<\/p>\n
This blog is an active <\/p>\n On the one hand we have no choice But on the other hand, the Yet conservative Christian To continue with the inner On the one hand, through science On the other hand, by increasing On the one hand, modern On the other, this technology has The world of Spirit tells us, and My position in the culture war is The separation of church and So I think we Pagans occupy an It is easy for those of us I think a book I have just <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This blog is an active participant in the Culture War being waged in the US. But I often find myself in a strange position, as many other Pagans likely do. I frequently seem to shift sides. I want to describe how I see what I am doing in this respect, and then recommend a book…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20,9,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-interfaith","category-social-and-political-theory","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nparticipant in the Culture War being waged in the US. <\/span>But I often find myself in a strange position, as many other
\nPagans likely do. <\/span>I frequently
\nseem to shift sides. <\/span>I want to
\ndescribe how I see what I am doing in this respect, and then recommend a book
\nwritten by an undercover atheist about Evangelicals as promoting a better and
\nhopefully more compassionate view of one another. <\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\nbut to push back on the attempts by many Evangelicals and conservative Christians to demonize us, and entrench their demonization
\ninto the law, <\/span>Whether in the schools or the prisons
\nor the military, even a single victory to the haters will give them a precedent
\nto push further because there are no logical limits to their creed’s hold over
\npeople until it has come to dominate all of society. <\/span>It is fundamentally totalitarian in this respect. <\/span>The Enlightenment brought this
\ntotalitarian urge under control.
\n<\/span>But…<\/p>\n
\nsecular scientistic world view that sees religion as a atavistic holdover from
\nan earlier time is simply wrong.
\n<\/span>It’s not even close to the truth. I see modern secularism as itself
\ndeeply myopic, and when its internal implications have come to fruit, as they
\nare doing today, tending in most of its forms towards nihilism and the worship
\nof power. <\/span>In this conclusion I
\nfind I am often at one with the conservative Christians who denounce us!<\/p>\n
\nleaders claim to have the only answer to modernity’s crisis, and argue other ways
\nshould be eliminated. <\/span>Including
\nours. <\/span>This is so even though this
\ncrisis grew, historically, from abuses of power in which the Christian Church
\nhad for so long indulged. <\/span>In other
\nwords, a narrowly Christian response will not solve the problem with modernity
\nthat they have correctly identified because their own excesses helped create it.<\/p>\n
\ntensions to which I try and give fair treatment in this blog…<\/p>\n
\nsecular modernity has expanded our knowledge of the physical world far beyond
\nanything existing prior to it. <\/span>And
\nthrough the establishment of relatively free institutions has done wonders in
\nlifting people from the mire of poverty and oppression that characterized the
\nlot of most for thousands of years.
\n<\/span>We are all, every one of us, the deep beneficiaries of science and the
\nrest of secular modernity.<\/p>\n
\nour power over nature without an increase in wisdom to match that power, we are
\nheading pell mell towards ecological problems that may well be catastrophic.
\nThe scientists who have enabled us to use that power lack the ability to
\nconvince many of the power besotted that they need to use it wisely. <\/span>The power drunk love science when it
\nincreases their power and loath it when it urges restraint and wisdom.<\/p>\n
\ntechnology has created unparalleled means by which people can cooperate for the
\ngeneral good. <\/span>Communication is
\neasier and faster than ever before, such that a guy sitting in his apartment in
\nSebastopol can make his thought available to anyone around the world, and
\nneither of us pays more than the time we take to write them, or read them. <\/span><\/p>\n
\ndevised methods of social control that can challenge the very free institutions
\nthat enabled modernity to flower.
\n<\/span>The very speed of modern life makes it harder to see larger contexts,
\nand our constant immersion in stimulation impedes our personal experience of
\nthe solitude from which genuine wisdom can grow. The ease with which we can select the points of view we want to encounter enables us to live in worlds ever more separated from people different from us.<\/p>\n
\nI am in complete agreement, that we will never devise a good society that
\nrelies on the “invisible hand” or impersonal principles or the rule of law
\nalone to create a good world, or even to safeguard the world we have. <\/span>We need to choose and act within a
\nbigger context of value and meaning, one that comes primarily from our hearts,
\nand as such is available to all.
\n<\/span>The heart offers a corrective and guide that limits the errors we commit
\nthrough ignorance. <\/span>Spirit helps
\nmany of us in this respect, but atheists can have hearts as generous as those
\nof many people of Spirit.<\/p>\n
\na middle one. On the one hand I argue for respecting science and scientists, on
\nthe other I argue for respecting spirituality and the many ways it manifests
\nand is celebrated in people’s lives.
\n<\/span>In this I think I am in harmony with the basic thrust of Pagan
\nspirituality.<\/p>\n
\nstate is vital because not doing so infects the churches with the spirit of
\ndomination as some succumb to the lure of power. In addition, a religiously complex world
\ndoes a better job of celebrating the different ways Spirit manifests in this
\nworld. <\/span>Finslly, the separation
\nof church and state serves to protect religious organizations from the influence of
\npoliticians who would seek to wrap their personal ambitions in the camouflage
\nof sanctity.<\/p>\n
\nimportant middle ground between the two contending sides of secular modernity
\nand conservative religion.<\/b> <\/span>We can help blur dichotomies that are
\nripping our society apart. <\/span>I think
\nthat is important, because war depends on maintaining dichotomies. <\/span>That is why the Republican Right is so
\nfocused on it. I think this is why it is so vital to undermine that effort
\nwherever possible.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwrapped up in this struggle to demonize the other side, based on the lies and
\nexcesses of their leaders. <\/span>Even
\nsome of these leaders may otherwise be decent people who have become so blinded by
\ntheir theories that they fail to see evidence that does not fit their
\npreconceptions. <\/span>Some of what to us
\nare lies may simply be theologically distorted perceptions. <\/span>Sadly, this tendency is a threat for
\nPagans as much as for anyone else.
\n<\/span>Perhaps even more importantly, in the midst of these struggles many
\npeople who are not leaders pick sides based on personal friendships, family,
\ncommunity, and ignorance of the other side. <\/span>The result is conflict serving no positive end, and I think
\nour country is threatened by it.<\/p>\n
\ndiscovered discussed in Huffingtonpos<\/a>t may be an important source of understanding
\nof “the other side.” <\/span> <\/span>It is Gina Welch’s In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s
\nExtraordinary Journey into the Heart of the Evangelical Church<\/a><\/i><\/span>. <\/span>She spent a year “undercover” deep
\nwithin an Evangelical Christian community. <\/span>Not every Evangelical thinks she described them free from
\noutside stereotypes, because there is variety among Evangelicals as there is
\neverywhere else. <\/span>But they
\ngenerally seem convinced they were treated fairly. <\/span>Those of us who practice interfaith work, or who
\nsimply desire to know more about the goodness in people who both misunderstand
\nand loathe our own faith, would likely benefit from reading it. <\/span>I plan to do so. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n