This Independence Day weekend (when did it become a weekend long event by the way) many of us will be filled with a bit more Patriotic pride, show our respect to those in military service past and present, and after it's all done continue on like any other day.
While most of us will say we have pride for our country (in varying levels) and to an extent, Patriotism, there is one group that I feel has false Patriotism: the Christian Right.
Now I have no doubt that members of the Christian Right love this country and the freedoms that we have via the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the problem is that they think that those freedoms and rights only applies to them, and that everyone else is just secondary. A prime example of this would be their views on the first amendment, specifically the freedom of religion.
They believe that freedom of religion means only freedom of religion for Christian religious sects (and maybe certain Jewish religious sects), and only "true" Christians at that (i.e. those with views similar to their own). Every other religion, according to them, is excluded (most especially Islam and Atheism, the latter of which is falsely believed to actually be a religion rather than just a belief system, and both of which are, according to the Christian Right, Satanic). Because of this belief that the 1st Amendment excludes people of non-Christian beliefs (which it does not in any way shape or form) they believe that these other groups have no rights, and thus can be treated like second class citizens.
In fact many of the Christian Right do not even have a clue why Bill of Rights was created in the first place.
The Bill of Rights was created to give people more rights, not take them away or prevent citizens of this country from obtaining more of them.
Because those of the Christian Right do not realize this (or don't care) they believe that they can do what ever they want to with the Bill of Rights, and can pass what ever amendments they wish, regardless if it takes away a person's rights or not (i.e. the proposed amendments to ban same-sex marriage throughout the country), and because of this same self centered attitude, they believe that they don't have to respect a court's decisions, most especially the Supreme Court of the United States, at least when a verdict comes down that they disagree with.
Then there is of course voting it self.
Basically (according to them) if you don't vote for a Republican, or vote for a Democrat, you are not a Christian and you hate this country (and in that order).
That is beyond stupid and extremely insulting (not to mention fascist), as it is basically saying that if I don't vote for who they want me to then I must be a bad person who is going to Hell and wants to see this country destroyed, rather than someone who disagrees with them on how the country should be run, and who and who not should hold public office.
This is not Patriotism. This is actually fascism via intimidation and fear tactics in order to create a country that they want, and not regarding or respecting the rights of other people, people who they see as "undesirables". They do this by claiming that these groups are "destroying" America, or that by giving these rights, or at least protecting their rights, that that are infringing on the rights of Christians (which is false).
I believe these people truly believe that they are Patriotic, and that they believe what they are doing will help the country, but what they are doing is in fact wrong, and it actually hurts this country and those who live in it.
Respecting others regardless if they believe in something different from yourself, and respecting the rights given in the Constitution and what those rights stands for, and not trying to twist and pervert those rights into something that it does not mean, that is real Patriotism.
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