Some of them actually mistake political philosophy for the underpinning of moral philosophy and not the other way around. That these topics are discussed frequently today in a political context means they might be approached as if politics is the foundation of all else, so of course these two sins are somewhat overemphasized by evangelicals in reaction to culture. Conservative/Republican (of the contemporary kind, for conservatism shifts as traditions do) ideology is also inconsistent when it comes to the scope of its moral tenets: conservatism is supposed to entail that people stand against evil resolutely and without compromise in a shifting world, the supposed basis for rejecting anything associated with liberalism, yet conservatives often advance a very selective and utilitarian moral framework. To allegedly keep laws against abortion, for instance, they will tolerate or even encourage a great deal of errors and immorality from their own candidates and policies. A Democrat with some of the same seeming history and allegations as Trump would probably be regarded a terrible person by the same people who practically worshipped him.
Now, abortion is opposed by typical conservatives on the basis that it is (in most cases [1]) murder for the sake of convenience, the only difference being the size, location, and developmental stage of the victim and the means of death. This much is valid. If morality exists and all humans have rights, and if all killing is illicit outside of contexts like self-defense or justice, then yes, it is by necessity true that abortion at large (other than cases of genuine danger to the mother's life) is murder. This does not mean that murder is the ultimate immorality or that opposing it even by supporting or tolerating other evil is valid. Conservatives have become more open and unified about denying these truths. Unsurprisingly, they do the same with their philosophical approach to homosexuality. As long as a public figure denounces homosexual activities, even if they go beyond this by misrepresenting homosexuality (examples are given below), they will likely have conservative support at present time no matter what else they believe or do.
With opposition to homosexual expression, it is both, once again, an exaggeration of homosexuality as one of the worst Biblical sins of all or disgust with something that is different (homosexuality as opposed to heterosexuality) that many conservatives are driven by. They often neglect how homosexuality, as in the state of experiencing homosexual feelings or desires, is not the same as sexual deeds between two persons of the same gender. They might assume that homosexuality has some inherent link to pedophilic activity. There is also the rather blatant, malicious hypocrisy of how conservatives might laugh at or endorsed homosexual rape in prisons, at least when it happens to men (with an added layer of extreme misandrist sexism). Rape of men by women is usually ignored, scoffed at, or denied altogether as even a logical possibility when it very clearly is possible. Rape of women by men is all but expected by many conservatives, who think of this as normal and blame the woman's clothing, her real or alleged beauty, or an egregious misrepresentation of male sexuality. They are generally terrible at coming to truths about sexuality and assault as a whole.
Deceptive campaign promises, conspiracy theories, rampant greed, racism, and sexism, among other things, might not be as bad as rape, but these are things conservatives have not only trivialized, but have also become more eagerly associated with very overtly in more recent years for the supposed sake of a few specific issues. 2020 unleashed a tidal wave of unverifiable conspiracy theories about COVID-19's origins, the alleged deep state, Hunter Biden's laptop, the presidential election, and so on. Next came assumptions about the vaccine, with some calling it the mark of the beast of all things. I myself had to listen to supportive comments about these things from plenty of family members fairly often when I was around them during 2020 and 2021! Failing to look past words and people to reason and concepts, conservatives tend to support political figures at almost any cost as long as there is superficial, verbal hostility towards abortion and homosexual behavior. Utilitarianism, hypocrisy, emotionalism (they often believe things are immoral because of conscience), and general irrationalism are the heart of evangelical conservatism.
No comments:
Post a Comment