Yostivanich

Here is the prob­lem that I see with a lot of the evan­gel­i­cal right. They seem to think that their rules are all of sud­den my rules. Here’s a hint, they aren’t. A great exam­ple is this ad for a ren­tor.

The ad includes such won­der­ful rules as the main lights in the apart­ment are con­trolled by a timer turn­ing on at 5:30 am and off at 11:30 pm, heat and a/c con­trolled, oh yeah and even a cam­era in your suite. Let’s not even dis­cuss the no alco­hol, no ille­gal drugs, no tobacco, no lighters or matches, the 2 hour, vis­i­ta­tion period on Sun­day and Sat­ur­day. You are even required to wear an id bracelet. Let’s not even get into the idea if you say have a sex­ual rela­tion­ship pre-marriage.

This isn’t an apart­ment, it’s a dorm room and worse.

The worse thing is that the per­son who put up the said and I quote: “I am a born again Chris­t­ian. Why is this a prob­lem for peo­ple????! I have a house that’s MINE and I PAID FOR IT. I also have a base­ment apart­ment for rent. It’s a great space for I’m char­ing very lit­tle for it, $480 monthly, for the right ten­ant. I know it’s ILLEGAL to require a Chris­t­ian in the apart­ment, against the human rights. That’s why I NEVER put this in my ad. Why then does it keep get­ting taken down?” The prob­lem isn’t that you are a born-again Chris­t­ian, the prob­lem is that you are apply­ing rules that you may live with and feel are good and nor­mal, but for the major­ity of soci­ety they don’t and won’t live with those sort of rules.

How many peo­ple don’t drink alco­hol, how many peo­ple desire to have their land­lord con­trol when they can sleep and wake up, or and watch them on a secu­rity cam­era, how many peo­ple desire to have 4 hours a week to have vis­i­tors over. I think even my fam­ily comes over to visit I want them to come over for more than 2 hours or at a dif­fer­ent times than just 2 — 4 pm on Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. The silly rules just keep adding more and more restric­tions to a per­son. Is cheap rent worth the agony that a per­son would go through to have that apartment?

Free­dom From Reli­gion Same As Free­dom Of Religion

Let’s apply this from the micro to the macro world. Amer­ica was built on the idea of free­dom, the idea that peo­ple have the free­dom to choose what they want to do, and what to think. The world that the evan­gel­i­cal right wants to cre­ate is a world where peo­ple have the free­dom to not smoke, not drink alco­hol, not have vis­i­tors, not choose when they want to sleep and when to sleep. That’s the prob­lem I have with the evan­gel­i­cal right and a lot of other move­ments who want their beliefs to be enforced on other peo­ple. What peo­ple should be doing is allow­ing peo­ple to have the free­dom to chose what they do and don’t want to do. Not every­one believes the same as they do. Even the major­ity of Chris­tians don’t believe in the same rules that the evan­gel­i­cal right do.

Amer­ica is free­dom, that apart­ment and the eveng­i­cal right is the exact oppo­site of freedom.

Flickr photo cur­tosey of: Clemente