Richard Land, a honcho over at the Southern Baptist Convention, has been a pivotal figure in the building of the theocratic movement in the United State for a generation. But in a recent speech, he also made a significant contribution to the wider culture by his high-profile use of an oxymoron.
Dr. Land’s distinct, albeit inadvertent, contribution to the culture is not entirely original. Dr. Bruce Prescott of Mainstream Baptist reports that several speakers at the conference where Land spoke, used the term. But Land gets the credit, because I happened to realize its significance when I read his use of the term. Land’s contribution joins the list of such classics as jumbo shrimp, final draft, saying nothing, hot chili, industrial park, junk food, plastic glasses, working vacation, computer jock, incomplete stop, natural additives and, of course, cheap gas.
Drum roll please:
badda badda badda badda badda badda badda badda BOOM!
Secular Fundamentalist
Ta Da!~
Thank you, Dr. Land.
The occasion for Dr. Land’s contribution to our culture was his twistedly preposterous argument: “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.”
There is no suppression of religious voices in American political discourse. This is a variation on the same strawman the Christian Right has been relentlessly knocking down for a generation. What Land and his theocratic cohort don’t like is religious equality and separation of church and state. For government to be the protector of the rights of all in religiously diverse society, it cannot be in the business of forming alliances with various sects and coalitions of sects to promote their interests; or promoting religion or religious practices.
Land and the theocratic movement are desperate to claim that there is religious persecution in the U.S. and the stifling of religious expression. This desperation is well-exemplified by their use of term “secular fundamentalist,” which is being used to tar the values of those who actually stand for religious freedom; and to reinterpret the Constitution and American history to advance their contemporary political and religious goals.
George Lakoff is right. Its important to pay attention to the frame.
Secular fundamentalist is a term that is key to a major frame of the Christian Right.
I guess what I first noticed would qualify as version 1.0–when they first insisted that secular humanism is a religion.
I said to myself, “Self, how comes yous never been to secular humanist church? How comes you cans’t even find it in the phone book? I’m sure Pat Robertson could. He’s a good bidnessman. He knows where his competition is, and what it’s up to. But here you are calling yourself a secular humanist, and you ain’t never once been to secular humanist church!
“SHAME ON YOU!”
That’s what I said to myself.
But I tell ya. That poll. That’s a hard one.
I had to throw dice for the poll above. Where’s the “all- of-the-above option”.
The paragraph you quote is unbelievable. The fundies have been in a feeding frenzy and they are scared shitless that it is coming to an end.
good idea, but alas, too late to add all of the above.
BTW,over at my blog, I titled the diary a bit differently:
Richard Lands an Oxymoron
as opposed to “amen” <snark> A great diary, as always, Frederick.
thanks, Laurel.
Much fun to be had with oxymorons.
I could’ve been chosen if I had diebold behind me
Fundamentalist Agnostic – not an oxymoron:
My 17 year old calls himself a “fundamentalist agnostic.”
His creed is: “I don’t know for sure whether God exists, and, dammit, neither do you. So quit trying to convert me and leave me the hell alone!”