I’m not one for jumping on bandwagons, mainly because its really hard to perform well when all your instruments are moving and shaking all around the place. However an Open Letter seems to be what all the cool kids are doing to get famous and shit, so I decided to write to Mr Jack Bloom, DA Leader in the Gauteng Legislature.
This letter is in reply to Mr Bloom’s opinion piece on Politicsweb on the 9th of January- a piece entitled “Do we need More Prayer and Less Politics”
It may seem trite to only comment on this piece now, but I only read it yesterday so fuck off. Here is the original article: http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71639?oid=274214&sn=Detail&pid=71639
Dear Mr Bloom
I read with interest your opinion that some of the greatest societal ills have in the past been solved through prayer. You mention two “Great Awakenings” or “spiritual revolutions” and claim that because more and more people were going to church, that this created a moral fibre which in turn led to a reduction in crime etc. You also make the claims that:
“The first was a wave of religious enthusiasm that swept the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s.
It played a key role in the development of democratic concepts that led to the American Revolution.
Later religious waves spurred the abolitionist movement against slavery.”
You go on to say that: “The intense focus on individual moral self-improvement was highly beneficial in curbing social ills like crime and drunkenness.
A similar phenomenon took place in Victorian England. Benjamin Franklin said in 1766 that “There is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken and insolent.”
This was changed through religious revivals, an array of self-improvement and mutual aid societies, and a focus on family and individual responsibility.”
You then go on to mention various religious and political leaders who all claim to have had some Divine Responsibility to perform their tasks morally and magnanimously. My favourite quote is this one, where you clearly tack your colours to the mast: “In South Africa I am convinced that the transition from Apartheid that defied sceptics was facilitated by a largely shared Christianity.”
To me, Mr Bloom, this demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between Causality and Correlation. Don’t beat yourself up though, its a common mistake. You see Mr Bloom, correlation does not always equal causation. Because 70% of car accidents involve sober drivers, not drinking does not cause accidents. If I eat a banana and become violently ill, it’s not that bananas are disease vectors.
To put it simply Mr Bloom, because there was an improvement in people’s lives during these times, which happened to take place at the same time as a religious upsurgence, does not mean that religion (Or Christianity – which appears to be the horse you’re backing) is the cause of any improvement whatsoever.
The American Revolution, one of your examples, is a case in point. The Founding Fathers were certain that they wanted to separate Church and State, and in fact many of them were closet agnostics and atheists. With an overriding mandate to ensure that religion would not cloud their way of governing themselves I would be interested to hear where you came up with the fact that Christian principles guided their hands.
During SA’s transition from the Apartheid regime to our current Democratic government, hundreds- if not thousands – of dedicated people from all races, religions and sexual orientations worked extremely hard TOGETHER to make sure that we did not slip into the mires of a bloody civil war. People, Mr Bloom- not your adopted Christian sky-daddy. To take away from the toil these people put in to make sure you and I are where we are today is not only shameful, but stupid.
If there is one reason that we have made progress since the transition, it is because of the hard work of the few honest and dedicated civil servants left in our governmental structure- God has nothing to do with it, and never will.
In recent times, God has been invoked variously by Jacob Zuma, the ANC as a whole, the Youth League, the IFP, the ACDP, the miners at Marikana, suicide bombers, homicidally disturbed murderers and Oscar Pistorious. Think of that what you will.
In closing Mr Bloom, you tread on very dangerous ground calling for “More prayer and less politics” – you make the normal theist assumption that everyone thinks and believes the same way as you, and fail to take into account those who do not fit in with your paradigm. South Africa is a secular state, and may it remain that way forever.
We don’t need more prayer Jack, we need more people to take their heads out of their assholes and do the job they are elected to do. Finish and klaar.
Ninjapete
Revolutionary Throwback 