Ted Haggart and The Problems With Religious Compulsion
With the daily scandals plaguing the newspapers, Malaysians already have much to be occupied at their evening teh-tarik sessions. And so was I, until my eyes fell on the story of Ted Haggart, president of the very influential National Association of Evangelicals of the United States, who was accused by a male sex prostitute for having paid sex with him and buying meth for Haggart’s consumption. Haggart was famous for his objections against same sex marriages and was against the teaching of the science curriculum in schools. While at the outset denying these accusations, Ted later admitted to buying meth and paying for the services of a massage from the male prostitute.
I would have filed this story away in the mental cabinet of “Interesting but Queer” (no pun intended), had it not been for the fact that it was less then two weeks ago that I had saw the controversial documentary The Root of All Evil? (Part 1 and Part 2 are available on Google Video) where Richard Dawkins, a famous biologiest and anti-Creationist, took Haggart to task for his position on evolution.
Haggart’s response was characteriscally ugly; he first attempted to charm Dawkins but upon failing, he chased Dawkins and the video crew from the property whilst objecting to Dawkins calling all his children animals. Since all of this was videotaped and at no point did Dawkins ever call the Evangelicals animals, the viewer would not be faulted into thinking that some of the meth had indeed mushed up Haggart’s mental faculties. Dawkins did clarify that upon hindsight, it occured to them that Haggart thought that evolution implied that the Evangelicals were in fact animals, a thought process that reaches its intended conclusion but misses the crux of the argument all together.
How does this affect Malaysians? We should realize that, in Malaysia as in the United States, there is a strong religious movement that seeks to replace the modern and equitable values of democracy and civil liberties with strong religious overtones. Elected and appointed officials as well as religious leaders seek to impose their morality on the citizens of this country. The problem is, as the preceding two paragraphs have shown, that this imposed morality has an exceedingly weak foundation and more often then not, affects the civil liberties and rights of all citizens in a strikingly negative manner.
There is much evidence to back this argument. Consider the recent raid of the Islamic Affairs Department of Kedah on non-Muslims in Langkawi. Consider the call by a senior member of a leading insurance company in Malaysia to all Muslims asking them not to greet their fellow Hindu Malaysians during the festive period of Deepavali. Consider the problems with the senseless destruction of temples and the restrictions on the construction of holy buildings in this country. Consider that all opportunity for constructive debate is lost by the calls of religious bodies in the country to censor movies that they feel offend their sensibilities. These are several issues that strike me immediately but Malaysians have certainly been exposed to far more in the past.
The problem is not with religion and I must be clear on that point (yes, I part ways with Dawkins on this point). Religion offers strength to those who seek it; it builds an ethical fabric for the character of many individuals, it provides an equitable worldview for these people and allows for the functioning of social groups that do much good for their fellow man.
Yet, religion is inherently subjective and any form of compulsion is extremely repulsive to the citizens of a country. It is upon this basis that we must reject any aim of building a civil society in Malaysia that is structured upon the religious values of any single religion, religious leader or religious party. Instead, our aim should be towards bringing back a society that allows the freedom to worship and express beliefs with no compulsion. Malaysia was built on this foundation in our early years as a secular nation; current events have curtailed our oldest and most valued tradition and we must work towards curing the foundation if we are to have any confidence in a united and prosperous Malaysia.