What I want to know is, why some religious extremists oppose liberals who only want to make the world a better place? Instead, most religious factions seem to have has thrown in with the Republican Party, while bleeding heart liberal do-gooders seem to have picked the Democrats. There are exceptions, but without religious support, the Republicans would not have much chance of being elected.It should be possible for all thoughtful, caring people to just get along. After all, Christians believe in "Love your neighbour", and they do nice things for poor countries, like setting up orphanages, building schools and giving out medicines. I don't think they like war any more than other people do.
What are the basic differences in the religious extremist philosophy, and a liberal do-gooder philosophy?
A liberal do-gooder would believe that by using our intellect, we can improve the world, and not just by giving charity to individuals. For example, they believe we can eliminate poverty, sickness, racism, ignorance, crime, war, overpopulation and pollution. And they think they can achieve world wide democracy and human rights. Liberal do gooders do not worship money as their God, and are not racist or nationalists. But they still worship something, and what they worship is the idea of perfecting the world through human reason. In other words, they worship themselves.
The Christians who oppose liberal ideas are people who love God more than they love any living person. They believe God takes care of their needs in this life as well as the afterlife, and believe God performs personal miracles for them. Everything from winning a football game to getting a little extra cash for the monthly expenses. That, to me, is extremely religious. But not necessarily Republican.
One reason Christians oppose liberal do gooders might be because they have a suspicion that the liberals are insulting God's creation. Since God is smarter than us how can we improve on His creation?
Another reason Extremist Christians oppose liberals, is if liberals ever do make Earth a better place, they are undermining both the appeal of Heaven and the prediction of the second coming of Jesus. If Jesus comes soon (as he is supposed to), any work done to save the planet is a waste of effort anyway.
There is a third answer for the split between liberal do-gooders and fundamentalists. By merely thinking about how things work, liberals are going to be questioning religion. And sure enough, many liberals think that religion is partly to blame for many ills of the world!
Religious people do seem to oppose almost every attempt by liberals to make the world a better place. In most cases, these liberal works are seen as immoral. The prime example is Communism, where godless people decided to eliminate poverty and class divisions to make the world "perfect". What happened to Communism was that it became a nightmare and it ultimately was doomed. There will be the same fate for socialists and liberals, according to religious extremists.
There are other liberal initiatives, such as universal health care, which turn out to be against religion. Health care interferes with life, for example, abortion and euthanasia. Stem cell research is a sin. Even population control is a sin. The religious idea being that every life is precious to God and no mortal should interfere.
So no cooperation on getting rid of poverty, and no population control. What else are liberals doing that is opposed to fundamentalism? Apparently, eliminating ignorance and giving universal non-religious education is also sinful. Godless education resulted in the "Theory of Evolution", asserting that there is no difference between humans and chimps. Then public education teaches us that all religions are equal. Religious extremists oppose this kind of public education, although they support education if it is centred on their religious point of view. According to Christians, the sin of knowledge actually caused the original fall of man, when he bit into the fruit of the "tree of knowledge".
Now we come to the peace movement. You may think all Christians could support the liberal do gooders in the peace movement, with the many pro-peace teachings of Jesus. Well, the religious extremists are in favour of peace, but not if it involves appeasement of non-Christians. For example, they generally support Israel's claim to Palestinian land, because it is written that God promised it to them. And most peace activists call for Israel to withdraw from the illegal occupation without regard to God's intentions. It's international law (The UN) vs. God's Law. You can guess which one the do-gooders want. Religious extremists generally supported the wars in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, and in many cases referred to them as a holy war.
Another point about war, do Christians really love their enemies? Yes they do, but it is with the purpose of to converting them to Christianity. Christians can love the person while hating that person's ideas.
What else have we got to differ on? The liberal cause of global warming for example, is just another case of godless science. Assuming the scientists were already wrong on evolution, it is no big deal for the religious right to ignore them on climate change.
Homosexuality is a sin, but liberals don't believe in sin, so they are in favour of gayness. Here the split is between freedom to do what you want (liberal idealism) vs. obey God (religious ideas of evil)
Religious fundamentalists think that making the world a better place is really an insult to a God who made the world the way He intended it. The more liberals try to improve the world, it seems like the worse it gets, so we might as well accept that God alone is in charge. While liberal do-gooders want to make the world a better place, the main aim of a religious fundamentalist is is to gain as many souls for Jesus as possible before the end of times, and let God take care of making the world a better place through flood or Armageddon.
In my humble opinion much of the voting patterns, in both Canada and the U.S., can be explained by two primary factors. These help to explain why good 'Christians' often persist in voting for conservative politicians who act in an very 'un-Christian' manner. They also help to explain why so many people vote against their own interests
ReplyDelete1. 'The lesser of two evils' ... Although perhaps unhappy about some conservative policies, many Christians consider conservatives the lesser of two evils; especially when the voter has a very strong opinion on specific wedge issues such as abortion, gay rights, religious education, &c. This article sums this up perfectly.
2. Liberal waffling ... As the essence of liberalism is respect and tolerance for differences, and as liberals value fair and open-minded discussion of issues, and as liberals see themselves as the defenders of the rights not only of each individual, but of minorities and of those less fortunate or less franchised, liberal policy positions and political action often seem hesitant, unclear or conflicted to those who prefer a simpler view of the world. In fact, liberals have become to be seen by many as 'elitist' intellectuals.
Most conservative politicians (as well as their supporting writers and broadcasters) appeal to the populace by emphasizing the wedge issues, oversimplifying or obfuscating issues, and appealing to emotional (rather than intellectual) responses, often playing on fears and latent hatreds.
Many people are drawn to religion, especially evangelical religion, because of personal emotional and intellectual insecurities (including fear of death); the conservatives' strategy plays to those insecurities, offering a certain moral clarity.
Similarly, that conservative strategy also works for more secular voters who have (unlike 'good' liberals) not taken the time to reflect on issues in the larger context. Wedge issues such as 'excessive taxation' and 'immigration abuses' are used to effectively manipulate people to vote against their own best interests.
'Why does the religious right oppose liberal do-gooders?' Members of the religious right are predisposed to deference. That deference to God and their religious leaders spills over into the political arena and becomes deference on which the conservatives capitalize. As Philip Agre puts it, 'It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world. '
The Republicans recognized at least 40 years ago that their cause could not win in a fair democratic system, because it obviously ran counter to the self interest of a large majority of the population. So they have been developing propaganda with emotional appeals, and gaining control of the media, and all the rest of the tricks. One glaring example is Fox News. Amazing how well they have done with the propaganda, actually. The rich have gotten richer, and much of the windfall is plowed right back into lobbying for more handouts and tax cuts.
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