Religion, justice and human rights

The Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) managed to create quite a tempest in a teapot. Their TV2 television channel aired a two-hour debate on last Tuesday (Oct. 12th) concerning the gay and lesbian community's attempt to gain the right to a legal marriage.

Following the program, an avalanche of resignations from the ev. luth. church of Finland started. By now, about 9000 people in just over three days have resigned. And the flow just goes on.

This has largely been due to the amazing performance of the opposing party, practically led by "the Sarah Palin of Finland" Päivi Räsänen, the chairperson of the Christian Democratic Party of Finland. Not that there's anything christian or even democratic, at least as far as I can tell by the party's manifests and public announcements.

A little bit of background.

Currently, the gay and lesbian people can't legally marry in Finland. They may register their relationship if they wish to do so. And many have.

However, couples living in a registered relationship don't have the same rights, claims, duties, obligations or possibilities as married couples. Thus, the current legislation in Finland places gays and lesbians in an unequal position from the rest of the population.

Moreover, in many situations where it's compulsory to tell your marital status, the registered relationship is not too unlike the Star of David the Jews were forced to wear on themselves in the Nazi Germany. It points out and labels.

This, if anything, is an atrocity against moral, ethics, justice and human rights in the modern world.

The Finnish government and parliament are bound by the Finnish Constitution, a number of international treaties, the UN Charter, the Declaration of Human Rights, the EU Directives and many more documents dealing with people's right to be treated equally in front of the law. Yet, they constantly fail to recognise the human rights of the sexual minorities.

The main reason is that the legislature is very effectively lobbied by a relatively small but extremely vocal and influencial group of extreme conservative and religious zealots. And these in turn couldn't care less about human rights as long as they contradict with their outdated and narrowminded religious views.

These "christian talebans", while a fairly marginal group within the ev. luth. church, also manage to affect the decision making of the church's administration. The result is that the church is frequently trying to meddle with the parliamentary, legislative processes of a secular state.

This is outrageous! Especially so, as every working Finnish citizen has to pay tax to the church regardless of whether he/she belongs to the church or not. From the members of the church the tax is collected directly. The non-members get to pay the tax indirectly within the prices of the products or services they buy from companies paying their taxes in Finland. It doesn't matter if the owners of the company don't belong to the church or if they don't even want to have anything to do with the church. The company still has to pay the church's portion embedded in the so called community tax.

Yet, instead of complying with the obligations of the state, obeying the laws and listening to the will of the people they take money from by force, the church practically hears only the demands of the fundamentalist zealots. As a result they are continuously trying to force all kinds of restrictions and alterations to the secular legislation of a secular state rendering the laws more according to the religious ideas of the extremists.

But let's go back to the debate...

The pro gender neutral marriage side was represented in the studio by a very heterogeneous group of people. Both gays, lesbians and heteros, quite a few experts, even one priest. They argued in a very moderate and civilised (and convincing) manner for their demand of equal, and justified, rights.

Their opposition, on the other hand, made a perfect demonstration of how totally estranged from the surrounding reality, people's sense of justice, moral and ethics they really are.

The opposing group continuously and consistently used absolutely incredible arguments to back up their views. One of the most ridiculous claims was that the [heterosexual] marriage is "an eternal, universal law of nature".

What nerve!

It seems to me that the Religious Right has a very shortsighted sense of time - or that they positively don't know what "eternal" means. A marriage as an institution didn't even exist before the very late medieval time. And it didn't take on the religious meaning and christian values and virtues until about 200-300 years later.

Instead, homosexual relationships were rather common e.g. in ancient Rome and Greece (which, by the way, is generally considered as the cradle of the western civilisation and culture) and usually were not frowned upon.

These religious and extreme conservative crackpots also demonstrate a very severe case of megalomania. They claim this man-invented institution to be universal. That is, embraced by everything in the whole universe. Hmmm... I'd say it takes quite a bit more than that for something to be universal. Such arrogance...

Also, I would tend to think that for something to be a "law of nature" it must be necessary and of fundamental essence to the functioning and holding together of the universe and cosmos. Would heterosexual marriage fulfill that requirement? Hardly...

The opposition also argued that homosexual marriage (and relationship) is "unnatural". Well, if it's unnatural, how come there are so many gays and lesbians in the world? Not to mention all the countless examples of homosexuality among the various species of the animal kingdom. Makes me wonder...

And when they couldn't make up any even remotely sensible sounding argument they consistently dug up the good ol' "It says in the Bible" -card. Of course, they completely managed to ignore the fact that the Bible is a totally man-made concoction which merely reflects the needs and desires of the religious and secular ruling classes of the last 3000-4000 years - and mainly of the Middle Ages.

Well, I have to admit, I feel mildly contented because of the performance of the opposing party. It was so convincing that a steadily growing (at least for now) number of people clearly have made their conclusion and are jumping off the sinking ship of the church and the Religious Right.

Just to help to further the suc(k)cess of the Christian Democratic Party I hereby grant them the right to use the following slogan in the coming elections:

"Intolerant ignorance - the preferred way of a True Believer™".

Heavenly rules and good life

I'm often wondering why so many people impose all kinds of artificial restrictions and limitations on themselves - and more often than not on other people. Restrictions and limitations concerning their lives and especially concerning their relationships with other people.

Amazingly often those limitations are based on "moral" or "ethical" codes derived from religious scriptures and teachings. God says how you must live, God says what you must not do, God says whom you may - or may not - love, or to whom you may show warmth, affection, tenderness...

Well, let me tell you one big secret... God says nothing!

I'm reading one extremely interesting book: Karen Armstrong's "A History of God - The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam". A very eye-opening and thought-provoking book, indeed. It's also an extremely neutral, analytical and impartial view on the religious, and partly social, political and cultural, history of the western and middle-eastern world.

Karen Armstrong is a former Catholic nun who had a serious crisis of faith when she was a bit younger. In order to solve her crisis she set out on a journey to find God - and to find about God. She studied countless religious writings, the history of religion (and christianity) and had discussions with several theologists and experts of their own religions.

At last one old jewish rabbi and a great expert on ancient jewish scriptures, told her: "I'm telling you a secret... There is no God!"

Not in a real sense. "God" is just a product of people's own imagination and represents people's desperate need to explain those things and phenomena in the world they don't understand. "God" is, or had been, merely a symbol or a metaphor for the higher or better purposes people wanted to strive for.

Unfortunately, that symbol and metaphor became quickly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Partly by mistake but in great part on purpose by individuals or groups who wanted to use it to strengthen their own influence, power and social or political position in the society.

Back to the commandments, rules, restrictions and guidance provided in the holy scriptures of different religions. Let's take a look at the holy book of christianity, the Bible.

The oldest texts in the Bible, the Old Testament, were written or gathered during a period of about 2000 years B.C. During that time most of the texts were edited or rewritten countless times. It's doubtful if there's much original thought left in them.

It has been deduced from some scanty remains that the very earliest notes have been more like ponderings of the universe and life and some humble wishes about how people's lives could be made better.

As it is often the case, the later generations saw them as a fit building ground for stricter rules and codes of conduct, and at some point along the way somebody came up with the idea of the more "real" or concrete "God" character to give even more weight to their attempts to lead the people to the direction of their choice.

And, of course, many rulers and kings used those scriptures and commandments to strengthen their power and to keep their subjects on leash - rewriting the texts as they saw fit.

The Bible as we know it was mainly composed during the early medieval time. Again, not much thought was given to the original texts or the idea behind them but instead the aim was to produce as effective a tool as possible for ruling and subjugating the uneducated lower class folks.

The book was edited heavy handedly. Numerous texts were simply dropped out because they either contradicted with the objectives of the emperor or the pope or didn't support those objectives strongly enough. Even more texts were partially rewritten to give more support for the ruling classes.

Many of those parts and religious principles of the Bible that the christian community now hold as the centrepieces of their faith were actually concocted during that era. One of them is the deity of Jesus. Also, the principle of the Holy Trinity was completely made up by the Catholic church in order to suppress a number of uncomfortable questions.

And this same process has been going on in the other "big" religions, too.

So, to make a long story short: Is there anything to really hold as a guide to a good life in the scriptures and teachings of the monotheistic religions?

Not much, really. All the basic principles of moral and ethics have existed long before any of the present day religions. That one must not kill or injure or cause damage to other people and one should try to help those in trouble and treat everyone in an equal and humane way is a natural part of the human sense of justice.

For example the Bible hardly covers even that in whole. Instead it's filled with a sundry of demands and punishments each one more horrible and unjust than the other. Other than that it's mostly brainwashing and mere poppycock.

In the beginning I pondered especially on the rules and limitations concerning human relationships. People have a natural tendency to feel and show affection and tenderness towards other people. The strict and oppressive rules stated in religious teachings have almost managed to destroy that trait, instead bringing up the tendency to fear and hate everything different.

After all, the purpose of those rules has always been to prevent the uniting of large numbers of people which could pose a serious threat to the ruling classes and their self-imposed privileges.