Friday, February 08, 2019

Since I left Christianity and became an agnostic, I've gone back and forth on the value of religion.  Some days I think it's an oppressive force.  Some days I think it does a lot of good and helps people through their daily life.  (See HERE and HERE for examples of me admitting that religion might do some good.)
Karl Marx famously called religion the "Opium of the People" because it encouraged people to not worry about improving their condition here on earth, and instead promised them a paradise after they died.
Union organizer Joe Hill wrote a famous song about this--The Preacher and the Slave
Long haired preachers come out every night
try to tell you what´s wrong and what´s right
but when asked about something to eat
they will answer with voices so sweet
You will eat, you will eat, by and by
in the glorious land in the sky way up high
work and pray, live on hay
you´ll get pie in the sky when you die.
But all of this is unfair, isn't it?  In this day and age, Christians don't actually go around saying we don't need to worry about health care because we're all going to heaven, do they?

No, actually, turns out that they're still saying exactly that.  In pretty much exactly those words. Quote from Phil Robertson:

I already have health care. It’s given to me by God. Eternal health care. I’m guaranteed to be raised from the dead. I have life and immortality given to me by God through Jesus Christ... The temporary reprieve is not worth it. I'm telling [Kamala Harris], I have eternal health care, and it's free! Doctors can give you a little temporary reprieve, but they cannot save you from physical death. The doctors who treat you, they die, too.
Phil Robertson: You Don't Need Healthcare, Just Jesus.



For those keeping score at home, put another point in the "Religion is an Oppressive Force and We Need to Resist It" column. 
The game's not over yet, of course.  Give me another couple days and I could be veering back towards the "Religion Actually Does Some Good" side of the ledger, depending on what else happens in the news.  But for today, I'm playing The Preacher and the Slave on my jukebox all afternoon.

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