Religious Fundamentalism

Well, this will probably get a lot of people really angry, but I seem to do that by accident all the time anyway, so ca, m'est egal. Also, it seems we're running late for a topic this week, and this should get people talking. Today, when I read the headline that Jerry Falwell died (and I'm not really proud of this visceral reaction), I was really happy, and thought to myself "Oh, good." It's a pretty terrible reaction to have to somebody dying who has family and friends who are really hurt by this. But that's exactly how I felt. This man injected religious conservatism into American politics in a way that I believe has permanently doomed this nation on the world stage. I mean, this guy made so many Christians believe they had to staunchly oppose abortion, homosexuality, stem cell research, the separation of church and state, the ACLU, etc. He poisoned the good nature and spirit of Christianity for millions of people. I'm not religious, so I'm definitely speaking from a biased standpoint, but I really feel that Christianity isn't supposed to stand for all these hateful and crazy things Falwell (and others) have made it stand for. When I was a kid going to church in Canada (not a very religious church, but still) we were basically told be good and do good. But in America (at least in the south, where I have lived my American life), Christianity seems to be about yelling and making sure homosexuals to turn kids gay. As everybody surely remembers, right after 9/11 Falwell said it was God's revenge against America for the ACLU and homosexuals. This kind of hate mongering is reprehensible, especially when you are claiming to be a voice box for a supreme being, and especially when millions of people follow your every word. And Falwell's twisting of Christianity into political jingoism, something that I believe is now inextricable from the American political theater, has doomed America on the world stage. I feel like there's no coming back from the heat of religious fervor this country has, and when national decisions are made based on flimsy interpretations of a magic book it really seems like progress is impossible.

Words, words, words.

I’d been planning on writing on this topic for a while now, although with recent current events, I’ll be expanding this topic somewhat. What’s my topic? Words! Didn’t you read the title?

The first thing I want to talk about is profanity and the use of pseudo (or faux) profanity. You know, saying “darn” for “damn” or “shoot” for “shit” or “frigging” instead of “fucking.” There are innumerable examples of faux profanity, and plenty of reasons to avoid actually uttering (or typing) a four letter word. Back in high school, I had a good friend who frequently uttered the phrase, “Oh fudge!” instead of “Oh fuck!” In tenth grade I stopped using (American) profanity entirely, and replaced all cuss words in my vocabulary with the British cuss word “sod.” When you’re still a kid, and subject to regulation of your speech by parents and teachers, use of such faux profanity is certainly understandable.

But what about as we grow older? A couple of years ago, I received some rather unpleasant messages from another blogger with regards to my views of feminism. She provided a link to her site, and I visited it. It was full of a lot of quotes from the Bible used to stress the importance of the wife being subordinate to her husband. I used to blog a lot about feminism back then, and was pretty accustomed to getting such nonsense in my inbox. The thing that stuck out about this woman’s site (which sadly is no longer online) was that while it was chock full of religious messages of the “right” way to live in accordance with the writings of the Bible, it was also chock full of profanity. Well, faux profanity at least. She substituted words such as “beeches” for “bitches,” “focking” for “fucking,” “sheet” for “shit” and so on.

I’ve thought about that woman’s site periodically ever since. If you refer to someone as a “focking beech,” you’re not actually using any of those “bad” words, but the meaning is still the exact same. Likewise, if I say something’s “fucking awesome” that’s obviously a compliment, but if I say someone’s a “freaking idiot” that’s definitely an insult. A lot of people out there go to great lengths to avoid the use of a small handful of words that are, for whatever reason, deemed “bad.” However, words are just random collections of letters; it’s the meaning that we assign to those words which makes them good or bad.

FCC regulations prevent the use of certain words on the airwaves. However, faux profanity is an easy way around that problem. While it’s certainly easier to make a list of banned words in order to keep offensiveness from radio and television, hate can be delivered without a word that’s considered profane.

This brings me along to how this topic of words relates to current events. See, as of a little over a week ago, I’d never heard of this Don Imus chap. But then again, shock-jocks are hardly my cup of tea. On the off chance that by now you somehow haven’t heard the thing that Imus said which led to him being fired, here’s the clip:

(If you can't get the video to play, click here.)

I agree, that’s pretty damn offensive. Of course, from all accounts, this fellow was frequently pretty damn offensive. What is it about this incident in particular which sets it apart from all previous offensive comments made by this man? Is it the choice of words? The choice of targets? And why is it no one is discussing the fact that whomever it is Imus is talking to also called the Rutgers girls hos? (Or is that spelled "hoes"?) On NPR all this week, I’ve heard a lot of different commentary on this. I’ve heard some black women decry this as terribly offensive, while other black women said that they found this funny and didn’t see what the big deal was. I’ve heard people say that the firing of Imus is censorship, while others champion the decision. And I’ve heard that had those remarks been made by a black commentator, no one would have minded. This in turn has led to a discussion on misogynist rap lyrics. (There's an excellent post on this topic over at Pandagon, which I definitely recommend checking out.)

I, for one, am glad that Imus is off the air, because I am opposed to hate speech of any kind. Of course, there are many people out there who disagree with me.

So… What do you think about Don Imus? FCC Censorship? Profanity and faux profanity? Hate speech? Rap lyrics? Anything else pertaining to words?