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Why the Left Hates Christianity
. . . and the Judaism which gave rise to it.
The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of The Passion of St. John the Baptist today (August 29th). The Baptist is the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets — the forerunner of the Messiah, who is Priest, Prophet, and King, and in whom the Old Testament prophecies are completely fulfilled. But, significant to this post, and like Jesus, John was a Jew. We Catholics commemorate on this day how John lost his head by proclaiming the Mosaic law to the tetrarch Herod Antipas regarding marriage. Namely, you shall not covet your neighbor’s (or your brother’s) wife (also Leviticus 20:21). If you’re unfamiliar with the story, you can read about it in the Gospel according to Mark, 6:17-29.
While John’s message was principally to repent and be washed in the waters of baptism — not judge other’s behavior to be sinful to prove your own worthiness — he still insisted on the moral demands of God’s covenant law, even for the rich and powerful. And this was the strike that came against him — right at the neck.
John Grondelski is another such truth-teller who takes on nominal Catholics in his article, When Did John Lose His Head? He says,
No doubt Antipas and his sycophants would have launched a campaign to convince Jews that they had it wrong, that “love is love” and “love wins,” even for the incestuous.
He insists that “the reality of marriage and the morality of sexual activity are objective norms which “norm” the individual. Norms measure the reality and the activity; it is not the individual, or even the community, that defines the reality and the morality.”
And he ends with,
What’s at stake today is more than two thousand years of received Christian tradition that says the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth was right in taking the civil tetrarch of Perea and Galilee to task for copulating with his brother’s wife. Either John was right in rejecting their divorces and subsequent cohabitation or John—and the Christian tradition that lionized him—was wrong for two millennia by being “hateful” toward Mr. and Mrs. Antipas. The unspoken corollary is that Christianity is at its core at least warped, if not hateful. And there’s no pardon in contemporary cancel culture—even for a Baptizer—who opposed “love” in the name of evidently mistaken religious norms.
But, I’ll take it a step further and say that when the sign of ultimate victory is Christ on the Cross, the threat to the Left isn’t just the insistence on reality (of marriage, and much else) and speaking truth. The threat leftists recognize from Christianity is that adherents are willing to die, like John, and especially like Jesus, for love of reality and truth. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. . .” Christians believe that authentic love is self-sacrificial for the good of the other, even if the other doesn’t appreciate hearing the truth.
The Left hates Christianity because the conflicting visions are about the ultimate, life and death power struggle for souls. And a people willing to die for the truth are ultimately, eternally indomitable. Even if they lose their heads in the process.
Published in General
People willing to die for what they believe to be the truth are very hard to beat, as you say, because they’re willing to die for it. Hence the Taliban, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Daesh, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram….and these probably do believe that this is the reason they are hated by the West. Certainly it’s one of the reasons the[y] are feared.
I find your argument persuasive and also not all that comforting.
The difference, of course, is that Christians aren’t so willing to murder for their beliefs.
I’m always a little astonished at how beneficial the Christian West has been in the modern era for gays and others, and yet how easily it is compared to primitive, tribal groups like your list. It seems — unfair, to say the least.
Also, if you want an indication of just how deep the hatred goes for Jews, look up the reaction and pathetic apology given to the “surprise” appearance of Ben Shapiro at the recent podcaster event where The Daily Wire had a booth. His mere *presence* — his existence — was an offense causing the organizers to grovel for forgiveness.
The Left likes to accuse the Right of antisemitism for its criticisms of the nominal Jew, George Soros, but takes no such heat for the hateful hysteria around a serious Jew like Shapiro showing up at an event to shake hands and take pictures. Top this off with dehumanizing labels like “domestic terrorists” and “semi-fascists” for people who disagree with public education stealing their kids’ innocence, or who would like some answers about irregularities in the 2020 election, and you can see how the Left is leaning-in to its exterminationist tendencies.
Any moreYes, today that is very much true.The “Christian West”, however, (with or without its Christians, I’ll leave that up to you) does murder people – less hand to hand these days and more by proxy wars or economic sanctions. The motivations for this are more concrete – though there’s a strong materialist strain that ran/runs through all the wars/conquests/etc. of religion. It’s often about power and wealth, however it’s wrapped.
I wasn’t comparing them, just agreeing with you that people motivated by religious belief are hard to beat – and adding why I didn’t find that comforting.
I have no idea about the event you’re referencing, but I really think it would be good if people could support or criticise people like Ben Shapiro and George Soros without bringing religion or ethnicity into it.
If this is what it was, then I find it strange that you assume the reaction to Ben Shapiro was because he was Jewish rather than Conservative or (as Matt Walsh says) unforgivably successful.
The West is hardly Christian anymore. Certainly the Catholic church with its Just War doctrine is not a fan of much of what the West has initiated in the past many decades. And I agree that the proxy wars are foolish, if not wicked. I even wrote a post about it at the start of the war in Ukraine.
https://ricochet.com/1205224/its-time-to-ask-are-we-the-baddies/
Right. We’re not criticizing George Soros because he’s (nominally) Jewish either. But Ben Shapiro’s conservatism and his Jewish religion go hand-in-hand. It’s that truth-telling thing again. So attacking him — or finding his mere presence unacceptable — is definitely more closely related to his Jewishness.
I remember reading that.
But to swerve back to your OP – you’ve made a compelling case why religious conviction is perceived as a threat – but do you think religious conviction will win the culture in the end? I don’t see any liberal or progressive appetite for actually killing the Conservatives among them – I do see an appetite to exclude Conservatives from power and influence.
Edited to add: to be fair, I think you guys do that to them as well when you have the opportunity. And everybody calls it “just common sense” – so maybe you all have more in common than not?
After reading this post and comments, I wonder if the Left is threatened by people of faith not so much because of conflicting visions, or willingness of people to die for their beliefs, but by something more basic: Maybe the threat to the Left by religion is the belief in an ultimate authority higher than “ the authorities”.
My two cents.🙂
Well, we really suck at it, then. The Left dominates our institutions and even has untoward influence in our churches.
The Left in America is in no danger from Christians to speak of. The reverse is not the case.
That would be nice, but their behaviors don’t support the notion. The great evils of dismembering babies in the womb and dis-membering otherwise healthy body parts from sexually confused kids (or adults) could not be done — or even nominally supported — by people who believe they’ll be held to account by a just God.
Now, if you want to talk about the spiritual aspect of the conflict, I believe they’re convinced by Satan’s lie, “you will be as gods.” In other words, you get to make up your own morality. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I think that was my point.
How do Catholics so consistently make me root for Satan? It is uncanny. Adam and Eve did not get to make their own morality. They were cursed by shame because they knew of good and evil. They evolved from innocence as they should have. It was a good thing that human learned to think for themselves instead of blindly trusting, G-d, the Church or the state.
I’m pretty sure we were supposed to think for ourselves. And even eat from the tree. If we obeyed first, or when we were more mature.
(I think I could cite a couple of eastern Orthodox priests on that. And C. S. Lewis. But I can’t think of any Catholics I could cite!)
I sort of notice that a Baptist is defending Catholics more effectively than Catholics. But I think Satan as a snake Milton is correct, “How can it be a sin to know?”
I think he said sin like “ssssssin.”
The problem with blindly trusting the state is that it doesn’t act in your best interest.
The Blind Trust in the Christian God is because he is perfectly just and loving. Our kids maturing into a mind of their own is good because their parents are born of the same sinner stock that they come from. It’s good and right for them to learn what is good and evil and then apply it under their own cognizance once maturity is attained. I am not perfect like God.
But if I were perfect and all powerful like God, then it would not be necessary for my children to do more than innocently trust.
Our world has an incredible dislike for the innocent. It seems to enjoy perversely the corruption of innocence. Probably because innocence convicts us and we don’t like that feeling.
And because we have not yet learned to see.
Anyone Nicene is on the same team here.
It’s not a sin to know.
I kind of agree with that, too. Religion represents a constriction of leftist’s more primitive desires and freedoms, especially when it comes to sex and other instant gratifications, like drugs (I was tempted to add Rock & Roll!). People on the left generally don’t have as much discipline and are less capable of delayed gratification. Most religions (as well as most civil societies) implore people to curb their base desires for the benefit of others. Leftists have a problem with that.
Leftists may look like they are completely subservient to “The State,” but that is an illusion. They are only subservient when the State aligns with their own goals of making others do what Leftist’s want. When Republicans come to power, all that subservience to The State goes out the door and all Hell breaks loose.
Overturning Roe v Wade (and Clarence Thomas’ comments about gay marriage) might tell some of them different.
I’m not arguing the right or wrong of either of these here, just pointing out that while you might sincerely feel powerless because the glass is half empty so might they.
So the danger to the left is that they shall be restrained from killing babies? And that Clarence Thomas made some comments about Gay Marriage? (I actually have no idea what he said, but leftists make comments all the time that I would disagree with and I don’t find that a danger to me)
They might perceive the issue differently. As I said, I’m not arguing the rights or wrongs of either position. Just pointing out that the Left might feel as threatened by how the Right understands the Left’s issues and then acts on that where it can as the Right might be by how the Left understands the Right’s issues and acts on that where it can.
Just assertion is great (and fun!) when you’re preaching to the choir, but….?
Oh dear – you sound as pathetic as Adam: “my wife made me do it”.
There was no need for them to make their own morality – they were living in perfect union with God. Yet, when Satan tempted them, they caved to their pride, as did Satan. They devolved from innocence – what had been good was now evil – their nakedness caused them to hide from God. Man sinned, making himself arbiter of what is good and evil; we usurped the divine privilege. And it continues to this day.
Yes, I never said the sin was *knowing* good from evil. Original Sin was *grasping* at the knowledge of good and evil — or, in other words, not trusting God to grace you with the knowledge, but figuring it out (defining it) for yourself. I know of no time in western history where so much evil was called “good,” and good was called “evil” as now. Enlighten me if you know differently.
The Left hates it when Jews or Christians assert objective truth/morality. Lefties hate it when Muslims do it, too, but they’re afraid of losing their heads, so they pretend to be on the side of “oppressed” Muslims.
So much YES!
That’s the other aspect I failed to mention. Goodness (innocence) stands as a rebuke to evil without saying much of anything. The Left finds criticism of it intolerable, which is why the message to religious/conservatives is shut up, *shut up!*, SHUT UP! And that’s when our presence is tolerated *at all.* Which is increasingly infrequent.
By opposing what they want, you are forcing the left to think. They are good at feeling; thinking is a foreign country. A foreign country without avocado toast and kombucha tea.
I have no idea of the significance of avocado toast or kombucha tea (because I’ve never heard of them before), but I like your comment!
I, too, am happy to say I don’t know what kombucha tea is and can only imagine avocado toast, which sounds like a waste of good avocados and perfectly fine bread.
And I get a hearty laugh out of the notion that Catholics, *especially* among Christians, suffer from rampant fideism. It’s as if Henry has never heard of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Think of it as “a space other than safe.”
Abandon all crayons and Play-Doh, ye who enter here.