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The curious rise of anti-religious hysteria
spiked-online ^ | 23 January 2006 | Frank Furedi

Posted on 01/24/2006 7:24:27 PM PST by tbird5

It is the Anglo-American cultural elites' insecurity about their own values that encourages their frenzied attacks on religion.

The verdict of my son's 10-year-old mates was that it was 'not bad', but a little bit 'boring'. Maddie, a sassy nine-year-old, said it was 'okay for young kids' but it was not in the same league as King Kong. In a few years' time, these kids will recall the unexceptional film that was Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and wonder why it attracted so much adult controversy.

The intense and venomous attacks on the Disney-produced Narnia film are truly puzzling. The novelist Phillip Pullman has described CS Lewis' original book as 'one of the most ugly, poisonous things I have ever read'. With the zeal of a veteran cultural crusader Polly Toynbee of the UK Guardian cut straight to the chase: 'Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion.'

What Toynbee seems to find most hateful about religion is that it is able to express a powerful sense of faith. 'US born-agains are using the movie', she warned. Many critics seem especially outraged by this prospect of religious organisations 'using' the film to promote their faith. The advocacy group Media Transparency warns that the film is based on a book that has a 'frankly religious element' - which is not really surprising when you consider that the author was a well-known publicist for Christianity. What is surprising, however, is that Christians promoting Christian propaganda should invite such bitter condemnation.

(Excerpt) Read more at spiked-online.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: ac; angryatheists; godhaters; moralabsolutes; narnia; persecution; toynbee
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1 posted on 01/24/2006 7:24:29 PM PST by tbird5
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To: tbird5
I read this article this AM from aldaily.com--excellent- piece of writing-I even thought about posting the article, and I'm glad you did. This is perhaps the most level, dispassionate discussion I've seen of the weird, growing anti-religious bigotry in the elite West.
2 posted on 01/24/2006 7:27:28 PM PST by Mamzelle
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To: tbird5

bump


3 posted on 01/24/2006 7:29:42 PM PST by VOA
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To: VOA

bump


4 posted on 01/24/2006 7:36:24 PM PST by maranatha
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To: tbird5

This was quite a find, FRiend. I wish we could post more of it without the link!


5 posted on 01/24/2006 7:44:59 PM PST by AZ_Cowboy ("There they go again...")
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To: tbird5
The liberal elite's unease with religion is often motivated by the fear that it will become even more isolated from the public unless it can engage with the 'big questions' they are apparently asking.

No. The liberal elite's unease is motivated, rightfully so, by the fear of competition - Religion demands that the individual surrender his soul to a Higher Power; the Socialist Left demands surrender of the soul to the State.

6 posted on 01/24/2006 7:45:32 PM PST by Fenris6 (3 Purple Hearts in 4 months w/o missing a day of work? He's either John Rambo or a Fraud)
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To: wagglebee; MillerCreek

You might be interested in this.


7 posted on 01/24/2006 7:46:25 PM PST by little jeremiah
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To: Mamzelle

How did I know I would find you on here? It truly takes an outsider to see the bizarre nature of the elites for what they are, and man does this dude nail it.


8 posted on 01/24/2006 7:49:29 PM PST by AZ_Cowboy ("There they go again...")
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To: DaveLoneRanger

This may interest you...


9 posted on 01/24/2006 7:50:20 PM PST by AZ_Cowboy ("There they go again...")
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"To the one [we are] the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life...." (2Cr 2:16)


10 posted on 01/24/2006 8:03:16 PM PST by mitch5501 (Let's not beat about the bush")
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To: dirtboy
Ping for a thoughtful piece.
11 posted on 01/24/2006 8:03:37 PM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Mamzelle

I've seen plenty of that here on FR. (unfortunately)


12 posted on 01/24/2006 8:09:33 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: tbird5

Very interesting read, and something I've wondered about for a long time...the vitriol specifically against Christians seems just irrational.

I knew one "compassionate" liberal, that when I mentioned the utter horrors done (as bad or worse than Nero' sins) to Christians in Sudan, just smiled and said they probably deserved it. When I probed him on it, he was serious, and clearly could care less... Weirdly evil attitude.

Though he's right on a lot of his analysis, still he falls into the trap that all is always just about politics (and power).

I suppose if one is a secularist, that's the way it has to be...since this world is all that (they think) there is. Pretty depressing perspective--no wonder his liberal buddies are so crabby.


13 posted on 01/24/2006 8:12:37 PM PST by AnalogReigns
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To: tbird5
They (all around leftists) have positioned themselves for so long as being "the ones against Christianity". Their Rock 'N Roll needs an uptight Christian to hate it, their social and drinking excesses, drug use, what-have-you, all require an offended Christian to be the one who is "not cool", the implication being, of course, that everyone else is cool.

I suppose they've invested themselves so deeply for so long in that position that they simply cannot react any other way.

Too bad for them, the tables have turned.
14 posted on 01/24/2006 8:26:17 PM PST by starbase (Understanding Written Propaganda (click "starbase" to learn 22 manipulating tricks!!))
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To: tbird5
Bump.

This was certainly a worthwhile read. Although it says nothing that should surprise anyone that has even somewhat followed this trend, it does a good job summarizing it.

Out of curiousity, I looked up the article by Polly Toynbee of the UK Guardian that the author referenced.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1657942,00.html

It is an interesting piece, filled with hate-filled tripe such as the following:

"Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to? Poor child Edmund, to blame for everything, must bear the full weight of a guilt only Christians know how to inflict, with a twisted knife to the heart. Every one of those thorns, the nuns used to tell my mother, is hammered into Jesus's holy head every day that you don't eat your greens or say your prayers when you are told. So the resurrected Aslan gives Edmund a long, life-changing talking-to high up on the rocks out of our earshot. When the poor boy comes back down with the sacred lion's breath upon him he is transformed unrecognisably into a Stepford brother, well and truly purged."

This seems quite representative of the modern secularist liberal mindset, and it ultimately sums up their complaints quite nicely.

15 posted on 01/24/2006 8:30:24 PM PST by MWS (Errare humanum est, in errore perservare stultum.)
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To: starbase

"Too bad for them, the tables have turned."

Well, it SEEMS that the tables have turned but one must be ever vigilant in dealing with the anti-G_d Left.


16 posted on 01/24/2006 8:31:05 PM PST by brushcop (Mission Accomplished B-Co, 2/69 3d ID! God bless you and WELCOME HOME!)
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To: AZ_Cowboy

I visit aldaily.com almost daily--there's almost always something good to read. It posts both conservative and lefty stuff--


17 posted on 01/24/2006 8:36:37 PM PST by Mamzelle
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To: Fenris6
...the Socialist Left demands surrender of the soul to the State

Which is, in fact nothing less than the elites of the Socialist Left, in their ideal world, themselves.

No wonder they are panicking. They who would be gods, are running head-on into those who believe in God.

18 posted on 01/24/2006 8:49:32 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: tbird5

It's a pity you can't post the whole column, because I cannot get to the linked site. Maybe it's my internet security software "protecting" me.


19 posted on 01/24/2006 8:57:46 PM PST by Rocky (Air America: Robbing the poor to feed the Left)
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To: Mamzelle

But what it gets down to is that it is Christ they hate and so they persecute His followers since He's no longer on this planet to do that to anymore.


20 posted on 01/24/2006 9:04:16 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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