One of the more distasteful and unattractive traits of the "religious right" is their militant self-righteousness. They are certain in their judgment of right and wrong, and quick to demonstrate their moral superiority on a wide range of issues. Yet in progressive writings, including diaries and comments on Daily Kos, I see more and more of the same attitudes and language used by the religious right.
This militant self-righteousness most often appears in our tendency to judge an entire program/organization/person based on what are frequently minor flaws or transgressions against some "progressive" litmus test. We fail to recognize and tout the good things done or said, and write off the entire enterprise as unworthy. As a result, we alienate potential allies, and throw the baby out with the bath water in our criticisms.
As "progressives," we ought to keep in mind the word "progress." Progress doesn’t occur as an absolute, binary event. Rather, progress is the result of a process moving forward toward an ultimate goal of "utopia." Sometimes that progress is not even, and is often frustrating, with "two steps forward and one step back." Therefore, we ought to celebrate such progress, however incremental, and vow to continue to effect progress, rather than angrily conceding defeat whenever we fall short of "utopia."
As "progressives," we certainly ought to value the intrinsic worth of EVERY human being, even when some appear to be inhuman. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote:
"But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being."
Or, as the Apostle Paul wrote:
"All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
In the Christian tradition, that makes us all equal in the eyes of God. For those who don’t claim the Christian faith, science tells us that as human beings we are genetically almost identical. So regardless of our beliefs, we can agree that as human beings we are much more alike than we are different.
As "progressives," we ought not take ourselves too seriously. Modern Christian writer Anne Lamott writes:
"The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty."
When we become certain in our beliefs and attitudes, we exhibit an arrogance that is a sure invitation to others to attack us for any flaw. In our certainty, we close off any chance to grow, to learn, to "progress" in our thinking. In our certainty, we "know it all," even though what we know is akin to the medieval certainty that the earth was the center of the universe. And in our certainty, we can be accused of not having a sense of humor -- a vile insult, indeed!
And as "progressives," we ought to regularly conduct self-examination. Jesus warned us to
"take the log out of our own eye before attempting to remove the speck in another’s eye."
We ought to be careful of demanding absolutism and "purity of ideology." Rather, we should welcome and celebrate dissent and disagreement as healthy self-examination of our positions.