April 25, 2011 -- This day being Easter Sunday as well as one of the days of Passover celebration it seems fitting to offer one and all a fervent wish for all of the joy and comfort afforded by your religious beliefs, whatever they may be, now and in the days ahead. No matter which way the political wind blow it looks like we will need forbearance for trying times and all of the help we can get to fortify the soul.
Not to overlook the festive nature of these holiday celebrations. The President was the host of a joyful Seder dinner at the White House as Passover began. The annual Easter Egg Hunt took place on the White House grounds today. With so many out of work it’s a wonder hungry adults weren’t competing with little children for hard boiled eggs in Easter egg hunts around the nation.
The ever thoughtful David Brooks reflected on religion in his NYT column Friday, sparked in part by taking in a performance of the heralded Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” which he found “spiritual but not doctrinal.” He had a lot to say, but I found this passage particularly interesting: “… religion itself can do enormous good as long as people take religious teaching metaphorically and not literally; as long as people understand that all religions ultimately preach love and service underneath their superficial particulars; as long as people practice their faiths open-mindedly and are tolerant of different beliefs.”
Tolerant of different beliefs. Ah, there’s the rub, whether it’s in the Middle East or Middle America, it being only a matter of degree. We have our share of “social conservatives,” or more accurately “religious zealots” who won’t accept the fact that from the early 1600s this land was a refuge for people escaping from persecution by all of the religions of Europe. It was a rare place in the world then, where people could exist without conflict as per the Brooks paragraph above and wrote it in to the Constitution, made pretty clear in the First Amendment. A secular government on behalf of, or to ensure the free practice of religion. Many of us can find an ancestor or two if you trace back far enough who came over here to escape from religious persecution. I know I can. And yet the political tsunami of the midterm elections that swept so many Tea Party warriors into public office at both state and national level brought with it an assault on these treasured principals. Stand back or risk being trampled in the name of God.
The narrow religious beliefs of Republican Religious Righteous are being turned into legislation, and while that may seem on the surface to be acts of reverence the welfare of millions of Americans are affected. After President Obama announced that he considered the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines for the federal government as only being between a man and a woman unconstitutional, and the Justice Department would no longer defend it. The House of Representative Republicans contracted with a former Solicitor General Paul Clement, at a two-thirds reduced rate of $520 an hour to do so instead. At least they got a special price, but same-sex couples legally married in states like Massachusetts and Iowa will be denied 1,138 federal benefits such as joint tax returns, Social Security spousal benefits, and exemption from the Estate Tax. And they still want to save Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Oh, the lives of the Straight (and narrow as in minded).
Then there is the assault on Planned Parenthood, which can lead to a huge number of births to poor women and rise in unwanted pregnancies and therefore more abortions. U.S. Senator from Texas John Cornyn called the Planned Parenthood fight: “about spending money we don’t have on things that aren’t essential.” So those big tax cuts largely responsible for money we don’t have are ”essential” but not the welfare of millions of low income women are not. Religious objections to contraceptives, an old story that will not die.
Politics in Cornyn’s home state of Texas are often similar to a tent revival meeting. The governor, Rick Perry, made a surprising admission while defending the state’s abstinence-only birth control program by saying that he knew abstinence worked “from my own personal life,” which may tell me a little more than I care to know. Frankly I am glad we are not infested with a proliferation of Rick Perrys but while it may have worked for him, not so well for the rest of his state which leads the nation in the number of teenage mothers with two or more offspring. There has been an 800,000 increase in schoolchildren over the last decade and they all didn’t wade across the Rio Grande. Creationism, the U.S. as a “Christian Nation,” evangelical “family values” are all part of Texas politics. As Texas Representative Mike Villarreal said: “These folks are anti-abortion, anti-contraception and anti science.”
Jill Lepore, author and history professor at Harvard had an OpEd piece in the New York Times today with a bit of irony abut Tea Party people. “Tea Partiers dressed as Benjamin Franklin call for an end to social services for the poor; and the ‘Path to Prosperity”’ urges a return to ‘America’s founding ideals’ of liberty, limited government, and equality under the rule of law.” Jane Mecom, a sister of Franklin, had 12 children; she buried 11 and lived in poverty all of her life. Lepore writes “the story of Jane Mecom is a reminder that, especially for women, escaping poverty has always depended on the opportunity for an education and the ability to control the size of their families.” Would we really want to return to the time of Jane? Perhaps the Tea Party would be better served if it took her image as an icon rather than her brother Ben.
On ABC This Week, evangelical pastor Franklin Graham expressed questions about Obama's faith. So tell me the relevance? Is that supposed to determine the way he runs the country? President George W. Bush reported he got personal messages from God and look what happened. Faith or lack of same should be a private and personal choice in this a secular country and not a litmus test for governing.
This is not to denigrate faith on this day held holy by two great religions. To the contrary, it is meant to keep it in perspective, celebrating “all religions ultimately preach love and service” and being aware that earthly practitioners are mere mortals whose zeal can often lead to cruel and unnecessary human suffering.
Abuses by religious authorities are the story of mankind. Just look at the Middle East. And the Daily Beast reported on Hindu holy man Sathya Sai Baba, considered a living god by millions of followers, who died Sunday at the age of 86, who was accused of faking miracles, and a BBC program interviewed two American male devotees who accused Sai Baba of sexual harassment.
Today Maureen Dowd in the New York Times took issue with the beautification of Pope John Paul I coming up next Sunday by Pope Benedict, who put it on a fast track. John Paul had a winning persona, and was given to proclamations like: “The excessive hoarding of riches by some denies them to the majority, and thus the very wealth that is accumulated generates poverty.” (It would be bad taste of me if I were to note the wealth of the Vatican, and that of pastors of huge Protestant congregations in this country). But John Paul made no move to solve the problem of pedophile in the priesthood, nor did he address the role of women in the church, the ability of priests to marry or use of contraceptives. Right outside the Vatican’s door is the country with the lowest birth rate in Europe. You can’t tell me that lusty Italians follow abstinence only. Better Benedict should beautify Rick Perry.
We shouldn’t forget that Pope Pius XII remained silent about the Holocaust. And there have been 16 bishops that were credibly accused of pedophilia who stepped down from public positions but still maintain their titles. It seems those who need to have prayers said for them are religious authorities. A good prayer on this day would be, Oh Lord deliver us from religious zealots.
During the exodus Moses escaped the Egyptian army under the cover of darkness behind a smoke screen of hug bonfires he had set burning between the two forces while the Israelites stole away in the night. I am reminded of that by the way Republican Righteous use fear of deficits to foster their social changes. The action of Standard & Poor's, the rating agency that gave us AAA ratings on derivatives that were worthless, this week in lowering the U.S. outlook to “negative” while not very meaningful, just pandered to the fear factor. Republicans have a stable of lapdog experts, like the Heritage Foundation, that feeds them information any way they want it. So far spending cuts have been used mainly to pay for tax cuts.
Barry Ritholtzm, chief executive of Equity Research at Fusion IQ, an online quantitative research firm and writes: “The Big Picture blog says Social Security is fine. Sure, the retirement age will go higher, there will be means testing, and the income cutoff for contributions ($106,000) will likely double. But it will remain solvent.”
“Cutting spending to reduce budget deficits results in a fall in G.D.P. that makes the debt burden worse, not better” writes Yves Smith, writer of the blog Naked Capitalism. She is the head of Aurora Advisors, a management consulting firm, and an author.
Conservative columnist Ross Douthat writes in the New York Times: “we do not need to radically reform entitlements to keep the country solvent…Bush-era tax rates aren’t renewed in 2012…the deficit drops away in the next 10 years, and more important, it stays manageably low for the decades after that.”
Many economists and financial authorities believe restoring the taxes Bush cut on both the wealthy and the middle class while not solving the deficit problem combined with judicial spending cuts will make it manageable allowing it to steadily over time reduce to zero. The approach Republicans are taking has not worked in Japan, Ireland, Latvia, or England but who’s looking.
It does allow for social engineering and that fight is next up on the vote to increase the debt limit, in past years routine, but this time will be held hostage to the whims of the Tea Party zealots. On Fox News Sunday former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum said Republicans should refuse to raise the debt limit unless the president defunds the health-care law, even knowing that the country would likely go into default. Rep. Eric Cantor, chief G.O.P. honcho in the House has said about the same thing. Default it is, then. Hang on to your hats and go Wheeee.
In following the machinations of political figures these days there are few laughs along the way so you take them where you find them. I have come up with a new source of amusement as a slight moment of relief from the accumulated aggravation of following certain political figures. It is the “speak” feature on my computer. Mine is set as a female with a high, feminine voice. I happened to have an image on the screen with a quotation beneath it, which by chance I highlighted and clicked on “speak.” There he was, this stern arrogant figure lecturing me in a high squeaky female voice. The effect was very gratifying, making the guy a figure of ridicule. I particularly like to apply this to Newt Gingrich. It sort of turns him into an American “Castrato.” Unfortunately only the computer can do it. If there ever should be a movement to accomplish the real thing, perhaps led by a couple of his ex-wives, count me in.
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