Fools Like You

This election confirms the brilliance of Karl Rove as a political strategist. He calculated that the religious conservatives, if they could be turned out, would be the deciding factor. The success of the plan was registered not only in the presidential results but also in all 11 of the state votes to ban same-sex marriage. Mr. Rove understands what surveys have shown, that many more Americans believe in the Virgin Birth than in Darwin's theory of evolution.

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The results bring to mind a visit the Dalai Lama made to Chicago not long ago. I was one of the people deputized to ask him questions on the stage at the Field Museum. He met with the interrogators beforehand and asked us to give him challenging questions, since he is too often greeted with deference or flattery.

The only one I could think of was: "If you could return to your country, what would you do to change it?" He said that he would disestablish his religion, since "America is the proper model." I later asked him if a pluralist society were possible without the Enlightenment. "Ah," he said. "That's the problem." He seemed to envy America its Enlightenment heritage.

Which raises the question: Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation? (Gary Wills, "The Day the Enlightenment Went Out," New York Times, November 4, 2004)

I certainly hope not, Mr. Wills. I certainly hope we're on our way back from the nightmare of so-called "enlightenment."

Because the Enlightenment has given us a slew of arrogant pseudo-intellectuals like Mr. Wills: intolerant and nasty people who oppress and mock the "religious conservatives," the poor foolish and unwashed masses who still believe in childish superstitions like the Virgin Birth.

The Enlightened (or, if you prefer the Latin, Illuminati) are hell-bent on forever silencing nuisances like me. They would love to see me and people who think like me (maybe you?) marginalized and laughed off the stage of history. They will violently protest when the "fanatics" of the Right want to do things like pray in public, put up manger scenes at Christmas, or preserve historical monuments that have references to God engraved on them.

All of this they will do, while publicly and loudly proclaiming themselves to be tolerant and accepting of all people and beliefs.

It is this hypocrisy that is most maddening.

At least I'm honest. At least I'm consistent. I come from a religious heritage that waged militant warfare against infidels and heretics when those same infidels and heretics tried to oppress the "religious conservatives." I come from a religious heritage that has absolutely no problem proclaiming, even as many as three times in solemn dogmatic formulae, that we and we alone have the Truth, and that outside this Church there is no salvation.

That's intolerance, for sure, but we make no apologies for it. We don't hide it. We stand by it.

But the Enlightened don't have the guts to speak the truth about their own position. They're just as intolerant as I am - they will insist on promoting their liberal agenda in public places, while simultaneously denying my opinions any kind of voice in the public square - ironically enough, because my opinions are deemed by them "intolerant."

They love and embrace all religious beliefs - except mine. They respect all philosophical opinions and religious practices - except mine.

Believe just about anything you want, and they'll hail you as one of the Enlightened; but believe in the Virgin Birth, and they'll sneer at you and mock you in print.

It's days like these that I yearn for the Crusades and the Inquisition ...

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By the way, I've begun to adopt the language of the Enlightened when I have to deal with them in the public arena, and I highly recommend that you do the same. That is, if I hear someone take God's name in vain, or openly discussing the merits of fornication, I no longer whine to them about being "offended." No, I step up and demand that they stop "oppressing my religious freedom." If they jeer at me for having out-moded ideas, I inform them that I won't tolerate them committing "hate crimes" against me.

Two can play at this game.