Civic religion
Here's a pretty old legacy post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 20 years ago, in 2004, on the World Wide Web.
(Link thanks to bean at Alas, a Blog 2004/10/15)
I don’t care about winning same-sex marriage privileges (for feminist reasons that I’ve laid out in comments and in my essay, The Cake is Rotten). But that doesn’t mean that I’m indifferent to electoral fights such as Oregon’s Measure 36, one of the latest rounds in the Religious Right campaign to write homophobia into federal and state constitutions. So I’m pleased as punch to have found (thanks to Alas, a Blog) the four arguments that M. Dennis Moore has managed to get published in the official Oregon voters’ pamphlet–in favor of the measure to ban same-sex marriage.
Yeah, you heard me. In favor. All of them are great, but my favorite by far is his fourth argument, Let’s Vote:
LET’S VOTE!
The recent OCA signature drive for the
Divine Sovereignty Life Amendment,if successful, would have given Oregonians the extraordinary opportunity to vote on the existence of God, yes or no. Religious dogma would have been decided democratically by popular vote — essentially creating an official state religion with GOD ALMIGHTY enshrined in the Constitution asOregon State Deity!
Although this initiative drive failed, the
ChristianCoalition has now created a Commandment Amendment to the Constitution! Measure 36 ordains us toVOTE ON THE THEOLOGICAL BELIEF
of whether churches, synagogues, and temples
shalt notbe permitted to marry gays and lesbians.And this election thus establishes the glorious precedent for democratic electioneering on ALL of the
Official Oregon State Dogma!
COMING SOON
TO A THEOLOGY BALLOT NEAR YOU:
- Shall churches, synagogues, and temples be permitted to marry divorced persons (Luke 16:18)? Let’s vote!
- Shall baptism be by sprinkling, pouring, or dipping? Let’s vote!
- Shall the Lord’s Prayer be translated
forgive us our debtsorforgive us our trespasses? Let’s vote!- Shall adulterers be stoned to death(Leviticus 20:10)? Let’s vote!
- Shall obnoxious religious-right hypocrites be allowed to marry? Hell no! Let’s vote!
- How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Hey, let’s just vote!
This is democracy! Religious beliefs belong on the ballot, and winning beliefs become public policy in the Constitutional Catechism! Minority adherents, straight and gay, should have the statesmanship to accept that religious freedom does not protect losing beliefs in a theological election.
Your special right to practice your moral beliefs (including marriage) is subject to the whims of popular vote!
It’s not discrimination, it’s electoral theology.
In Oregon, democratic dogma is inspired by initiative and referendum — in the
Holy Marriage
of the
One Official Oregon Church and State!VOTE FOR OREGON:
State beaches, the bottle bill, land-use planning, and now
THE OREGON DOGMA!(This information furnished by M. Dennis Moore, God for Oregon Deity-PAC [GOD-PAC], Family Alliance of God.)
Yes, that really will be going out on state letterhead to every voter in Oregon; you can confirm it at the Secretary of State’s website (the arguments he submitted are the first three arguments in favor and the next to last).
Electoral theology
! Mmm, sacrelicious.
Further reading:
- GT 2004/03/10: Traditional marriage”
- GT 2001/08/07: Religious Right wants to write homophobia into the Constitution
- Comments on Civil Rights and Family Values: In Defense of Homosexual (and Heterosexual) Marriage: in which I trash my own argument for gay marriage
- Essay 2001/11/28: The Cake is Rotten: in which I give an extended version of the argument against marriage-privilege
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Random note – I just noticed that in the seventh line of section IV of “The Cake is Rotten” that there’s a typo in which “marital” was rendered “martial”. All sorts of interesting metaphors possible there, but I’m assuming it’s not what you intended in that particular sentence.