Reply #203: Becoming intolerant of intolerance. [View All]

[msmcghee]

The problem with most analyses of religion is that they treat religion as a "thing" that sits inside of (some) people's minds. Such analyses are futile.

The way to see this problem IMHO is to think of the contents of the human mind as a pyramid. At the bottom are millions of scattered bits of knowledge, like the times-tables or how to make a good fried rice. These are useful but have little emotional attachment. At the very top sit the one or two principles that are strongly attached to us emotionally and are so important that we organize our lives around them. All the other information in our minds sits below the pinnacle at various levels. And all that information must be emotionally compatible with the principles above them in the pyramid. The closer to the top it sits - the more it must fit and be compatible with the values at the pinnacle. That's why there are no fundies at DU - and why there are no Unitarians at FR.

That is what we call our worldview. We all have one. Any information we come across that doesn't fit with the principles at the top of our worldview will be opposed and rejected. If they fit however, we will eagerly add them as supporting glue to our worldview.

People in this forum tend to have principles like tolerance, fairness and openness for differing views at the top of our worldview. Those of us who are religious find religious beliefs that fit comfortably below those principles in their worldview - which means they are consistent with those principles. These are our liberal Christian friends here at DU. Their Christianity embraces tolerance, fairness and openness for differing views.

These are not the fundies. At the top of the fundies' worldview are values such as intolerance, support for male authority, hatred of ambiguity in personal expression or differentness from norms in people, etc. Their Christianity is (must be) compatible with those values. So, theirs is a jealous, vindictive, intolerant Christianity.

The reason that many here are mistrustful of all Christians is that even relatively tolerant religious memes can morph into more virulent forms and take over a person's worldview. Christianity and Islam are both, at heart, exclusionary world-dominating belief systems unless constantly kept in check by more powerful social forces. Christianity (and Islam and Zionism) can not be trusted to quietly remain part of a free and open society on its own. It will always seek to displace other social values with its own dogma. All it takes sometimes is an outside threat (like 9/11) for people who previously embraced tolerant religious memes to allow those memes to morph into their more dangerous and virulent cousins and take over their worldview.

Just from reading about western civilization people can see that even the less virulent forms of Christianity can morph and become part of the Crusade. That's what has happened repeatedly to cause the periodic Reformations we have endured - all of them visiting horrible levels of death, torture and cruelty on innocent humans. So, at times like this, anyone who reads history and is not a fundie can't help but see danger in even the more benevolent forms of Christianity - especially when they refuse to engage their toxic cousins in debate over legitimacy.

IMO, it comes down to the values you put at the top of your worldview pyramid. Liberal values are not warrior values - they are by nature tolerant and forgiving and wanting-to-just-get-along-so-everybody-can-be-happy values. We'd even prefer to get along with the fundies instead of fight with them. Ours are weak values (because we generally see conflict as bad). These gentle values are laughed at by the crusading warriors on the right who are out to destroy them (and us). Although our instinct is to include theirs - our worldview can not fit into theirs at any place in their pyramid.

The fundies are on the march carrying their banners in the wind. They now control all branches of our government - a government that was becoming ever more tolerant and open and inclusive - and have already turned back many of those hard fought gains. We are right to feel very threatened. It is time to stop tolerating intolerance.

It is up to liberal Christians to take up their own banner and fight for their liberal Christian values against the religious right - just as we secular liberals fight against the neo-cons. It is not a battle they, or we, can sit out. It is up to liberal Christians to make damned sure no-one in this society can mistake them for fundies or fails to understand the differences between them in terms of the values at the top of their worldview pyramids.

If they don't do that they will see their own values trampled into the mud - and ours with them.