• SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    But I'm not talking about interpreting texts... just religious beliefs. We don't need to argue about someone's religious text to know that the transphobic belief that they support through, say, the Genesis narrative is both religious and part of oppression. It's the kind of thing that would come up when supporting bathroom bills or stripping funding that supports trans kids.

    I have to wonder how some of the folks here reconcile, for example, these two things:

    • Trans rights are human rights, we love our trans comrades.

    • We shouldn't reject transphobic religious beliefs.

    I know you aren't saying exactly the latter, but folks seem to think that it's something they need to argue about. Some religious beliefs and the need for liberation are incompatible and we must support liberation. And then, when this ideal cannot be reached due to factors outside of our control, we must consider compromises, as all socialists do. The socialist candidate in Peru has some regressive beliefs and I'm sure many would be considered religious. I think most of us can give critical support anyways, since we think that having a problematic comrade will help a lot of people and that new harms are likely to be small. Though there's plenty of healthy discussion to have around such topics.

    Alternatively, just consider the other side of the implied dichotomy: "we should not reject any religious beliefs". I don't think people are usually explicitly subscribing to this, but it's the implication behind taking issue with the qualified statement of "we must reject some religious beliefs".

    This would be completely untenable even in theory, because the gamut of religious beliefs are frequently mutually exclusive and have real material impacts, even on the class struggle. You will have a negative position on some religious beliefs if you are socialist. e.g., prosperity gospel. Add liberation movements to the struggle, as this community certainly does, and the number of rejections will only increase.

    • MiraculousMM [he/him, any]
      hexagon
      M
      ·
      4 years ago

      We shouldn’t reject transphobic religious beliefs.

      I certainly didn't intend to send this message. Reactionary beliefs should 1000% be rejected.

      The point of the meme is that religious comrades are being rejected, ie. people who actually believe in liberation for all and want to work towards building socialism. The evangelical chuds can fuck all the way off.

      • SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Oh absolutely OP! My first comment was 100% on board with your post and so are these. These replies down here are just to people who seem to think that opposing some religious positions (regressive/oppressive ones) is problematic.

        Love my religious comrades.

        • MiraculousMM [he/him, any]
          hexagon
          M
          ·
          4 years ago

          Hell yeah comrade :sankara-salute: :heart-sickle: I just wanted to clarify because other posters itt seem to think I was implying "accept bigots cuz religion". Transphobes, homophobes and all variety of garbage reactionaries can eat my fat shits.

    • sam5673 [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I don't think Christianity actually has anything to say about transgender people explicitly, I would not be surprised if there was a lot of "I'm uncomfortable with it so shall project that belief as religious doctrine". Prosperity gospel also has very little behind it and rather than being a mainstream belief has a very small group of looked down upon practitioners.

      • SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        "God created two genders: man and woman. It's right in Genesis."

        Have you ever argued with a Christian transphobe?

        • sam5673 [none/use name]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Don't transgender people transition from male to female or vice versa. That says nothing about that

          • SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Trans includes non-binary and these sorts of bigots consider gender to be a hard set-in-stone-from-birth dichotomy.

            I don't really want to give more examples because then I'd need to add a CW.