As an avowed atheist living in the bible belt, I generally keep my head down. However, the events of the past week have demonstrated loud and clear the immorality of religious thought. Just the other day, I watched talking head after talking head advocate for putting children in concentration camps and using their religious texts to do so.
You can call it hyperbole, but these detention facilities BY DEFINITION are concentration camps. Some will point to the recent media tours of these concentration camps and say “it doesn’t look so bad” but remember that at one time the Red Cross was invited to Terezin to show how well the Jews were treated in their concentration camps.
I keep hearing people say that the law dictates these children be torn from their mothers’ breasts. That’s a lie being told by the propaganda arm of this regime. America used to be the good guys. Because we were the good guys, we didn’t have any laws on the books dictating that we kidnap children and put them in concentration camps because that’s wrong. This is a policy of this regime. It is not a law on the books. This does not have to happen.
I don’t care what your views are on immigration. They are immaterial to this conversation. If you can in any way justify taking innocent children from their parents as a “deterrent” then you are supporting the worst kind of immorality. If you use religious doctrine to support this, you are showing just how damaging religion is to society. You are further adding evidence to the argument that religious belief has no place in a civilized society. The most peaceful and humane countries in the world today are some of the least religious. The more religious a country becomes, the more violent and less humane its people and policies. These are observable facts unchanged by personal belief. I cannot in good conscience teach my children to follow a path that would in any way justify the sorts of policies our government is implementing on the border. Therefore I keep them out of church in order to save their humanity.
The apologists will say that they were taking scripture out of context or that one should look at the other passages that contradict those. I will call your attention to Matthew 7:20 “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Children torn from their parents and crying in detention centers are the fruits this religious dedication has produced. That’s enough for me.
If you are disturbed by evil, I encourage you to call your lawmakers and tell them to support the Keep Families Together Act. It is the only moral thing to do.
Sen. Pat Roberts: (202) 224-4774
Sen. Jerry Moran: (202) 224-6521
Rep. Roger Marshall: (202) 225-2715
Mary Elizabeth Chance, mother, Hays