The twisted mix of religion and politics
By Kathryn
The twisted mix of religion and politics has no place in a secular, progressive and democratic nation like Australia. It is essential to keep religion out of politics. The rigid, ultra-conservative and incredibly misogynistic religious extremism of Catholicism – and every other Christian, Islamic and miscellaneous superstitious, irrational religious belief – has absolutely no place in the formation of policies, political decisions and views made for and on behalf of the Australian population which, statistics have shown, is one of the most temporal nations on the planet. Sadly, nobody really believes that the sanctimonious, religious hypocrite, Dom Perrottet, is willing, likely or capable of separating politics from his inherent religious mania and, as such, he will prove to be a dangerous and regressive leader who will – consciously or unconsciously – force his own draconian views onto others and, even worse, turn his narrow, insular view of the world into political policy.
Such religious mania may be viewed as an “individual right” in this nation but not if it is going to influence political decisions that negatively impact on women and others! Catholicism – like so many other religions heavily dominated by sanctimonious “alpha” males – is steeped in misogynism where they believe women are nothing more than “hand maidens” to men. As such, how will such antiquated beliefs impact on our daughters in a nation that prides itself on equality? It is absolutely essential to keep religion out of politics and, as such, Australians must ensure that people who maintain extreme religious views are also kept out of political roles where they are in a position of influence or leadership.
Religious hypocrisy and politics are a dangerous mix which can be defined as simulating qualities in a false pretence of being holy or virtuous. The fact is that hypocrisy is widespread in all domains of life and history has shown that it has played a significant role in bigotry, wars, persecution, church-state relationships and “selective indignation” of so-called “Christians” accusing others of not meeting the strict standards that they sanctimoniously impose on others but which, invariably, they can rarely maintain themselves.
Perrottet may say that he believes in the separation of church and State but, in reality, as a strict religious conformist, the sense of religious superiority, inherent misogyny and irrational suspicion of other religions is set in stone within the narrow, insular confines of Catholicism and so many other Christian and Islamic religions.
A few years ago, The Guardian had an article that exposed the appalling inherent misogyny embedded in so many Christian and Islamic religions, as so:
“The exclusion of women from the priesthood and the sexist notions embedded in religious dogma violate our 21st century principles of equality and social justice. Yet the marginalisation of women in religion has come under surprisingly little scrutiny.
Anti-discrimination laws in the Sex Discrimination Act mean that organisations in Australia must not discriminate against any individuals based on their gender. But the law allows for special exemptions, such as religious grounds. Under these exemptions, religious organisations are free to refuse to allow women to ordain as clergy.
Sexism and misogyny are explicitly woven into the dogma and traditions of all mainstream religions. God is personified as male, and his representatives are male. Men are believed to be of higher spiritual authority to women, and many religions do not allow the full ordination of women into the clergy. Some religions disallow women from sitting at the front in their places of worship, and some places of worship refuse entry to women. Religious texts espouse notions of the mental, moral, and spiritual inferiority of women, and religion is used to justify gross forms of gender inequality all around the world.”
Seriously? Does anyone really believe the sexist BS pushed out by the alpha male heirarchy in so many religions anymore? No wonder so many women are turning their backs on religion. The inherent and insufferable level of misogyny that is steeped within so many male-dominated religions (Christianity, Islam et al) go against the basic rights of all women and against every law regarding the fair and equitable treatment of people – especially women who have always been the subject of exclusion, subjugation and treated like second-class citizens in religions that falsely preach “equality” for everyone unless, of course, they have a uterus.
Such draconian, archaic and unfair levels of male domination and misogyny – so ingrained in so many religions where men have set themselves up as judge and jury over women – must be stamped out of religious dogma. For the sake of their daughters, women should turn their backs on such religions that revel in the male dominance of women and espouse misogyny. It is the 21st Century and this inherent misogyny can no longer be tolerated!
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11 comments
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andy56 -
margcal -
John Masson -
Pete Petrass -
Terence Mills -
andy56 -
Stephen S -
Rossleigh -
wam -
Fred -
wam
Return to home pagewe have one scribe in the age today saying that religious schools should have a right to discriminate who they employ. Well the obvious reply is that , yes you want outside of the norms, you pay for it, no government handouts. You want to be in the “system”, you have to play by the norms of the system. The libs are so emphatic to preach this line but of coarse it doesnt apply to their base. Daniel Andrews has the right approach, i am catholic and I dont want the world in my bedroom. The gaming industry guy who got the flick was right about the gaming laws. Right for the wrong reasons, sure. Anyone who wants to proclaim his religion as red meat to his base has already lost me. Yes I am a lapsed catholic, what ever that means, and i think the whole religion shit is just so much crap. They have been amazingly good at advertising their wares. Anyone who cares to read between the lines will understand the BS around the catholic school system. I was taught to become cannon fodder. Attend to my individual needs? your joking , arent you? In a class of 30, that was never going to happen. All because my parents, god bless their souls, did what they thought was the right thing to do, being all faithful catholics. Its only after many years that i finally awoke from this dream state. Dont beleive me? Ask people who send their kids to well off catholic schools why they do it. Its because they have bought into the advertising hype. Who would have thought a whole class of rich people with half a brain missing. You think they are smart because they made/make money? No its because the catholic system thought-washed their brains into being a cog that is well oiled. If your happy to accept the system as is, you will be well rewarded. Isnt that so familiar to the evangelicals? I for one am happy to bring this house of cards down.
You can’t have values-free politics. Everyone has values, politicians and voters alike.
Extremism, both religious and atheist, is to be deplored.
So you need to know the values of your politicians and how they put them into practice, and vote accordingly.
And so say all of us!
Well said..
Given the fact that religion is nothing more than brainwashing and make-believe imaginary sky fairies…………….we should have legislation expressly prohibiting any and all religious tenets from all government policy making.
I don’t want my taxes funding schools that are free to discriminate against me.
Convince me otherwise !
Margcal, your right and your wrong. So far in america they all put a hand on their hearts and say god bless america. They all go and pray at a “church” on sundays and then they go and do the devils work every other day. Same here, Scott no friends had to show off his praying style. Turns out he was a hypocrite first order. Values, yea we have them. But lets see what they intend to do with those values. You shall know them by their actions and policies, not by how much they pray in our faces. Yea i have christian values too, doesnt mean i will always do the right thing. Humans have been shown to bend to power more often than not.
When the conservative religious ghettoes of Western Sydney voted solidly against SSM, more so than anywhere else in Australia, it was a wake-up call, that mass migration had gone too far. For false fears of “racism”, it was not even talked about.
Albanese now hiking net migration to 300,000 is an attack on voters’ living standards, but also a radical piece of social engineering, tailor made to weaken secular democracy. More than ever before, federal leaders will have to court the ethnic/religious vote. For the foreseeable future, religious and not state schools are the federal government’s preferred schooling partner.
So, you can totally forget about keeping religion out of Australian politics.
When someone says that I’ve won power because it’s God’s will, it intrigues me that they can oppose a government initiative when they’ve lost power, because – clearly – God is omnipotent and he must want them to shut the fuck up and go away…
Religion gives the individual the power to avoid questions by any means possible.
Religious men and women prevent any discussion on their beliefs and are protected by the words ‘freedom of religion’.
The constitution:
Section 116 prohibits the Commonwealth Parliament from enacting legislation that would prohibit the free exercise of religion or establish a religion.
As I see it the commonwealth has an obligation to discover the beliefs of the religion and to publish the application of those beliefs.
In the case of women, god made them unable to reach equality with men by rendering them unclean for 25% of the productive life.
Millions of Australian men and women are allowed to believe such bullshit without being questioned. How many are politicians?
To cater for women, like Sophie Mirabella, god made exceptions.
Freedom of religion should not measns freedom to keep secret but the rub is confession.
ps
my grandaughter’s science teacher believes in creationism and is protected from questions by religious freedom.
I have two connections to church school education rorting of the grants to counter the GFC:
A small queensland handclapping school got $1m by ‘campus’ juggling.
Small towns, on my drive Darwin to Yarrawonga, suddenly got catholic primary schools. A dozen or so in vic.
Kathryn: Excellent article! Wam: It’s time for a Republic and new constitution without any exceptions/concessions for religion. Candidates for election to 1) sign a statement that they do not ascribe to faith/religion or hold unproven belief sets, with immediate dismissal/prison time if found otherwise and 2) pass an IQ and general knowledge test suitable for a politician. (I.e. show an understanding of how the constitution is a set of concepts and parliament is the mechanism to enable/deliver the concepts.) Don’t know how one would test for honesty, but it would be good to weed out the compulsive liars while we are at it.
wow, Fred, pretty strong.
I have too many relatives and friendsbut for whom their male god is real and answers their prayers.
They are rational intelligent people who are irrational over god.
They are prepared to talk about ‘church’ but and that allows soon lively ‘arguments’. Especially with WASPs/WASCs over ireland and catholics over confession and opus dei.
The most basic are the protestants who ignore mobius and say ‘let’s call the beginning, god’?
I’d like the society to clean up the ‘unclean’ concept first by removing the mystery of pigs and menstral blood.