Are extreme christian groups a hinderance to the governments ability to govern non-christians fairly?

Question

I'm doing a persuasive essay in my college english class, i would like some opinions about this. The way i see it, fundamentalist christians are so enamored in their own morality, they are having an effect on the governments ability to govern all US citizens fairly, christian or not, one example is gay marrage, christian fundamentalists strongly disapprove in that, and yet the concept of marrage has been around since before christianity and not all religions ban gay marrage, should non-christians be forced to follow a christian based government? (Only asking for opinions on these facts, no preaching please, preaching will not get you far.)

Answer 1

Last week's Newsweek had a wonderful article about Evangelical Christians' impact on laws and government, and developments of the Evangelical movement.



I do believe that the fundamentalist Christian viewpoint is influencing policy a little too closely these days. I believe firmly in the seperation of church and state, which is a founding principle of this country, despite what some folks will claim. However, I don't necessarily think that mixing religion and politics is always a bad thing, particularly if it happens on an individual level. By this I mean, for instance, a lawmaker who, because of his/her religious upbringing, values service to the poor. Because he/she has this ethical value of helping the poor, he/she sets up a program in his/her district that offers skills training and assistance with job hunting to people on welfare.



However, when the mixing of religion and politics becomes more a matter of attempting to legislate a particular moral code or prohibiting certain things simply because this is part of this religion, then there is a problem. I think we are seeing this in several areas. The first is the constant attack on a woman's right to choose, which since Roe v. Wade is being steadily chipped away by legislation such as parental consent laws and the ban on third trimester abortions. Another is the push and increase in funding to abstinence-only sex ed. programs in schools, which has been shown to be ineffective. Speaking of abstinence-only, this also applies to AIDS relief funding. The government requires AIDS-relief programs to spend a certain amount of money on promoting abstinence as a preventative measure, which has caused difficulties in many of these programs to effectively provide adequate preventative care. There is a continuous push to teach "intelligent design," a theory with no backing from scientists (outside of a handful of Christian scientists), alongside the well-established evolutionary theory in public school science classrooms. Less succesful has been efforts to re-establish official school prayer, although this issue pops up periodically (even though no-one is stopping students from praying privately in school, or establishing after-school prayer groups). Funding has been effectively curtailed for stem-cell research, which has the potential to provide cures for several life-threatening illnesses, based on the fudnamentalist belief that human life begins at conception. And of course, the current debate over gay rights and equal marriage.



There are also the self-stated goals of several Christian groups, to promote Christian values and the Christian way of life in government. That doesn't sound so bad, if we're talking about promoting the values of "Love thy neighbor," "Turn thy cheek," "Blessed are the peace-keepers" and "Whatsoever you do onto the least of these, so to you do unto me." However, when we start talking about things like, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," I get very nervous.

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I got your e-mail, the answer is yes. I couldn't reply to the e-mail because your e-mail address hasn't been confirmed yet.

Answer 2

I suppose you could argue that, and in the way you have already. I would argue that what is hindering the government is the government officials, who are out only for their own power. Whatever gets the votes is the image they present. Because the Christian fundamentalists are one of those groups (and probably the most vocal one) they do affect the government (and very rarely in a good way). But if the Christians extremists weren't the ones doing it there are more than enough other groups trying to take over the position.

Answer 3

I wouldn't loose a lot of sleep over this as most of the debate is being spoon fed to you by the media. rather then the mainstream US population which by the way is around 80% Christian. There is only one social issue that Christians stand firm on and that is abortion these side issues are just media fluff. You will find your report just a extension of what amounts to a small number of people that are trying to use you.







dave

Answer 4

You should try "seeing" things through less prejudiced glasses. Find out what Christians are *really* like instead of blindly following hate speech and false profiling. Do some *actual* research from sources other than Christian hating sources.... Do that and you might actually get out of collage with an education, rather than a washed brain.

Answer 5

All it does is make the governemt angry because the christians have a complaint about something that has existed since... I want to say 8,000 years, but humans have been around MUCH longer than that....



Well, no one should be forced to do anything against their will not just the non-christians under christian rules.

Answer 6

Yes, of course.



Christians mess things up for everyone else on a number of issues: gay marriage, abortion, end-of-life decisions, science education, access to birth control and birth control education, etc.



Thats why I dont just reject christianity, I actively fight against it.