Workers Solidarity Movement

It seems that DUP MLA Irish Robinson and sections of our local ruling class particular the Democratic Unionist Party have more in common with the Afghan Taliban or mad mullahs in Iran or Saudi Arabia than the British Army these days..... In her latest outburst during a heated debate on the rights to abortion with journalist Eamonn McCann on the popular Nolan Show Iris claimed, “Government has a responsibility to uphold God’s law morally...”

Apart from the fact that the bible and other religious texts such as the Koran is a half-cooked gibberish of fairy tales and riddled with inconsistencies where you can find a justification for everything from the stoning to death of women to slavery: such is God’s law.. Tell me Iris, where were you during the last 30 years and what God is she referring to as there are several from the God of Allah, to Judaism, Buddha and Christainity even Satan the free-thinker...?

We often hear from our political class and the media about the ‘decline of morality’ and thus the need for the church to impose manners and their moral code. I don’t think I need to remind readers of phase in which Government upheld God’s law and we don’t need to go far from the Madeline laundries or concentration camps in the south in which thousands of women were forced into harsh labour camps, sexual abuse and, when women had no access to contraception or when our parks where closed on a Sunday and the list goes on. The multi-national company called the Church (particular Catholicism) has served to justify and excuse repression, rape and plunder to every tyrant from the absolute divine right to rule by kings and Queens to the reign of Franco and Mussolini. I’m sure you get the picture.......

The truth is Iris and the religious zealots who harass pedestrians every day are clinging to a dying breed and the sooner we kick the priest and nuns out of our schools, hospitals etc the better. Recent trends suggest that society in the north is becoming increasingly more secular according to the recent Young Life and Times Survey in 2007 in which twice as many young people compared to 5 years ago claimed they did not belong to either of the main religious blocks in the North. Another survey, conducted for the Evangelical Alliance and Iona Institute in October 2007 based on 10 questions about the bible and church asking 1,018 people also supports this trend and even the perception that the North is more religious than the south! According to Stephen Cave of the Evangelical Alliance N.Ireland a group which Iris has much in common with, said, “The results threw serious doubt on the claim that we are a Christian country.”(Irish News, 10/12/2007, p3) If the religious zealots are saying this surely there must be some truth in the matter!

Whilst a firm believer in the freedom to religion and worship as a private matter as long as it does not infringe on the liberty of others. However, we must not be naive in thinking that our Churches and religious shrines will be turned over tomorrow and its riches and wealth being used for something constructive and useful such as social centres and to ease the burden on homelessness and access to affordable social housing or ignore the fact that apart from anything people still tend to cling onto religion as a ‘badge of identity’. Such a revolutionary transformation of society will first require building on common class interests, free, equal access to abortion on demand and full reproductive rights, complete separation of church and state and then we can move onto the issue of sending Iris Robinson and the Government to the claws of the Taliban where they can fight it out amongst themselves. Surely that would be a lasting testament to the bible.......

Written by someone who lost his faith along time ago......For this I sincerely apologise and for all those religious zealots out there I will not be asking for the priest on my death bed....

"No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker” Michael Bakunin

Christianity (like religion in general) "contains nothing dangerous to the regime of authority and wealth; it stands for self-denial and self-abnegation, for penance and regret, and is absolutely inert in the face of every [in]dignity, every outrage imposed upon mankind........ religion is the conspiracy of ignorance against reason, of darkness against light, of submission and slavery against independence and freedom; of the denial of strength and beauty, against the affirmation of the joy and glory of life." (Emma Goldman)

First published on Indymedia.ie