No Room for Christianity in the Religion of the Left
by Dennis Campbell (3/11/08)
Is the American Left religious? That depends on your definition of “religion,” and finding one that is universally agreed-upon is impossible.
For our purposes here, the one by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance ( http://religioustolerance.org/rel_defn.htm ) will suffice:
Religion is any specific system of belief about deity, often involving rituals, a code of ethics, a philosophy of life, and a worldview… Thus we would consider Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Native American Spirituality, Wicca, and other Neopagan traditions to be religions. We also include Agnosticism, Atheism, Humanism, Ethical Culture etc. as religions, because they also contain a “belief about deity.” Their belief is that they do not know whether a deity exists, or they have no knowledge of God, or they sincerely believe that God does not exist.
Accordingly, one must affirm that the Left is quite religious, to include secular humanism, which establishes mankind as the measure of all things and rejects a transcendent deity, global warming, political correctness and extreme environmentalism.
But, unlike Christianity, the religion of the Left also is quite lacking in tolerance (Christianity is exclusionary, based on the words of Jesus Christ, who proclaimed that “I am the truth, the way and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me”).
While Christians maintain that salvation is available to no one apart from Christ, they do not compel anyone to worship Him. In fact, unlike Islam, the darling of the left, Christianity involves a conversion of the heart wrought by God. Islam is and always has been a religion of violence, whereby conversion is compelled by the sword. Islam offers three choices: Conversion, which often is no real conversion but simply a mouthing of meaningless words; dhimmitude, in which one becomes a virtual slave subject to a variety of abuses ranging from excessive taxation and the confiscation of property to physical violence; or death.
Why the left is enamored of Islam – so violently opposed to the most-cherished of liberal constituencies, homosexuals, and legendary in its abuse of women – is a mystery. Some have said the Left sees Islam as the religion of the downtrodden and oppressed and so feels a kinship. In fact, Muslims are downtrodden and oppressed – by Islam.
What is significant about Leftist religions is that they invariably lead to some sort of tyranny, contrasted with Christianity, which was foundational to our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, birthing a nation that has enjoyed more liberty, prosperity and tolerance than any other. Such liberty and prosperity apparently are intolerable to the Left, which seeks to replace them with a socialist system antithetical to our traditional way of life.
The tyrannical ambitions of secular humanism are evident from statements in its Manifesto: “The humanists are firmly convinced that existing acquisitive and profit-motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate and that a radical change in methods, controls, and motives must be instituted,” and, “The purpose and program of humanism is to evaluate, transform, control, and direct all associations and institutions. The state is the means by which such is accomplished –however, whenever, wherever, and in whatever areas the state may choose.”
State control of individual behavior is evident in extreme environmentalism, global warming proponents and even political correctness, which does not hesitate to impose stringent restrictions on behavior and speech.
Of course, Islam, toward which the Left casts adoring and unseeing eyes, is the most tyrannical of all, managing virtually every aspect of human life, with the most brutal of consequences for those who violate its tenets.
What is interesting is that Christianity, the most tolerant of all these religions in that it imposes no state sanctions against those who reject it, is so reviled by the Left. While Christians are compelled by their beliefs to seek to convert non-Christians, they do so by persuasion and not by force. Their proselytizing makes some uncomfortable, but that is the point: The Gospel message is designed to make unbelievers uncomfortable. Contrary to political correctness, there is no right against being made to feel uncomfortable.
Christianity is attacked at nearly all levels of society, and the Left clearly wants it eradicated from public life, using the American Civil Liberties Union to do that. Yet, when Christianity is brought low in this country, all that will remain will be the tyranny of the religion of the Left in its myriad forms – which is a good thing, I suppose, if you are opposed to liberty, prosperity and tolerance.
Is that Thomas Jefferson I hear shouting “No!” from his eternal abode?
Dennis Campbell
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