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Miscellaneous thoughts and ramblings
Monday, July 25, 2005
 
Demonization of the religious left?
Michael Lerner of Tikkun Magazine had a pow-wow with like-minded religious leftists, in which he reportedly said that the "religious right" has correctly identified a "spiritual crisis" in America. But of course the right is building its spiritual community on the backs of the downtrodden:

Republicans and their allies on the religious right have “done a good job” of articulating that crisis, Lerner said, but their analysis is “fundamentally flawed” because it’s based on demonizing “feminists, gays, liberals, African Americans.”
Okay, agree or disagree, I can understand where he'd get the first three demonizations: those who say that women shouldn't be priests or rabbis, gays shouldn't be married, liberals are more concered with themselves than with God, etc. But African Americans? What in any mainstream movement could be construed by any stretch of the imagination as demonizing black people?

Unless by "religious right" he means muslims who murder their black brothers by the hundreds of thousands. But, wait, those people are Africans, but not Americans. Maybe he just got carried away with avoiding the word "black."

By the way, Mike, good for you for trying to inject some religious spirit into politics. But remember, when it comes to issues you mention such as abortion and gay marriage, you're gonna have to get your buddies to come up with a better argument than "religion doesn't belong in politics."
Comments:
But remember, when it comes to issues you mention such as abortion and gay marriage, you're gonna have to get your buddies to come up with a better argument than "religion doesn't belong in politics."

Why?
 
Well, if you want to say that religion informs your position on issue A (say, poverty), then how can you tell another person that religion shouldn't enter into his position on issue B (say, abortion).
Of course, that doesn't mean that there isn't a better argument than "religion doesn't belong in politics," or that just because religion informs one's positions that it makes those positions de facto correct, or successful.

I'm just talking sheer logic, here.
 
Religion can influence your decision making, but ultimately the decision should come down based upon the laws established by the gov't and not 'G-d."
 
Jack - I think what we have here is two different issues. You are making a point about religion's role in politics. I am making a point about hypocrisy in determining which people, or which issues, are fair game for the religion card.

That is, if I say that the government should help the poor because the bible says so, I can't fault you for bringing religion into politics for saying that the government shouldn't allow gays to marry because the bible says so.

I can disagree with your reading of the bible. I might even agree but say other factors are more important in the decision. But once I bring religion into politics, I can't fault someone else someone else for bringing religion into politics.

That's all I'm sayin'.
 
Gotcha.
 
God wants me to carpet-bomb Damascus. He told me so. I just don't have a bomber.

Then Paris.
 
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