Monday, July 25, 2011

Baffling Mystery Explained

Something which has always puzzled me is the way extreme right-wingers like to claim, with a straight face, that American liberals are somehow colluding with Islamist fundamentalists to... to what? Destroy America, I guess. And this is obviously the most perplexing theory, since the former is so completely incompatible with the latter. How does one reconcile the classic tropes of American liberalism (Racial equality! Equal rights for women! Tolerance for hairdressers and interior decorators!) with the kind of scoldy puritanism of hardcore Islam? Well, obviously you can't. Erick Erickson, however, the proprietor of Red State, and an obviously odious individual somehow taken seriously by mainstream news organizations, gives it the old college (or at least dorm room) try:

Secular leftists and Islamists are both of this world. Christians may be traveling through, but we are most definitely not of the world. In fact, Christ commands us to throw off our ties to this world. But the things of this world love this world and hate the things of God. That’s why secular leftism can embrace both activist homosexuals and activist muslims when the latter would, when true to their faith, be happy to kill the former.

All of them can pile on and condemn the Christian because the Christian is just passing through, a stranger in a strange land.

See? It all makes sense now!

16 comments:

drew in sf said...

Since last Friday I'm tired of calling this pee-pants bullshit anything but what it is, and that's Fairytales for Fascists. Anyone who speaks this Christian supremacist foulness should be smacked upside the head with the Pope's own censer, at a minimum. If there is a Devil in the world it most definitely lives with those assholes. I'm currently in favor of proactive intolerance of all culture haters and other fascists.

Anonymous said...

Wait a minute, you guys! I'm pretty sure he just argued that Christians do not exist. This is the best possible thing.

Matthew Hubbard said...

But what if a secular leftist practices Buddhism? They also believe they are just passing through. Almost all the New Age re-incarnation types are "passing through" as well, and while New Age isn't 100% leftist, it's pretty darn leftist.

And then we have the Christians like Erik Rudolph and Breivik, who think that since they are just "passing through", there's nothing to stop them from blowing up our shit before they leave.

Honestly, these are the worst kind of house guests imaginable.

Diane Griffin said...

If the Christians are "just passing through, how come they feel the need to rule everything and force everyone to live to their standards?

re: Buddhism -- the Buddhism I practice is not thinking about any pure land far away or about some other life I might live in the future. My Buddhist practice is all about here & now, and not just me, but everyone. The philosophy is to take responsibility for your own happiness, and by creating your own happiness in an enlightened way, you can lift up the people around you -- world peace is created one person at a time, and both heaven and hell are contained within each of our own bodies.

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth Muslims are passing through as well, if you take Islam's mainstream dogma about the afterlife as a given. I doubt the Islamists see it any differently.

RandyH said...

I never thought of myself as religious until I read this.

Hear me World! I Hereby announce that I am a "Secular Leftist" because Erick Erickson just told me so. And I declare my home to be a Grand Church of Secular Leftism. So I won't be paying taxes anymore.

How do you like that?

smapdi said...

I need a tactical hairdoo update, stat.

ErgoDan said...

I'm with dianeg on this one.

Christians are just passing through - the same could be said for the proverbial bull in a china shop.

Lulu Maude said...

not of this world, my ass. Not of This World folks don't need tax breaks for the rich and God Wants His People To Prosper screeds. Christianity is unrecognizable from (to?) its founder.

If you want an atrocity handled cruelly well, give the job to a fundamentalist of any stripe.

HRH King Friday XIII, Ret. said...

Christian fundamentalism is Islamic fundamentalism in drag.

Major Mel Funkshun said...

If Jesus Christ were to return today, Erik, son of Erik, would greet him with a couple of boards and a bag of nails.

samael7 said...

Pass through faster, please, Erick.

Glennis said...

f Jesus Christ were to return today, Erik, son of Erik, would greet him with a couple of boards and a bag of nails.

Erik, son of Erick would probably waterboard Jesus first.

TexasYankee said...

That made my eyes bleed. A lot.

Loonesta said...

If Xtians are not of this world, why don't they stay the hell out of it? Why do Christers feel they have the right to constantly, incessantly try to meddle in its functioning?

Cranky Old Batt said...

Grand Church of Secular Leftism.

Fabulous.