Quote:
Originally Posted by Lebell
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In this case, I consider the heart of the issue to not be the martyrdom complex exhibited by Christian fundamentalists, but the martyrdom complex exhibited in general by all far-from-the-center individuals. To me, that is where the proper line is drawn.
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Bingo, Lebell. This is a really productive way to look at the situation - the problem is not necessarily the leftness or rightness of the views themselves (more on that in a sec), but intolerance in whatever ideological guise.
I'm particularly dismayed (ashamed? disgusted?) by the folks on the far left who would ban
personal religious expression like prayer or simply having a Bible in a public school. They ought to know better, and that the irony of their actions is lost on them shows that they've simply become victims of their own ideological tunnel vision.
However, what continues to bother me about the public discourse is that often when well-meaning centrists try to thwart the attempts of the religious right to implement intolerant policies, or blatantly unconstitutional policies based on their particular religious convictions and interpretations, the RR cries "intolerance!" and pushes back even harder and in even more extreme ways (e.g., they didn't get their way with the Terri Schiavo case, so now they're taking aim at the judicial system, and attempting to eliminate fillibusters so they can install conservative Christian judges over the fairly reasonable objections of many Senators). So the left pushes back harder and in more extreme ways, which the RR takes as persecution, so they respond with what the left sees as attacks on fundamental democratic principles, etc. etc. etc., and what we get is the ideological equivalent of mutually assured destruction.
So how do we get out of this? How do we protect individual liberties and the fundamental SECULAR principles of our country, and at the same time protect the expression of religious zealots who would topple those individual liberties? (That's another key issue - I think most people would prefer a pluralistic secular government, but the RR definitely wants this to be a Christian country - it seems like that's a fundamentally irreconcilable difference!)