The Religious Revolution

Carson Holloway April 06, 2021

Editor's Note:  Cartoon added by me. RK

What does the Left want with regard to religion in America? Here, as in many other areas, the left seeks not mere reform but revolution. This is not to say that they expect to accomplish their aims in one fell swoop, like the Jacobins or Bolsheviks—using force and terror to throw down one faith and erect another in its place. Rather, they have been pursuing their revolution—patiently, peacefully, and legally—for the last seven decades. Nevertheless, they seek to fundamentally change religion’s place in the American polity.

Simply put, the Left wants to dethrone and subordinate traditional Christianity. They wish to prevent it from ruling America’s public culture and force it to obey a public culture, one the Left is busy establishing and enforcing. This is the very definition of revolution: a reversal of power relations........ those who founded and built up our country regarded religion as a precious institution, necessary to the preservation both of popular self-government and of individual rights..............

The founders considered religion an essential solution to this problem. In his Notes on Virginia (1788), Thomas Jefferson asked: “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?” Similarly, George Washington, in his celebrated “Farewell Address,” admonished his countrymen that “religion and morality are indispensable supports” of “all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity.” “In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism,” Washington continued, “ who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”....... the historical record supports the founders’ and Tocqueville’s claims about the importance of religion to a free and just society. .............

Having succeeded to a considerable extent in their quest to dethrone religion from its influence over the public mind, the left wants to subordinate religion to a new, non-religious morality.........According to the new dispensation, then, gay couples not only have a civil right to marry, but also a civil right to be sheltered from the implicit disapproval of Christians—or, for that matter, of Jews or Muslims or any religious believers.............According to the ACLU, when religious believers do not want to provide services at a same-sex wedding ceremony, or demur at having to pay for their employees’ contraception, they are just using their religion as an “excuse to discriminate against and harm others.”........To Read More....