In today’s news: an Afghani woman has the “choice” to marry her rapist or remain in jail.

What isn’t said is that this woman was living in a jail before she was raped: the jail of the religion of her culture.  The walls of this jail have entombed her, in cloth if not in clay, all her life.

We all know this is wrong.  Even her jailers know this is wrong, but they don’t care.  They have a religion but they don’t have morality.  You can’t enslave people and claim morality.

This is why morality trumps religion.  Any religion, all religions, justify their prejudices and passions, their sins against humanity, on the basis of divine (hence unquestionable) tenets.  Morality deals with right and wrong, as defined by that most basic and essential of rules, the Golden Rule.  Any practitioner of a religion who believes women should be subjugated to the oppressive rule of men, for any reason, is not following that most basic and essential rule and so is not a moral person.

If morality can trump one religion, it trumps them all.  Religion is the holiday glitter and window dressing and tantalizing promise that somehow manages to distract people from the best idea ever evolved, the Golden Rule.

A couple of months ago, I started to do an analysis of Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan and its impact on rich and poor Americans.  But it soon became more work than I thought it was worth, and I put it aside.  So thanks, Herman, for suspending your campaign — now I can do something more useful with my time.