by Zach Bigalke

Created on: May 28, 2007   Last Updated: January 19, 2009

The raging debate about same-sex marriages continues to linger across the broad spectrum of thought in the United States. But the brokers of power and influence in our nation consistently stoop our country to pseudo-secular levels which impose sectarian rule no better than that of our sworn enemies, the Taliban. In 2000, I was at a forensics tournament at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. In an extemporaneous speaking round (I believe it was round two of four in the preliminaries), I was issued a topic about the American government's relation with the Taliban. Indian Airlines Flight 814 had been hijacked on Christmas Eve 1999 en route between Kathmandu, Nepal and Delhi, India. Eventually talked down to land in Taliban-controlled Kandahar, it was the internationally-condemned Taliban government which ultimately gained the freedom of the 188 hostages in exchange for the release of three Muslim extremists.

The Taliban is now known in the United States as perhaps the most-repressive regime the United States has ever "toppled". But it is acts such as this one, which propelled the fundamentalist group into temporary international acclaim, that keep the Taliban relevant among the local groups in southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. Oppressive of non-Muslims, women and anyone who would not blindly submit to the strictest adherence to Islamic law, the Taliban appeals both because of its challenge to Western ideals and because of its potential for both good and great evil. It appeals because has proven its ability to achieve the aims of its adherents while refusing to simply cater to Western interests.

This is the same formula used by the Christian right-wing politicos in this country to continue to impose conservative sectarian dogma as law upon the diverse population of the nation. In a pitched battle against the liberal, secular ideals of the builders of the federal framework, the Religious Right continually seeks to strip hard-won rights from American citizens on the basis of their conflict with Christian scripture. The current sentiments among many of our legislators, executives and judiciary toward restricting and reversing the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on legal abortion is disturbing - though a valid moral debate on mortality. The fight to display the Ten Commandments in federal and state buildings, the battle for abstinence-only education for our teenagers, the dilemma over evolution education, and the fight to allow prayer in schools are

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