Austin Cline writes a smart, perceptive blog at About.com, called Austin’s Atheism Blog. He makes a number of interesting points about the Christianist right’s attempt to possess and control most, if not all, of America’s cultural and political institutions, along with the definitions of concepts like morality and equality: just because you claim it doesn’t make it yours.
From Austin’s Atheism Blog:
Territoriality: Peeing on It Doesn’t Make it Yours.
Staking Out Territory by Appropriating Cultural, Political InstitutionsChristians have claimed that Christmas, marriage, morality, and more are theirs to define and control. What unites these issues is an effort by conservative Christians to claim ownership over cultural or political institutions which should be open equally to all citizens. They don’t want to be mere contributors to a larger whole, they want to be owners with a right to exclude others. This is basically and expression of tribalism and attempt to exercise territoriality, not unlike what dogs do.
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When more people are admitted as equals to institutions like marriage (or, to put it another way, when more people are allowed to claim “marriage” as their own), then cultural and political power is distributed more broadly through society. When institutions like marriage are limited to a privileged group, then that cultural and political power is restricted to them and concentrated in their hands as well. That’s the point of concentrating property and wealth into fewer hands: limit the power to as few people as possible in order create a more strictly defined social hierarchy where a few can make decisions for many.
Austin illustrate his points with a nifty series of parody posters. Check it out.
