Listserv abuse

Oh how I love the Poli Sci listserv. For those of you not privileged to receive Janet Ward's wonderful forwarded emails, I will share a little nugget I received today; a wonderful little email that gave me plenty of material for a post. (Disclaimer: this post will be long and political, so if you don't like longness or politicalness, better just go read Dan's good post about UNC basketball.) And so I quote the email, sent by the always idiotic UNC Young Democrats- "It is unfortunate that the Religious Right has created a stereotype of all religious Americans as nutty, bigoted, Southern-Baptist hypocrites who use select Biblical verses to rant against gays, abortions, Muslims, liberals, and anything that offends them. This stereotype is true of some vocal figures like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, and James Dobson. But it leaves out many millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and other religious faithful." The email continues to encourage attendace to a program entitled "The Religious Left." Where to begin with this email? Well, I guess the best place to start is the first sentance. It is terrible what some have done with the good name of religion in this country, with the talking (or shouting) heads on cable news making believers look like fanatics. However, perhaps I missed the moment when nutty, bigoted, and SOUTHERN BAPTIST HYPOCRITES all became equal epithets used to condemn those few who chose to bring out the bad side of religion. It is good to see the Young Democrats feel that Southern Baptist is equal to bigotry and hypocracy. This is a particularly offensive viewpoint to me, as I come from a family of baptists, who also happen to be Liberal Democrats. Now, I know this might be hard to belive, but I fail to recall a single episode of my Grandmother using biblical verses to rant against Gays, Abortion, and Muslims. I'm sure the YD's did not mean to be terribly offensive in this quote, and also I am sure that many Southern Baptists fit their idea of "hypocrites" (what exactly are they hypocritcial about though?) But this is exactly the danger of the slippery slope these type of stereotypical allegations present. We are asked to consider that all those on the Religious Right are similar, and the positive rests with those on the Religious Left. It is a short leap to claiming all devout Muslims are terrorists, all Conservative Christians are Racists, and a million other dangerous generalizations. I hate this email for another reason; the approach it represents from the political left. Obviously this email wishes to establish a block of religious liberals, similar to the success of the Religious Right to which it refers. The entire reason I was drawn to the Left side of our political spectrum was the acceptance and diverse nature of what it represented: From working class unions to minority religions to homosexuals to ethnic and racial minorities. Not that I am any of these, but it shows an atmosphere of openmindedness, something I respect above almost any other trait. So to see an attempt to form a block of religious voters similar to the approach of conservatives goes completely against what I want from this political group. Why should religion be at all involved in my political considerations? If anything is a personal matter, it is the relation between myself and my God. If some want to belive other than I do, I cannot justify condemning them for that, and I feel my God would not want me to. As far as I am concerned, my God would like for me to be as accepting of others as possible, regardless of the path they have chosen or the mistakes they have made. My God does not have to be your God, or perhaps you do not have one at all. There is the problem I see in this approach; you alienate entire groups of people who would otherwise be willing participants in the Political system when you charge it with the Judeo-Christian beliefs that are coming to dominate the Political System today. At the end of the day, I won't be judging others, even though I happen to be a SOUTHERN BAPTIST (although perhaps not a very good one). And anyone who tells me how I am, because of what religion i subscribe to, is no better than the ones who are doing the condemnation. Sorry for the excessive banter, but sometimes that bitch Janet Ward should be screening the Junk Mail.