Comment of the Week: Christian Right and Contraception

Why is the Chrisitian Right starting to launch a fight against contraception? Most people alive today don't remember a time when even access to information about contraception could be difficult to obtain — and was illegal to send via the mail. The truth is, widespread and easy access to contraception is relatively recent in America and was strongly opposed by the Christian Right in the past. It's not a surprise that they are beginning to move against it again and it's part of their broader authoritarian agenda against personal autonomy, sexual liberty, and privacy.

Tracie writes:

The Religious Right will not be happy until no person is having sex unless they're a monogamous married man/woman. Since their god said it's wrong, but there really are very few real ills as a result these days, they need to create some ills so they can point a finger and say, "SEE?! This is why GOD says we shouldn't do this--because it causes such harm."

Well, yeah, having sex without contraception can present some problems--in the same way jumping out of a plane without a parachute can cause problems. What groups like American Family Association are doing is saying: "Jumping out of planes is deadly! And god forbids it because he loves us and doesn't want us to die!" Then they're trying to ban parahcutes so that reality will substantiate their point.

Instead of admitting that parachutes greatly reduce the deaths from jumping out of planes--and admitting that the huge majority of sky divers DON'T die in reality...they are working to make reality a more dangerous place for people--working to CAUSE real harm--so that they can feel justified in saying that god knows what's best and that his condemnation of sky diving (and by proxy, parachutes) is only due to the fact that he wants to help us avoid a horrible sky diving death.

How could I not question the soundness of mind of anyone who would actually do this?

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But of course, it's intolerant, rude, and disrespectful of atheists to question whether religious believers are of "sound mind" when they advocate completely ridiculous, dangerous, or just insane ideas. If such ideas were limited entirely to secular politics and philosophy, it would be entirely acceptable to heap ridicule all over them and basically make their advocates intellectual pariahs — but as soon as they occur in the context of religion, it's inappropriate to say anything too negative. Scorn and ridicule are treated as signs that one is intolerant towards faith, as if religious faith couldn't lead a person to insane, absurd beliefs.