Religious Right’s Hypocrisy on Abortion and Stem Cell Research

Garret over at dangerousmeta has a great post about the hypocrisy of the religious right (and George Bush) in the way they apply their interpretations of the Bible. Sometimes the beliefs and practices of the ultra-religious completely astound me.

I was raised Catholic because my mother is devoted to her church. I do not fault her for wanting to raise my siblings and I to be “good Catholics”, but she’s a smart woman and when I was 15 or 16 I realized that I did not want to attend church anymore and told her so. She let me make that decision without contesting it and the only time I have set foot in a church since is for weddings or to take photos.

I have a lot of respect for the good things that religion can do for individuals. My mother’s faith is one of the things that keeps her going each day, battling a terrible disease that has robbed her of her livelihood and mobility. To think that stem cell research could one day make her life better and to realize that her own church is trying to prevent such research from proceeding is one of the most backwards things I have ever heard of. Religion and faith, in its most pure form, is supposed to help people – not hurt them. This reason alone makes me question God.

I am not a believer and likely never will be, but I respect people for having faith as long as that faith does not end up doing harm to others.

Later: I think the reason I decided I did not want to be Cathloic was that at age 15 or so I came to the conclusion that organized religion was more harmful to people than it was helpful. I grew up not knowing my grandparents on my dad’s side as they were devout Jehovah’s Witness and disowned most of their 10 children (including my father) when they married out-of-faith. I also recall a story my father told about his brother Clair dying at a young age because their parents would not take him to the hospital and instead insisted that “God would heal him.” Such thinking astounds me and makes me want nothing to do with organized religion.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at May 26, 2005 02:18 PM

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