Updating Culture, and the "Word of God": Part I

THE VIRGINIA COLONY of 1607 was looking for gold, the one in Massachusetts in 1620 was primarily seeking religious freedom, but would've gladly accepted gold. Religious freedom in the Puritan colony soon evolved into strict religious conformity and obedience. Devout Christians carried out the Salem witch trials of 1692, during which roughly two dozen women were murdered, senselessly. Therein lies the problem with primitive religious superstition: the powerful few often use it to ontrol and harm the many, to control and harm society, with society's full approval. The same thing is happening today. What happened in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 has happened all through the millennia, and is happening today: religious superstition infects law and culture, and does great harm. Contrary to the claims of many hyperbolic American Christians, there is in fact no war on Christianity in American culture today. There is merely an insistence by the majority that religion be kept out of government, and that it be optional individually. Actually, Christian theocrats are trying to insinuate their religion into the American legal system, and to dominate American culture. This harms the groups it (christian nationalism) decides to attack, thus harming society generally. For example, the LGBTQ community, the very existence of which conservative Christianity considers undesirable. Thus, the ethics and morals of ancient, primitive people permeate and threaten to control our modern society, with disastrous consequences. It is shocking and amazing, for example, that in the year twenty twenty two, millions of people would evidently embrace the idea that allowing a transgender child to be transgender is child abuse, and would actually succeed in encoding this cruel, barbaric belief into law, as is now happening in many states. Quite the opposite is true, obviously. Preventing children who are "naturally" gay or transgender from being what they naturally are is, and has been repeaetdly proven to be, child abuse, and terribly harmful, both to the individual, and to society. The widespread practice of "conversion therapy", for example, according to which a gang of Christian grown ups, with the full support of the Christian church ad Christian doctrine, tries to brainwash a person a young child usually, into being strictly heterosexual. The whole process never works, which in itself should be clear evidence that it is bad, wrong, harmful, and so forth, but evidently is not, at least not among the devout, headstrong extremists. Evangelcial American conservative Christianity is currently in full attack mode against LGBTQ people, which includes a surprisingly broad swathe of society, especially including "Q" people, the word "Queer" seeming to be a general description of folks with non traditional sexual self identification, including people who self identify as neither male, nor female, but instead...something else. The point is, its their choice, or should be, not ours. If God indeed communicates to us in books - and most certainly she does not, according to all reason - then it it long past time to update the "Word of God", whatever and whenever word of God claims that anything other than strict heterosexuality is sinful or sick. The modern God, in the year 2022, surely does not disapprove of homosexuality, of gay people, or of transgender people.