religion

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Jun 2 09:46:58 PDT 1998


Michael Eisenscher wrote:


>Perhaps we of the Left might benefit from a bit more ecumenism in our
>approach to the religious movements that we have heretofore dismissed as
>hopelessly reactionary.

I've certainly softened towards religious people over the years - there are lots of fine people doing good stuff politically because they think God told them too. But can we still say that religion is a crock? That it is an invented solace for the pains of the world ("sad men made angels of the sun," as Wallace Stevens said)? That it's encouraged people to horrible acts of hate and violence over the centuries? That it's helped construct and enforce the subordination of women? How far does this ecumenism go?

Doug



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