http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week534/jgreen.htmlhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week534/p-jgreen.htmlOBSERVANT, TOLERANT, AND IGNORANT? The contrast in this poll between high levels of religious observance and high levels of religious tolerance is most interesting. Both observance and tolerance are probably a bit overstated (they usually are in polls), but the results are striking.
The United States is both a religious and a tolerant country. For starters, this suggests that the threat to religious conservatism may be overstated and, by the same token, the fear of religious conservatives that religion is threatened by modern society may also be overblown.
COMMENT: The myopic paranoia among zealot fundamentalists is probably more harmful to their cause from within than ANY external forces. --- Clearly some of these folks don't CARE how they are perceived, or they simply don't realize how damning it can be for themselves when they do only those things that perpetuate the appearance of their own hypocrisy, paranoia, and intolerance.<SNIP>
The born again Christians are less tolerant than other groups and most likely to believe their faith is the only true one. They are the most threatened by religious diversity, but here black Protestants are a close second.
COMMENT: This explains a lot about how and why the folks in Alabama are behaving they way they are when it comes to that monument to the 10-Commandments.<SNIP>
(Born agains) are also the most likely to stress the importance of doctrines and beliefs. And when asked about a duty to convert others to Christianity, born agains (37%) and black Protestants (32%) put the most stress on conversion.
COMMENT: And they wonder why so many folks are opposed to "faith-based" initiatives. Whenever I marvel at the importance that some fundamentalists place on converting everyone, it often makes me recall a sound-byte .wav file over at Landover Baptist that I just love... "I must convert you... or kill you" or something like that.<SNIP>
Born again Christians demonstrate a special dislike of both popular culture (59%) and a nonreligious world view (53%), and they join with white Catholics in disliking materialism (both over 60%).
COMMENT: Yet they don't understand how Muslims can also dislike materialism and popular culture... in some regards the similarities are striking... yet the obvious is conveniently ignored.
I've been searching for an "official rebuttal" or other commentary relating to this survey/article/story, but haven't found one yet. Let me know if you see anything online. -- Allen