If theism is a religious position, so is atheism...

Yes, Let’s Talk about Religion & Politics

by Joseph Pearce

It is sometimes said that religion and politics are the two topics that should not be discussed in polite company. The result is that nothing of importance is ever discussed, reducing the conversation of “polite company” to the level of the banal, at best, or to the level of gossip, at worst. And yet the discussion of religion and politics in the public house or the public square is crucial to the life of a truly free society. Whether the reason for the silence is the fear of the police or the fear of impoliteness the result is the stifling of free discussion of the two most important areas governing the life of man.

Religion and politics are inseparable for the Christian because of the inseparability of the two great commandments of Christ that we love the Lord our God and that we love our neighbour. As such, the goal of secular fundamentalists to separate religion from politics is not merely an affront to Christianity but an effort to ban Christians from political life. But this is nothing new. Secular fundamentalism has always been intolerant of Christianity and has always sought to exclude Christians from political discourse. From the persecution of the early Church and the martyrdom of countless early Christians to the French Revolution and its Great Terror, right through to the last century with the extermination of Christians in the concentration camps of national and international socialism, the intolerance of secular fundamentalism has continually crucified the body of Christ as it has continually corrupted the body politic.

Employing the evil means that matched its ignominious ends, secular fundamentalism has always favoured the power of the lie to further its goals, dealing in deception and practicing the dark art of propaganda. Orwellian doublethink and newspeak have been a part of the secular fundamentalist mindset and vocabulary from the beginning. In the name of the unholy trinity of liberté, egalité, et fraternité, the French and Russian revolutionaries deprived Christians of freedom in the name of liberty, discriminated against Christians in the name of equality, and murdered Christians in the name of brotherhood. It is no surprise, therefore, that the new generation of secular fundamentalists is intolerant of Christianity in the name of tolerance, or that it sanctions the killing of unborn children in the name of freedom.

The greatest hypocrisy of secular fundamentalism is not, however, to be found in its abuse of language but in its insistence that religion should be excluded from the public square when it is itself a religion.

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