In the US, one politician is calling out the Christophobia now regnant in the Democratic Party. Ted Cruz has spoken of a "liberal fascism" in the Democratic Party, and a "rabid zealotry" in Democratic ranks. Here's an article reporting on the Senator's allegations:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Saturday said Democrats had gone to extremes in their persecution of Christians. “Today’s Democratic Party has decided there is no room for Christians in today’s Democratic Party,” he said at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition summit in Waukee, Iowa. “There is a liberal fascism that is going after Christian believers,” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate continued. “It is heartbreaking,” Cruz argued. “But it is so extreme, it is waking people up.”
Cruz said same-sex marriage had produced rabid zealotry in Democratic ranks. This ideology, he argued, was excluding people of faith.“Today’s Democratic Party has become so radicalized for legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states that there is no longer any room for religious liberty,” he said.
The Texas lawmaker said this stance was against America’s traditional values. Religious liberty, Cruz claimed, was one of the nation’s founding principles. “We were founded by men and women fleeing religious persecution,” Cruz declared. “We need leaders who will stand unapologetically in defense of the Judeo-Christian values upon which America was built,” he concluded. [The Hill]
When people are genuine (rather than nominal) believers in a religious or philosophical belief, over time their epistemological self-consciousness is likely to increase. This is particularly the case when confronted with naysayers and opposition. Genuine believers, facing criticism and opposition, are likely to "double down", as it were. "If I believe in Doctrine A, and I apply it to Situation Z, then, to be consistent, I ought to apply it as well to Situations X and Y as well." Usually such developments do not happen overnight; they are trans-generational and gradual, but all the more strong thereby.
If the card carrying Democrat earnestly believes, along with most of his confederates and collaborators, that a woman has an autonomous right over her own body such that she is perfectly justified in murdering her in-utero child, it is entirely consistent, for example, to apply the same doctrine to human sexuality. The right to one's own body must necessarily apply to "how one does sex". Orgies, homosexuality, trans-sexualism, prostitution--all of these activities will be likewise justified by the holy "right to one's own body" which was originally coined to justify abortion. This is what we mean by moving to a state of epistemological self-consciousness.
The process of moving philosophically from X to Y to Z is likely to move much more quickly in the face of opposition. Opposition is also likely to generate fanaticism that commands the removal of said opposition. Those who disagree or refuse to participate (such as bakers and photographers) must be eliminated and punished.
The process of moving philosophically from X to Y to Z is likely to move much more quickly in the face of opposition. Opposition is also likely to generate fanaticism that commands the removal of said opposition. Those who disagree or refuse to participate (such as bakers and photographers) must be eliminated and punished.
The next iteration in epistemological self-consciousness is to identify whence the opposition. Which system of beliefs, which philosophy, which religion is offering counter arguments to our beliefs? This brings Christians, churches and Christianity into the target frame. The penultimate stage of epistemological self-consciousness is to become aware of those contrary belief systems which must be opposed at any cost.
The end result, in this case, is growing Christophobia in the Democratic Party. Epistemological self-consciousness is making the Democratic Party more consistent with its actual beliefs and principles. More and more it is identifying Christ's followers as the ideological enemy which must be opposed at any cost.
Persecution of opponents and naysayers will be the ultimate, final stage in secular epistemological self-consciousness. Why? Because there is no restraining or limiting principle within secularism itself which demands and requires liberty and tolerance. The more epistemologically self-conscious the secularist Democratic Party becomes, the more militant and authoritarian and oppressive it will become.
In the short term, expect more and more liberal fascism (to use Ted Cruz's expression). In the long run, expect a more pure, holy, and epistemologically self-conscious Christian community which will ultimately triumph. But not by means of authoritarian oppression. Christ has forbade that way. Unbelief, however, in the end has only that way. Realising that is part of Christian epistemological self-consciousness.
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