I disagree with many people about many things, but the level of intensity varies with the subject. For instance, there are some who think the Canucks are a horrible hockey team. I may disagree depending on my mood and the results of last game – I’m a fairly fair-weather fan – but these differences don’t inspire me to public voice.

At the end of the day, who wins the Stanley Cup or Super Bowl matters little. Who wins elections is a more important matter. Politics is life, it impacts everything we do, and it affects how our lives play out. Politicians, and the laws they write and enforce, are therefore important. But we have not been sending our best these last years. And we are not doing a good job of keeping politics secular. Religion is creeping into the governments of Western democracies, and that’s not a good thing. Because we’re not sending the best religions either – fundamentalism is always a mistake.

Religion is like a penis. It’s okay to have one, and it’s okay to be proud of it, but don’t pull it out in public and start waving it around, don’t push it on children, and don’t write laws with it.

-various

The problem with religion is that everyone thinks they’re in the right. That their god and their rules are the correct version, the one one-true-way. They forget that religion is opinion, and belief systems a function of time and place. That doesn’t mean you can’t have them, but it does mean that you shouldn’t legislate them, or force them on others who disagree. Religions change. Gods change. And we don’t all believe in the same, subjective things.

Too many of today’s politicians are dragging their personal religious beliefs into the legislature. They’re trying to write laws about abortions, 2SLGBTQIA people, minorities, and science based on their religious beliefs and personal bigotries. They’re trying to collar everyone under their own faith umbrella, and they call the force they’re trying to use freedom.

You’re completely free, as long as you do as they say, and believe what they believe. You can taste the irony. It’s especially sweet when they complain about being oppressed when asked to be polite.

So, I disagree – mild epithet – most with politicians who can’t keep religion and state business separate. I’m in opposition with all of them. They are in error. If you can’t keep your religion out of politics, resign and live a private life. Spread your particular version of the word away from the public pulpit. State efforts at indoctrination are ugly indeed.

Daily writing prompt

What public figure do you disagree with the most?

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