{"id":30257,"date":"2017-12-08T05:45:09","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T10:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=30257"},"modified":"2017-12-07T14:01:19","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T19:01:19","slug":"political-ideology-as-our-new-religions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/12\/political-ideology-as-our-new-religions\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Ideology as Our New Religions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"7899058016_648946c48b_b\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nancy Pelosi describes sexual abuser John Conyers as an \u201cicon.\u201d\u00a0 Environmentalists prophecy an apocalyptic last judgment and the end of the world.\u00a0 Progressives look forward to the kingdom of heaven on earth but find saints, martyrs, and taboos in identity politics.\u00a0 Conservatives demand adherence to orthodox doctrines and condemn backsliders.\u00a0 John Hart notes the religious language being used by secular politicians and concludes that religion is being replaced by political ideology.<\/p>\n

In his article\u00a0Is Ideology Becoming America\u2019s Official Religion?<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(in Forbes<\/em>, no less), Hart says, \u201cToday, ideology seems to be filling a vacuum left by traditional faith.\u201d And \u201cToday\u2019s political rhetoric certainly suggests we\u2019re not less religious but religious about something else. The Left and Right both increasingly use religious or \u201ctheologized ideology\u2019 to express their views.<\/p>\n

\n

He quotes psychological theorist Carl Jung, writing in 1958 during the Cold War with Communism,\u00a0\u201cYou can take away a man\u2019s gods, but only to give him others in return.\u201d\u00a0 Jung,\u00a0in\u00a0The Undiscovered Self<\/a><\/em>\u00a0, went on to note how the state\u00a0fills the vacuum:<\/p>\n

\n

The State takes the place of God; that is why, seen from this angle, the socialist dictatorships are religions and State slavery is a form of worship \u2026 The policy of the State is exalted to a creed, the leader or party boss becomes a demigod beyond good and evil, and his votaries are honoured as heroes, martyrs, apostles, missionaries. There is only one truth and beside it no other. It is sacrosanct and above criticism. Anyone who thinks differently is a heretic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hart comments, \u201cMany on the Left and Right are bowing to the same false god of state power from opposite sides of the altar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liberals need to ask themselves: Why do so many on their side who believe they\u2019re enlightened and post-religious use progressive fundamentalist religious rhetoric to advance their views? Conservatives, meanwhile, need to ask traditional believers whether they really believe the author of string theory and the designer of DNA needs an extra vote in the Senate to orchestrate change?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where else do we see\u00a0political ideology taking the place of religion?\u00a0 How can religious convictions inform political action without falling into the trap of sacralizing human ideology, worshiping state power, or reducing a universal faith into a civil religion?\u00a0 (Hint:\u00a0 Two Kingdoms.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Illustration by CJF20 via Flickr,\u00a0Creative Commons License<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nancy Pelosi describes sexual abuser John Conyers as an \u201cicon.\u201d\u00a0 Environmentalists prophecy an apocalyptic last judgment and the end of the world.\u00a0 Progressives look forward to the kingdom of heaven on earth but find saints, martyrs, and taboos in identity politics.\u00a0 Conservatives demand adherence to orthodox doctrines and condemn backsliders.\u00a0 John Hart notes the religious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":30333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,19,36,39],"tags":[5966,455,503,2947,1569,5965,4951],"class_list":["post-30257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-government","category-politics","category-religions","tag-c-j-jung","tag-christianity-politics","tag-civil-religion","tag-idolatry","tag-new-religions","tag-political-ideology","tag-two-kingdoms-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nPolitical Ideology as Our New Religions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An analyst argues that political ideologies, both of the left and the right, have becomes our new religions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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