Organized Religion Isn't The Problem

One of the things that pisses me off as a liberal progressive Christian is hearing atheists and agnostic people on the left gleefully bashing religion.  It occurs every time some negativity makes the news concerning one of the world's religious faith traditions not living up to the lofty goals and ideals of it.  

Yes, they deserve to be called out on it when the fail to live up to the tenets of those faith traditions and it bugs me what so called Christians do in the name of my faith. 

But organized religion isn't the problem. It's the fundamentalist 'my way or your going to hell in the express lane' extremist strains of it that is the problem.

I'm more than a little sick of atheists, especially those on the liberal-progressive political side knee jerk bashing religion. You're failing to take into account that it's because of people like Dr King fortified by their religious faiths they have the human rights coverage they do today.
To give a knee jerk blanket condemnation of religion is disrespecting the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and countless other men and women of good will and various religious traditions who were motivated by the positive tenets and commandments of their respective faiths to do good for humanity and advance human rights.

And remember, some of these people not only gave their lives, but withstood beating, jail time and and hardships to do so based on their unshakeable beliefs that all humans are created equal.

It's not a smart political play to cede religion to our right wing opponents and make it easier for them to cast liberal progressive values as 'anti-religious', 'evil', and claim in their propaganda outlets that we have 'declared war on their faiths'.   All we are doing is pointing out their hypocrisy and demanding they live up to the values they claim to represent instead of using religion as a means to political power and justify greed is good Ayn Rand style laissez fair capitalism. 

Your over the top remarks bashing faith because of you personal issues with it makes their propaganda plausibly true to the unwashed Fox Noise watching masses and the persuadable folks in the middle.  

So I repeat, organized religion ain't the problem.   Focus your anger on the folks misrepresenting religion to pimp conservative policies and not your liberal progressive allies who are motivated by the tenets of their respective faiths to also work for the successful enactment of liberal progressive policies that benefit us all.