Mandy's Musings: Why The Religious Right Is Wrong

Mandy's Musings: Why The Religious Right Is Wrong
By Mandy Bates

I have to drive a long time to get to and from my clinicals.  In the middle of nowhere.  So I get really crazy radio stations.  Last week I stopped flipping channels and landed on the religious station.  I usually like what they have to say.  They have Bible stories and Christian music and usually good guests.  But not last week.  The commentator was talking about gays having children.  He said that children who come from gay homes become gay themselves.  That they have no positive role models so they think they HAVE to be gay.  He said it’s an abomination for gays to be foster or adoptive parents.  He actually went on to say that children living in broken homes in poverty turn out BETTER than children raised in a gay home with two loving parents who can afford to take care of them in a way they deserve.  Because with the single mom, at least then she’s attracted to the opposite sex, so the children can see what’s right and turn out straight.  Of course he then went on to talk about the Bible’s views of homosexuality. Then he went on a tangent saying that music should NOT be for entertainment, that song is ONLY to be used to praise God, that hymns are the only type of singing we should do.  He bashed on Christian rock bands and Christian contemporary and basically anything that wasn’t a hymn sung in church, saying those are sins, we ONLY sing to praise God. Then, I kid you not, he played a Creed song as he went to commercial.  As if this guy had ANY credibility to begin with, if he did have anyone on his side, he would have lost them by contradicting himself. 

I try and teach my son that it’s okay for people to have different views than he does.  And that it’s okay to disagree.  That he doesn’t have to tell someone they’re wrong and he’s right and try to make them see things the way he does.  He can just let it go and worry about more important things than having people think things that he feels are wrong.  I also tell him that when people verbally attack him for having different beliefs, be they religion or choices of cartoons, just let it go. Who cares if they don’t agree?  Let them think what they want. The great thing about this country is that it’s perfectly okay to have other opinions and to be accepted for having them, if not for what the opinions stand for themselves.  We are free to have choices and not be punished for expressing our opinions, so we have to respect others who express their opinions, even those that we feel are wrong.  But that guy on the radio… I think he proved to everyone listening that he’s got no gumption and that he’s a hypocrite and obviously can’t stand by his own convictions if he played Creed after saying it’s wrong to do so.  So I’m pretty sure he did a good job all by himself in showing all his listeners he’s a piece of …. chewed gum.