The True Quality

"To understand the true quality of people,  you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions."

--Marcus Aurelius

A Uniquely American Heresy

The dominant ethos among American religious conservatives now seems to be defined by the assumption that every aspect of contemporary culture -- and the vast majority of Americans -- are on the highway to hell. All but gone is the former rational, relatively prosocial notion that Christians ought to be “salt and light” in society, transforming it for the better from within. This idea seems to have been largely replaced by a highly aggressive species of religious triumphalism. (Everyone knows religious people who are thoroughly at odds with this degradation of the faith, of course. Unfortunately, the loudest voices in any given demographic belong to its zealots.)

Fervent opposition to equal rights for LGBT citizens has become a heretical article of faith among these believers, along with a simplistic,  black-and-white view of highly complex disciplines such as bioethics and Constitutional interpretation. Their posture toward secular culture is by turns defensive, bellicose and apocalyptic. In an age of unprecedented diversity and pluralism, their bigotry is slowly consigning them to cultural irrelevance; they seem to realize this, if not always on a conscious level. The slow death of their cultural hegemony fuels their rage, which appears to be bottomless.

This brand of religion is, I contend, a uniquely American heresy. It will take the cooperation of secularists and moderate believers to disempower it and to rebuild the crumbling wall separating church and state.

Copyright 2016 William K. Ferro