religion and politics

I heard something today that made me very sad. I was talking to my boyfriend's sister about the presidential election. I was surprised, a few weeks ago, to find out that she planned on voting for John McCain. You see, she is young and what I would call an agnostic with pagan leanings. Despite a very strict conservative and religious upbringing she turned out pretty liberal. she is pro-choice and believes in equal rights for gays. So I figured that McCain's anti-gay rights stance and plans to overturn Roe v. Wade if given a chance to appoint conservative judges to the supreme court would totally have her voting for Obama.

So when we were talking about it today I asked her why and her answer astonished me. She said that she just doesn't trust him because he is a muslim and belongs to a radical "anti-whitey" church. The muslim part had me perturbed; its the second time I heard that he was muslim but I didn't think that he was. I asked if she was sure, and she assured me that he was. She said those two things plus all of his funding made her nervous about him and made her not trust him.

I think that she thought there was some kind of conspiracy from rich arab oil people to put an extremist muslim in the oval office. Wow.

I was skeptical about the muslim part because I watched election coverage for hours on election night and the announcers just kept saying that if Obama was elected history would be made because he would be the first african-american president. If he were muslim I'm sure that they would have mentioned that because that too would have made history. After all, every President we have had with the exception of John F. Kennedy has been a part of some branch of Protestantism. Considering the effect that muslim extremists have had on the world since September 11th, 2001 I know that they would have mentioned something. so I looked it up on the internet.

By nature I question everything. And this time I am glad I did because Obama is not a muslim. He is a Christian that belongs to an "afrocentric" church. The church's leader is pretty radical though, i'll give her that. but geez the man cant be both an extremist muslim and a racist christian. it was Hilary Clinton that brought it up during the dem. primaries because Obama went to a muslim school for a couple years when he was a kid living in India. Most people don't realize that there are two kinds of muslim schools, one for secular teachings and the other for religious teachings. Obama attended one of the secular primary schools.

Honestly, the whole thing upset me quite a bit. Because why should it matter if the man were muslim or not? I love her to death but man some religious bigotry has got a hold of her. It makes me sad, really sad because true Islam promotes peace and forbids the killing of innocent people. It in no way justifies, excuses or promotes terrorism. And honestly if you want to compare track records Islam's is a heck of a lot cleaner than Christianity's. After all, it wasn't Muslims storming london during the crusades. Most Pagans I know won't use a cross for any sort of magickal purpose not because it's Christian but because it is a symbol of war. Untold number of murders happened in the face of that symbol in the name of God not Allah.

But because of the actions of a few extremists many now equate the word "muslim" with "terrorist". I feel this deeply since many of these same people equate the word "Wiccan" or "Pagan" with "Satanist". There are plenty of Christian extremists out there too. Man would some of these bigots get a taste of their own medecine if everyone began calling christians "terrorists" or "satanists" because of a few of their whacked out members.

An example of this is the Westboro Baptist Church. That christian church believes that the war in Iraq and many natural disasters happen because God is punishing America for its tolerance of homosexuality. They regularly picket military funerals and the scenes of things like earthquakes, freak landslides and so on with signs that say things like "he deserved to die" and "God hates fags." that's even the name of their damn website. How horrible is that to torment people that are already dealing with the worst pain there is - the loss of a loved one. Oh And on their horrible website they celebrate the murders of gay men such as Matthew Sheppard and encourage more violence against gays.

Would it be fair to judge and label all christians on the basis of these few religious nutjobs? Absolutely not. And its not fair to do it to muslims, pagans or anyone else of any other religion. You can not judge a religion based upon how it has been twisted and warped. It's that kind of attitude that makes me feel like equal rights for Pagans will be a long time in coming. And its that kind of attitude that has me keeping one foot always in the broom closet so i can jump back in an avoid persecution if I have too. I hope I will never have to, but I am not so certain.

I'm not sure what to do really except to continue to raise awareness and work for the cause of religious tolerance by setting the record straight about Paganism and Islam for anyone who wishes to listen (mind you no prosletizing just informing those who would like to know). I also plan to continue to help out with events such as Pagan pride day. But I can't do it alone. so if any of you reading this have a chance to help the cause of religious tolerance please give a sister a hand!!