Let me be clear. I'm not a person who believes in violence. I believe in passive resistance, in writing, in voting, and in change. But, I'm starting to be afraid, and very angry, about the violence from ultra-conservative forces within the government, violence being expressed in their legislative documents. Make no mistake. The legislation being introduced is violence. It is violence against women. It is not American. It is not, indeed, Christian in any way whatsoever, no matter the claim. It is about power and subjugation. We must resist. We must resist with our words and our votes. I posted this post as a comment on Tom Cordle's very good post on freedom of religion. Take the time to read it, if you have time. 

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Women have just been compared to cows and pigs. It doesn't get any clearer than that. Religion is being used as a cudgel to dominate and hurt women. It is not Constitutional. It is actually, I would argue, evil.

It is evil to subjugate other people. Furthermore, be aware that it never works in the end. In the entire recorded history, very few dictatorships, especially religious ones, stand for a long time. In fact, in recent history, only a few dictators have made it to nearly the end of their lives without being drug through the streets, their heads on a stick. 

It is evil to subjugate other people, to make them practice your religion and not freely practice their own. It is evil to force other people to live in manner not consistent with liberty. It is evil to force women to have a long, large electronic dildo forcibly shoved up their vaginas, to try to frighten and intimidate them into compliance with your religious beliefs. In fact, once upon a time, not so long ago, pushing an object into someone's vagina against her will, in this country, was considered rape, wasn't it?

It is both evil and completely unconstitutional to be fired for taking a legal drug like birth control, for one of its intended purposes. It is evil to force other people to agree about who is officially a person. (Apparently, according to "God," corporations are people--He did some more creating there! Who knew?!? But women are now farm animals, who will be forced to carry their dead babies until their bodies 'naturally' expel them. Whatever 'naturally' means here.)

It is evil to force one gender to stay at home, to have children without reasonable, available birth control. It is evil to compare them to farm animals, ones eaten in this country in large portions. It is not Christian to do or believe any of these things, but just as importantly, it is NOT AMERICAN. It is not part of the American or Constitutional experience.

If you believe that your religion comes before the rights of other human beings, then you are neither following your religion, if you are a Christian, nor the American experiment. You want totalitarian rule. You want a religious dictatorship. You want thousands dead in a religious war. Children lying in the streets, bloated and smelly, while a few rich, white men sit in smoky rooms, laughing around fat cigars. You want suffering in the millions, poverty-stricken people living in the streets. You want women covered in veils, the very thing you all pretended was so terrible only a few short years ago, and forced into marriage, prostitution, and slavery, to your religion.

And I'm here to tell you: We will fight you. I don't know who will win. But, we will fight you. We will fight you for our liberty. We will fight you for our freedom. We will fight you for our freedom of religion. We will gather the fortitude of our ancestors, who came here in search of religious freedom, and we will fight. And ironically, we'll be fighting for your freedom as well as our own. If only you understood that. If only. But, make no mistake, we will fight.