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Secular Baiting: The Final Exam
It is my hope that people will avoid the temptation to get knee jerk about this; the matter of seeing the way that the right has loaded the language is something for all of us to take very seriously. The religious right has been doing very well for quite awile, and if we are not careful in how we frame these matters, as George Lakoff has made very clear, we risk a great deal. On that note, enjoy your exam. Good luck! Some of you may have missed the relvant diary and the quizes. If so, you will just have to take the plunge and do the best you can. You have 20 quotes (5 points per quote) taken from a pool of 25 prominent Americans. Self-scoring -- Honor system!
David Brooks -- columnist, New York Times 1) The greatest threat to religious freedom in America, are secular fundamentalists who want to ghetto-ize religious faith and make the wall of separation between church and state a prison wall keeping religious voices out of political discourse. George W. Bush Richard Land Barack Obama Pat Robertson 2) The secular fundamentalism of the left is as much a problem as the religious fundamentalism of the right. Hillary Clinton John Danforth Antonin Scalia Jim Wallis 3) The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this [9/11] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad.I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America-I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen." Jerry Falwell D. James Kennedy Tim LaHaye Pat Robertson 4) I have no question the devil is behind what the apostle Paul called 'the wisdom (philosophy) of this world' and controls many of our courts and other areas of influence... in the nineteenth century this anti-God secular man-centered philosophy conquered the universities of Europe, trained journalists, educators, and entertainers, and today controls the countries where the church is impotent... Europe, once the center of evangelical Christianity, Bible translation and distribution, and even revival, has bought into the philosophy of secular humanism. That philosophy is based on atheism, evolution, autonomous self-centered man, and socialism." Robert Byrd Tim LaHaye Pat Robertson Antonin Scalia 5) Today, there are new fundamentalists in the land. These are the "secular fundamentalists," many of whom attack all political figures who dare to speak from their religious convictions. From the Anti-Defamation League, to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to the ACLU and some of the political Left's most religion fearing publications, a cry of alarm has gone up in response to anyone who has the audacity to be religious in public. These secular skeptics often display amazing lapse of historical memory when they suggest that religious language in politics is contrary to the "American Ideal."
Robert Byrd 6) Similarly, many Jewish organizations and even many individuals of Jewish ethnicity who possess the title "rabbi" are not guided by the principles Judaism found in the Torah. Instead, like the NAACP and NOW, they are guided chiefly by the principles of secular fundamentalism. Nothing else can explain their dogmatic and ideological commitment to causes such as homosexuality and abortion, Jerry Falwell Daniel Lapin Michael Lerner Gordon Liddy 7) We contend today with both religious and secular fundamentalists, neither of whom must have their way. One group would impose the doctrines of a political theocracy on their fellow citizens. The other would deprive the public square of needed moral and spiritual values often shaped by faith. John Danforth Michael Lerner Sean O'Malley Jim Wallis 8) But what I am suggesting is this - secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square... To say that men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition. George W. Bush Wesley Clark Barack Obama Antonin Scalia 9) The most alarming thing about this pair of rulings is that the decision to accommodate a Ten Commandments display donated by a nongovernmental source only won 5-4, which shows the degree to which this court has embraced secular fundamentalism as its religion... The Kentucky courthouse decision shows that, as Justice [Antonin] Scalia said in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas opinion [striking down state anti-sodomy laws], the majority of this court has 'taken sides in the culture war,' and it's the side of secular fundamentalists. David Brooks Robert Byrd Richard Land Joe Lieberman 10) But unfortunately, secular humanists very often act as though they have no tolerance - except that of a person on a higher plane looking down at the poor inferiors below them who happen to have a different religion than their religion. So the criticisms that I have... are for those who are "secular humanist fundamentalists." The fundamentalists are those who think they have all the truth, and that nobody else has any truth. Just as I'm very critical of Christian fundamentalists, Jewish fundamentalists, Muslim fundamentalists, and Hindu fundamentalists, so I'm also very critical of secular humanist fundamentalists.
Hillary Clinton 11) Secular nations have one thing in common - mass graves, and the reason is that they believe the government is the final arbiter of right and wrong and good and evil. George W. Bush Pope Benedict Bill O'Reilly Rob Schenk 13) Like many countries . . . Canada is today suffering from the pervasive effects of secularism... One of the more dramatic symptoms of this mentality, clearly evident in your own region, is the plummeting birth rate.
Pope Benedict 13) And the question was, "Are you promoting religion by using people's, taxpayers' money?" And I said, "No, I'm promoting lower recidivism rates, and we will measure to make sure that that's the case."
George W. Bush 14) I would like to see him [Bush]level the playing field and eliminate the mood that's been inflicted on America... that the struggle in America is between an aggressive dangerous Christian theocracy and a benign secularism that's good for everybody. That isn't true.
David Brooks 15) Now, America is a divided country. We are fighting a fierce war on terror overseas, and an intense culture war at home. No longer is the "American way" something to be proud of... It is also the product of the rise of a well-funded and well-organized secular-progressive movement in America. Ann Coulter G. Gordon Liddy Pat Robertson Bill O'Reilly 16) Certainly, on the world scene, the forces of secularism are something that the Church has got to deal with. To be able to evangelize and teach the faith in a society which is no longer a Christian society, that has the same way of looking at reality -- I think that is a big challenge. David Brooks John Danforth D. James Kennedy Sean O'Malley 17) For years, Democrats, unlike Republicans, have been afraid to wear religion on their sleeve. It's to the point that they're perceived as a party of secular snobs, and it turned off a large slice of America. But now, they want to try to win that slice back. Hillary Clinton Joe Leiberman Bill O'Reilly John Roberts 18) Next has come the effort to expel [Sen. Joe] Lieberman from modern liberalism. In a dark parody of the old struggle between Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey, the highly educated, highly affluent, highly Caucasian wing of the Democratic Party has turned liberalism from a philosophy into a secular religion, and then sought to purge a battle-scarred warhorse on the grounds of insufficient moral purity. David Brooks Michael Lerner Barack Obama John Roberts 19) God forbid that we who were born into the blessings of a Christian America should let our patrimony slip like sand through our fingers and leave to our children the bleached bones of a godless secular society. But whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: God has called us to engage the enemy in this culture war. That is our challenge today. Jerry Falwell D. James Kennedy Sean O'Malley Pat Robertson 20) The Left is dominated by secular humanists who do not believe in God and have advocated for a misinterpretation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution's prohibition against the establishment of religion by the federal government as a "wall separating church and state." No where in the Constitution is there any mention of a wall separating church and state. G. Gordon Liddy D. James Kennedy Rob Schenk Jim Wallis
Secular Baiting: The Final Exam | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
Secular Baiting: The Final Exam | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
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