These Christian groups are trying to turn this into a complicated morality debate, but the entire situation can be boiled down to two conflicting views about when life starts: Science tells us that a high dosage of chemicals from the morning after pill prevents a fertilized egg from implanting itself on the wall of the uterus therefore preventing a pregnancy from ever happening. Religious leaders believe that a fertilized egg, a single cell that hasn’t even begun dividing and doesn’t have anything approaching consciousness, should be afforded the full rights that living humans who have had their cells divide a few billion times enjoy.

The usual histrionics are put into the article to try and make the plight of this single-celled potential human seem more endearing:

It is a medical fact that the morning-after pill (a high dosage of the birth control pill) and most, if not all, birth control drugs and devices including the intrauterine device (IUD), Depo Provera, Norplant, the Patch, and the Pill can act to terminate a pregnancy by chemically altering the lining of the uterus (endometrium) so that a newly conceived child is unable to implant in the womb, thus starving and dying.

It is a medical fact that a cell doesn’t implant in the uterus. That cell probably wasn’t going to implant anyways. Cells are regularly fertilized and then fail to implant all on their own without any help from pills, but you don’t see any crazy fundamentalist Christians shooting up the local church because of those millions of natural abortions God performs every day. The thing making its way through the woman’s body is not a child. It cannot feel pain. It can’t starve because it doesn’t even require nutrition unless it implants, which it won’t because of the contraceptive. It will just disappear into the body along with thousands of its fertilized brethren who are similarly fated to never enjoy the thrills of cellular mitosis.

So my question is simple, where is the definition of human life going to stop? Abortion rights activists were once happy to reserve their ire for abortionists who were going after fetuses that were well along in their development in the womb. There is even a certain point in fetal development when I’m willing to concede that abortion leans more towards killing a potential human, but that point definitely isn’t when a fertilized egg is floating around a woman’s body possibly getting ready to implant itself. The egg can’t feel anything. The egg is probably going to fall victim to God, nature’s most prolific abortionist, and fail to implant all on its own without the morning after pill stepping in and upping the odds.

The religious groups have come up with several other arguments that no doubt sounded compelling in their own minds when they were thinking them up. Pharmacists object because of health concerns, pharmacists object because of conscience, pharmacists have a free speech right to prevent people from using contraceptives. Here’s a hint for these groups since they haven’t caught on quite yet: if you have to rephrase your ludicrous religious belief system into equally ludicrous rational-sounding arguments then it’s probably time for you to realize that you’re siding with a lost cause and it’s time to give up. The bait-and-switch tactic of trying to preach religion in secular terms might work for your congregations that are well practiced in doublethink, but it isn’t fooling anyone else.

I think this quote from Wisconsin pro-life activist Peggy Hamill sums up the religious position quite nicely, though not in the way she likely intended:

Simply wishing something to be true does not make it so.

You might want to sit and think long and hard about your advice, Peggy. The morning after pill and birth control don’t cause abortions. You can’t abort something that was never there to begin with. Even if it was an abortion (which it isn’t, legally or biologically, I can’t emphasize this enough), abortions are perfectly legal in the United States and the argument could be made that the law is broken if someone is prevented access to perfectly legal medications.

Pharmacists aren’t exercising any sort of freedom of speech when they refuse to prescribe said pill. What they are doing is violating their professional obligation and imposing their irrational religious beliefs about life and sexuality on other people. Leave it to the church to oppose a bill that clarifies and forces them to obey the law of the land and claim that their freedom of speech and freedom of choice is being infringed when they’re the ones actively trying to do it to everyone else around them.

Technorati Tags: morning after pill, pharmacists, birth control, abortion, religion, christian groups, pro-life, pro-choice

Gay rights groups have understandably taken umbrage to this hate filled environment, staging vigils where Simmie was shot and lashing out at the local Christian churches that unapologetically spew hate because they think one sentence in Leviticus 18:22 is justification for discriminating against an entire subset of the population.

Pro-gay activist Matt Foreman summarized the situation quite nicely:

“People aren’t born hating gay people. They are taught to hate gay people. And who’s doing the teaching? It’s coming from pulpits right here in in Broward County every Sunday.”

Now for the kicker I know you’ve all been waiting for. Christians don’t like it when people call a spade a spade, and they’re demanding an apology from Matt Foreman for his intolerance!

Reverand Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (does a majority religion really need an anti-defamation group to safeguard their good name) had this to say:

“Foreman is guilty of gross Christian bashing, the very kind of bashing he says he opposes against homosexuals.”

and

“Radical homosexuals like Foreman are quick to exploit this tragic situation for their own political purposes and in order to bash Christians. Matt Foreman owes the ministers of Broward County an apology.”

Let’s set aside the delicious irony of an avowed conservative Christian infamous for his political grandstanding leveling the accusation of grandstanding at someone else just so that he can get some press. If you look at the two quotes above it appears that the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is angry because Matt Foreman, the big gay bully, is bashing the poor defenseless Christians of Broward County who had nothing to do with any of the anti-homosexual sentiment in the Fort Lauderdale area.

But what about this quote from the end of Mr. Cass’ press release?

“Faithful Christian churches must oppose homosexual behavior, just as they must oppose other behavior they consider to be sinful, but where is the proof that any minister has ever suggested or condoned violence.”

Let’s recap the story so far. Matt Foreman accuses local Christian ministers of preaching intolerance. The Christian groups get upset because Matt Foreman accuses them of preaching intolerance. Then in the same press release those same Christians admit that intolerance is one of the core tenets of their faith. So now Matt Foreman is getting raked over the coals for stating the plain and simple truth as admitted by the very group that he’s supposedly oppressing?

And let’s not forget that the oppressing of Christians has really just amounted to protests against a murder. The anti-gay oppression has come in the form of a beating and, oh yeah, that murder that gay rights activists were protesting in the first place. I think it’s safe to say that we’re comparing apples to oranges here when it comes to who is the oppressed and who is the oppressee in this situation.

I know that it’s a popular sentiment amongst Christians right now that they’re one of the most put-upon groups in the world because of their beliefs, but let’s be honest. If you’re the majority religion in the world you aren’t the one being oppressed. Sure you might run into trouble in some parts of the world, but the vast conspiracy of anti-Christianity that you’ve created for yourselves just doesn’t exist. Matt Foreman was just saying that we should live and let live, and shouldn’t live in a world where someone is murdered or beat up because of their sexuality. I’m sure that Jesus would probably agree were he here today, he seemed like a pretty cool guy as long as you ignore most of Daniel and Revelation.

And if a Christian group is preaching intolerance of homosexuals as a matter of faith then they are preaching intolerance, plain and simple. They’re no better than congregations of days gone by that found biblical justifications for slavery or any other number of atrocities.

Technorati Tags: christian oppression, homosexuals, matt foreman, christianity, simmie williams

And as we all know by now, Islamic extremists tend to react to things they find offensive by blowing them up or otherwise sending whoever is responsible for the offense on a one way trip to meet Allah personally.

So because an illiterate merchant from Mecca who lived and died fourteen centuries ago was evidently a little camera shy and banned any images depicting him these five men have taken it upon themselves to try and kill a perfectly innocent cartoonist who was exercising the freedom of speech that he enjoys under the secular democratic government of Denmark.

The ban against depicting Mohammed has only been sporadically enforced throughout history anyways.  The ban, when it is enforced, is in place largely so that Muslims don’t run afoul of the second commandment and start worshipping “graven images” rather than Allah.  I’m probably arguing a subtle point here that will be lost on a violent radical fundamentalist offshoot of a religion that believes all other religions should be converted or subjugated, but I seriously doubt that any Muslim is going to be bowing down and worshipping a caricature of a vaguely middle-eastern man with a bomb strapped to his head.

Then again, if Islam keeps getting publicity like this then it could well be that the vaguely middle-eastern man with a bomb strapped to his body will become the universal symbol for their religion no matter how loudly moderate elements protest the peaceful intentions of their religion.

Technorati Tags: Islam, Danish cartoonist, Mohammed, Danish cartoon riots, Muslim extremists, Mohammed cartoons