Friday, March 29, AD 2024 9:51am

Leftism as a Religion

Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked,

2 Timothy 3:2

 

Dennis Praeger has a brilliant post up at National Review Online in which he describes leftism as a subsitute religion:

Within mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism, the same dominance of leftist values exists. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — not to mention the Notre Dame faculty — largely holds the same social and economic views as the Democratic party and the New York Times editorial page, though it differs with the Left with regard to same-sex marriage, abortion, and religious-freedom issues such as those pertaining to Catholic hospitals and government-funded contraception. As for mainstream Protestant denominations, they, too, are largely indistinguishable from leftism. Proof? Ask a liberal Protestant minister to name one important area in which he and leftism differ. Ask a liberal Reform or Conservative rabbi the same question. Their silence will be telling.

 

The truth is that the Left has been far more successful in converting Jews and Christians to leftism than Christianity and Judaism have been in influencing leftists to convert to Christianity or Judaism.

Finally, leftism has even attained considerable success at undoing the central American values of Liberty, In God We Trust, and E Pluribus Unum, supplanting liberty with egalitarianism, a God-based society with secularism, and E Pluribus Unum with multiculturalism. (I make this case at length in Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph.)

This triumph of the 20th century’s most dynamic religion — leftism — is why, even in the midst of an ongoing recession, the leftist candidate may win. As I wrote in my last column, it’s not just the economy, stupid.

Go here to read the insightful, and disturbing, rest.  His post was written on October 2, and the election results, Obama winning despite a dismal economic record, lends credence to his argument.  His thesis is not new;  countless people, including myself, have noted the ways in which leftism is a substitute religion.  The roots of all of this are as old as the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel.  Human hubris seeking to topple God and place Man in the role of God.  Throughout History all such attempts have ended in massive human tears, and this attempt will be no different.  Too bad that those of us who fight this will be along for the ride.

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Phillip
Phillip
Friday, November 30, AD 2012 7:37am

“The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops…differs with the Left with regard to same-sex marriage, abortion, and religious-freedom issues such as those pertaining to Catholic hospitals and government-funded contraception.”

Though, unfortunately, not all in the USCCB. Having been in a diaconate program in the past, I dealt with a number who don’t disagree with the left on these matters.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Friday, November 30, AD 2012 8:37am

In Europe, the New Right have their own diagnosis. For them, liberalism “represents a secularization of ideas and perspectives borrowed from Christian metaphysics, which spread into secular life following a rejection of any transcendent dimension. Actually, one finds in Christianity the seeds of the great mutations that gave birth to the secular ideologies of the first post-revolutionary era. Individualism was already present in the notion of individual salvation and of an intimate and privileged relation between an individual and God that surpasses any relation on earth. Egalitarianism is rooted in the idea that redemption is equally available to all mankind, since all are endowed with an individual soul whose absolute value is shared by all humanity. Progressivism is born of the idea that history has an absolute beginning and a necessary end, and that it unfolds globally according to a divine plan. Finally, universalism is the natural expression of a religion that claims to manifest a revealed truth which, valid for all men, summons them to conversion. Modern political life itself is founded on secularized theological concepts. Reduced to an opinion among others, today Christianity has unwittingly become the victim of the movement it started. In the history of the West, it became the religion of the way out of religion.” [Alain de Benoist and Charles Champetier]

In positing nationalism against universalism, the organic, corporate state against individualism, hierarchy against egalitarianism and social order against economic growth, they regard Christianity as part of the problem, rather than the solution.

Of course, their picture of Christianity is a caricature, but too many modern Christians lend credence to it.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Friday, November 30, AD 2012 10:12am

Romans 1:25: “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”

Scott W.
Scott W.
Friday, November 30, AD 2012 12:04pm

All one needed to do was consider the environmentalist movement for about five seconds to realize it just swipes the Christian narrative of Guilt and Redemption and repackages it with human-centered stupidity.

Greg Mockeridge
Greg Mockeridge
Friday, November 30, AD 2012 1:57pm

On top of all that, the religion of leftism has made significant inroads into other religious circles, especially Catholic circles. Just look at the statements of our bishops on issues dealing with poverty, immigration, war and peace. and capitail punishment. They are not only leftist, but reflexively leftist.

Robert A. Rowland
Robert A. Rowland
Friday, November 30, AD 2012 5:53pm

Who can dispute Dennis Praeger?. Take for example the Roman Catholic church. What can be said encouraging about a religion where 75 percent who say they are Catholic no longer believe in the Real Presence, the preeminent doctrine of faith. Consider the serious scandal they have caused by helping elect a president at the farthest left position in the political spectrum. They have become apostate and are in danger of losing salvation by endorsing abortion and other abominations. they are American traitors that have sold out our Christian nation to paganism.

A PAGAN NATION?

Has it finally come to an ignominious end?
Must liberty and religious freedom we now rescind?
Our Founding Fathers must now be assuredly aghast,
if they knew their City on a Hill is now in the past.

America was a definitive faith exercise.
The United States is now decidedly otherwise.
Compromise between good and evil can never prevail.
Without the God our nation trusted, life is no avail.

The Declaration of Independence we could once trust.
Life, liberty, and happiness have been overcome with lust.
Seeds of democracy’s destruction have now germinated.
Every phase of government has been permeated.

The American dream is now only a socialist scheme.
It has then become a nightmare we can only blaspheme.
American traitors committed a scandalous sin.
They should never be allowed to enjoy freedom again.

We must resurrect revolution to save us once more.
Tyranny is something we have always known to deplore.
God help return religious freedom to our native shore.
So we can ask You to bless America evermore.

Bob Rowland
X1/XII/MMXII

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Saturday, December 1, AD 2012 7:46am

religion- “blest be the ties that bind our hearts in Christian love” A big difference between the phantasm religion of the secularist, environmentalist , feminists–the ones who are not basically Judeo Christian– is the Love part. All the political, environmental, social concerns of the left could be Christian, could be based on LOVE but they are not.
God is LOVE the parallel religion on the left is not about LOVE , but about self. Not to be holier than thou, we have to recognize that we are all tempted to SELF and try and trust with the aid of grace to overcome our selfishness…

MPS said “Finally, universalism is the natural expression of a religion that claims to manifest a revealed truth which, valid for all men, summons them to conversion. ” Conversion to Truth, to Love (which unites, does not divide.
Rue the “unexpected consequences” of selfish thinking put in religious /philosophical terms … protestantism and what we today call the “left” is ancient really

Paul Primavera
Saturday, December 1, AD 2012 8:00am

Romans 1:28-32

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. 29 They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.

Art Deco
Saturday, December 1, AD 2012 10:06am

[Alain de Benoist and Charles Champetier] In positing nationalism against universalism, the organic, corporate state against individualism, hierarchy against egalitarianism and social order against economic growth, they regard Christianity as part of the problem, rather than the solution.

OK. Does M. de Benoist have any analogue among either working politicians or academics? The fellow you descrobe appears to occupy the same position vis-a-vis French public life that Thomas Woods does vis a vis American public life: a writer who engages a circle of hobbyists.

Clinton
Clinton
Saturday, December 1, AD 2012 12:09pm

I don’t believe leftism is a religion to its adherents, or else they would do a
better job of following its supposed tenets. I think we can all agree that leftists
give lip service to a love of ‘tolerance’ but have little tolerance for views that
disagree with their own. ‘Respect for diversity’ does not seem to include respect
for anything they deem politically incorrect.

And what about their self-proclaimed concern for the poor? Several years ago,
Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse, came out with the study Who Really
Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism
. In it,
he noted that liberal-identifying families averaged 6% more in annual income
than conservatives, but the conservative-identifying families donated 30% more
to charity. Conservatives also reported donating more time and gave more
blood.

Comparing the tax returns of our politicians seems to bear this out. When
running for president in 2008, Obama released his returns for 2000-2006, and
they showed that he and Michelle donated about 1% of their income to charity
each year. The McCains gave 18% in ’06, and Mitt Romney’s latest tax return
released showed his family giving close to 30%, I believe. Vice President Cheney
was caricatured as a heartless bastard by the left, but in 2006 he and his wife
gave 3/4 of their annual income– about $7 million to medical research and
to a a charity for low-income high school students in the DC area. The Bidens,
on the other hand, gave about 2% of their income.

If leftism isn’t a religion to its adherents, then what is it? I think it’s a sports
team. The lefties identify with their guys, chant their slogans, rough up the
opposing fans– but at the end of the day, rooting for their team isn’t going to
affect how they live their lives.

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Saturday, December 1, AD 2012 12:26pm

New Right arguments and positions are influential in the Front National in France, the Freedom Party in Austria and Vlaams Belang in Belgium. It shares links with other groups, like Forza Nuova in Italy and Neue Rechte in Germany. Some of their positions can be found in the mainstream Right (UMP) in France

Its views on the historic link between Christianity and Liberalism have also been taken up on the Left by people like Slavoj Zizek and Eric Hazan.

In Europe, Benoist’s influence (although not his policies) has been compared to that of Paul Weyrich in the United States.

Art Deco
Saturday, December 1, AD 2012 12:55pm

The late Mr. Weyrich ran a fundraising and training operation. He published little and published nothing in the realm of social theory or intellectual history. Are you sure you have not confused him with Paul Gottfried (who is influential only in a narrow circle and an unpleasant sort to boot)?

Michael Paterson-Seymour
Michael Paterson-Seymour
Saturday, December 1, AD 2012 1:26pm

I was thinking more of Benoist’s way of buliding up networks of people, including intellectuals and donors.

Another feature he shares with Weyrich is his linking in to religious groups, in Benoist’s case Rosicrucians, Anthroposohists, Neo-pagans, occultists like Thomas Karlsson and Massimo Scaligero &c He is an admirer of Julius Evola.

James Lee Leu
Friday, December 7, AD 2012 7:00pm

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