Christians are “far right” and “intolerant”

Conservative Christians are “far right” and “intolerant”, and so are those who believe that our culture’s moral failings are a root cause of many of our nation’s failings.

Who says?  And why do they say it?

Those who make these accusations are most often leftists, socialists, progressives, communists, liberals and Democrats, and perverts.  But not all.

Where have we heard that before?

Yes, keep it.  As  long as you don’t take it outside the walls of the church.

Some who think of themselves as “conservative”, but only in the fiscal sense, also share this view.  These are “libertarian conservatives.”  Do anything you want.  Morality isn’t all that important, so long as we lower our taxes, have a smaller government and have less regulation. The importance of the family unit?  Pffssst.  Gay marriage.  Who cares.  Porn?  Why not?  This list could be long and the components of it vary by individual.

Another label for this type of semi-conservative is “fiscally conservative progressive.”  Man does this ruffles feathers.  Dare suggest this label and the semi-conservative is liable to call you a bigot.

In reality, the libertarian conservative and the progressive do have much in common.  They both dislike rules and laws.  They both consider moral standards a bit archaic and a distraction from the “real” issues.  They both feel that religion, generally, unless of the liberal, feel good, casual sort, is an artifact of the past.  They both feel that humanity has progressed above all that.  We are in a new era of self-actualization unshackled from the mythical taboos of previous archaic cultures and religions.

Of course there are differences between libertarian conservatives and progressives.  Progressives have jettisoned religion and morality so they can build up their utopia via their new god:  Big Government.

Libertarian conservatives still may claim some components of Judeo-Christian morality such as pro-life or the golden rule.  They just don’t like to feel that there is a culturally or religiously defined morality expected of them.

This goes to one of the root differences in world view:  Are humans inherently good and selfless, or are we inherently evil and self-serving? If we are inherently good, we can rely on the goodness of a man-made government.  If not, we need to rely on a higher standard; a higher power.  Progressives and libertarians tend to share the former view.  Social conservatives tend to share the latter view. 

The problem with dismissing the importance of cultural moral peer pressure is that the lack of it paves the way to progressivism.  If there is a low view of the value of morality in the shaping and goodness of our culture, there is with it a low view of God who expects some level of moral obedience.  That provides a clear path to reliance on government to replace the void left by the absence of religion-based morality.  Rules of behavior become personal, random, anything goes – and government is left to clean up the mess – or make the mess worse.

Am I intolerant for suggesting such things?  The true libertarian conservative would say “whatever – do what you want – everyone’s entitled.”

The fiscally conservative progressive would accuse me of being an intolerant hater and play the religious, gender, or racial persecution card.

I have this bad feeling that the growth of libertarian and progressive influence in this country will soon justify social conservatives playing their own persecution card.  We will (or have) become a small minority among a population of thieves, perverts, degenerates, and libertarians who are offended by the mere existence of the beliefs of others in universal moral standards and will become actively intolerant toward those who don’t share their moral relativity (do your own thing morality).

Yes, a book about this problem (actually there are many).