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Lielks: "Multiculturalism is simply the state between two different cultures."
Part of today's "Bleat"I was in the car this afternoon, listening to a debate about Ann Coulter, and her remarks about Jews needing the perfection of Christianity. Never quite thought of her as a religious sort, frankly, and I am not interested in her thoughts on theology. The comments werent remarkable, but the subsequent tempest was. Religion in a diverse society is a masked ball without midnight. Its agreed that the masks stay on. Should they slip off, you learn things. Look: many people who are serious about their religious beliefs are quite convinced of the superiority of their creed; its not as if the Pope sits up nights wondering whether Buddha might be on to something. I say many instead of most because there are millions of cultural Christians in the country who have a casual sense of creedal superiority which they dont indulge, examine, or display. If they do, they err on the side of the Shrug: to each his own. But you cant say you have the One True Path and believe that other paths lead to the same destination. There are people who believe that everyone can graze from the Old Country Buffet of Theology and still assemble in the common afterlife of the parking lot, and nevermind the details; theyre mostly liberal Christians in the West who regard tolerance and coexistence as values more important than witnessing and converting. If nothing else, they prefer to lead by example. There are others of all faiths whose indifference to the beliefs of others has less to do with a commitment to religious pluralism and tolerance than a disinterest in the paths others take. In the abstract, they hope youll come around. If not, well, thats how it plays out. Every faith that builds on another regards itself as the last word. So Coulters remarks werent unusual; they were just impolitic. We dont get into the details, because the details breed friction For some, however, anyone who ventures into the thicket of theological disputations is equally suspect, which led a guest on the Medved show today to utter a stupendously idiotic judgment: she found Ann Coulters remarks as offensive as a jihadis snuff video of Daniel Pearls execution. It was an interesting remark, because you could sense the parameters of her intellectual terrain. There is a big comfy warm spot in which the smart and decent people reside, and beyond that there be dragons. If these people believe in the warm mealy notions that hold all cultures equal, and regard the assertion of a cultures values as the equivalent of passing gas in the museum, youll naturally get this. If such a mild assertion merits a visit from the police, then any frank expressions of doctrine will earn the same, until sermons turn into room-temp gruel. But I suspect the efforts of the police will be selectively applied, in order to assure all that the hitherto dominant culture has assumed the supine position the times require. Multiculturalism is simply the state between two different cultures. Posted by: Mike 2007-10-16 |
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