a_tired_contradiction stork daddy many of the far right conservatives in this country maintain that the legislative validation of christian morality is this country's bedrock and only hope for the future. and yet they also remain rabid capitalists. the argument often offered is that charity must come from the heart. but then so too shouldn't sexual morality come from the heart? the argument often given to this is that sexual deviance "harms" society. this is counter-productive to their cause in two ways. Firstly it appeals to a concept of harms which necessarily must be at least partly defined in a secular matter, since our society is composed of christians and non-christians (many of whome would argue very differently as to what harms them). in a nation where the separation of church and state is written into the federal constitution, a notion of spiritual harm may be for one's self to work out, while the secular morals, embodied in our country's constitution, of fundamental rights and freedoms appreciated by most sane people is certainly in this country's jurisdiction. in using the word harm the christian right's argument wisely steps beyond the mere term offense which most reasonable people will agree is not a strong enough effect to override freedom of expression, especially if the behavior in question is in the private and not the public sphere. however, it as noted above, does demand of them proof of harm. harm is not something someone can simply claim, it must be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt, and even still, it must then face further scrutiny in deciding whether or not the harm is more the responsibility of the harmed or the harmer, and whether or not the right protecting whatever expression caused the harm outweighs the harm. the second damaging blow to the christian argument is that it would not be difficult to show that by not giving money to certain people and programs you are most certainly harming them and their future chances at inclusion in larger productive society. i speak of the education, healthcare, and other such programs hurt by tax cuts. i'm not arguing for less morality in government. the government's purpose is to serve the public. i have nothing against aspects of communism as it has been described in theory. i believe we can live in a society where we both enjoy fundamental rights and are at least made aware of the profound though often not instant positive change for all members of society when members of that society give back to it and make sure the burden is shared equally. but that is another debate. the only point i make now is to show that the christian right cannot contend both of these matters without contradicting their own premises. you cannot both use christian doctrine as a guide to running this country's definitions of decency and marriage and at the same time deny that it should have any role in economic considerations. a secular humanist morality seems to be a more plausible and desirable future for america. the words of jesus may very well play a part in further defining this already evolving code, but they will not be its verbatim counterpart most likely. i'd like to see the far right accept this, and allow that the worthwhileness of our freedoms counters the pain each individual being free sometimes causes another (with the obvious criminal exceptions which i have described briefly a manner of defining above in appeal to a more proveable theory of harm, or at least even when using precedence of the rootedness of a certain activity being recognized as a crime, being able to detect under it the harm we seek in defining new crime.) However if the christian right continues to push for legislative recognition of its morals and ideas, i hope they see the contradiction and also start crusading for social justice, help for drug addicts, funding for those less fortunate, a cure for aids, and for general equality in our country. this would make them less menacing and less obviously and transparently filled with something other than christian goodwill. 040609 what's it to you? who go blather from