To break the silence

May we resolve that in this New Year, with courage and integrity, we will speak out clearly and firmly against ignorance, against bigotry, against superstition, against falsehoods and apathy.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once used a phrase in a sermon that said it all:

“A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth…the human spirit moves with great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought. But we must speak…we must break the silence of the night…we must speak.”

Due to fear and apathy and vested interests the sin of silence is everywhere today. It is in the clergy. It is in the state and national chambers of politicians. It is with the ordinary citizen talking over the back yard fence. It is in the office of editors making decisions on what to say and what to print, whether to bite the bullet and say it like it really is.

With colleagues of the clergy I find it contemptible. The sin of promoting falsehoods in order to hold their job. The sin of not sharing with a congregation what they know to be true and factual about the bible and Christianism. Those members of the clergy who have graduated in religious studies from major universities and every major theological seminary that is independent of Christian financial pressure know certain facts to be well accepted.

They know that:

• The entire bible is saturated with common mythological themes, from the creation and flood myth to virgin birth and resurrected hero mythology.
• The stories of the patriarchs in the Old Testament are known as “temple legends” and are mostly fiction, not to be taken literally or historically.
• The gospels were not written by anyone who knew Jesus personally.
• The “Christ” mythology and formulas are direct copies of Zoroastrian and Egyptian myths adopted by the Jesus cult through mythological diffusion.

And yet, religiously educated clergy, through the sin of silence and omission continue to promote superstition rather than to educate their congregations.

The much loved Senior Minister of the famed City Temple of London, Dr. Leslie Weatherhead wrote: “Not for much longer will the world put up with the lies, distortions and superpositions about Jesus and the bible.”

Dr. Gerald Larue, distinguished professor emeritus of Biblical studies at the University of Southern California used these words to describe the silence: “For clergy who do not know any better, it is simply gross ignorance. For educated clergy who do know better it is a disgrace.”

Among our Lemming like politicians and citizens the sin of silence is everywhere as the “God Bless America” juggernaut continues to sweep the country. A good example: Congress had not declared war against Iraq, and yet “war” was the word and “war talk” poured out of the White House and was everywhere with America’s God supposedly blessing all of this activity. And for those not afflicted with the sin of silence, those who question God’s involvement, they are accused of not being patriotic. In other words, God and patriotism have become linked and are synonymous.

Those not afflicted with the sin of silence speak out about Christian terrorism in America today. Are you aware of how convicted bomber Mahmud Abouhalima, a Muslim, and Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Billy Graham’s son, Franklin, all sound exactly alike using the same kind of terrorist language?

My own life was threatened in Idaho by a Christian fundamentalist terrorist. He made the mistake of putting his threat on my answering machine. The police recognized him.

Christianism in America is saturated with illiteracy and bigotry. When I hear the wimpish clichés that we should always “respect” others’ religious beliefs, I want to gag. I gag thinking of the millions (as Thomas Jefferson put it) of human beings who have been mutilated, tortured and butchered in the name of religion, even as is happening today around the world.

The insidious and seductive cliché that seems to saturate the weak mind is that you should not be critical of another persons’ religious beliefs. They all deserve respect no matter how ignorant… how destructive… how ugly… how bigoted… how false… how cruel… how superstitious… how violent, they all deserve “respect.”

This pathology of “respect” for ignorance in our society even motivated nationally syndicated columnist George Will to write: “The principle of which all intellectual freedom depends is this: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH OFFENDING SOMEONE IN THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.”

H. L. Mencken, one of the most respected scholars and journalists in America put it this way:

“The most unbelievable social convention of this age in which we live is the one to the effect that all religious opinions should be respected, no matter how ignorant.” Why all the screaming from those being “offended?” The answer is simple. Ignorance cannot abide informed and intelligent criticism. Any, and I repeat “any” organized religious community or religious tradition is always in danger of collapse through dissent. And so they stigmatize dissent by crying how “offended” they are.

We are so pathologically afraid of stepping on other people’s toes that truth is unknown. This thing called “tolerance” can only be an excuse to avoid dealing with the truth head-on. For instance “Intelligent Design” (in opposition to the theory of evolution through natural selection) is NOT science. That is a fact. The Federal Judge in Pennsylvania who recently blasted and demolished the arguments for “Intelligent Design” met the issue head on and did not suffer from the sin of silence.

But, you see, what we do more often than not is excuse ignorance and bigotry by saying, “Well, they are sincere.” We have this ludicrous belief that if a person is “sincere” it excuses everything. George Bernard Shaw tells us that “the devil praises sincerity.” Hitler sincerely desired to get rid of the Jews. A devout cannibal sincerely believes in eating people. Robespierre was most sincere, even crying at the sight of blood, while sending people to the guillotine, in perfect sincerity. Who is more dangerous than a sincere fanatic? Who is more pathetic than a sincere fool?

In a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Salman Rushdie presented one of the great truths of our time. He said this:

“Special interests groups, claiming the moral high ground, now demand the protection of the censor. The fundamentalist Christian Right say we must “respect” their beliefs and agenda. Criticism, they say, is off limits as being disrespectful. Citizens of free societies, democracies, do not preserve their freedom by pussyfooting around their fellow citizens opinions. Skepticism and freedom are indissolubly linked. And if the skepticism of journalists, their unwillingness to be impressed, that is their most important contribution to the freedom of the free world. It is the disrespect of journalists for power… for orthodoxy… for party lines… for ideologies… for vanity… for arrogance… for folly… for pretension… for corruption… and for stupidity, that I would like to celebrate and that I urge you all, in the name of freedom, to preserve.”

In this New Year, remember these words: “Silence is betrayal. We must break the silence”.