Strategy for religious Literacy

In a previous posting on We Need a Long=Term Strategy, the following suggestions were made:

- Seek wealthy and powerful contributors.
- Education for children, teens, and adults.
- Doing good works in the community.
- Promote education and scholarship based on critical thinking.

Additions I would like to propose:

* Reducing the degree of control of parents over their children. I have relatives who home-schooled their kids and never made them learn anything. These kids are totally ignorant. Anyone who believes that all parents should have total and final control over their kids is asking for problems that the rest of us are going to get stuck with.

* Firm national and local legal coalitions to protect rights.

* Fighting against prejudice in any form (or insisting on equal rights). My favorite bumper sticker is "Gold Bless the World. No Exceptions." Make the fundys squirm under the labels of "prejudiced", etc.

* Insist that separation of church and state be maintained. For example, eliminate laws that are based primarily on concepts of sin, as opposed to social good.

* Expand the definition of hate crimes to include some of the more extreme examples of fundamentalist behaviors (such as Elizabeth Dole’s political attack on her opponent in the recent election).

* Highlight the presence of violence within many religious belief systems and scriptures. Also, point out how much of the fundy rhetoric is mean and angry. How Christian or enlightened is that?

* Avoid self-labeling as atheist or anything else specific. Promote a common-sense approach to life, rather than a narrow, ideological approach. I am reminded of an argument I once made to NARAL about bad strategy. As long as pro-choice supporters keep fighting the pro-life movement by focusing only on abortion, they lock themselves into an either-or fight that neither side can really win. Why not raise your argument to a higher strategic level, so that they cannot compete equally? Another example: Promote alternatives to religion for spiritual living. If everything is labelled as "atheist", you will not only drive away people who are not atheists but could be your allies, but you will also give your opponents that advantage of defining you by your labels.

* Promote open systems thinking, as opposed to closed systems thinking. Religions are, for the most part and with a few exceptions, closed systems.

* Promote the use of methodologies for exploring reality, and compare the ineffectuality of religious systems as compared with critical systems thinking.

* Psychology of Belief: identifying especially the rigidities and delusionality of fundamentalism and similar approaches. Emphasize the cult-like behaviors of fundamentalists.

* Emphasize support for the US Constitution versus religious commitments: if there is a conflict, you shouldn’t be involved in the first! I can't tell you how many military people I run into who have strong faith commitments. My concern is that when they identify one (faith) with the other (right-wing beliefs), their religious commitments override their oaths of office to defend the Constitution. Many seem more like fascists.

* Educate about fallacies and poor thinking.

* Place more emphasis on belief therapy & deprogramming.

* Educate about Spiritual Literacy. Most fundamentalists are woefully ignorant about the Bible in particular and religion in general.

* Continually poke fun at their contradictions. Humor can be far more effective in disarming an opponent than any number of direct attacks.

* Opt out of conventional media that refuse to tackle these issues. Use alternative media and communication nets.

* Make better use of technology than you are now. Blogs are very nice, but how much more could we collaborate if we made better use of technology?

Regards,

David