Moderation may well be the devil’s plaything.
In a world full of examples of extremists gone too far, moderation often seems like the sensible, sophisticated alternative. Rarely does a moderate lifestyle lead to suicide bombings, disowning bicurious children, or any acts which cause rabid foaming at the mouth. It avoids both obesity and anorexia. It’s not an achiever, moderation, but gosh darn it, it lives a good and descent life the best it can, and in the end, it gets the job done.
Or so we like to think.
The issue of moderation came up during a discussion of religion. And let’s be clear - when I say ‘religion,’ I’m mostly talking about Christianity, because that seems to be the only religion I know enough to hate. As a proudly branded “atheist who may or may not still sort of believe in God” (yes, we exist, and we’re very, very confused people), I’ve come to regard religion as kind of a bad thing, akin to recreational narcotics. I wouldn’t fault any individual for finding comfort in their beliefs...it’s a crappy life and sometimes it's nice to think that there’s a maleficent super-powered deity in the sky. I get it. But the fact of the matter is...it’s made up. It’s a bunch of lies. It’s a system invented in order to subjugate citizens and keep them in line while creating unbalanced power structures which have led to countless abuses, most often of women and children, but also entire races and civilizations.
Many of these acts were committed by extremists...it’s true. But so, so many religious atrocities were committed by decent, likeable people - people like me.
Take missionaries, for example, or the residential school system. Had I existed a hundred or two hundred years ago, and through the power of hypotheticals magically retained my own quirks and interests, I wouldn’t be working with homeless Vancouverites in a psychosocially-founded mental health centre. I’d be working with heathen aborigines, or eskimos, or adorable little negro children, whom I would teach the story of Jonah and the Whale. Should they question the scientific merits of a story about a man living inside a whale for several days, I would beat them, and feel good about it, because if I didn’t beat them into submission and subservience, they would inevitably burn in Hell.
Missionaries, colonizers, the staff and directors of residential schools...they were good people, people drawn to social problems, people trying to correct injustices in the world. More importantly, they were moderates. And they committed terrible, terrible evils.
Many to most religious individuals are descent, caring people, too. They love their families and their communities, and they try and do the right thing. But in continuing to ascribe to their religious beliefs, they give power to religious organizations, most of whom are far more extremist than their moderate minions - organizations like the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict, who have no issue denying condoms to HIV positive women whilst picketing abortion clinics and transferring known pedophiles from one devastated parish to the next.
It seems the only people who claim atheism are those that have themselves been dicked around by the church...people who were indoctrinated by tongue-speaking fundamentalists and told that the devil was invading their thoughts. The extremist sects of religion are, in many ways, easier to rebel against, and extremist methods often force the hand and call the bluff of all Christianity. Were it not for experiences in extremist churches, myself and many friends would likely have remained happy, moderate Catholics and Unitarians our entire lives.
And tithing a church that believes in excommunicating members who speak out against pedophiles in their upper ranks, and sending my kids to Sunday school so that they can learn that about how God loves them but, goshdarnit, He will burn them in Hell for all of eternity where no one can hear their screams...I guess we’d be cool with that, too.
We ourselves would probably be happier, more moderate, more well adjusted people. But in doing so, we’d be hurting others, and living a lie. We’d be...wrong. We’d be parents whipping our kids with a willow switch, simply because that’s the way things are done.
So, extremists, for all of your tyranny, condemnation, and burning of crosses on the lawns of nice Jewish people...I thank you. Were it not for your despicable acts of violent extremism, I wouldn’t have learned to question what I was told. I would trust, blindly. You forced me to see.
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