This is a guest post from Publius Deux, and it's one the most thought-provoking, painfully objective analysis on the politics-religion stew I've seen in some time. I hope you agree.
Imagine a subculture where you find the following: Dancing is not permitted. Drinking is not permitted. Women are expected to be subservient to men and remain in the home with the children. Women cannot preach. Gay persons are condemned. Abortion is unthinkable. Premarital and extramarital sex bring great shame on members. Women must dress modestly. Any persons who do not belong to this subculture will suffer damnation. God’s law is binding on all persons, even those outside the subculture. Popular culture and modern social mores should be avoided as unclean.
Do you find yourself condemning these people as misogynistic, homophobic bigots? Do you find yourself mocking these narrow-minded rubes? Do you find yourself lamenting the repressed members of the community? Are you sympathetic to their purity? Are you welcoming of their diversity?
Did you imagine an Evangelical Baptist community? Did you imagine a Wahabi Muslim community? Did you imagine an Amish community?
Ask yourself those questions in the second paragraph in regard to each community.
The first paragraph accurately describes any one of these communities.
Where do your sympathies lie? Where do your antipathies lie?
Do you support an gallery’s decision to display a crucifix in a jar of piss as legitimate social commentary? Do you support Yale’s decision to censor and remove the Mohammad Cartoons from its library out of deference to Muslim sentiment?
Do you believe placing the 10 Commandments at a municipal airport is antithetical to the Separation of Church and State? Do you believe ritual foot-washing basins at a municipal airport are reasonable accommodations?
Is it unconstitutional to allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraceptives on Christian principles? Is it constitutional to allow cab drivers to refuse seeing-eye-dogs as passengers on Islamic principles?
Conservatives tend to demand accommodations that they would refuse other religious groups. Liberals tend to demand tolerance and respect in regard to some religions but not others. Conservatives tend to ignore the similarities with some religions. Liberals tend to be deaf regarding the inequalities of some religions.
Where do you find yourself a hypocrite in the culture wars?
3 comments:
I find myself leaning more to the right fiscally. some social issues bring me back to the middle to left. But I still cant help, no matter what you call it, preaching to keep the government out of my life. How and why does extra supervision help my family. How does more cops stop a burglar when I could have stopped him immediately instead of waiting for them to get there and possibly become a victim. More restraint equals more restraint. No matter how they twist it. For the record I was a democrat until I started seeing my paychecks and how hard I had to work for them. Upon realizing my hard earned money was being spent for me on people that dont work. Fiscal conservatism enlightened me.
As soon as 19 Amish crash planes into buildings and kill 3,000 Americans, then I will accept that we should think about them in the same way that we do fundamentalist Islam.
There is no question that the overwhelming majority of Muslims live peaceably with their neighbors. There is also no question that the overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks on Americans in the last ten years have been carried out by Muslims. Denying that reality is a mistake.
Anonymous:
Maybe you fail to remember Oklahoma City. As I recall the bomber a good christian boy who knew there was a daycare in the building. Maybe you forgot the good chrisitans who hung black people in the south as our government looked the other way.
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