The Left and Christianity

The anti-Christian bile that Jimmie linked to below got me thinking: why is the left so threatened by Christianity? Really. What about Christianity is so insidious that Democrats have developed such an ardent animosity towards it? It’s certainly not just Moyers. Setting aside all the bitter post-election punditry from the left, no doubt most of us who live in blue areas of the country had to endure numerous rants from our friends and colleauges about how Kerry lost the election because of “Christian fundamentalists,” who apparently represent the scum of the earth.

I come at this from a different perspective than Jimmie, because I can’t call myself a particularly religious person. It’s been so long since I’ve been to church that, if asked to identify a religious affiliation, I would be torn between answering “Catholic” and answering “no affiliation.” In either case, even at the most religious periods of my life, I was certainly not a Christian fundamentalist. I believe in God and I pray on occassion. But I do not, for example, believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. (And Jimmie, I’m just saying that to clarify my perspective, I do not want to get into a debate on the subject!) To take it even a bit further, I, like many Democrats, am somewhat confounded by people who do.

But I’m not threatened by them. It doesn’t concern me that such people are so prevalent in our country (my goodness, a third of the whole country!? Oh, the humanity!). In fact, I rather like and respect people who are very religious. I sometimes wish I were more religious myself.

But returning to political matters, this country was settled and founded by lots of very religious people. Regardless of what you think about the Founders’ intentions with regard to religion (another debate I don’t want to get into – in fact, I think we already had that one at one point), religion is a huge part of our country’s history. And it’s done pretty darn well, by any standard. What exactly is so threatening? Where does this extreme aversion come from?

It’s not as if anyone is trying to impose a Christian equivalent of sharia law on America (there isn’t one, but you’d think there were listening to the hysteria from the left). Sure, Christians tend to support certain policies over others as a result of their religion. In fact, I tend to be on the Democrats’ side on most of those issues. But truly: if gay marriage remains unrecognized, if abortions were made illegal nationwide, if all forms of stem cell and cloning research were permanently banned within our borders – society’s not going to come unmade. In fact, very few people will notice a change in their lives either way. We can disagree on these things – that’s healthy and the associated debate is part of living in a democracy. But let’s not elevate them to levels of national crisis. There are actual national crises at hand.

So again, I ask, why the hatred? As for other arguments of Moyers’, such as the notion that because of their beliefs Christians want to destroy the environment, that’s just plain absurd and almost not worthy of a response. In any case Jimmie already responded to that, far better than I could. And fundamentalist Christians are hardly the only ones who supported the war in Iraq or who support the Israelis.

I’m completely nonplussed by the whole thing, to be honest. I suppose it can only come from complete misunderstanding of and lack of exposure to Christianity as a whole, never mind fundamentalist Christianity. But this from the party that prides itself on its acceptance and understanding of other cultures? I’m certainly not the first to point this out, but they would never dare to make such remarks about Muslims or Buddhists or Sikhs. Again, I just don’t get it.

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Category: Guest Blogging Stand, The Good Old US of A