FREEDOM BEING ERODED BY MORALISTS (3-2003)

America is the “land of the free,” or so the song says. But 
let us not kid ourselves; freedom is being eroded in this 
country by self-righteous moralists who would like nothing 
better than to make everything illegal unless it is 
sanctioned by them.

The right-wing zealots are the ones that freedom-loving 
Americans and freethinkers should fear. For it is they who 
will rob everyone else of the freedom to practice their own 
beliefs in an unfettered manner. It is they who will 
restrict others from taking part in practices that many do 
not consider to be immoral, but which the right-wing 
zealots condemn.

The ultra-conservatives tell us that this country is going 
to Hell because of the erosion of our national moral fiber. 
They predict doom and gloom for this country as America 
heads farther and farther away from God and Christianity. 
They relish the chance to inform us at every turn that, 
“This country was founded upon Christianity.” 

Nothing could be further from the truth. It was founded on 
religious tolerance and freedom. The Almighty is not 
mentioned anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. It is the only 
early American document that omits any reference to a 
deity. Many of the framers of the Constitution were not 
Christians at all, contrary to what the right-wing zealots 
would like us to believe.

But despite their dire warnings of moral decline, it is the 
religious moralists who are gaining ground in the 
government. It is they who, just last week, passed the bill 
in the U.S. House of Representatives that would not only 
ban cloning for the purpose of human reproduction but would 
ban cloning for medical research. It would even ban the 
importation of any product that was produced as a result of 
embryonic stem cell research in other countries.

Embryonic stem cells offer one of the best hopes yet that 
cures will one day be found for a myriad of chronic 
illnesses, including diabetes. But that matters not to the 
moralists. One must not destroy a human embryo, even one 
whose purpose is not for reproduction. The right-wing 
zealots have determined that doing so would be immoral, so 
they proceed to prevent everyone from partaking of the 
possible benefits, even those who disagree about the 
morality of using embryonic stem cells.

Morality is not black and white. Reasonable and intelligent 
people can and often do disagree on what is moral and what 
is not. That’s why we have different brands of religions. 

To many Catholics, killing unwanted sperm cells with a 
contraceptive is immoral. To most Baptists, contraception 
is not immoral. To most far-right Republicans, using 
embryos to harvest stem cells is immoral. To most 
Democrats, hampering medical research by passing a law 
prohibiting embryonic stem cell research is immoral. 
Unfortunately, the right-wingers are the ones who are in 
power at the moment, so they get to choose what is moral 
and good for this country.

Along another front, right-wing zealots have infiltrated 
local and state school boards across the country. They have 
found ways to ease their pseudoscience of Creationism into 
the public school classroom to make it look more 
legitimate. Ohio was the most recent state to succumb to 
their thinly-veiled attempts at introducing God into the 
science curriculum.

And let’s not forget all those attempts by the right-wing 
zealots to censor the Internet. Their annual crusade in 
Congress to restrict the flow of certain types of digital 
art on the Internet because they claim it is tantamount to 
child pornography has yet to be upheld in court. But as 
judges become more conservative, having been placed in 
their positions by the current administration, their 
rulings may eventually reflect the right-wing agenda.

From school boards to medical research labs, and from the 
halls of Congress to the courts, right-wing moralists are 
having their way in this country. The measures they take 
are sometimes nothing short of draconian in their misguided 
attempts to make us all live up to their perceptions of 
what is moral.

The pendulum may eventually swing the other way, but as 
pendulums sometimes do, it may swing too far to the left (I 
can imagine rampant affirmative action and even ethnic 
quotas making a comeback). 

It’s too bad we can’t stop the pendulum altogether and let 
it come to rest on middle ground, where nothing is too 
extreme and everyone is free to participate in his own 
perception of morality, as long as one person’s rights do 
not encroach upon anyone else’s rights. Only then will we 
have a less contentious and ultimately more rational 
America.