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The Powerful Bigotry Of The Secular Left

Damon Linker goes after it. He says he used to be a social conservative, but turned away from the movement — yep, I remember the moment of his apostasy — but moved to the left, accepting gay marriage and all the rest. He hated the way conservatives a decade ago treated liberals. Now, he’s still […]

Damon Linker goes after it. He says he used to be a social conservative, but turned away from the movement — yep, I remember the moment of his apostasy — but moved to the left, accepting gay marriage and all the rest. He hated the way conservatives a decade ago treated liberals. Now, he’s still a social liberal, but he’s standing up for the other side against liberal intolerance. Excerpt:

Liberals usually pride themselves on defending minority rights against the tyranny of the majority — and above all when the tyranny threatens to become more than metaphorical through the use of the coercive powers of the government. Yet when it comes to the rights of religious traditionalists, many liberals seem indifferent, and more than a few seem overtly hostile.

That’s what I’ve been calling out in my recent controversial columns — about Brendan Eich, aboutHobby Lobby, about stupid New York Times op-eds. When the theocons threatened to turn secular liberals into a persecuted minority, I objected. And now, with gay rights activists treating social conservatives like heretics and federal regulators threatening to force religious traditionalists to violate their consciences, I’m doing the same.

“But you’re saying we need to tolerate the intolerant!” — I see that objection every time I write something critical of liberal dogmatism and bigotry.

To which my stock response is: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying — because that’s what liberalism is, or should be, all about. Toleration is perfectly compatible with — indeed, it presupposes — disagreement. That’s why it’s called tolerance and not endorsement or affirmation.

Reading the irate responses to the Hobby Lobby decision, I get the feeling that some liberals not-so-secretly long to see social conservatives suffer for the sin of upholding sexual teachings that clash with liberal norms.

I’m sorry, but that’s not a liberal sentiment, no matter how many so-called liberals express it.

Amen. Thank you. Read the whole thing.

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