July 8, 2004
OKAY, YOU WIN (via Tom Morin):
Robert Reich’s Religion Problem: Witless rhetorical oppositions. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 7/06/04, National Review)
Liberals tend to take umbrage when it is suggested that they are hostile to religion, or to religious people, or to some subset thereof. They have nothing against evangelical Christians, they respond, so long as they do not seek to use the state to impose their faith on others. Some liberals go further, saying that they are religious progressives who advocate a bigger welfare state as an outgrowth of their religious values. (A number of my fellow contributors to the new Brookings Institution book One Electorate Under God? take this approach, including Paul Begala.) I take all these liberals at their word. I do not think that most liberals who passionately dislike the Christian Right are hostile to Christians; they have some political and moral disagreements with conservative Christians. On most of the issues in question, I am inclined to agree with or at least lean toward the views of contemporary Christian conservatives, but there is plenty to debate.But the phenomenon of liberal religion-bashing isn't imaginary, either. Robert Reich's latest column in The American Prospect is a case in point. It starts out pressing the case for the contemporary liberal understanding of church-state separation and its history in America, and uses this understanding to criticize the Bush administration. (The article is headlined "Bush's God.") He says that "the problem" with "religious zealots" is that "they confuse politics with private morality."
Okay, I think we'd all happily concede that Mr. Reich's politics is completely divorced from morality, but where can he really go with the argument? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 8, 2004 9:09 AM
"they confuse politics with private morality."
There it is...right there! Make your own morals and regardless of how they jibe with God's law, you are a "moral" person. Typical liberal belief.
Posted by: Bartman at July 8, 2004 10:11 AM"Like much of what Reich says, this story was clear, compelling, brilliantly packaged, and mostly wrong."
--Paul Krugman, The Accidental Theorist, p. 25
Everybody has Reich's number except those who publish him or quote him, I see. Why not classify them by this simple, easily available measure?
Posted by: Arnold Williams at July 8, 2004 10:13 AMSomeone needs to tell Reich (and Ponnuru) that they're living in the wrong century. The believers (Christians, Muslims, and Jews) defeated the forces of atheism (Nazi, Fascist, and Communist) last century. This century is about how the believers are going to live with each other in a globalized world.
Posted by: Greg E. at July 8, 2004 10:42 AMMuslims defeated nazis?
Posted by: Tom C, Stamford,Ct. at July 8, 2004 10:46 AMMuslims helped to defeat Communists (in Afghanistan).
Posted by: Greg E. at July 8, 2004 12:13 PMWhere can he go with it? Seems pretty obvious. Look to your post from yesterday on liberal intellectuals.
Posted by: brian at July 8, 2004 6:16 PMAnd how are they going to do that, Greg?
Particularly the Jews and the Muslims.
I await your answer with deep interest.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at July 9, 2004 3:25 AMHarry:
They're going to become more like us, just as Jews and Christians have converged.
Posted by: oj at July 9, 2004 8:50 AM