For those wondering how Hollywood celebrities and their ilk come to their views on Islamist terrorism, here is their logic.
Premise: Religion as truth-claim is meaningless.
Conclusion: One religion is as good (or bad) as another.
Premise: Religion as culture is meaningful.
Premise: All cultures are morally equivalent.
Conclusion: Every religion must be equally respected and accommodated.
The obvious realities--namely, that (1) truth-claim is at the heart of religious belief, and (2) religious truth-claims are not morally neutral--are deemed a priori unacceptable. Therefore, the obvious must be assiduously avoided and an alternative explanation set forth.
So the ever politically conventional "liberal" mind falls back on one of its central tenets: the Marxist doctrine that unhelpful and unpleasant human behavior (except, of course, with respect to rich capitalists and fascist dictators) is always due to poverty, oppression and imperialism (typically of the American variety). This, then, must be the cause of the Islamifascist terrorists' zeal for mass murder and suicide pacts. The view from the political left wing simply permits no other perspective.
Rebecca Merrill Groothuis is the author of Women Caught in the Conflict and Good News for Women. She is the co-editor of Discovering Biblical Equality.
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2 comments:
Excellent post. I have expanded (a little bit) on this theme here.
Interesting look at the fallacious reasoning of some (cough*Sean Penn*cough*cough*Tim Robbins). I wonder if you've read Harold Brown's book THE SENSATE CULTURE. In it, he suggests that people who are most critical of Western culture are those who are in prominent and protected positions whose status is likely to go unchallenged for some time. Certainly, that's the case with the Hollywood types you mention.
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