How famous I am

Well, it seems that Tom Ireland gave not only one, but two links to my blog, from this blog entry. And he said very nice things about this blog entry of mine too:

"You'll probably wish that you wrote this. I wish that Nadine would admit to receiving it and many emails like it.)"

So there you go: I now embody the aspirations of a generation who are fed up with fundies. Or maybe not. Probably it was a lucky shot. That said, I am flattered. I hope Nadine Dorries give me some kind of answer (so far I got none), but I suspect her mailbox is full of emails/letters from people like me. I might email her (very good) friend Andrea Williams eventually. i got that angry about it.

A letter to Mrs. Dorries

I decided to send an email to Nadine Dorries, as I have time to waste this morning and she says she reads every email she receives. Since she claims that she received so much support recently, I thought the email below would put a bit of variety in her life:

Dear Mrs Dorries,
I hesitated a lot before writing you this email, as since the airing of Dispatches: In God's Name you probably received your share of (well deserved) criticism for hanging around the crowd of Christian Fundamentalists, for being so close to them actually that you even got your policy on abortion dictated by them. That said, since you say in your "blog" (which by the way, if it was a real blog, should allow comments on it) that you read and answer personally all the emails you receive, I will take a chance and tel you directly what I think of what you are doing, which is, in effect, surrendering the authority you have as a member of Parliament to a bunch of loudmouth fanatics, which do not represent the people of this country. Mrs Dorries, watching the aforementioned documentary, I got very angry. Not because hardcore Christians were trying to force their view on the abortion issue. That was sad, but to be expected from them. And to be honest, I don't care much about the abortion debate. I think women should have the right to choose, but as any choice, it is a terrible burden. What got me angry was how easy it was for these hardcore Christians to get into Westminster and talk to you. What got me angry was not even to see that Andrea Williams was on such good terms with you that your relationship with her could be called a friendship. It was that she was dicatiting your views on abortion, and that when you spoke in the Parliament on abortion, you were in fact parroting her. You might tell me I'm wrong. Maybe it's just that you share the same faith as her (including her contempt for muslims? including her views on Creationism?), and you were just basing your policies to be dictated on your faith, which happen to be the same as one of your friends. In effect, the result was the same: you let your faith, your particular view of Christian faith, which is not shared by the majority of the people of this country, which is unverifiable in itself (as it is faith), dictate your behavior as an elected body. Then, on your "blog", you sheepishly defended yourself, using the faith argument again, saying that you were persecuted, unjustly accused of being a fundamentalist because you believe in God, because you pray, and since almost everybody you know (as if it is a proof of anything) believe in something, there is nothing wrong with that. You also said that your opposition to abortion came from your experience as a nurse. Is it because you are a nurse that Mrs. Williams gets your attention so much? Doesn't she collaborate so closely with you (or you with her) because of your profession? Of course not. It is because your position on abortion is in accordance with your (and her) faith. What we saw in Dispatches was an assault on abortion triggered by a radical Christian faith. The nurse argument is a cheap excuse. And trying to banalise the crowd you hang out with, trying to dismiss the repressive nature of their faith (which you seem to share) was nothing less than cowardly. You see, here lies the problem, here is the reason of my anger: Mrs. Williams has not been elected MP for Mid Bedfordshire. God has not been elected MP for Mid Bedfordshire. You have, Mrs. Dorries. The policies you defend will not influence Heaven (if it exists), it will not influence God (if he exists), it will influence this country. It will touch real people. What you believe in is unverifiable, the morals that your faith dictates is unverifiable. You cannot base your policies on your faith, Mrs. Dorries. You believe in God? Fine. Leave it at the door of the Parliament. Because as faith, any faith, is unverifiable, as faith cannot be proven, it is your duty as an elected member of the Parliament to keep your faith away from your judgment. You didn't do this. And when you got criticised for it, for hanging out with a bunch of fundamentalists (because that's what they are, Mrs Dorries), you hid in God's skirt, using your faith as a defence. A lot of people believe in something, Mrs Dorries, but have very different views of what this belief implies. In any case, you also have to defend also the freedom and well-being of those who do not believe, or believe differently than you. And trust me, there are many who believe differently than you, or than Mrs. Williams. They might not be among the people you know, but then you have yourself to blame for that. If you were attacked recently, it was because you were tacitly giving a political legitimacy to an unelected lobby. Because of the religious nature of this lobby, you were letting a particular faith dictate policies. That was irresponsible. You can defend your views, but you should do it with courage and intellectual honesty. In the recent controversy regarding your Christian friends, you show neither. Sincerely,

Fundamentalism as a cancer

I would not care that much about the current abortion debate. Frankly, it depresses me a bit. There are good, legitimate reasons to be against abortion. I am pro-choice, but I do have some serious reservations when abortion is taken as if it was a common contraceptive. This is not an entry about abortion, but it has been triggered by the current UK debate on abortion. Two days ago, I watched a documentary about the growing influence of fundamentalist Christians in the UK. As you know from my previous entry in French, this documentary made me angry, angry enough to compare Christianism (or to be fair), this particular, narrow-minded view of Christianism, as a cancer. Like a cancer, it devours the body it inhabits.

The last straw for me was not the incendiary comments of the believers themselves (all nations have their fair share of fanatics, and even in secular Québec we have a handful of Jesus freaks), but the influences some of them have. We saw Nadine Dorries, a tory MP, having her policies on abortion dictated by Andrea Williams, a proheminent Christian fundie. I insist, not merely influenced, dictated. Williams is not elected, mind you, she is just a lobbyist of a particular ideology. Not the most honourable one, but never mind. Why the Hell was an MP taking her cues from a lobbyist, especially that type? The next day, Mrs. Dorries denied she was a fundamentalist on her blog. Well, either she is one, either she is the puppet of fundies, which, in the end is the same. Either way, she is a coward.

Now, let me get this straight. Nadine Dorries has the right to believe in God. She has the right to pray. She has the right to be a strong, staunch Anglican. She has the right, even, to defend a particular view of Christianism, as rigid as she wishes. But as an elected member of Parliament, she has a duty to keep her Christian faith away when it is time to take political decisions. Because she was not elected as a Christian, because the decisions she takes, the policies she defends do not affect Heavens, but the cititzens of the UK, she has to do what she thinks is best for them, all of them, at the best of her knowledge. We don't know if God exists, we know even less of his intentions, therefore one cannot be dictated by a particular vision of God to act and speak as an elected body in a democracy. God was not elected an MP for mid-Bedfordshire neither was Mrs Williams! Nadine Dorries should leave her God, her faith at the door of the Parliament. She obviously didn't do this, she didn't even seem to care. She decided to betray her duty, she parroted her fundie friends in Parliament (of all places!) and then jumped and covered when things got too heated, hiding (again!) behind her faith. There's two reasons to be angry, right there. Thank God (bad pun I know), the blogosphere seems to have taken on her and are reacting to what is, in effect, a hijacking of democracy.

Anyway, that was my two cents on this...

Le christianisme est parfois un cancer

J'ai vu hier un reportage sur les fondamentalistes chrétiens en Grande Bretagne, qui m'a mis très en colère (j'ai sacré pendant une heure à l'écran). On y parlait beaucoup du débat sur l'avortement, et des relations incestueuses de certains lobbyistes chrétiens avec le pouvoir, notamment celles de la lobbyiste Andrea Williams avec la députée conservatrice Nadine Dorries. Mali Ilse Paquin parle du débat sur l'avortement sur son blogue, et de la sinistre Nadine Dorries. Je pèse mes mots, cette femme est l'exemple parfait de la politicienne pute qui écoute plus les groupes de pression que ses concitoyens. Williams lui avait carrément donné un projet de loi rédigé, à lire en chambre. Exécrable. Elle nie également être fondamentaliste, sans trop se questionner sur le fait qu'elle se laissait allègrement dicter sa conduite par des fondamentalistes. Elle a donc non seulement le sens éthique élastique, non seulement elle abandonne son jugement, mais elle fait également preuve de lâcheté. Il faut aussi être conséquent avec ses convictions. En fait, je me suis senti obligé de réagir sur le blogue de Mali Ilse Paquin (je vous laisse deviner quel est mon pseudo et quel est mon commentaire) et je suis très tenté de dire ma façon de penser à la députée directement. Enfin, à en juger par les réactions de la blogosphère (un exemple ici), Dorries ne l'emportera pas au Paradis. Dieu merci, je suis agnostique.

On retrouve le documentaire sur youtube, je vais peut-être le mettre ici. Ca fait froid dans le dos.
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I might translate/rewrite this entry in English. Yesterday's Dispatches made me react like I haven't in years. I was literally boiling of anger.