The religion of Leftism
I have often quipped on this blog that the reason that so many Jews vote Democrat despite that party's widespread antipathy for the State of Israel is that for many non-Orthodox Jews, Judaism has been replaced by Liberalism.Dennis Prager makes the same essential argument that I've been making, except he refers to Liberalism as Leftism (I suppose to make it sound more radical than I've termed it) and he extends the sickness to include Christians as well.
Leftism, though secular, must be understood as a religion (which is why I have begun capitalizing it). The Leftist value system’s hold on its adherents is as strong as the hold Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have on theirs. Nancy Pelosi’s belief in expanding the government’s role in American life, which inspired her passion for the health-care bill, is as strong as a pro-life Christian’s belief in the sanctity of the life of the unborn.As I was reading this article, I started to wonder why Muslims don't seem to be affected by Leftism. Maybe it's because Muslims who abandon their faith in favor of more liberal values (I wouldn't term people like Nonie Darwish, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mosab Hassan Yousef or Salman Rushdie Leftists) find themselves under death threats from which the Left is unwilling to protect them, whereas Jews and Christians are more inclined to just ignore those who abandon our religious tenets.
Given the religious nature and the emotional power of Leftist values, Jews and Christians on the Left often derive their values from the Left more than from their religion.
Now, most Leftist Jews and Christians will counter that Leftist values cannot trump their religion’s values because Leftist values are identical to their religion’s. But this argument only reinforces my argument that Leftism has conquered the Christianity and the Judaism of Leftist Christians and Jews. If there is no difference between Leftist moral values and those of Judaism or Christianity, then Christianity is little more than Leftism with “Jesus” rhetoric and Judaism is Leftism with Jewish terms — such as “Tikkun Olam” (“repairing the world”) and “Prophetic values.”
But if Christianity is, morally speaking, really Leftism, why didn’t Catholics and Protestants assert these values before 19th century European Leftism came along? And, if Judaism is essentially a set of Left-wing values, does that mean that the Torah and the Talmud are Leftist documents? Or are the two pillars of Judaism generally wrong?
Hmmm. (No, I'm not suggesting we start threatening people who abandon our religions with death).
By the way, the picture at the top is the J Street logo with one of their favorite groups' names on it. Hamas is a darling of the Left. One can only wonder why.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:49 PM
6 Comments:
Now that I see the J Street logo with Hamas superimposed on it, I can't help but correlate the upward-pointing J Street arrow to the Hamas (and other jihadist) "hand signal" of pointing the index finger upward (toward allah, I presume).
Hmmmmm.
Prager's confused, just making stuff up.
I always wonder things like this:
Regarding "social justice" and "economic justice", how do these concepts fit with the Torah? I mean, all the religions advocate feeding the poor so that no one starves (although the leftist Marxist type philosophies do seem to give the nomenclatura types the leeway to starve dissidents - how does that fit the Torah?). The Torah outlines a system where the owner of a piece of land should leave the edges and gleanings for the poor to come and collect to feed themselves and their families. It says nothing (or if it does, please tell me the verses, because I can't find it) about taking away the landowners' land and distributing it to others. I'm focussed on this because my kids have been told away from home that the U.S. is unfair and unjust and, most recently, that we can't count on capitalism anymore. I counter-argue, so that my kids have the alt-view, but I need Torah verses to counter in our community.
Actually, Leftist is a perfectly good word here and much better than "liberal". "Liberals" are one of the parties which joined to form the Likud. It's just in America the word got twisted, but in the rest of world, "liberal" stands for moderate right-wing parties.
The Left is a secular religion. It has effectively replaced the old religions and is just as jealous and intolerant as they were.
dennis praeger is a kopher b'ikur and i would suggest not quoting from him about anything
he has replaced judaism with his own form of religion....what it is, im not exactly sure, but it allows him to pick and choose what he feels is important to keep.
he also wants the jewish community to embrace the right wing of christianity...and im sorry, but not only is that crazy talk...but it is dangerous.
i know many frum yidden who are liberal in their politics
Post a Comment
<< Home