Inclusivity Means Accepting Everyone's Views - Even Israel Folau's
Karl du Fresne
Dominion Post
Something's not quite right here. The 21st-century buzzwords are diversity and inclusivity, but they seem to be applied very selectively.
It seems we're in favour of diversity and inclusivity if we're talking about race, colour, gender and sexual identity, the latter two of which keep spinning off into ever-new permutations. But puzzlingly, we're only partially tolerant when it comes to religious belief.
We are encouraged to be tolerant toward Islam, especially since the Christchurch atrocities, and so we should be. The right to practise one's religion, at least unless it interferes with the rights of others, is one we should all unquestioningly support. This applies even when secular society disapproves of some of those religions, or scratches its collective head in bemusement at their practices and beliefs.
But if freedom of religion is one cornerstone of a free society, so is freedom of expression, which includes the right to subject religion, along with every other institution of society, to critical scrutiny and even ridicule.
Virtually all religions – whether we're talking Catholicism, Mormonism, Judaism, the Destiny Church or the Exclusive Brethren – possess what, to non-believers, are quirks, absurdities, hypocrisies and cruelties that render them ripe for mockery and condemnation. For decades, comedians and satirists have taken joyous, blasphemous advantage of this freedom. How people laughed, for example, at Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, with its wickedly subversive song Every Sperm is Sacred – a dig at Catholic teaching on birth control.
If it offended devout Catholics – well, tough. Freedom to ridicule is the flipside of freedom to worship.
Showing posts with label Intolerance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intolerance. Show all posts
Thursday, 23 May 2019
Tuesday, 13 November 2018
Signs of the Times
Oppressive Intolerance in the UK
The Barnabas Fund recently published a booklet on the beginnings of state persecution in the modern era against Christians in the UK. It describes the following case study:
The Barnabas Fund recently published a booklet on the beginnings of state persecution in the modern era against Christians in the UK. It describes the following case study:
In February 2017, a CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) lawyer in England told the Bristol Magistrates Court that publicly quoting from the King James Bible "in the context of modern British society, must be considered to be abusive and is a criminal matter.
The lawyer was speaking at the trial of two men arrested in 2016 for preaching in a Bristol shopping area. The police arrested the men not because of how they were preaching but because of what they were preaching. During the trial, the CPS lawyer went on to claim:
"To say to someone that Jesus is the only God is not a matter of truth. To the extent that they are saying that the only way to God is through Jesus, that cannot be a truth."
After the trial, the street preachers' solicitor, Michael Phillips, expressed his concern at the actions of the CPS: "This prosecution is nothing more then a modern-day heresy trial--dressed up under the Public Order Act."This is not an isolated case, as the Barnabas Fund booklet goes on to demonstrate.
Wednesday, 24 October 2018
The Neutering of Rabid Intolerance
A Christian Man Receives Justice
The Forces Of Religious Intolerance in the US Are Taking a Hit
By David French
National Review Online
In a groundbreaking win for religious liberty, former fire chief Kelvin Cochran has reached a $1.2 million settlement with the city of Atlanta.
A good man’s legal ordeal is at an end. Yesterday, my friends and former colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom announced that former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran had reached a $1.2 million settlement, ending a case he brought after the city fired him for writing — and distributing to a select few city employees — a self-published book that articulated an entirely orthodox Christian view of sex and marriage.
The facts of the case were egregious from the beginning. Cochran was a pioneer — born in Confederate Memorial Hospital in Shreveport, La., he grew up to become one of the first black firefighters hired by his hometown fire department. He ultimately became the first black fire chief of Shreveport.
He continued to ascend the ranks of firefighters, becoming Atlanta’s fire chief, and then, in 2009, Barack Obama appointed him to run the Fire Administration, a division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
After Cochran left Atlanta, the fire department struggled. So Atlanta’s mayor recruited him back, and Cochran turned the department around so thoroughly that it for the first time received the nation’s highest fire-protection rating. The cornerstone of his effort to transform the department’s morale was a “participatory management structure” that solicited input from “every rank, race, shift, and gender.”
He consciously included LGBT employees, granting — in his words — “every group a voice.” As I wrote when his case went to court, to this point Cochran’s story was one that would make even a university diversity officer rejoice. He overcame poverty and discrimination to ascend to the pinnacle of his profession, where he implemented an inclusive management style that improved employee morale.
But Cochran is also a Christian, and — soon enough — that presented a problem that was fatal to his career.
The Forces Of Religious Intolerance in the US Are Taking a Hit
By David French
National Review Online
 |
| Former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran |
In a groundbreaking win for religious liberty, former fire chief Kelvin Cochran has reached a $1.2 million settlement with the city of Atlanta.
A good man’s legal ordeal is at an end. Yesterday, my friends and former colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom announced that former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran had reached a $1.2 million settlement, ending a case he brought after the city fired him for writing — and distributing to a select few city employees — a self-published book that articulated an entirely orthodox Christian view of sex and marriage.
The facts of the case were egregious from the beginning. Cochran was a pioneer — born in Confederate Memorial Hospital in Shreveport, La., he grew up to become one of the first black firefighters hired by his hometown fire department. He ultimately became the first black fire chief of Shreveport.
He continued to ascend the ranks of firefighters, becoming Atlanta’s fire chief, and then, in 2009, Barack Obama appointed him to run the Fire Administration, a division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
After Cochran left Atlanta, the fire department struggled. So Atlanta’s mayor recruited him back, and Cochran turned the department around so thoroughly that it for the first time received the nation’s highest fire-protection rating. The cornerstone of his effort to transform the department’s morale was a “participatory management structure” that solicited input from “every rank, race, shift, and gender.”
He consciously included LGBT employees, granting — in his words — “every group a voice.” As I wrote when his case went to court, to this point Cochran’s story was one that would make even a university diversity officer rejoice. He overcame poverty and discrimination to ascend to the pinnacle of his profession, where he implemented an inclusive management style that improved employee morale.
But Cochran is also a Christian, and — soon enough — that presented a problem that was fatal to his career.
Wednesday, 17 October 2018
Scottish Authorities Are On the Sauce
A Message to the Bigots in Scotland
Michael Brown
The Stream
The Scottish government and Police Scotland funded billboard as part of their One Scotland campaign, condemning hate crimes and encouraging people to report hate crimes. The campaign specifically targets what it alleges is religious bigotry as a lack of "faith in respect and love."
A new billboard campaign in Scotland is calling out “homophobes” and “transphobes,” focusing in particular on religious “bigots.” In reality, it is the billboard campaign that is fear-based and bigoted.
One billboard reads: “Dear bigots, division seems to be what you believe in. We don’t want your religious hate on our buses, on our streets and in our communities. We don’t want you spreading your intolerance. Or making people’s lives a misery because of their religious dress. You may not have faith in respect and love, but we do. That’s why if we see or hear your hate, we’re reporting you. End of sermon. Yours, Scotland.”
Another reads: “Dear transphobes, do you think it’s right to harass people in the street? Right to push transgender people around in clubs? Right to humiliate, intimidate and threaten them online? Well we don’t. That’s why if we see you doing harm, we’re reporting you. We believe people should be allowed to be themselves. Except if they’re spreading hate. Yours, Scotland.”
And still another: “Dear homophobes, we have a phobia of your behaviour. If you torment people because of who they love, shout word that we are not going to write, or use violence because you don’t like who someone is holding hands with, you should be worried. If we see or hear your abuse, we’re calling the police. That’s because love lives in this country, not hate. Yours, Scotland.”
Hate Speech: The New (Ambiguous) Priority
On the one hand, we stand with Scotland in denouncing any harassment of those who identify as LGBT. And we condemn any violence against those same people. Categorically, absolutely, and without caveat.
Unfortunately, in the eyes of many in Scotland, simply reading the Bible on a street corner could be considered “harassment.” Quoting Scripture could be deemed verbal “violence.” And even delivering a sermon condemning homosexual practice as sin could be viewed as tormenting someone because of “who they love.”
As the “Word to the Bigots” billboard makes clear, it is “religious hate” that is being targeted and religious “intolerance” that is the culprit. The message is loud and clear. Those who oppose homosexuality or transgenderism do not “have faith in respect and love.”
Michael Brown
The Stream
The Scottish government and Police Scotland funded billboard as part of their One Scotland campaign, condemning hate crimes and encouraging people to report hate crimes. The campaign specifically targets what it alleges is religious bigotry as a lack of "faith in respect and love."
A new billboard campaign in Scotland is calling out “homophobes” and “transphobes,” focusing in particular on religious “bigots.” In reality, it is the billboard campaign that is fear-based and bigoted.
One billboard reads: “Dear bigots, division seems to be what you believe in. We don’t want your religious hate on our buses, on our streets and in our communities. We don’t want you spreading your intolerance. Or making people’s lives a misery because of their religious dress. You may not have faith in respect and love, but we do. That’s why if we see or hear your hate, we’re reporting you. End of sermon. Yours, Scotland.”
Another reads: “Dear transphobes, do you think it’s right to harass people in the street? Right to push transgender people around in clubs? Right to humiliate, intimidate and threaten them online? Well we don’t. That’s why if we see you doing harm, we’re reporting you. We believe people should be allowed to be themselves. Except if they’re spreading hate. Yours, Scotland.”
And still another: “Dear homophobes, we have a phobia of your behaviour. If you torment people because of who they love, shout word that we are not going to write, or use violence because you don’t like who someone is holding hands with, you should be worried. If we see or hear your abuse, we’re calling the police. That’s because love lives in this country, not hate. Yours, Scotland.”
Hate Speech: The New (Ambiguous) Priority
On the one hand, we stand with Scotland in denouncing any harassment of those who identify as LGBT. And we condemn any violence against those same people. Categorically, absolutely, and without caveat.
Unfortunately, in the eyes of many in Scotland, simply reading the Bible on a street corner could be considered “harassment.” Quoting Scripture could be deemed verbal “violence.” And even delivering a sermon condemning homosexual practice as sin could be viewed as tormenting someone because of “who they love.”
As the “Word to the Bigots” billboard makes clear, it is “religious hate” that is being targeted and religious “intolerance” that is the culprit. The message is loud and clear. Those who oppose homosexuality or transgenderism do not “have faith in respect and love.”
Monday, 23 July 2018
Shut Up, Or We Will Shut You Down
"I'm Triggered By Your Ugly Speech"
The Iron Fist Inside the Velvet Glove
David Farrar at Kiwiblog has directed readers to some material on Free Speech. The topic is timely at the moment, because of (successful) attempts to stifle the free speech of New Zealanders. Naturally, folk attempting to shut people up or shout them down so that no-one can hear what they are saying ooze with self-righteousness. They paternalistically see themselves as protecting others from ideas or opinions which might upset them or damage their self-esteem.
Robert Guest, Foreign Editor for The Economist responded recently to some questions about speech and why free speech must be maintained as a fundamental human right. We scarcely need to remind our readers that Christians have a significant interest in this issue. Unbelief always stands ready to shut down Christian discourse and proclamation, given half a chance. The ultimate champion of such repression is Satan. The last thing the demonic realms want is an open, free proclamation of Christ and His Kingdom.
Here is Robert Guest's take on why the right of free speech is so fundamental to civilisation.
Why are we so passionate about free speech? It is not just because The Economist is a newspaper. It is also because free speech is the best defence against bad government. Everyone should be at liberty to berate politicians. Constructive criticism can alert them to things they are doing wrong, and perhaps persuade them to change course. Mockery, even unfair mockery, is part of the rough and tumble of democracy. No government can be trusted with the power to silence it.
Secondly, in all areas of life, freewheeling debate helps to sort good ideas from bad ones. Science cannot progress unless old certainties are questioned—remember how the Inquisition threatened Galileo with torture for claiming that the Earth orbits the Sun?
Limits on speech are in effect limits on thought. So censorship makes it harder for us to understand the world. When a government orders statisticians to fudge the numbers, as happens in all kinds of places, it ensures that its own policymaking will be poorly informed. When academics declare certain topics “too controversial” to discuss, they hinder the quest for knowledge.
The law should recognise the right to free speech as nearly absolute. There should be very few exceptions to this rule.
Wednesday, 7 March 2018
Relentless Intolerance
The Wrong Kind of Catholic School
Do Christian Institutions Have a Right to Exist?
John Stonestreet & G. Shane Morris
Breakpoint
Here’s an outrageous proposition: Maybe Christian schools should be able to require their teachers to adhere to Christian teaching.
Peter and Paul Catholic School in Miami recently made national headlines for terminating the employment of first grade teacher Jocelyn Morffi. The reason was that Morffi had just announced her “marriage” to her lesbian partner. “In their eyes I’m not the right kind of Catholic,” Morffi complained on social media.
According to the Washington Post, “dozens of angry parents” showed up at the school the following day and demanded an explanation. Local politicians took time from their busy schedules to likewise wag their fingers at the school.
“It’s 2018,” said openly gay Florida State House Representative, David Richardson. “But you may be surprised to learn that you can be fired from your employment not just because of gay marriage but also because you’re gay.” Although there’s nothing in the story that confirms the last part of his allegation, Richardson still thinks the whole affair “underscores the need” for state and federal legislation prohibiting discrimination.
Of course, Miami-Dade County already has a local ordinance forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. But there is a religious exception.
In response, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese gently reminded the media that Morffi was, in fact, a teacher at a Catholic school. As part of her job, she signed a contract pledging to follow the Catholic Church’s teaching—including its teaching on marriage.
Do Christian Institutions Have a Right to Exist?
John Stonestreet & G. Shane Morris
Breakpoint
Here’s an outrageous proposition: Maybe Christian schools should be able to require their teachers to adhere to Christian teaching.
Peter and Paul Catholic School in Miami recently made national headlines for terminating the employment of first grade teacher Jocelyn Morffi. The reason was that Morffi had just announced her “marriage” to her lesbian partner. “In their eyes I’m not the right kind of Catholic,” Morffi complained on social media.
According to the Washington Post, “dozens of angry parents” showed up at the school the following day and demanded an explanation. Local politicians took time from their busy schedules to likewise wag their fingers at the school.
“It’s 2018,” said openly gay Florida State House Representative, David Richardson. “But you may be surprised to learn that you can be fired from your employment not just because of gay marriage but also because you’re gay.” Although there’s nothing in the story that confirms the last part of his allegation, Richardson still thinks the whole affair “underscores the need” for state and federal legislation prohibiting discrimination.
Of course, Miami-Dade County already has a local ordinance forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. But there is a religious exception.
In response, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese gently reminded the media that Morffi was, in fact, a teacher at a Catholic school. As part of her job, she signed a contract pledging to follow the Catholic Church’s teaching—including its teaching on marriage.
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
Letter From the UK (About An Open Assault on Free Speech)
Egregious Intolerance From the Secularists
Editorial
The Barnabas Fund
The freedom to report both incidents of anti-Christian persecution and the ideology motivating such attacks is central to what Barnabas Fund and other organisations have done for many years. Yet those freedoms are now under threat, particularly in the UK, but also in other Western countries. This is a three-pronged attack.
First, although the press has been free from government regulation since 1694, there is now a serious possibility that the government will require all media outlets with multiple writers to sign up to a state sponsored press regulator. If they do not, in the event that they are sued, they will have to pay both their own and the complainant’s legal costs, even if they win. In other words, they could be quickly bankrupted. To make matters worse, several senior figures of this new regulator, including its CEO, are reported to be strong supporters of a campaign to stop major brands advertising with the Daily Express and Daily Mail because of their alleged negative portrayal of religious minorities. In fact, these two newspapers have repeatedly spoken out against Islamism and the persecution of Christians in Islamic countries – it was the Sunday Express front page, closely followed by the Daily Mail, that published the story Barnabas Fund first broke of archbishops from Syria and Iraq being denied UK visit visas to attend the consecration of the UK’s first Syriac Orthodox cathedral.
The second threat (as Barnabas Fund reported last summer) comes from an agreement between the EU and Internet companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter to take down any internet posts within 24 hours if what were termed “civil society” groups claimed they constituted “hate speech”. This effectively allowed lobby groups, including Islamists, to censor opinions they disagreed with by getting their members to mass report them.
Editorial
The Barnabas Fund
The freedom to report both incidents of anti-Christian persecution and the ideology motivating such attacks is central to what Barnabas Fund and other organisations have done for many years. Yet those freedoms are now under threat, particularly in the UK, but also in other Western countries. This is a three-pronged attack.
First, although the press has been free from government regulation since 1694, there is now a serious possibility that the government will require all media outlets with multiple writers to sign up to a state sponsored press regulator. If they do not, in the event that they are sued, they will have to pay both their own and the complainant’s legal costs, even if they win. In other words, they could be quickly bankrupted. To make matters worse, several senior figures of this new regulator, including its CEO, are reported to be strong supporters of a campaign to stop major brands advertising with the Daily Express and Daily Mail because of their alleged negative portrayal of religious minorities. In fact, these two newspapers have repeatedly spoken out against Islamism and the persecution of Christians in Islamic countries – it was the Sunday Express front page, closely followed by the Daily Mail, that published the story Barnabas Fund first broke of archbishops from Syria and Iraq being denied UK visit visas to attend the consecration of the UK’s first Syriac Orthodox cathedral.
The second threat (as Barnabas Fund reported last summer) comes from an agreement between the EU and Internet companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter to take down any internet posts within 24 hours if what were termed “civil society” groups claimed they constituted “hate speech”. This effectively allowed lobby groups, including Islamists, to censor opinions they disagreed with by getting their members to mass report them.
Friday, 23 December 2016
Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow
How High Is the Water, Momma?
Blog&Mablog
Lord willing, and if the crik don’t rise, I want to write a short series of posts to help Christians understand the nature of the bigotry-avalanche coming our way. Not only so, but I want to explain how the success of the bigotry depends upon us sharing certain key assumptions with our confused masters of bastinado. They wield the stick, but we hold our feet up for them.
Not to be coy, I am writing about the impossibility of genuine secularism. Secularism only works as a veneer on a Christian culture. In short, “secularism” is fully capable of taking credit for the magnanimity shown by a Christian people, but when those Christians and their root assumptions are successfully herded into their assigned ghetto, and the central altar in the high cathedral really is an altar to that trousered ape called man, it is then that we discover how mean and petty and nasty the jackbooted totalitolerant actually are.
First, so that we have a little grist for our mill, let us take a look at what Airbnb is now doing. Excuse me—I meant to say the Airbnb community. Suppose you want to go stay somewhere, and you log on to their most welcoming website in order to make some reservations somewhere. You will now run into this.
Ten Feet High and Risin'
Douglas WilsonBlog&Mablog
Lord willing, and if the crik don’t rise, I want to write a short series of posts to help Christians understand the nature of the bigotry-avalanche coming our way. Not only so, but I want to explain how the success of the bigotry depends upon us sharing certain key assumptions with our confused masters of bastinado. They wield the stick, but we hold our feet up for them.
Not to be coy, I am writing about the impossibility of genuine secularism. Secularism only works as a veneer on a Christian culture. In short, “secularism” is fully capable of taking credit for the magnanimity shown by a Christian people, but when those Christians and their root assumptions are successfully herded into their assigned ghetto, and the central altar in the high cathedral really is an altar to that trousered ape called man, it is then that we discover how mean and petty and nasty the jackbooted totalitolerant actually are.
First, so that we have a little grist for our mill, let us take a look at what Airbnb is now doing. Excuse me—I meant to say the Airbnb community. Suppose you want to go stay somewhere, and you log on to their most welcoming website in order to make some reservations somewhere. You will now run into this.
Thursday, 23 June 2016
The Little Red Hen and Her "Helpers"
Some Speech Is More Free Than Others
Liberal democratic values apparently have limits. Only so far, and no further.
An interesting debate has broken out over free speech and diversity and tolerance in New Zealand. As in so many countries, the provocation is the vexed issues surrounding refugees. The rub: should we allow people to migrate into our country who hold views "we" find intolerant, and therefore intolerable?
The NZ Herald has devoted an editorial to the question which reeks of self-righteous smuggery. It suggests that New Zealand's liberal tolerance of ideas reflecting our view of freedom, liberty, and equality do not need promoting to potential refugees, nor do we need be concerned about inculcating these values into hearts and minds of refugees. Why,
Liberal democratic values apparently have limits. Only so far, and no further.
An interesting debate has broken out over free speech and diversity and tolerance in New Zealand. As in so many countries, the provocation is the vexed issues surrounding refugees. The rub: should we allow people to migrate into our country who hold views "we" find intolerant, and therefore intolerable?
The NZ Herald has devoted an editorial to the question which reeks of self-righteous smuggery. It suggests that New Zealand's liberal tolerance of ideas reflecting our view of freedom, liberty, and equality do not need promoting to potential refugees, nor do we need be concerned about inculcating these values into hearts and minds of refugees. Why,
those values do not need promoting. Refugees are well aware of them; those values are the reason they want to come here.Puleeze. Has not the editorial writer heard of Maslow's Heirarchy of Human Needs? To suggest that refugees are fleeing to our country because of our superior values rather than because they face starvation and death is smuggery beyond compare.
Thursday, 10 March 2016
Private Christianity Alone is Tolerable
Foxy Secularism
Secularism thinks of itself as uber tolerant. It's version of tolerance is so advanced and righteous, secularism insists upon and demands compliance with its dogma at every point. It is profoundly intolerant in the matter.
The urbane secularist will tell you that he smiles upon all religions. Why would one get upset at the equivalent of a childish nursery rhymes? Does the secularist get all wound up about Jemima Puddleduck? Does the secularist get agitated over the Christian? Never. Provided, of course, that Christianity is restricted and restrained to the private square. It has no place in the public square. The secularist's perversion of tolerance demands an exclusive hold over the public square. As soon as the Christian offers a scintilla of Christian reasoning or argumentation in the public square for a Christian position or belief, off to the gas chambers with him. The public square is for secularism only and the secularist is the sole licensed operator therein.
Now even Jemima Puddleduck, that most gullible of ducks, knows that the sly secularist fox has endless conniptions and consternations when defining what is public and what it private.
Monday, 29 February 2016
Snowflakes
You Can't Handle the Truth
An old adage has it that when you can't win the argument you speak up and shout. Volume--to weak minds--speaks volumes, pun intended. Shouting down your opponent(s) is just another way of silencing opposition. Might as well exile them, or throw them into klink, or rip out their tongues--or whatever.
The silencing of opponents is a strong indication that the case has folded. It lacks substance, credibility, and force. It is not understood. It is inchoate. It lacks compelling argument. And so forth. This is the conclusion we believe we are increasingly entitled to draw throughout the West as Christians and Conservatives are shut down and shut out.
The great tolerance buzzsaw has screamed once again.
An old adage has it that when you can't win the argument you speak up and shout. Volume--to weak minds--speaks volumes, pun intended. Shouting down your opponent(s) is just another way of silencing opposition. Might as well exile them, or throw them into klink, or rip out their tongues--or whatever.
The silencing of opponents is a strong indication that the case has folded. It lacks substance, credibility, and force. It is not understood. It is inchoate. It lacks compelling argument. And so forth. This is the conclusion we believe we are increasingly entitled to draw throughout the West as Christians and Conservatives are shut down and shut out.
The great tolerance buzzsaw has screamed once again.
Saturday, 20 February 2016
You Will Do as We Say
The Religious Narrow Mindedness of the Left
2015 will undoubtedly go down as the year the Left’s efforts to impose its absolutist ideology went well beyond targeting lecturers and graduation speakers invited to colleges.
In late spring, the University of California distributed a guide to forbidden classroom phrases, including “America is the land of opportunity” and “America is a melting pot,” to faculty at each of its 10 campuses. Later in the year, George Mason University professor Jagadish Shukla and 19 others went national with a letter to President Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, demanding they criminally prosecute any company or organization that denies climate change.
Now, in 2016, we discover that even public officials directly responsible for the safety of millions—the police chief of Cologne, Germany, and the mayor of Philadelphia, for example—have been cowed into a stunning dereliction of duty by the apostles of political correctness.
Many on the Left will argue that prescience justifies their rigidly enforced opinions. Having twice elected a liberal black president, successfully promoted gay marriage, enabled women to serve in combat roles, and taken major steps toward legalizing marijuana—all in less than a decade—liberals like to see themselves as prodding a cautious public to go where it sooner or later will agreeably follow.
Yet a much stronger case can be made that the Left’s aggressive enforcement of its ideology stems, not from any victory-inspired confidence, but from the very opposite.
2015 will undoubtedly go down as the year the Left’s efforts to impose its absolutist ideology went well beyond targeting lecturers and graduation speakers invited to colleges.
In late spring, the University of California distributed a guide to forbidden classroom phrases, including “America is the land of opportunity” and “America is a melting pot,” to faculty at each of its 10 campuses. Later in the year, George Mason University professor Jagadish Shukla and 19 others went national with a letter to President Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, demanding they criminally prosecute any company or organization that denies climate change.
Now, in 2016, we discover that even public officials directly responsible for the safety of millions—the police chief of Cologne, Germany, and the mayor of Philadelphia, for example—have been cowed into a stunning dereliction of duty by the apostles of political correctness.
Many on the Left will argue that prescience justifies their rigidly enforced opinions. Having twice elected a liberal black president, successfully promoted gay marriage, enabled women to serve in combat roles, and taken major steps toward legalizing marijuana—all in less than a decade—liberals like to see themselves as prodding a cautious public to go where it sooner or later will agreeably follow.
Yet a much stronger case can be made that the Left’s aggressive enforcement of its ideology stems, not from any victory-inspired confidence, but from the very opposite.
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow (About Totalitolerance)
Curling Up Under the Blanket
Blog&Mablog
We live in a generation that is totalitarian in principle, having accepted all the basic totalitarian premises. Denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ drives you to those premises — for if Jesus is not Lord, then there is a vacancy that men will always want to fill. Without an exhaustive rule through the predestinating love of the Father, unbelieving men will always see a job opening. They will want to fill that gap. They mimic the Father’s omnipotence, which is where we get the totalitarian part. They also try to mimic His love, which is how we get the tolerance farce. And so it is that we find ourselves suffocating under this totalitolerance.
Examples pour in daily, but here is a fresh one. Gov. Brown of California has signed a bill requiring private pro-life counseling centers to distribute abortion information. Anyone who can look at the news without seeing how everything is coming to a grotesque and convulsive head is simply not paying attention.
Secularism is simply not capable of sustaining limited government.
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow
Slomosexuality
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
Andrew Walker here describes the efforts of the new homo-jihadis to outlaw religious liberty on Christian colleges. I use the verb “outlaw,” but Walker makes it plain that this ultimate goal is not the immediate move. The current plan is simply to expose those colleges that have taken a legal exemption from the sexual pandemonium so that they may be subjected to the full weight of public . . . what’s the word I want here? . . . obloquy, that’s it.
And World magazine reports that a Catholic school in Massachusetts will not be permitted to beg off from hiring homosexuals in the future. A judge has handed down some learned argle bargle, and a private religious school now has to have an official from the government tell them what the boundaries of their conscience may be. Now — full disclosure here — I have been reported on enough by World to make me a little tentative, but this story seems legit.
Walker’s report makes plain what has been evident to insightful observers for some time now.
Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog
Andrew Walker here describes the efforts of the new homo-jihadis to outlaw religious liberty on Christian colleges. I use the verb “outlaw,” but Walker makes it plain that this ultimate goal is not the immediate move. The current plan is simply to expose those colleges that have taken a legal exemption from the sexual pandemonium so that they may be subjected to the full weight of public . . . what’s the word I want here? . . . obloquy, that’s it.
And World magazine reports that a Catholic school in Massachusetts will not be permitted to beg off from hiring homosexuals in the future. A judge has handed down some learned argle bargle, and a private religious school now has to have an official from the government tell them what the boundaries of their conscience may be. Now — full disclosure here — I have been reported on enough by World to make me a little tentative, but this story seems legit.
Walker’s report makes plain what has been evident to insightful observers for some time now.
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Statist Groupthink More and More Fashionable
The Rise of Liberal Intolerance in America
Edward Luce
Far from outgrowing race, the PC movement is
entrenching it. Princeton students this month occupied the university
president’s office demanding the name Woodrow Wilson
— America’s 28th president and former head of Princeton — be scrubbed
from campus.
Tuesday, 10 November 2015
Tolerance Has Its Limits
Some Murders are More Acceptable Than Others
Sweden has been called the most peaceful country in Europe. It has been a nation which celebrates tolerance, albeit in a secular humanist form. Anything and everything goes, as long as one does not disturb the peace. Humanitarianism--which is much celebrated in a self-satisfied manner--proclaims that nothing human is foreign or intrinsically bad. The adage, "I am the master of all things, and nothing human is foreign to me" is the credo of its humanitarian society. Sweden has sought to live out these beliefs consistently in its civil and national government.
One has always suspected that the official blurb did not reflect reality. Recently, the suspicion has hardened into evidential certainty. Sweden is under attack from external, yet imported, forces. It is crumbling from within because effete smugness and self-satisfaction does not cope well with violent external threats. For the Swedes, the reason violence is rising lies with the failure of Swedish society.
Migrant, imported violence is on the rise. The Swedes feel guilty about it. Sweden is to blame. Smugness has morphed into guilt. At the same time, violence against migrants is also rising. Once again, Sweden is racked with guilt. This from Oliver Lane, writing for Breitbart London:
Sweden has been called the most peaceful country in Europe. It has been a nation which celebrates tolerance, albeit in a secular humanist form. Anything and everything goes, as long as one does not disturb the peace. Humanitarianism--which is much celebrated in a self-satisfied manner--proclaims that nothing human is foreign or intrinsically bad. The adage, "I am the master of all things, and nothing human is foreign to me" is the credo of its humanitarian society. Sweden has sought to live out these beliefs consistently in its civil and national government.
One has always suspected that the official blurb did not reflect reality. Recently, the suspicion has hardened into evidential certainty. Sweden is under attack from external, yet imported, forces. It is crumbling from within because effete smugness and self-satisfaction does not cope well with violent external threats. For the Swedes, the reason violence is rising lies with the failure of Swedish society.
Migrant, imported violence is on the rise. The Swedes feel guilty about it. Sweden is to blame. Smugness has morphed into guilt. At the same time, violence against migrants is also rising. Once again, Sweden is racked with guilt. This from Oliver Lane, writing for Breitbart London:
Saturday, 7 November 2015
The UK Prisons' New Authorised Version of the Bible
A Front Cover, A Back Cover and One Blank Page
It now appears to be gross misconduct in UK prisons for a prison employee to read any portions of the Bible which are offensive to others. The UK prisons are ultimately controlled by the Ministry of Justice. The dominatrix of faux outrage appears to be, if not actually running the UK government on a daily basis, pretty much in charge throughout "when push comes to shove".
The latest case of the intolerance buzzsaw cutting through Christians has occurred in the UK prison system.
It now appears to be gross misconduct in UK prisons for a prison employee to read any portions of the Bible which are offensive to others. The UK prisons are ultimately controlled by the Ministry of Justice. The dominatrix of faux outrage appears to be, if not actually running the UK government on a daily basis, pretty much in charge throughout "when push comes to shove".
The latest case of the intolerance buzzsaw cutting through Christians has occurred in the UK prison system.
Wednesday, 4 November 2015
Ve Vill Make You Clap and Cheer
Baker Fights Back After Gov’t Punishes Him for Refusing to Make Gay Wedding Cake
Billy Hallowell
The move comes after the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in August that Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, cannot cite his faith in his refusal to make a gay wedding cake, as such an act constitutes discrimination.
That ruling backed a decision that was previously made in May 2014 by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, requiring Phillips to make cakes for same-sex celebrations, to engage in “re-educating his staff” and to file reports for two years that show that he is abiding by anti-discrimination laws.
The state Supreme Court appeal is an attempt to secure a religious-freedom exemption for Phillips and others like him, according to his attorneys with the Alliance defending Freedom, a conservative legal firm.
In
this March 10, 2014 photo, Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips
decorates a cake inside his store, in Lakewood, Colo. Phillips is
appealing a ruling against him in a legal complaint filed with the
Colorado Civil Rights Commission by a gay couple he refused to make a
wedding cake for, based on his religious beliefs. (AP Photo/Brennan
Linsley)
Monday, 21 September 2015
More Islamic By the Day
Jihadi Cameron Means Bad Business
Britain is now embarking down a retrograde road. David Cameron and his coterie are fixated on combating "extremism" by which they mean Islamic propaganda, teaching, advocacy, and conspiracies to commit murder and break the law. But political correctness demands that they must not identify one group, but they must be seen to be even-handed across all religions or ideological groups. A ten-tonne hammer to crush a peanut.
Moreover, political correctness demands that all religions and ideological groups must be seen to be tolerant of all--that is, mutually respectful and accepting. The only organisation in all of this which escapes the" mutually respectful and accepting" requirement is the government, which authorises itself to be aggressively intolerant and definitely not respectful.
In a move reminiscent of totalitarian societies, Cameron's government will require all religious officials to be entered into a register. Andrew Gilligan, writing in The Telegraph, summarises the move this way:
Britain is now embarking down a retrograde road. David Cameron and his coterie are fixated on combating "extremism" by which they mean Islamic propaganda, teaching, advocacy, and conspiracies to commit murder and break the law. But political correctness demands that they must not identify one group, but they must be seen to be even-handed across all religions or ideological groups. A ten-tonne hammer to crush a peanut.
Moreover, political correctness demands that all religions and ideological groups must be seen to be tolerant of all--that is, mutually respectful and accepting. The only organisation in all of this which escapes the" mutually respectful and accepting" requirement is the government, which authorises itself to be aggressively intolerant and definitely not respectful.
In a move reminiscent of totalitarian societies, Cameron's government will require all religious officials to be entered into a register. Andrew Gilligan, writing in The Telegraph, summarises the move this way:
Thursday, 20 August 2015
John Rys-Davies On Song
‘We Have Lost Our Moral Compass’
‘Lord of the Rings’ Actor Blasts Political Correctness
BreitbartLondon
Lord of the Rings actor John Rhys-Davies decried Islamic terrorism and political correctness in an interview with podcast king Adam Carolla Monday night.
The actor, who played the dwarf Gimli in the three Rings movies, joined Carolla on the latest episode of his podcast to blast Western politicians for failing to say or do anything to combat the rising tide of Islamic terrorism and the political correctness that enables it.“There is an extraordinary silence in the West,” Rhys-Davies told Carolla. “Basically, Christianity in the Middle East and in Africa is being wiped out – I mean not just ideologically but physically, and people are being enslaved and killed because they are Christians. And your country and my country (Wales) are doing nothing about it.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)