race & religion

Dhlazare at aol.com Dhlazare at aol.com
Wed Jun 10 08:39:18 PDT 1998


In a message dated 98-06-09 15:51:50 EDT, you write:

<<

>>> Max Sawicky writes:

>>>What's really in question

is bigotry towards non-left religious folk (especially white)

founded on ignorance of religion. Bigotry in this context

means a belief that religious faith is testament to a person's

ignorance, prejudice, or negative social role. The fact that

we single out the religious left for approval is no less

prejudiced: it simply says we accept you if you buy our

political views, even though we still think your

personal faith is a crock.>>>

>> I think the use of the term "bigotry" here is very dangerous. Right-wing Catholics use it to equate any criticism of Christianity (such as Terrence McNally's newly play, "Corpus Christi") with racism and anti-semitism. Their goal is all too evident: to drive any and all anti-religious sentiments out of the realm of permissible public discourse. I don't think "bigotry... means a belief that religious faith is testament to a person's ignorance, prejudice, or negative social role." To the contrary, I think that those are not necessarily unwarranted all conclusions that one might draw concerning people who still cling to 3,000-year-old sky-god cults or who babble in dead languages and engage in wierd cannibalistic rites such as the Catholic mass. Certainly, we wouldn't be so charitable when confronted by some fundamentalist Shiite militant. So why should we deal any differently with other branches of the great Abrahamic tradition?

Dan Lazare



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