SCOTUS' Hobby Lobby ruling has set a
precedent for corporations to willfully misinterpret the good book's
teachings
by CJ Werleman
The bible doesn’t mention anything about contraception or abortion, but
this hasn’t stopped 89 million American evangelicals acting as if “thou
shall not consume a pregnancy pill” were one of the ten commandments.
For the benefit of my mostly American audience, it’s not. In fact, the
first four of the hebrew god’s Decalogue amount to nothing more than
“maniacal throat clearing,” to steal a phrase from the late Christopher
Hitchens.
The decision of the five wingnut justices to rule
in favor of Hobby Lobby, thus granting religious personhood to 90
percent of U.S. corporations, which means that certain for-profit
companies may refuse to cover forms of birth control they find morally
objectionable, has been debated from every angle except one: the
theological perspective.
An overwhelming majority of
hyper-religious Americans, and Americans in general, are incapable of
debating the theological aspect of their faith. Not only do a staggering
majority of Americans have no idea what is or isn’t written in the bible, they have not a morsel of knowledge as it pertains to just about
all aspects of historical context and biblical scholarship.
At a
time of heightened controversy surrounding women’s reproductive rights,
most discourse relies upon the political, philosophical and legal
dimensions of access to abortion and contraception. In almost all
instances, religious traditions and theological perspectives are not
fully explored beyond an occasional reference to the biblical
commandment, “thou shall not kill.” The nation’s collective biblical
ignorance not only prevents any reasonable theological debate, but also
allows christian fundamentalists, like Hobby Lobby and its christian wingnut supporters, to contort scripture to their own advantage.
The
lunatic fringe has successfully rebranded the brown-skinned liberal jew, who
gave away free healthcare, was pro-redistributing wealth, and hung with a
prostitute, into a white-skinned, trickledown, union-busting
conservative, for the very fact that an overwhelming number of Americans
are astonishingly illiterate when it comes to understanding the bible.
On hot-button social issues, from same-sex marriage to abortion,
biblical passages are invoked without any real understanding of the
context or true meaning.
If
you need to know what drives the christian wingnuts' rabid enthusiasm to
rally behind Hobby Lobby, it’s important to understand how social
conservatives have morphed jesus into a muscular, masculine warrior as a
means of combating what they see as the modernization of society.
“A
significant impetus behind the assault on women and modernity was the
feeling that women had encroached upon traditional male spheres like the
workplace and colleges. Furthermore, women’s leadership in the churches
had harmed christianity by creating an effeminate clergy and a weak
sense of self. All of this was associated with liberalism, feminism,
women, and modernity,” Thom Hartmann writes.
biblical illiteracy
has made its way all the way up to the bench of the nation’s highest
Court. In 2002, Justice Scalia defended his pro-death penalty stance by
claiming that the bible forgives those who wrongly apply the death
penalty to innocent persons on the grounds that the wrongly convicted
will have an opportunity to set the record straight in the courthouse of
the afterlife.
More than 95 percent of U.S.
households own at least one copy of the bible. So how much do Americans
know of the book that one-third of the country believes to be literally
true? Apparently, very little, according to data from the Barna Research
group. Surveys show that 60 percent can’t name more than five of the ten commandments; 12 percent of adults think Joan of Arc was Noah’s
wife; and nearly 50 percent of high school seniors think Sodom and
Gomorrah were a married couple.
According to the American bible society’s 2014 “state of the bible” report, a majority of U.S. adults
(81 percent) said they consider themselves highly, moderately or
somewhat knowledgeable about the bible. Yet less than half (43 percent)
were able to name the first five books of the bible. The report also
showed that only half knew that John the Baptist was not one of the 12
apostles, while roughly 82 percent believe “god helps those who help
themselves” is a biblical verse.
“All the research indicates that
biblical literacy in America is at an all-time low,” Kenneth Berding,
professor of new testament at Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, told
the christian post. “My own experience teaching a class of new college
freshman every year for the past 15 years suggests to me that although
students 15 years ago knew little about the bible upon entering my
classes, today’s students on average know even less about the bible.”
No
one should take the christian wingnuts' attitudes toward sexuality and
abortion seriously when so many evangelicals believe Sodom and Gomorrah
to be a married couple. Put another way: one should not be allowed to
hide behind the veil of “religious freedom,” as an excuse to
discriminate against others, when one has little or no understanding of
their own religion.
Knowing the new testament is not simply a
matter of reading the bible cover to cover, or memorizing a handful of
verses. Knowing the bible requires a scholarly contextual understanding
of authorship, history and interpretation. For instance, Hobby Lobby and anti-choice agitators hide behind the “thou shall not kill” commandment,
but the bible demands death for a whole range of minor indiscretions,
from cursing your parents (Exodus 21:17) to drunken behavior
(Deuteronomy 21:18-21), from working on the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14) to a
woman lying about her virginity (Deuteronomy 22:20-21).
Invariably, christians dismiss these complicating and contradictory biblical laws
with an, “Oh, that’s the old testament” defense. Typically they then
claim the new testament supersedes mosaic law—the 613 commandments of
the first five books of the old testament. But jesus said, “
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17-20)
In
other words, if the followers of christ are to apply their religious
beliefs in a way that is consistent with the laws and traditions of
their faith, how does this not challenge a great number of the nation’s
secular laws? The Supreme Court has set precedence in a way that allows
corporations to cherry-pick which of the nation’s secular laws don’t
suit them, while simultaneously allowing these same corporations the
right to cherry-pick their own religious beliefs.
