Big Government and Big Religion: What's the Difference?

I don't get it. All those people screaming about big government and its restrictions on freedom. All those people demanding that every little right they feel they should have (many invented) needs to be protected by something other than the possessor's sense of outrage.

Cases in point:  I want to build a soccer stadium in my back yard. How dare they tell me I can't? I want to raise a pet elephant in my basement, why can't I do that? I want to build a ten foot high fence around my property. It's my land. What business is it of the nanny state to tell me what to do? It's a free country. It's my land. I'll do as I damn well please.

Well--perhaps, yes and good. But why are you singling out the government for these so-called restrictions when there is something else far closer to hand that you are not even looking at.

If you don't like Big Government, why are you letting Big Religion slide by?

Consider the ways in which religion (whether your particular one or not) controls your life. Far more than government, I assure you.

Religion is in your bathroom. Men are supposed to say a ritual prayer after using the bathroom and wash their hands outside. It there is no water outside the room, then they may wash their hands but should dry them outside. Hang towels outside the bathroom anyone??

Religion is in your bedroom. At certain times of the month, your wife cannot sleep with you. She is supposed to go to some isolated place while she menstruates and then take a ritual bath before she can return to your bed. Even then, you are supposed to listen to the teachings of old men when it comes to contraception (or not).

Religion is definitely in your kitchen. Look at all the kosher rules for food preparation and even the serving of fish on Friday in the Catholic Church (I think they stopped the rule when fish got both scarce and expensive).

Religion is in the way that you treat your children and your wife, the schools your children attend, and the clothes you wear. And historically, it will also tell you what to think and torture or execute you if you dare to call for intellectual freedom.,

My gosh--is there anything religion doesn not try to control?

So, why are all these people going on about resisting a big controlling goverment not yelling their fool heads off about big controlling churches?

Easy answer: because they have been conditioned not to question religion but to be distracted by governments instead.

As usual the other day, I found myself shaking my head over this hypocrisy and willful blindness. But it's clear that just pointing  it out is not enough for the true believers among us.

So, here as my small offering is the list of commandments that governments try to have us follow along with the physical manifestations:

1. Thou shallt not cheat one another (building permits, licensing, required insurance).
2. Thou shallt not harm one another (driving licenses, insurance)
3. Thou shallt not cheat thy children (marriage, bigamy, child support)
4. Thou shallt not commit fraud (FCC, FDA)
5. Thou shallt not harm one another (Police, FBI, Courts)
6. Thou shallt contribute to national resources (IRS, Parks, bridges, roads)
7. Thou shallt have basic educational opportunities (DOE, higher education)
8. Thou shallt have some basic national protection from foreign invasions (Defense)
9. Thou shallt have some basic assurance that you will not sleep in street in old age (SS, Medicare)
10. Thou shallt have some assurance that your sex, age, and race cannot be used against you.

So what's so bad about these?

The biggest problem as I see it is that lots of people want these protections for themselves but don't want them to be offered to others whom they consider "not worthy." You can fill in the not worthy part with whatever you wish. I've heard the same people who raved about social security being the end of the nation as they knew it rush to the front of the line screaming "hands off my social security" when the time came.

Hypocrisy. Oh yes. Rationalized by appeals to an America that never was but in their minds should have been. Oh yes.

Hypocrisy and Greed--the new darlings of American subculture.