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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow the Christian Right Plays Victim While Imposing Its Ideology on America
http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-christian-right-plays-victim-while-imposing-its-ideology-americaReligious freedom and separation of church and state have always been hated concepts to the religious right. Indeed, its fair to say that the religious right exists to fight any legal or cultural support for people who dont want their narrow definition of Christianity foisted on them. From objecting to gay marriage to trying to wedge creationism in schools, the religious right exists as a political movement for the purpose of stripping away religious freedom and establishing their religious beliefs as the dominant organizing force in law, politics and culture.
So why then are we hearing all these people who live their lives attacking religious freedom complaining all the time that religious freedom is under attack from liberals? Why does every religious-right publication and event echo the claim that right-wing Christians are somehow being stripped of the very right to religious freedom the right has worked tirelessly to take from everyone else for decades?
The simple answer is theyre lying. Claiming the mantle of victimhood is so politically potent that religious-right leaders are going to do it, no matter how untrue it is, because, to be blunt, theyre not held back by any moral interest in honesty. Getting Grandma to think she's going to lose her church is a great way to get her to sign her Social Security check over to your organization.
The longer answer is that the religious right has concocted a new strategy to squelch religious freedom: By redefining religious freedom to mean its opposite. The hope is that by repeatedly using the term religious freedom when they mean giving the Christian right power to impose their faith on others, they can eventually drain the phrase of all its meaning and finally, after decades of fighting secularism, make it easier for the religious right to strip away individual
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How the Christian Right Plays Victim While Imposing Its Ideology on America (Original Post)
xchrom
Dec 2013
OP
LisaLynne
(14,554 posts)1. Great article - thanks for posting
From the article:
Thats what the religious right means by religious freedom: The removal of your right to have your own beliefs, free from interference by people who have power over you.
Yep, that's exactly it.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)2. That is a good article. nt