Silencing the rote charge of moral relativism--the false assertion that Liberals believe that anything goes because life has no meaning--is critical to collapsing the Radical Right's whole house of cards. And into this continuing campaign to twist the Liberal message of tolerance and domestic tranquility, stepped the founder of Focus on the Family As both Fred Clarkson and then IPC pointed out, James Dobson told an outright lie about Liberals. Without flinching, he claimed on November 22, 2006 edition of Larry King Live:
KING: If the left gets glee, Doctor, does the right get glee over sexual peccadilloes on the left?? As The Daily Howler's Bob Somerby would sarcastically write, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. It might be funny if it were only a joke; but it isn't. In fact, it is a damn serious claim that must be refuted once and for all. These are folks who believe that the ends justify the means. They are not afraid "...to lose their scruples." And when we Liberals take our eyes off the ball by focusing on personalities rather than messages, we fail. Moral relativism is a message that both Neocons and the Religious Right have been pounding into the heads of mainstream Americans for the last forty years. It had its origins over 200 years ago with Joseph deMaistre and was later picked on by the likes of Leo Strauss and others. Today Irving Kristol, Robert H. Bork (In his book Slouching Towards Gomorrah, Bork extends the moral relativism charge to libertarians), George Weigel and Michael Novak now echo this intellectually corrupt theme and they do so until it makes its way out of the mouths of the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and yes, James Dobson. This twisting of what Liberalism stands for is at the very foundation of their war upon our American democracy. From this one core belief comes the phony "War against Christmas" ("Liberals hate religion, so they want to extinguish all talk of religious holidays"); the incorrect reading of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (deliberately blurring what they mean by "religious freedom," as if it were the right to have our government act as the secular enforcer of a particular orthodoxy) or that because certain denominations see the teaching of evolution as immoral, any other denomination that believes otherwise does not understand "the truth." How important is it to dispel this false allegation? Simply put, moral relativism is the Religious Right's gatekeeper. It defines Liberals and more importantly, what we have to say, as being immoral. For those who buy into the premise, it cuts off the conversation even before it begins. It allows the Religious Right and their friends the luxury of not having to debate the merits of their arguments. It essentially slams the door shut on what we have to say. Many of us may simply shrug our shoulders and say that the average American does not understand the concept of moral relativism. But that is incorrect. When they use the term, they make certain to define its meaning. Just think about the order of Dobson's statement on Larry King Live: First the accusation: "...those, again, on the more liberal end of the spectrum are often those who have no value system." In other words, Liberals have no morality. Next comes the illustrated example: "...or at least they say there is no moral and immoral, there is no right or wrong." Perhaps worse, Liberals do not distinguish between good and evil. And finally, the definition: "It's moral relativism." Dobson cleverly spoon-fed the audience the pabulum he wanted them to swallow. And it is a lie that tars all Liberals: secular, religious or otherwise. But the pernicious effects only begin when charges of Liberal moral relativism leaves the lips of a Dobson. At that point the words begin to take on a life of their own. The original audience repeats the lie in general conversation with other Americans who never even viewed the Focus on the Family founder on Larry King Live. The charge then gets casually repeated at office water coolers, card games and dinner tables all across the country. And the tall tale that Liberals "have no value system" becomes imbedded in the national psyche. So now I ask the same question that Fred Clarkson first asked. How does it feel, fellow Liberals to be denigrated as immoral actors? How does it feel to get your nose rubbed in a lie that paints you as having no moral center? And to my fellow progressive Christians, How do you like demagogues telling the world that you practice "Whatever Christianity?" Doesn't it bother you when crackpots like James Dobson brazenly dissemble that you are incapable of telling right from wrong, good from evil? Well it bothers the hell out of me. And I am sick and tired of being tarred and feathered with such mendaciousness. But what bothers me more is when clowns like Dobson seem to get let off the hook when they say such things. We on the Left seem to be afraid of playing hardball and focusing like a laser beam on this fundamental untruth being spun by the Right-wing punditry. And yet even more frustrating is that the whole moral relativism argument is not so difficult to refute as fraudulent. In fact what they are truly doing is seriously misrepresenting the core Liberal concept of Value Pluralism. Our task is to finally take control of the argument and frame it in terms of pluralism and diversity. Instead of worrying about what Dobson or Limbaugh is next going to say about us we have to be thinking about how we are going to define them. We accomplish this by defining ourselves and stop letting the Dobsons of the world go unanswered. All that is required is a sustained effort that does not fall prey to distractions. And to that end, next week I will discuss the options we have to destroy the myth of Liberal moral relativism once and for all.
Why We Must Refute Dobson's Crackpot Claim of Liberal Moral Relativism. | 25 comments (25 topical, 0 hidden)
To the Talk To Action community and Mr. Cocozzelli, As a new TtA member, though longtime reader, I humbly submit the following regarding the issue of moral relativism. I hope my comments are useful. It is a fundamental psychological truism that we can only recognize that which we are aware of ourselves, whether we're conscious of it this process or not. In other words, the primary overarching factor in the Religious Right's keen ability to sniff out moral relativism in whatever form is quite simply because they themselves engage in it so heavily. This is a crucial point, all too often overlooked regarding this subject. This quite simply, and obviously relativism, by any definition. When you become aware that Karl Rove engages in political "dirty tricks" (completely unethical/immoral practices) to win at any costs (the ends justifying the means), and you vote for Bush anyway, you have engaged in moral relativism. When you vote for a politician primarily because of his or her position on the issue of abortion, while knowing that they also stand for allowing natural resources to be degraded -that's moral relativism. The examples could fill volumes, but I think you get the idea. Confronted with this -which to date the Religious Right has not been- the religious-political conservatives simply have no defense. Respectfully, -pjm by geschickt on Sun Dec 10, 2006 at 11:16:29 AM EST
There are at least four kinds of relativism, and it is important to distinguish between them. 1) situational relativism. This is simply the idea that there are true moral principles, but what is morally right in a situation depends on the circumstances and facts of the situation, and that we have to determine which moral principle should govern the decision. This is in fact how people make most moral decisions. Moral absolutists will object to this, but in the real world there are very few people who make all moral decisions based on a uniform application of a few moral rules regardless of circimstances. 2) moral decisions without a religious referent are relative. The thinking here is that you can't make a truly moral decision that is not founded on some sacred book or religious principle. In other words, the decision has to have some kind of "eternal connection." Thus without a referent such as the Bible, a person who makes a correct moral decision does so without any real justification or warrant for it. 3) there are no moral truths. This is the idea that there simply is no morality, no moral decisions, and thus every decision is simply a matter of personal taste. This is typically the position that "liberals" are accused of holding. In fact, I have never known anyone who holds that position. 4) theological relativism. This is the idea that there are no fixed moral truths, but that right and wrong depends on what God commands. So if God tells you to destroy all Caananites, or to burn heretics at the stake, or to kill the Venezuelan president, then that is the moral thing to do. This is actually the position of a large number of conservative Christians. The irony here is that many of the people who claim that liberals are relativists are themselves theological relativists. by siguiriya on Sun Dec 10, 2006 at 11:26:07 AM EST
I think you can run your narrative back even further - Dobson's critique traces back to the anti-Enlightenment if not even further.
To tie that into American politics, secular government was an American innovation designed, largely, to keep the peace and put the lid on the sort of religious warfare that wracked Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - for example, the Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
But the Christian right has now debased the contemporary understanding of what secularism is - a governmental innovation for keeping the peace among adherents of different belief systems - to the extent that dedicated peacemakers such as Jim Wallis bash away at strawman "secularist" demons in ignorance of the fact that secular government itself was designed as a peacekeeping innovation and has been so strikingly successful that it has served as a template government structures worldwide.
Frank-
Thanks again for the thoughts. I get tired of the claim that liberals are moral relativists. We aren't, and Dobson and gang are very good at projection.
If we destoy the myth of "Liberal moral relativism," we begin to crumble the foundation upon which the Religious Right has built its movement. Take away the demonization of Liberalism and we can then talk more effectively about ourselves and our values.
But before we can do this, we must first disassemble the dissemblers.
my quick answer to this when I have not wanted to get into a major discussion has always been that it is more moral to do the right thing because it is right than because you have been told that you will be punished if you don't.
by blueisland on Sun Dec 10, 2006 at 12:13:31 PM EST
But we've known that fact for a very long time. It's now time to refute them once and for all. We have to take the fight to them for a change.
A good place to start is by defining them for what they truly are: Moral Absolutists.
From wikipedia: Level 1 (Pre-Conventional) 1. Obedience and punishment orientation 2. Self-interest orientation (What's in it for me?) Level 2 (Conventional) 3. Interpersonal accord and conformity (The good boy/good girl attitude) 4. Authority and social-order orientation (Law and order morality) Level 3 (Post-conventional) 5. Social contract orientation 6. Universal ethical principles (Principled conscience)
Dobson's focuses on stage 1. The Christian right seems unable to progress beyond stage 4. by justintime on Tue Dec 12, 2006 at 09:21:16 AM EST
Why We Must Refute Dobson's Crackpot Claim of Liberal Moral Relativism. | 25 comments (25 topical, 0 hidden)
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Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series
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