to think, live, love, feel. I just never gave them any respect for their agenda. To me they aren't Christian, they aren't democratic, they aren't right. And most of all, their arrogance just amazes me.

Admittedly, my religion is complicated. I wasn't raised in any particular denomination, or with any truly religious upbringing. My father was an Anglican, my mother a Presbyterian. I went to church irregularly, with lots of different friends, so I pretty much got a taste of a wide variety of Protestant religions. I didn't belong to any particular church or religion, however.  When I was an adult, I decided to join the Catholic church. As it turned out, the one place I felt closer to God was inside a Catholic church.

I didn't just "join", however.  I was blessed to have found a church that didn't have the regular program for inducting new members. I got assigned to a deacon, who met with me once a week, to explore my beliefs, to determine if I was really meant to be a Catholic. I loved it. We talked about a wide range of issues. We grappled with the Church's support for the death penalty (I'm opposed), and my belief that abortion is a woman's right (they're opposed). I learned more about myself and my spirituality in those conversations with my deacon than I had learned in the 30 years before.  I am a Catholic, with some disagreements.

Oddly, given its history as the oldest surviving Christian church, you don't find many Catholics running for office to impose church rule on everybody. You don't find Catholics shouting hateful anti-gay messages at the funerals of US soldiers. You don't find many campaigning against marriage equality (although the Church is opposed.) You do find some protesting abortion, however.  Now, I'm not claiming that Catholics are better. You don't find many Episcopalians, or Methodists, or Presbyterians out there doing that, either.  It just seems that the people in that "Christian" group belong to johnny-come-lately religions, rather than established ones.  Maybe they roar so loudly because they are newbies, feeling a bit insecure. Maybe they've crafted a "religion" that fits them as they are, enables them to give nothing of themselves, that gives them a "feel-good" reward for being themselves, and they use it to shout their frustration and envy and hate to the world.

I guess what I'm saying is that I just feel that religion is being used as an excuse for human desires. It's a cover-up, a misdirection. These people, with their arrogance and their hate are using religion as a cover for their desire to rule the world the way they like.  There's no real Christianity in any of their dogma. There's no hope, no charity, no love in their diatribes on "right living". It's all hate, intolerance, and prescriptions for living the right life.

Intolerant people have always been among us. You can find them in every walk of life. It used to be, however, that we pitied them for their limited understanding of life and love. Now they're attacking us for not being intolerant, beating us over the head with a Christ I can't recognize.

As a teacher, I am appalled by what Franklin endured at that despicable high school. As a human, I am appalled by a society that gives support to a group of intolerant, narrow-minded people set on destroying our society.  When are we going to say ENOUGH!