a cultural absurdity

Mollie Ziegler is presently writing a book, tentatively titled Interfaith is No Faith: How Religious Relativism is Destroying the Church, that asks a simple but profound question: why is it that Americans are afraid to believe their own religions? Why is it that we are so intolerant of any belief system that doesn't agree with the culturally orthodox notion that it really doesn't matter what you believe?

True diversity is impossible in such a situation. So is true tolerance. One has to disagree with somebody in order to be tolerant of their beliefs, and disagreeing about anything that matters (or at least admitting that anything we disagree about possibly could matter) seems close to the essence of the American ethos.

Why should such a patently absurd notion be so precious to us?

How did we come to be so rigid in only permitting one set of convictions regarding ultimate questions in our culture- the one that says that it doesn't matter what answer you give? Why is it so difficult for Americans to grasp the simple proposition that to the extent that if all religions are correct, none of them are? Why are we afraid to grasp the challenge of seeking to be a truly diverse society, which acknowledges the legitimacy of actually disagreeing with one another on ultimate questions which everyone acknowledges ultimately matter?

Why do we, as a nation, fear to approach the radically exclusive religious beliefs to which we give lip service with a modicum of honesty and intellectual integrity, recognizing that in a truly tolerant society its members must hold mutually exclusive beliefs, if tolerance is even to be possible?

I can't wait to read it Molly's book. Our national horror of religious integrity is something striking enough, obvious enough in its dishonesty, and rips the substance from the convictions of each and every one of the religions Americans hold with such obvious and shameless violence that the inability of most Americans to see the problem seems incomprehensible. Maybe she can help the more thoughtful among us understand this cultural absurdity a little better.

tip of the hat to "bob" of watersblogged...