This is a rant against the various religious establishments who, for whatever reason, have involved themselves in social engineering through adoption and who would deny women control over their own reproductive system. Right off the top of my head, I can name Catholic Charities, Lutheran Services, Bethany Christian Adoption Services and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (or, as I like to call it, Smith's Stooges). Just about every so-called "Crisis Pregnancy Center" you can find is church-related.
These self-righteous womb raiders are hand-in-glove with the Industry of Adoption, the NCFA,which is its lobbying arm, and other well-funded organizations such as the Evan B. Donaldson Institute. Together with their supporters in the various state legislatures and in the Federal Government, the religious right has become a force to be reckoned with, and one with their noses so deep in our government and laws that there is no way they should be tax-exempt.
They can, arrogantly, call church related adoption services a social outreach to those in need and the Goobers, Gomers, Buffys and Bimbettes buy that line of excrement. For the Industry at large, it is the bottom line and that is, at least, provable and identifiable. But the religious involvement in this heinous activity is more insidious. I believe, after much reading and visiting sites that turn my stomach, that it is social engineering of the self-righteous kind which constitutes the work of these sacred entities. What better way to increase the population of church-swayed voters? The LDS contingent already owns Utah and they are big on being fruitful, multiplying and womb-raiding.
This is nothing new. Surrender of the child of the unmarried mother to adoption as an avenue for redemption for her sin of "fornication" is old news that is being made new again. It really never went away. It just was under wraps for a while, ruminating. In Rickie Solinger's scholarly examination of the EMS, "Wake Up Little Susie; Single Pregnancy and Race Before Roe v Wade," we see that the powers that be in both the religious and psychology communities saw surrender as necessary punishment and treatment. In this manner, we miscreant mothers who "went and got OURSELVES pregnant," were both spiritually absolved of our sins and psychologically cured of our deviant natures. All it took was the sacrifice of our children to the adoption machine. Funny...I didn't feel either redeemed or cured of anything.
In the past 4 decades or so, our society has done an evolutionary cha-cha-cha. We went a step or two forward and, now, we are taking several steps back. The church that everyone sees as so benign (just as society views adoption) is quietly and efficiently becoming, again, the big, sexist bully of days gone by. Combine their aggression with the big business of the adoption Industry and you have one of the largest, most effective oxymorons functioning in the nation and abroad, today.
I have to wonder at the return to Paulism and this anti-woman disrespect for the most natural and sacred bond there is...that of natural mother and child. I have a dear friend that calls it "Woman's inhumanity to Woman" and she is pretty darn right on the mark. Christianity found its way into Roman society as a cult among the wives of the politicians of the Empire. I have to wonder at that since Saul/Paul, who claimed a vision on the road to Damascus and declared himself an apostle, seemed to really hate women and was definitely an adherent to the patriarchal customs of the Jews. In any event, you would think that, in 2000 years, we would have evolved spiritually and socially as well as technologically. It boggles my mind that we haven't.
In any event, we need to remind our elected officials that we are citizens who deserve the respect and representation that is, supposedly, a right of all Americans. I am writing letters, every day, to representatives, senators, and the print and Internet media, and I have yet to receive an answer that satisfies my questions. If the trend of the adoption Industry and the church holding hands and lobbying in our halls of government continues, unabated and unchallenged, we have more to worry about than just closed records.
We have to worry about a loss of our most basic, constitutional rights. It doesn't get any scarier than that. All it takes is for good people to continue to believe blindly and do nothing.
Religion needs to step away from our babies and our government.
10 comments:
Along those lines, here is an interesting retake on The Christmas Story written by an adult adoptee....... Its from exiled mothers. http://www.exiledmothers.com/speaking_out/christmas_story.htm
Clare
Absolutely right Robin. The imagery is ironic isn't it? I'm continually amazed at what people do to other people in the name of religion and god. I've also felt for a long time that they shouldn't have tax exempt status. Look at the riches of the Catholic Church and the meddling in gov. affairs. I'm very tired of hearing that we're a "Christian nation"
I am sick to death of the Christian men setting the standards for women's behavior. I am also sick to death of women preying upon other women. The most flagrant example of that I have seen recently was when Oprah declared the Indian women having babies for rich Western women a "new cottage industry" for the poor Indian lower castes! I was appalled that a woman, especially a black woman, would be so unaware of her own history that she would suggest it is okay for other women to use their bodies for money. It shocked me, until I realized that this is the thinking of America today...if they have the money, they deserve whatever they can afford. It has nothing to do with right or wrong, good or bad, righteousness or not. It has to do with if they can afford it, they must be righteous and they must be right, no matter what.
Business is not ethical, has no moral compass; it is just business, and the business of babies is the clearest example of that there is. There are times, especially in the arena of adoption, that I hold my head down in shame at the cruelty and the shameful practices employed.
Trying this again. This raises, the question, then, Sandy, of why an institution such as the church, a supposed bastion of morality is doing with its hands in the amoral adoption business up to its armpits?
There is big fat bucks in it, and for the "Prosperity Christianity" folks that is all it takes!
And perhaps a bit of social engineering by seeing that babies go to the "right kind of people?"
Funny...I don't feel either redeemed or cured of anything either. I do, however, feel lied to, used, manipulated, conned, dehumanized, demonized and degraded. Good going, the "Church" and all of your brainwashed sheep...just the effect you were looking for from beemommie, huh?
I was channel surfing Sunday morning and came across one of those mega-church programs. Lo and behold, an adoptive mommy was praising the lord for "knitting this perfect life that was meant for us in OUR birthmother's womb."
Instant gag reflex and back to surfing as quickly as possible.
But the real problem here is the broadcast of the standard adoption narrative. It never ends.
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