The recent FP posting regarding Reverend Muthee made me write this diary. It is about something I’ve been thinking about quite a lot lately. I think I’ve been holding off on a diary on it because it seems so important to me. I didn’t want to put the time into writing it up and watching it fly down the recent diary list; pushed by stupid reposts of the same freaking poll that has been posted about 20 times already, someone telling us the colossal mistakes Obama is making by not sending yard signs to her and her neighbors, or someone who just had to tell us how funny Jon Stewart was tonight. That said, I’d appreciate and will respond to feedback if anyone is willing to post some.
I’m not a religious person. I've recently been having exchanges with several colleagues of mine in academia that I respect a great deal (and who I think are very smart people) and who are very religious as well. These guys have pointed out to me the fact the left’s utter dismissiveness of their views, just because they are seen as having faith, has pissed and is pissing them off enough to push them away from our side.
These are people that agree with us on most things, but who feel slighted because everyone assumes they are idiots as soon as they find out they are religious. Well, they're not idiots. They just see things differently.
Fact is the majority of Americans claim to be people of faith. Making fun of them and calling them crazy (even if they are) is fucking stupid and not going to win votes. Telling them how scary they are doesn't help either. Understanding that their faith doesn't preclude them from having reasonable views on many secular issues would really help us (democrats and progressives)
One of my colleagues recently wrote me the following in an email:
How many times do the religious people have to shoot down well-spoken, intelligent, brilliant but secular candidates in favor of believing goofballs before the intellectuals stop thinking about religion as nutty? Because this is what I think is going on. People who
vote for McCain over Obama (of whom I might be one) are taking his obvious talent as a signal that he holds a world view in which they are just dummies. And they are going to vote against that world view every time, because religion is central to their lives.
Some day, educated progressives will come to respect and understand that an intelligent, caring, sensitive person can make religious commitment an integral part of his life, and live well and nobly for it. Until then, they will continue to see the middle part of America as a wasteland of mindless idiots. And those idiots will just keep voting against the talented folks that the progressives put before them.
The progressive agenda is not going to dominate in this country until it loses its secular snobbishness. Until then, religious people are going to reject it over and over.
Like it or not, we are not gonna win the religion issue with religious people. Wouldn’t a far more practical approach be to accept them for who they are and find common ground? Most of all, shouldn’t we show them and their views respect? Wouldn’t that be what you’d want? I believe that is Barack’s message actually. Certainly, dismissing people out of hand because they hold a few beliefs that differ from our own (even if those issues are really important to us) isn’t likely to get them to see things the way we do or vote for a candidate that we support (even if that might be in their interest in many resects). Quite the opposite actually. It drives them away from our candidates, often simply to spite us. The sooner we embrace this idea, the sooner we can get to build a true lasting majority (you listening Bill Maher?).
Just to be clear, by the way, I am not talking about shitheads like those freaks that show up with "God Hates Fags" signs at soldier funerals. They suck and have no respect for anyone. I am however, talking about people who take issues based on religion, such as opposing abortion, based on their religious beliefs. That doesn’t mean they are idiots. In fact, we may agree with many of these people on a great number of issues. But telling them they are stupid, laughing at them, or making fun of them does us no good. In fact, it makes us assholes, and probably hurts our cause more than most people realize.
Look, I’m an atheist. But this series of dialogs with my colleagues has made me aware of a really serious issue with regard to respecting the faith of religious people. For years I’ve thought of these people as my ideological enemies on most things simply because I thought they got their values from a ridiculous source. Fact is, where they get them from is irrelevant. That they have them, and that they believe them to be just as guiding and important in their lives as my values are in mine, is the only important issue. That is their reality. Making fun of them, or calling them crazy is certainly not going to change their minds. It will however, make them mad at you and think you don’t respect them.
If we really want to change the world in a way that we think would make it better; based largely or entirely on progressive values, it would really behoove us to stop dismissing all of those who see things differently. Let’s lay off the religion hating, try seeing the world from other people’s perspectives, and try to work with them to make the world a better place.