Less than a week after Jerry Falwell’s death, Newt Gingrich appeared at Falwell’s college, Liberty University, yesterday to address the school’s 2007 graduating class. The former House Speaker and likely presidential candidate denounced the “growing culture of radical secularism.”
In a speech heavy with religious allusions but devoid of hints about his presidential ambitions, Gingrich drew applause from the graduates and their families in the school’s 12,000-seat football stadium when he demanded: “This anti-religious bias must end.”
“In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive,” Gingrich said, deriding what he called the “contorted logic” and “false principles” of advocates of secularism in American society.
“Basic fairness demands that religious beliefs deserve a chance to be heard,” he said during his 26-minute speech. “It is wrong to single out those who believe in God for discrimination. Yet, today, it is impossible to miss the discrimination against religious believers.”
Today’s Discussion Group topic has two parts: 1) What on earth are these people talking about? and 2) Just how much religiosity will it take before these people are satisfied?
Theists face “discrimination”? There’s a widespread “anti-religious bias”? Where? From whom?
Religious beliefs don’t have a chance to be heard? Since when? Whose religious beliefs stifled, and under what circumstances? (Gingrich insists the prejudice and intolerance is so obvious, “it s impossible to miss.” He then pointed to exactly zero specific examples of this pervasive, widespread anti-religion animus.)
The religious right movement is often referred to as the “Taliban wing of the Republican Party,” a phrase I’ve never been entirely comfortable with, in part because the Dobson/Robertson crowd rarely believes in literal violence. That said, the Taliban complained about an insufficiently religious culture and society in Afghanistan, so they created a state more to the group’s liking. What would Gingrich propose we do about his dystopian America where, allegedly, people of faith are denigrated and treated as second-class citizens?
I’m hard pressed to imagine what country Gingrich and the 12,000 people who applauded his worldview are living in. Out of the 535 members of Congress, 50 governors, the president, vice president, their cabinet, and nine Supreme Court justices, there is exactly one person — not one percent, just one guy — who does not profess a faith in God. If polls are to be believed, less than 5% of the population describes themselves as non-believers.
In the last presidential election, one candidate announced during a presidential debate, “My faith affects everything that I do, in truth…. I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith.” This was John Kerry, the more secular candidate of the two.
The faithful added religion to the Pledge of Allegiance. They added religion to American currency. Both chambers of Congress not only have taxpayer-financed chaplains, but begin each day with a prayer. So much public money is available for religious ministries from the government, they’re hiring lobbyists to get more. The White House now has an Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Every year for the last six decades, presidents have declared a National Day of Prayer, and honor Christmas as a national holiday.
In our culture, religion is common in the media — I can’t remember any recent month in which Time and/or Newsweek didn’t feature religion as a cover story — almost exclusively in a positive light. In sporting events, celebrating athletes routinely express their religiosity. At awards ceremonies, entertainers routinely “give thanks to God” from the outset, usually to considerable applause.
Gingrich sees all of this and believes an “anti-religious bias” dominates U.S. society. Exactly how much more religiosity will it take before he’s satisfied? Or is it more likely that Gingrich and his receptive audience yesterday revel in some kind of delusional self-pity because a victim complex sells better than reality?