Giving a hug to the members of this group [View all]

[Heddi]

I appreciate all of you that post in this room and I am glad that we have this group to talk about religion in a realistic way.

Despite the headlines and old prejudices on all sides, the actions in Paris (and those that happen routinely around the world) do have a religious motivation behind them. I'm glad that there are people here who are brave enough to say "fuck this fucking shit," and take a stand against religion's continual erosion of civil liberties such as same-sex marriage, the decimation of reproductive freedoms, and the gradual yet wholesale take-over of secular hospital groups by religious (mainly Catholic) medical groups who have no shame in denying care and compassion to GBLT'ers, to limit the reproductive choices of men, women, and families, and to deny patients their rights (within the states that allow them) to a dignified death via physician assisted suicide.'


I'm glad there are people here not afraid to say "this is bullshit" when women are forced to cover their faces. When cartoonists cower in fear and journalists and authors have fatwa's placed against them for having a difference of opinion.

I'm glad that there are people here smart enough to realize that this wasn't a false flag operation. That no one did this to make one religious group bad....the only people who make religious groups look bad are the religious group itself and those that are adherents to that groups belief.

We've seen it and heard it this week and last week and last year and our whole lives: You're bigots, you're racists. You can't say that. You can't insult religion. You can't insult God. Insulting a religion is insulting me.

We know it's bullshit. And I'm glad we have stood tall, stood proud, and not given in to the status quo and popular (and safe) speech.

So here is a hug to all the people who post in this room. I think we need it here this week.