Who Are You Calling Evil?

Religious language is common in politics - it gives voice to many shared ideas, ideals, and values. Religious language communicates in a manner that more secular arguments are unable to achieve. Unfortunately, religious language also divides in a manner that secular arguments are unable to manage.

Religious language has a tendency to divide the world into us and them, insiders and outsiders - and that’s one of the most important steps on the path towards violence killing. Janet Dubé wrote about this in the Guardian about President Bush’s labeling of others as evil:

The president is for everyone, American Muslims and Christians, atheists, Jews. He must not side with any one of those constituencies before, over or against another. It is a pluralistic US, in a pluralistic world. Religious language goes to the gut rather than the brain and bypasses normal political discourse. At its most benign, it separates those who identify with such language from those who don’t; at worst it increases polarisation. Who is calling who evil in this global playground?

When a politician is trying to “reach” a group by using religion, it must be kept in mind that by doing so, other groups are automatically excluded. If that is the intention, or even a consequence that isn’t troublesome, that must be kept in mind when that politician’s character is evaluated.

This is not to say that it’s inappropriate to ever use religious language, or even to simply call certain actions, groups, and ideologies “evil.” Such language and rhetoric must be used very carefully, however, because they open doors which can’t be closed and close doors which can’t readily be opened again. For politics, that’s often a bad idea.

 

Christian Right & Christian Nationalism:

• Religious Right News
• Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, and Christian Nationalism
• Christian Anti-Semitism, Persecution of Jews
• Religious Intolerance & Bigotry
• Christianism & Christian Nationalism
• Christian Identity, White Supremacy, Christian Supremacy
• Confederate Southern Nationalism & Christianity
• Religion in America

 

Christian Nationalism & Dominion Theology:

• Dominionism & Dominion Theology
• Christian Reconstructionism
• Leading Christian Reconstructionists
• Reconstructionism & Christian Right: Common Goals, Beliefs