Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Scratch a Progressive

Since I spend a lot of time and effort demonizing the religious right, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the left has its share of religious wingnuts too. I'm always amazed at the number of people claiming to be secular progressives who readily admit to believing in reincarnation, astrology, the healing and spiritual power of crystals, the cosmic consciousness of Nirvana and an endless list of other clap trap. They are a burden the left must apparently bear. These people are all nuts.

If anything good can be said of them, it is that their beliefs are diverse and they pose little collective threat to the peace and freedom of the rest of us. That doesn't make them any less crazy.

3 comments:

wcv said...

Disagree.

It's not whether you're religious or not. It's whether you want to use government to impose your views on others.

I know plenty of Christians who don't want to impose their views on others. Leftists by definition want to impose their views on others.

Buck said...

That's a bit jumbled. It isn't leftists vs Christians - I know plenty of left leaning Christians. It's leftists vs rightists, and both of those political movements by definition seek to influence the government and (as you put it) impose their views on others.

Regarding Christianity, Christ Himself told us in Mark 16 to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The next verse explains why: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

That's a direct call by Jesus to convert people to Christianity - to impose their views on others.

reddog said...

It seems to me that individuals, at least in this country are more free from religious influence on their lives than at any time in the past.

I think that is a good thing and that we should be moving even farther in that direction.

Not everyone believes this is a good thing. Some believe that secular forces now threaten individual freedoms the way religion once did. If that's true and in some ways I think it is, they should be fought against as well.