>It's amazing that nobody on this purportedly 'left' e-list has yet to
>criticize organized religion on the ground that it has and still fosters
>sexual repression + subordination of women & sexual dissidents (including
>'abortion ambivalence' but of course not limited to it).
Not "nobody," please.
Susie Bright's current Salon column is about the relations among sexual repression, religion, and kids who shoot up their schools. It's at <http://www.salonmagazine.com/col/brig/1998/06/nc_05brig2.html>. A couple of excerpts:
>Springfield itself brags about being a redneck town, a
>town that fought against gay rights in the last state referendum, a
>place where "outsiders" (queers, non-whites, immigrants and
>non-Christians, among others) aren't welcome unless they cotton to the
>town's conservative values real fast. Springfield is a loyal town, and a
>place where caring and sensitivity have been paramount since the
>shootings. But honestly, were Springfield's values caring and sensitive
>before this tragedy?
[...]
>In the weeks following the killings, many Springfield pastors
>have urged their community to forgive Kip, to learn from this tragedy
>and to ask God for guidance in a time of despair. I wonder if they would
>have forgiven Kip if he were queer, if he had read porn on the Internet
>instead of bomb recipes, if he had been caught masturbating in the park.
>I'm afraid they would have misread sexual behavior outside their
>religious beliefs as dangerous, and even harder to forgive than
>violence. Forgiveness comes with awareness, and empathy, and compassion
>-- which in a world infatuated with intolerance, is harder and harder to
>come by.