RESPECT FOR CULTURE (PART TWO)

Yesterday, the subject centered on the culture of Bali where the people live in peace and harmony under their Hindu beliefs based on the caste system. Is that a culture to be respected? For those of us that believe all men are created equal, it might be hard. Where is the religion that has not been based on discrimination? There are so many and each makes the claim it has the answer. Claims based on faith with little scientific evidence. Which religion never condoned slavery, or ever treated women as equals, and never resorted to violence to help their cause? How many of us have heard stories from native men of other countries telling us how happy their women are to be allowed to stay home and raise children free from the travails of the workaday world? Funny, when you read the works of women from those same countries about the oppressed condition of women with forced marriages, bride price, obsession with virginity, where the one who is raped is charged with having  dishonored the family, where brothers kill their sisters for dating the wrong person or failing to cover, it makes you wonder if there is a thing called truth. History reveals the true horror of the Crusades, but there are those that taught it as if they were the work of divine guidance. How many religious clerics have condoned slavery and still do? Even with the rise of secularism, the violence committed in its name is mind-bending. Yes, it can be hard to have respect for many cultures let alone to have respect for any. Where is the country that is free of discrimination, discrimination condoned in the name of nationalism, patriotism, religious beliefs, party affiliation, race, gender, ethnicity, wealth, citizenship, etc.? Here in America, we have a history filled with dark episodes of our own: slave holding fore fathers, civil war, the Ku Klux Klan and its shadow, Jim Crow, long time denial of voting rights to women, Native Americans, Latinos, Asians and blacks, plus long periods ofeconomic depressions. All of which makes Respect for Cultures seem akin to revering the “status quo.” Better that we work to elect candidates who revere laws free of discrimination and “scratch your back” politics.