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The Spectacle Blog
The point has been made by outstanding thinkers like Stephen Carter and Richard John Neuhaus that the New York-Washington, D.C. establishment eats up left wing religion and declares it delicious. Give a radical a cross and we have activists bravely “speaking truth to power” and “speaking prophetically.” Put the cross in the hands of a conservative and suddenly secularism is the better course and church and state must be rigorously separated lest theocracy loom every closer.
I tried to draw attention to this double standard in my new book The End of Secularism by talking about both history and current events which prove the point. Mollie Ziegler Hemingway provided an excellent example in her Houses of Worship column for the Wall Street Journal last Friday as she reminded readers about the way faith-based initiatives have been viewed in this administration and its predecessor.
Bush filled the faith-based initiatives office with a prominent Ivy League sociologist and then with a former lawyer for Mother Theresa. Obama has chosen a Pentecostal preacher in his twenties to head up the office. Barry Lynn of the Americans for the Separation of Church and State was an avid critic of the Bush office. His position today? He serves on the advisory council’s task force for the office. Strangely, his concerns about the interaction of religion and politics seem to have dissolved now that the presidency has changed hands.
As I read Ms. Hemingway’s cutting piece, I couldn’t help but think about the Swedish socialists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who were determined to destroy the tie between the nation’s church and state. Once they gained power, however, they had a change of heart. The church could prove useful under their enlightened leadership. I wonder if Barry Lynn feels the same way.
View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Hunter Baker
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/09/13/the-amazing-political-double-s
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Becky| 9.14.09 @ 8:08AM
Everyone finds religion in a foxhole.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.09 @ 8:52AM
important article.
but at the risk of being a nag about it, the collateral 'issue' is the brave new world of the 21st century-- this transcends private v. govt.
What does it matter who runs a technocracy? does it matter whether it is the Shah or an Imam?
I'm interested in separation of dystopia and 'civilization.'
Tim| 9.14.09 @ 9:34AM
[as he goes to hand Renault a bribe]
Jan Brandel: Captain Renault... may I?
Captain Renault: Oh no! Not here please! Come to my office tomorrow morning. We'll do everything businesslike.
Jan Brandel: We'll be there at six!
Captain Renault: I'll be there at ten.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.09 @ 11:34AM
does it matter if a dystopia is strongly influenced by a Billy Graham;
or at the other end of the spectrum, a Noam Trotsky, er, that is, a Noam Chomsky?
Alan Brooks| 9.14.09 @ 11:37AM
... that is an open question, btw.
JP| 9.14.09 @ 12:18PM
"does it matter if a dystopia is strongly influenced by a Billy Graham;
or at the other end of the spectrum, a Noam Trotsky, er, that is, a Noam Chomsky? "
Alan,
Actually it does. On the surface the distinction may seem thin, but in practice it is huge. Does a voter place his vote based on, in Luther's terms, an informed relgious conscience? Or does he place the vote based on the idea that voting yes or no to some issue is the religously correct thing to do?
A religious person and an athieist may vote the same way but for different reasons. Both may have been abolishionists, but both believe that it is immoral to own another human. Both voters take thier morals from a shared Western Culture that orginated from religion, but sperated due to that other Western notion -freedom of conscience.
Beginning about 100 years or so ago, progressive moralists inverted the moral spectrum by equating divine providence with political action. When people speak about "social justice" they are whether they know it or not invoking the same inverted morality. Do we vote a certain way to be just?Or are we just be voting a certain way?
Fascism many people believe is simply the replacement of religous institutions by a centralized government. Government today isn't defined by its limits, but by what it can provide the people. Will the day come when the voters will look to the government for thier salvation?
Alan Brooks| 9.14.09 @ 2:54PM
no, JP,
techno-dystopia is a new dimension, one that couldn't exist before this century-- and it knows no partisanship.
Globalisation means it transcends all borders as well.
Nick| 9.14.09 @ 3:18PM
Mr. Baker,
I think it would have been more appropriate to have identified him as "the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus."
Barry Lynn| 9.14.09 @ 10:19PM
Feel free to call me next time you want me to answer a question. Then you won't have to "wonder"-- you could actually "report". Just a thought.
Nick| 9.15.09 @ 12:33AM
Hey Barry,
Apparently you can't comprehend sarcasm when you read it.
Basically, Mr. Baker is calling you a first-class hypocrite! Which most of us knew anyway.
coolpete| 12.9.09 @ 2:46PM
does it matter if a dystopia is strongly influenced by a Billy Graham;
or at the other end of the spectrum, a Noam Trotsky, er, that is, a Noam Chomsky?
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coolpete| 12.11.09 @ 12:07AM
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coolpete| 12.15.09 @ 3:09AM
Fascism many people believe is simply the replacement of religous institutions by a centralized government.
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The point has been made by outstanding thinkers like Stephen Carter and Richard John Neuhaus that the New York-Washington, wow thats amazing thanks
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