New Series:
The Four Pillars of Secular Fundamentalism
"Secularism is, in its way, a religion to itself, and
it is a religion that cannot tolerate infidels or heretics" - Philosopher Edward Feser, The Last Superstition, p.2
Last year the story of a good friend of mine Nathan Sommers
kicked off a six part series that I did on what I call Secular Fundamentalism.
I believe that you should read the entire series which is linked at the bottom
of this post. Well as of Aug 6,
2014 there is an update. Here is a link to Fox News and an update to this story
Federal Law Suit. I reminded
Nathan at his retirement ceremony that the Apostle Paul gave us an example to
follow when he fought for his rights as a citizen of Rome by appealing to
Caesar for the injustice that he faced:
Acts 25:8-11 "Then Paul made
his defense: “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the
temple or against Caesar.” 9 Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to
Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on
these charges?” 10 Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court,
where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you
yourself know very well. 11 If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving
death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these
Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to
Caesar!”
Those
of you, who like me, love our military are used to hearing stories of
FORTITUDE; i.e., courage, valor, honor, etc. In today’s US military
there is a new application of this virtue that is needed by those who
have conservative views, and Lord help you, Christian conservative
views!!! Some of you may have heard the story of Master Sgt. Nathan
Sommers, a decorated soloist for the US Army band who was recently
reprimanded for openly holding Christian views in support of marriage
and reading conservative books while waiting to sing. I guess
government diversity training forgot about the other diversity that is
actually rooted in our constitution; namely, ideas!
Photo credit: Fox News Channel www.foxnews.com
You
see you are supposed to shut up if your views conform to Christian
orthodoxy in today's military where the only religion that is permitted
to be openly orthodox is Secular Fundamentalism. Some of you may be
saying to yourself: "Secular Fundamentalism? I never heard of that
before". Oh, you have, and you are very well trained in its principles,
trust me. Where did you receive this training you ask? It is all
around you, but your main training ground is the modern University which
has become a seminary of sorts for secular fundamentalism.
The
misuse of the term Fundamentalist or Fundamentalism by the media is
interesting in that their "new definition" of the term suits the modern
Progressive quite well. Let me explain. The term fundamentalist has its
origins in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century in
opposition to Protestant Liberalism and secularism insisting, for
example, on the inerrancy of Scripture. In other words being considered a
fundamentalist was a good thing. However, today this term is a bad
thing and is often used in the media and academia when speaking of those
who adhere to a particular orthodox position and are “intolerant” of
other views by insisting that their views alone are true. The point of
using this term when referring to the secularist is to demonstrate that
they themselves are in fact intolerant of opposing views and insist that
their secular orthodox views are true. The secularist is even more
intolerant and dogmatic with his or her views, while at the same time
calling those who oppose their views as intolerant and dogmatic. The
secularist even goes a step further by demanding that you hold their
views or else! Thus we have the Secular Fundamentalist standing on his
or her own absolute relativizing every other view.
What
is interesting is the fact that we even find this secular definition of
fundamentalist in a dictionary that I received in my college English
class (yes I actually received a book back then): “A usually religious
movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental
principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by
intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism”
So, according to the dictionary, which is supposed to be an objective
reference, only those religious views outside of secularism are
intolerant and require adherence. Luckily the on-line dictionary
maintains the classical definition of fundamentalism--for now.
Friends,
this new demand for adherence to one orthodoxy is extremely dangerous
to all of our freedoms, including the freedoms of those that you may
disagree with! You may even disagree with this post, but we are in a
free country where debate is supposed to be open and protected. But
unfortunately and increasingly it is not. As a matter of fact, have you
noticed that the only speech that is considered "hate speech" is speech
against Secularism's values?
There
are two common responses by the Secular Fundamentalist directed toward
the "nonconformists". Both of these responses are lessons that both
liberal and conservative American parents have been training their
children not to do beginning around the age of 4 years old. Talk about
bi-partisanship! What are these bad behaviors of the Secular
Fundamentalist?
(1) Name calling
(2) Bullying
Now
we enter into the mystical part of the secularist religion. These new
Gnostics act as if they have the 'secret knowledge' of every
nonconformist's heart knowing that he or she must be a bigot because
only the Secular Fundamenalist's one way of believing and loving is
true. Disagree, then not only are you wrong, but hateful, so here come
the flaming arrows of judgement, from those who are the first to say
"you should not judge". The fundamentalist jumps up on his or her box of
judgement and starts with step one name calling: "You __________!" "You
are anti-___________!" Then step two; let the bullying begin! You must
pay with your job, your finances, and worse--your good name!
How
we have regressed in the 21st century where we have Islamic
Fundamentalists blowing things up and taking the lives of "nonbelievers"
around the world, and in a similar way we have the Secular
Fundamentalists blowing the lives up of those who believe differently
within Western Civilization. The good news though is that both liberals
and conservatives dislike bullies!!! I say let's work together like real
men of FORTITUDE and stop the bullies.
Nathan
is a friend of mine and he is a wonderful man with a deep love for
Jesus Christ, his family, and this great country. Secular Fundamentalism
is the threat within the military that requires FORITUDE for dealing
with our enemies "both foreign and domestic". Who would of thought that
we would see the domestic form in our day. Please visit http://www.militaryfreedom.org to stay informed and help!
I
completed a series of posts on what Secular Fundamentalism is, its
history, and how you will be able to see how much secularism shaped your
own worldview.
Below you will find links to the whole series. Enjoy and please pass
it on via e-mail, or social media: (Links below will be updated soon)
Building men of virtue in a culture of
vice,
Peter P. Lackey, Jr.
Founder, Man's Ultimate Challenge
"It is essential to a virtue to be about the difficult and the
good" - Thomas
Aquinas
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