American secularists may be dismayed at how far theocratic ideas have come in their country and how much power theocratic conservatives have acquired, but it's still far worse for secularists elsewhere. I've often pointed out how similar Christian conservatives in America sound to Islamists abroad -- the same Islamists they routinely condemn.
Well, consider what it's like for secularists and atheists who have to live where such Islamists have power -- and consider what will happen to us if Christian Nationalists acquire similar power.
Faisal writes:
I'm more thankful to all the heretics, artists, scientists, skeptics and freethinkers all the way from Ancient Greece through the Enlightenment to the 21st century CE who paved the way to the "new atheists" and truly transformed our world beyond recognition.
As a gay atheist secularist from Saudi Arabia - probably the most oppressive society in the world - knowing that there are places on Earth where women, gays, secularists and other minorities are something more than sub-human species feels like we're on another galaxy, it just seems too far away, a triple-digit tribal theocracy with almost no chance of peaceful change of our realities, public intellect is virtually non-existent, the society is very homogeneous and dissent is extremely distinct and easily cracked upon, not to mention how it feels when noticing how suspiciously similar "moral" and "loving" Muslims here are to their Christian peers in America: "without our religious values; there's absolutely no reason for anyone to be moral"
"We must fight against all attempts of The Cross worshippers to overtake our Muslim land" Criticizing all facets of culture and society except - of course - massive corporations.
Our country is being controlled by some really amusing alliance of brutal monarchs, sociopathic Islamic dominionists, astronomically ignorant tribespeople and the super-greedy stock holders of energy companies, there are no major resources other than oil, to add to our misery, it won't be long before we'll join the high ranks of Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Timor-Leste if it runs out.
I think American secularists should be more careful; all people of reason around the world can't afford the loss of American democracy - regardless of its dysfunctions - to the odious fantasies and baneful goals of theocrats and radical individualists.
[original post]
Portraying America as a "beacon" to others abroad has always been a prominent piece of the religious nationalism in America. That's because the idea of America as a "beacon" has been founded on the belief that it is so because God has "chosen" America much like God once "chose" the Jews.
Nevertheless, there can be some truth to this idea. So long as America actually upholds and lives by the values it preaches, it can set a positive example that others want to emulate. This is also why undermining those values at home is so dangerous: it shows the world that we don't really believe what we claim to value, giving authoritarians greater license to oppose democracy and liberty in their own lands.
It's ridiculous to ascribe terrorism against America to the slogan "they hate us for our freedoms," but it is true that Muslim extremists hate the freedoms which America promotes and has. They see those freedoms as exerting a corrupting influence. The solution, then, is not to undermine those freedoms as Christian Nationalists want to do, but rather to embrace those freedoms even harder -- first for ourselves to demonstrate that you can have a strong society with them and then for others as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment