More or less at the same time Your Humble Blogger was writing about religious exceptionalists and pluralists, the indispensable Nathan Newman was writing about secularism and religion, and bringing his usual historical light to it. One quote I’ll pull out: “Seculars may fight the religious right at the ballot box today, but most do remarkably little to fight them in the spiritual realm of peoples day-to-day lives.”
I don’t know that I altogether agree with that. I think that religious pluralists, on the whole, aren’t fighting as obviously and publicly as he might expect, and that true secularists aren’t fighting as effectively as he might expect. But it is happening. New Hampshire Episcopalians elected Gene Robinson.
OK, if that didn’t throw you, try this: Imagine an Episcopalian. Go ahead, give in to the stereotype, it’s just in your head. I won’t tell. OK, now imagine a New Hampshire-ite. New Hampshirian? You know, a Granite Stater. Got it? Make sure you’re not thinking of a Vermonter; just to be sure, think of a Vermonter, then put that image aside, and think of the New Hampshirer again. See? Now imagine a New Hampshire Episcopalian. And think of her choosing Gene Robinson. She is fighting the exceptionalists. That’s your coalition.
No, we don’t have Mencken and Shaw and Twain these days, much less Madison. But we have that New Hampshire Episcopalian on our side. And just ’cause I found it, and this Tohu Bohu is a blog, anyway, I’ll throw in this quote from what I can only call his campaign brochure. He is asked to “Identify the top three issues or trends in the life of the Episcopal Church today ...” His reponse begins “Can we live together while we fight?” I’ll endorse that question as being worth asking, over and over—along with its obvious follow-up, “How should we fight while we live together?”
Thank you,
-Vardibidian.
Religious pluralists tend to be peaceable sorts, at best broadly compassionate at worst deeply complacent. The fact that exceptionalists aren’t just a group of sadly misled people whose beliefs have to be respected within a pluralist society is really only beginning to elicit a response from religious pluralists. When (and whether) that response will begin to reach strongly into the spiritual realm of peoples’ day-to-day lives remains to be seen.