All The Religious Right Wants To Do Is Legislate Against The Left's Pursuit Of Sweetness And Light

Mark Shea points to a USA Today column about the double standard by which religious reasons for leftist causes are seen to be okay by the MSM and the intelligensia, but not for rightist causes. The column has garnered a large number of comments (mostly from liberals).

One comment says:

I think that in any debate about the policy goals of the religious right and the liberal left, it is important to note the nature of the policy changes that each side advocates. Typically, the left seeks to expand the scope of personal freedom by making such activities as abortion, marijuana use, gay marriage, etc. legal. While the right may find such activities abhorrent, the legality of those activities does not impose their practice on religious conservatives. The common argument is that religious conservatives are then forced to live in a society the nature of which they are not comfortable with, but every American finds some aspects of society discomfroting. I find it discomforting that the president believe he has a personal relationship with (what I believe to be) an imaginary, supposedly omnipotent and omniscient being. Even so, I would rather live with this that leave America. In the same way, religious conservatives should learn to live with things they find objectionable but are not forced to do.

In contrast to the left, the right typically seeks in its political goals to restrict the legality of a broad range of activities. No abortions, no gay marriages, etc. I would argue that christian conservatives have stake in whether I marry a man or not (though I am not in fact gay), and thus should not be in the business of restricting my ability to do so should I want to. In most cases (not all, there are leftists who try to restrict rights and I find them as objectionable as christian conservatives), the right seeks to restrict our freedoms while the left seeks to expand them. Both the left and the right make open value judgements about one another, but only the right tries to legislate the rights of their opponents out of existence.

Posted by: tom

My reply is as follows:

Tom--

I'm going to reword your post, and plug in "owning Negro slaves" where you talk about abortion. The right looks at abortion as the killing of the weak and defenseless because they inconvenience the strong. To them, it is something that needs to be fought, just as slavery was. Is your genuine response to that belief, simply "shut up, it's none of your business"? Can you see why the right isn't just going to roll over as you suggest? Anyway here is your post, with the changes. This is the logic you are essentially presenting to those on the right, who, unsurprisingly, do not find it at all convincing:

"I think that in any debate about the policy goals of the religious right and the liberal left, it is important to note the nature of the policy changes that each side advocates. Typically, the left seeks to expand the scope of personal freedom by making such activities as owning slaves, marijuana use, gay marriage, etc. legal. While the right may find such activities abhorrent, the legality of those activities does not impose their practice on religious conservatives. The common argument is that religious conservatives are then forced to live in a society the nature of which they are not comfortable with, but every American finds some aspects of society discomfroting. I find it discomforting that the president believe he has a personal relationship with (what I believe to be) an imaginary, supposedly omnipotent and omniscient being. Even so, I would rather live with this that leave America. In the same way, religious conservatives should learn to live with things they find objectionable, like owning slaves, but are not forced to do.

In contrast to the left, the right typically seeks in its political goals to restrict the legality of a broad range of activities. No owning slaves, no gay marriages, etc. I would argue that christian conservatives have no stake in whether I enslave Negroes or not (though I am not in fact a slave owner), and thus should not be in the business of restricting my ability to do so should I want to. In most cases (not all, there are leftists who try to restrict rights and I find them as objectionable as christian conservatives), the right seeks to restrict our freedoms while the left seeks to expand them. Both the left and the right make open value judgements about one another, but only the right tries to legislate the rights of their opponents out of existence. The left just wants to go about its business, and do with its Negro fieldworker slaves whatever it wishes. It is no business of the right's."