The terms secular, secular humanist, secular fundamentalist, secular left, and many more variations are at the center of our political discourse these days. Yet depending on who you talk to, they mean something completely different. I am not going to make any attempt to sort it all out today. However, as the discussion of the role of religion in public life moves front and center, we
will have to sort these things out if we are going to know what each other is talking about. (We might even want to check ourselves and see if we, in fact, know what we are talking about.)
The other day, I posted a piece taking two prominent Democrats to task for muddying these waters and adopting one of the central "frames" (in the George Lakoff sense of the term) of the religious right. I think some of the points were lost in the blogospheric hoo ha, so let me raise them in a hopefully fun new way.
Test your knowledge! Here are ten quotes from a pool of 20 well-known Democrats and Republicans, and leaders of the religious right and the nascent religious left. Can you figure out who said what?
Each question is multiple choice. You will have to keep track of your own score... but let us know how you did!
Here is a quickie run down of the 20 names you will have to navigate to find the identities behind the ten quotes:
Evan Bayh -- Democratic Senator from Indiana
George W. Bush -- whatever
Robert Byrd -- Democratic Senator from West Virginia
Wesley Clark -- retired General, U.S. Army
Hillary Clinton -- Democratic Senator from New York
John Danforth -- former GOP Senator from Missouri
Tom DeLay -- former GOP House Majority Leader
Jerry Falwell -- televangelist and founder of the Moral Majority
Al Gore -- former Democratic Senator from Tennessee
Tim LaHaye -- co-founder of the Moral Majority and co-author of the Left Behind series of novels
Richard Land -- head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention
Daniel Lapin -- conservative rabbi, head of Toward Tradition
Joe Lieberman -- Democratic Senator from Connecticut
Michael Lerner -- progressive rabbi, head of the Network of Spiritual Progressives
Barack Obama -- Democratic Senator from Illinois
Ralph Reed -- former exec. director of the Christian Coalition
Pat Robertson -- televangelist and founder of the Christian Coalition
Antonin Scalia -- Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Jim Wallis -- progressive evangelical head of the organization Call to Renewal
Rick Warren -- conservative evangelical, author of The Purpose Driven Life
1)
The greatest threat to religious freedom in America, are secular fundamentalists who want to ghetto-ize religious faith and make the wall of separation between church and state a prison wall keeping religious voices out of political discourse.
George W. Bush
Robert Byrd
Richard Land
Barack Obama
Pat Robertson
2)
The secular fundamentalism of the left is as much a problem as the religious fundamentalism of the right.
Evan Bayh
Hillary Clinton
John Danforth
Antonin Scalia
Jim Wallis
3)
The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this [9/11] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad.I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America-I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."
George W. Bush
Robert Byrd
Jerry Falwell
Pat Robertson
Jim Wallis
4)
I have no question the devil is behind what the apostle Paul called 'the wisdom (philosophy) of this world' and controls many of our courts and other areas of influence... in the nineteenth century this anti-God secular man-centered philosophy conquered the universities of Europe, trained journalists, educators, and entertainers, and today controls the countries where the church is impotent... Europe, once the center of evangelical Christianity, Bible translation and distribution, and even revival, has bought into the philosophy of secular humanism. That philosophy is based on atheism, evolution, autonomous self-centered man, and socialism."
Robert Byrd
Tom DeLay
Tim LaHaye
Pat Robertson
Rick Warren
5)
Today, there are new fundamentalists in the land. These are the "secular fundamentalists," many of whom attack all political figures who dare to speak from their religious convictions. From the Anti-Defamation League, to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, to the ACLU and some of the political Left's most religion fearing publications, a cry of alarm has gone up in response to anyone who has the audacity to be religious in public. These secular skeptics often display amazing lapse of historical memory when they suggest that religious language in politics is contrary to the "American Ideal."
George W. Bush
Robert Byrd
Jerry Falwell
Tim LaHaye
Jim Wallis
6)
Similarly, many Jewish organizations and even many individuals of Jewish ethnicity who possess the title "rabbi" are not guided by the principles Judaism found in the Torah. Instead, like the NAACP and NOW, they are guided chiefly by the principles of secular fundamentalism. Nothing else can explain their dogmatic and ideological commitment to causes such as homosexuality and abortion,
Jerry Falwell
Daniel Lapin
Michael Lerner
Joe Lieberman
Pat Robertson
7)
We contend today with both religious and secular fundamentalists, neither of whom must have their way. One group would impose the doctrines of a political theocracy on their fellow citizens. The other would deprive the public square of needed moral and spiritual values often shaped by faith.
Wesley Clark
John Danforth
Al Gore
Michael Lerner
Jim Wallis
8)
But what I am suggesting is this - secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square... To say that men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
George W. Bush
Wesley Clark
Al Gore
Barack Obama
Antonin Scalia
9)
The most alarming thing about this pair of rulings is that the decision to accommodate a Ten Commandments display donated by a nongovernmental source only won 5-4, which shows the degree to which this court has embraced secular fundamentalism as its religion... The Kentucky courthouse decision shows that, as Justice [Antonin] Scalia said in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas opinion [striking down state anti-sodomy laws], the majority of this court has 'taken sides in the culture war,' and it's the side of secular fundamentalists.
Robert Byrd
Richard Land
Joe Lieberman
Ralph Reed
Rick Warren
10)
But unfortunately, secular humanists very often act as though they have no tolerance - except that of a person on a higher plane looking down at the poor inferiors below them who happen to have a different religion than their religion. So the criticisms that I have... are for those who are "secular humanist fundamentalists." The fundamentalists are those who think they have all the truth, and that nobody else has any truth. Just as I'm very critical of Christian fundamentalists, Jewish fundamentalists, Muslim fundamentalists, and Hindu fundamentalists, so I'm also very critical of secular humanist fundamentalists.
Hillary Clinton
John Danforth
Michael Lerner
Joe Lieberman
Rick Warren
[Crossposted from Talk to Action]