Religion, the Left, and Postmodernists (To Jim Farmelant)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Jim Farmelant wrote:
<<No doubt some people here will cite the examples of the liberation
theologians in Latin America or the worker-priests in Europe to show that
the churches can play a politically progressive role.  And indeed these are
good examples but a closer examination would show that in these instances
the churches did not break with the status quo until there had been a
strong challenge from the (secular) left.>>

Well said.

As you also mentioned, too many American leftists are now so very cowed by
the perception that they are a tiny atheist minority whose only hope is to
be tolerated by a sea of believers. No strong challenge from the secular
left here. And this in turn negatively affects the ideological climate and
narrows what is sayable in political discourse. Very bad for the Left.
Extremely bad for women and queers.

American leftists, by and large, are too relativist about the matters of
religion versus secular thought. A funny thing, though, is they also love
criticizing postmodernists for being relativists with no regard for Reason
and Truth.

Yoshie