Attack of the Theocrats!: How the Religious Right Harms Us All—and What We Can Do About It by Sean Faircloth Page A
Authors: Sean Faircloth
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sex lecturers are particularly noxious when they can poke around in other people’s sex lives with the imprimatur of law. Why? Three reasons.
First, someone is hurt. There is a real human victim—often women, sometimes sexual minorities—when religious sexual meddling imposes its mean-spirited will on American law.
Second, these laws are justified by pointing to an ancient text. Take a step back and think on it for a moment. Assume that I proposed to take away another citizen’s human rights, and that I justified taking away those rights by referring to, let’s say, an ancient, one-thousand-year-old parchment from, say, Romania. You’d say that’s an absolutely wacko justification for denying human rights. However, if I change the hypothetical to a two-thousand-year-old document from the Levant and, if I further assert that this two-thousand-year-old document has supernatural powers, then the politicians fall over themselves bowing low and deep in subservience. How utterly medieval—yet widely accepted in the twenty-first century.
Third, all of these religiously biased regulations against women and various forms of sexuality come down to the premise that “privileged males rule”—perhaps because that’s who wrote the rules back in the Bronze Age, when guys could simply hit or rape any women who dared to talk back. Don’t believe that was the case? The Bible tells us such acts are AOK.
The fact that “privileged guys rule” has been dressed up for such a long time as “holy” is something of a testament to the defining power of religious culture and attitudes. Human sexuality and Bronze Age attitudes about human sexuality are perhaps the central characteristic of fundamentalist and theocratic public policy.
The credence that’s given to these attitudes results largely from the perceived august authority that religion bestows on them. Indeed, one must stand in awe when one considers the cultural power and pervasiveness of religious law that stands to this day.
The roots of such attitudes run deep—and strange. We all know many religions teach sodomy is a sin, right? Yet, here’s a little something about sodomy you may not know: “sodomy,” as originally defined by the Catholic Church in its heyday (as a Notre Dame graduate, where else would I look to for such information?), included heterosexual intercourse with the woman on top. In fact, this form of sodomy was so sinful that the priest alone could not forgive you. If the woman was on top, this required seekingforgiveness from the bishop. Can you picture this conversation with a priest? “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned, er, specifically, I . . .” “Sorry,” says the priest, “That’s way above my pay grade. You’ll have to take that one to the bishop.”
The message? Never let a woman get on top. Keep her down, literally and figuratively. Need more examples? How about Deuteronomy 22:13–21, which says that a woman who is not a virgin bride must be killed. What is with religion’s obsession with this virgin business anyway?
And then there’s Deuteronomy 25:11–12, which says that a married woman must have her hand cut off for touching another guy’s penis, even if nonsexually. This seems to take matters a bit far.
OK, so women get stoning and severed hands. But what about the rules for the guys? Well, Genesis 25:1–6 expressly allows mistresses and concubines for guys. (Sorry, ladies, but scripture is scripture.)
What about the New Testament? First Corinthians 14:34–35 requires that women keep silent and learn from husbands, and First Timothy 2:11–13 tells women to “learn in silence with all subjugation.”
But, heck, aren’t we the America of “independence”––of Wild West–style freedom? Those old biblical rules don’t apply to us, right?
Genital Morality: The Bedroom Police
America does indeed have some Wild West traditions. For instance, in the late 1800s, our Supreme Court ruled that a corporation is
First, someone is hurt. There is a real human victim—often women, sometimes sexual minorities—when religious sexual meddling imposes its mean-spirited will on American law.
Second, these laws are justified by pointing to an ancient text. Take a step back and think on it for a moment. Assume that I proposed to take away another citizen’s human rights, and that I justified taking away those rights by referring to, let’s say, an ancient, one-thousand-year-old parchment from, say, Romania. You’d say that’s an absolutely wacko justification for denying human rights. However, if I change the hypothetical to a two-thousand-year-old document from the Levant and, if I further assert that this two-thousand-year-old document has supernatural powers, then the politicians fall over themselves bowing low and deep in subservience. How utterly medieval—yet widely accepted in the twenty-first century.
Third, all of these religiously biased regulations against women and various forms of sexuality come down to the premise that “privileged males rule”—perhaps because that’s who wrote the rules back in the Bronze Age, when guys could simply hit or rape any women who dared to talk back. Don’t believe that was the case? The Bible tells us such acts are AOK.
The fact that “privileged guys rule” has been dressed up for such a long time as “holy” is something of a testament to the defining power of religious culture and attitudes. Human sexuality and Bronze Age attitudes about human sexuality are perhaps the central characteristic of fundamentalist and theocratic public policy.
The credence that’s given to these attitudes results largely from the perceived august authority that religion bestows on them. Indeed, one must stand in awe when one considers the cultural power and pervasiveness of religious law that stands to this day.
The roots of such attitudes run deep—and strange. We all know many religions teach sodomy is a sin, right? Yet, here’s a little something about sodomy you may not know: “sodomy,” as originally defined by the Catholic Church in its heyday (as a Notre Dame graduate, where else would I look to for such information?), included heterosexual intercourse with the woman on top. In fact, this form of sodomy was so sinful that the priest alone could not forgive you. If the woman was on top, this required seekingforgiveness from the bishop. Can you picture this conversation with a priest? “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned, er, specifically, I . . .” “Sorry,” says the priest, “That’s way above my pay grade. You’ll have to take that one to the bishop.”
The message? Never let a woman get on top. Keep her down, literally and figuratively. Need more examples? How about Deuteronomy 22:13–21, which says that a woman who is not a virgin bride must be killed. What is with religion’s obsession with this virgin business anyway?
And then there’s Deuteronomy 25:11–12, which says that a married woman must have her hand cut off for touching another guy’s penis, even if nonsexually. This seems to take matters a bit far.
OK, so women get stoning and severed hands. But what about the rules for the guys? Well, Genesis 25:1–6 expressly allows mistresses and concubines for guys. (Sorry, ladies, but scripture is scripture.)
What about the New Testament? First Corinthians 14:34–35 requires that women keep silent and learn from husbands, and First Timothy 2:11–13 tells women to “learn in silence with all subjugation.”
But, heck, aren’t we the America of “independence”––of Wild West–style freedom? Those old biblical rules don’t apply to us, right?
Genital Morality: The Bedroom Police
America does indeed have some Wild West traditions. For instance, in the late 1800s, our Supreme Court ruled that a corporation is
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