The Ana Commandment
One of the most inspiring things I’ve seen in the past few years is Ana Kasparian’s “rant” about far-right religious people trying to dictate to the rest of us how to live our lives.
The most obvious example of this recently is states outlawing or very strictly restricting abortion following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. There are different ways to define “ban” or “restrict”, but this map gives a general idea of the sad state of affairs in the US, with tens of millions of women now unable to access what the UN recognizes as a fundamental human right: access to abortion
I don’t know why, but one of the first things I thought of when the new OS for the iPhone came out — which brought the ability to customize your lockscreen for the first time to the iPhone, and have several different lockscreens you can easily switch between — was finding a way to put the “Ana Commandment” on my phone.
If you’ve been living in a cave or haven’t been watching TYT (which is the modern equivalent of living in a cave, isn’t it? lol), here’s a clip of Ana’s viral commentary which got millions of views on TikTok explaining why religion shouldn’t be able to dictate to her or anyone else what they can do with their bodies or in their personal lives. TYT has started calling it “The Ana Commandment,” and a quote from it is now included on some of their merch.
Here’s what I came up with, using a screen grab from the Ana Commandment T-shirt from shoptyt.com. I posted it on Instagram (which I almost never do) and on Twitter, and the response has been pretty positive. I mostly used some preset settings in terms of colors and fonts, but did play with it some to get it to look like this. I thought it was pretty good, and it’s gotten dozens of likes between Twitter and Instagram (including from Ana herself!).
I had a few people ask how I did it, and believe me — I don’t know anything about graphic design, so if I can do it anyone can with whatever picture, background, or even emojis you like. Here’s one site that explains how.
I work as a public employee, so I’m not supposed to be openly political during work. So being able to easily switch between lockscreens allows the perfect opportunity to have a “work” lockscreen, but other ones for things I do during my personal time (I have one for exercising, one where only alerts from my wife can get through, etc.).
Now when I’m watching TYT, or volunteering for TYT Army, or just feel like it, I can switch my phone over to this as inspiration that it is possible to get progressive messages out there in spite of the mainstream media ignoring or attacking those who are fighting for basic human rights, like the right to healthcare, the right to clean food and water for all, the right to control one’s own body — which should be a no-brainer, especially for “keep your government hands off my medicare” crowd.
“I don’t care if you’re Christian. In fact, I will fight for you to have your religious liberty and practice your Christianity. […]
I don’t believe in Christianity, which means that you do not get to dictate the way I live my life based on your religion. I don’t care what the Bible says. You have every right in the world; all those women who identify with your religion have every right in the world to not get an abortion, to not take birth control. But they do not have the right to dictate my life and what I decide to do with my body.”
As an atheist who was formerly a Christian for 20+ years, I wish I had heard this a long time ago. It’s great that it’s resonating with people, and hopefully now that Roe is overturned, people are waking up to the fact that religion as a personal choice is okay, but not as a matter of public policy. It leads to excluding other faiths and those with no religion, and discriminating or persecuting those who disagree with you. If you want to be religious, have at it — just keep it the hell out of our government and other people’s lives.
