Re: “Ungodly Discipline”


The church that runs the boarding house where little girls are beaten
Finds the media attention rather odd
It exemplifies the problem with America today—
We put little children’s safety over God.

The republicans out courting votes, to energize their base
Call the global warming scientist a fraud
“We are taking back the country from the liberals, because
They trust scientific findings over God.”

A polygamist in prison, on a hunger strike for days
Thinks his trial was a ludicrous façade
And the problem with humanity is obvious to all
We’ve been following the law instead of God.

As I look through all the stories I see daily in the papers
I see we use our language rather oddly
To describe the sick behavior that religions may engender
We too often use the adjective “ungodly”

thoughts, after the jump:

So this morning I’m looking through the news, and I see that AC360’s piece on the Hephzebah House (video at link) is titled “Ungodly Discipline”. This, despite the irony that the actual name for the beatings given to teenaged girls at Hep House was “Godly discipline”.

A case about problems that spring directly from religion, and the language of the piece still implies that “ungodly” is synonymous with “bad”. The beatings were, as we have seen before, part of the bible-based belief system of this church; physical abuse is godly, not ungodly. The inability of the Indiana government to intervene is due to the special status of religious institutions; the organized protection of child abusers is godly, not ungodly.

We see atheism linked to all sorts of horrors, in the words of believers at least. Atheism, with no foundational moral bedrock, could lead to… you name it. But again and again, we see real–not hypothetical–examples of how religious beliefs explicitly lead to the sorts of behavior that any thinking, feeling human being must recognize as … well, godly.

Comments

  1. rwahrens says

    But again and again, we see real–not hypothetical–examples of how religious beliefs explicitly lead to the sorts of behavior that any thinking, feeling human being must recognize as … well, godly.

    You got it in one! This has always burned me up too, glad to see this up where more people can read about it…

  2. Die Anyway says

    An associated thought from the pen of Isaac Asimov:

    “Never let your morals get in the way of doing what’s right.”

    I saw that quote the other day and really liked it. I think this is the sort of situation in which it applies.

  3. Qwerty says

    Our god tell us to whip the girl acting like a hellion.
    When critics say “ungodly” you think their language is Orwellian.

  4. Qwerty says

    Our god tells us to whip the girl acting like a hellion.
    When critics call this “ungodly” you think their language is Orwellian.

  5. Qwerty says

    Ahh, I doubleposted. It didn’t seem to post the first time.

    Well, I guess you can call this doublespeak.

  6. Art says

    Reminds me of the Afghan girls school that burned while the morality police kept firemen out for fear they might see the girls not properly clothed. Better that hey should burn than be disgraced.

    In this case it is: better that girls be beaten and broken than to placate an angry God.

    In both cases it is a social and religious doctrine that demands sacrifice. And it is the females that are sacrificed. Two sides of the same coin used to bribe a malevolent supernatural fiend.

  7. Pierce R. Butler says

    Art @ # 7 – For once we can let the Taliban off the hook: the girls who were forced back into their burning school building had the lifelong privilege of Saudi (2nd-class) citizenship.

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