You are quite right but the tyranny of the majority is not the exclusive province of religion.
Quite so. White treatment of blacks is the classic example of our time. Majorities of whatever ilk need to restrain themselves. If they don't, it's up to all of us to rein them in so they don't trample over everyone else.
This country is founded on freedom of religion. Yeah, at the time the country was founded, the different religions at issue were various Christian sects, but the Constitution doesn't say freedom of Christian sect, it says freedom of religion. Citizens with different religions or no religion must be accorded equal standing.
I have little or no fear of the religious right. I am far more fearful of the extreme left, which is constantly trying to impose their will on us.
Wasn't it you saying the other day that extremists on all sides try to impose their beliefs on others? A pox on all their houses, I say.
Still, I tend to be more fearful of the religious right for a couple of reasons. First of all, there's an ongoing shift away from the left. Most of the big ideas have lost favor and those who continue to push them are largely effete. Secondly, the big ideas from the left are secular ideas. Secular ideas can be debated, compromised, abandoned by the citizenry based on new information. Religious ideas, on the other hand, come from some non-citizen authority and are held to be absolute. They're not subject to the same public debate and refinement as secular ideas. They're really not debatable at all. A consensus, the underpinning of a free society, is unlikely when participants hold absolutist ideas.
Karen |
