Utah Taliban

Another reminder that the Radical Right is the Christian version of the Taliban—Utah just passed strict new rules governing how clubs in public schools can be formed and run. Officially described as an effort to provide uniformity in administration, the rules are actually a thinly veiled attack on gay-straight alliance clubs that have proliferated in recent years.

A ban on any discussion of human sexuality within clubs tells us all we need to know about the intention of the law’s authors, especially because it includes in its defition “presenting or discussing information relating to the use of contraceptive devices.” Reasonable people can differ on abortion, but those who want to curtail the use of contraceptives by others, much less curtail the mere mention of contraception, are neither reasonable nor moral--they are nothing less than cruel, judgmental tyrants.

As ever, puritanical fundamentalists feel that the human body and human sexuality are dirty and sinful, especially when used by non-believers for pleasure rather than procreation. They apparently see our physical bodies not as beautiful temples made by God but as foul instruments of the devil, and thus should never be a topic of conversation, a subject of art or an avenue of pleasure.

"If nobody talks about it, it won't exist!"

Mired in ancient superstition, repression and ignorance, the forces of religious tyranny are horrified by modernity, especially when it comes to scientific realities that subvert or contradict the magic of their beliefs. Though study after study concludes that homosexuality is an orientation mostly hard-wired at or before birth, the thought that God may have created people gay goes against the fundamentalist interpretation of scripture and the brittle notions of manhood and womanhood that their "faith" requires. How sad.

How sad that a large segment of our nation clings to superstitions from the past with no tolerance for other possibilities. How sad that they would rather condemn and judge rather than live and let live. How sad that they feel so threatened by gays, presumably in direct proportion to their own sexual insecurities and deformations. How sad that it’s not enough for them to abstain from certain behaviors—they have to force the rest of the world to live they way they see fit.

My question continues to be: How long before "true believers" in this country resort to the same tactics and methods as the Taliban in Afghanistan? How long before they start using violence to achieve their goals using God as an excuse?

At the end of the day, they don’t care about the Constitution or our cherished notions of Liberty. They care about a compilation of scrolls and "testaments" written by men thousands of years ago containing wildly conflicting and often magical fables, claiming such were written by the creator of the universe and are perfect and infallible accounts of history. Remind you of anyone?

It reminds me of the fundamentalists in the Middle East.

If American fundamentalists had their way, American women might be required to wear only skirts. They might not have an equal say in matters of family. They might not have equal protection under the law. They might be stoned to death for adultery. And so on.

American fundamentalists are scary. And every day, they try to push their superstitions on the rest of us. This week, they gained some ground in Utah. Next week, who knows.