Thoughts on Value systems and Religion
Jul. 11th, 2008 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omahasI'm sitting in a Tullys (bless them for free wifi throughout the day; this, Starbucks, is why I spent the week at Tullys instead of with you...LEARN SOMETHING), and am reading Elf's brain today, specifically about the anti-gay Alabama A.G. who is rumored to have been caught by his wife playing "hide the salami" with his male aide. And in a pathway that is too complicated and insane to repeat to you, I started thinking about how we, as a country, are so stuck on religion as our platform for delivering a moral/ethical value system.
It occurred to me that religion doesn't do that at all. Beyond the formal term "religion" really being meant to refer to a spiritual system that has become "corporatized" complete with policies to follow, possibly a book to guide the adherents, priests to "lay down the law" as it were...even beyond that, calling religion just a spiritual system, still, we in this country actually don't use it as our basis for our value system.
We have a value system set apart from religion/spirituality. In fact, we determine which religions are "legitimate" in this country *based* on this non-spiritual/religious value system. Many in this country claim that we follow a "Christian-based" value system, but that is wrong, because not only has Christianity changed over the years and centuries, while our value system has in fact gone in different directions, but Christians in this country practice the faith differently from Christians in other countries.
In other words, our non-religious value system *molds* the religions that it comes into contact with to become more like itself. This is the reason that we feel so uncomfortable with religious groups that refuse to use medicine to treat their dying children, rather using prayer (which *does not work* without medicine...even medieval monks knew that!), or groups that force totalitarian dictatorships upon their cult groups, or groups that try to spiritualize science by removing all of the facts that they don't agree with. Because all of these violate our values systems in this country.
And that is the message that we need to get out to push in the face of the religious-right which strives to claim only one religion has cornered the market on values, ethics, and morals in this country.
It occurred to me that religion doesn't do that at all. Beyond the formal term "religion" really being meant to refer to a spiritual system that has become "corporatized" complete with policies to follow, possibly a book to guide the adherents, priests to "lay down the law" as it were...even beyond that, calling religion just a spiritual system, still, we in this country actually don't use it as our basis for our value system.
We have a value system set apart from religion/spirituality. In fact, we determine which religions are "legitimate" in this country *based* on this non-spiritual/religious value system. Many in this country claim that we follow a "Christian-based" value system, but that is wrong, because not only has Christianity changed over the years and centuries, while our value system has in fact gone in different directions, but Christians in this country practice the faith differently from Christians in other countries.
In other words, our non-religious value system *molds* the religions that it comes into contact with to become more like itself. This is the reason that we feel so uncomfortable with religious groups that refuse to use medicine to treat their dying children, rather using prayer (which *does not work* without medicine...even medieval monks knew that!), or groups that force totalitarian dictatorships upon their cult groups, or groups that try to spiritualize science by removing all of the facts that they don't agree with. Because all of these violate our values systems in this country.
And that is the message that we need to get out to push in the face of the religious-right which strives to claim only one religion has cornered the market on values, ethics, and morals in this country.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-13 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-13 03:42 pm (UTC)Take a look at the roots of "inform", though. Comes from the Middle English ("give form or shape to", or "form the mind of"), which comes from the Latin (through Old French) meaning "into a form". This phrase really means that our value system is formed by our religion.
Considering how many religions that are currently practiced in our country, and how many versions of each religion (I can't count how many versions of Christianity there are right now, and some of them are pretty damn different), you'd be talking about a large diversity in value systems here.
Yet, we all seem to have a similar view on how we, as Americans, should behave. In fact, if you take a look at new immigrants from, say, India, or Japan, or even England, they all have to learn a new way of behaving from what they were used to. A new way of viewing how life is supposed to be lived (some more drastic than others). Further, they find aspects of their value system brought from their culture that match ours, and merge it in.
Which brings me to the American value system. Now, I don't claim to be the authority on it, and I'm sure to miss some stuff, but from what I can tell, this is what most Americans view as their value system, and it's pretty simple.
1. Hard work should be rewarded. In addition, rewards should not be given to those who don't do hard work.
You see this most blatantly in the myth of the "welfare queen" which is scoffed at...someone who is seen as not doing any work at all and getting large enough government handouts to buy big cars.
You also see it in the anger from people who have spent 30 to 40 years working at a plant, only to have it shut down and their pension removed. They've worked hard for their retirement, only to have their reward taken from them for nothing that they had done.
And by hard work, I don't mean laboring for long hours into the night for years on end, yadda, yadda, yadda. I do mean that you need to put some effort into what you are doing, show that it matters to you, that it's important, and that you care. Doing that makes it worth the reward that other people will give back to you because, let's face it, they are taking that reward from their "pocket", as it were.
2. Take care of your responsibilities.
People are always willing to help you out, unless you haven't been living up to your responsibilities. Then you suddenly find that they turn their backs on you and you get labeled, scoffed at, etc. "Dead Beat Dads" come to mind in this category. In fact, we look down upon any parent who runs away from their family without trying to at least provide some means for their continued survival, or stays there, but sits on the couch drinking beer all day, for example.
Compare this with, for example, much of what is happening in the middle east, where if you as a person do not provide adequately for your spouse, your spouse has the cultural right to leave you, and everyone (including maybe your own family) will say it was your fault. This would include a woman who was barren (no fault of her own), or a man who could not conceive. We look in horror at this concept, because it is not within our value system. But it is pretty standard in much of the Middle East, and they think our value system is immoral.