Displacement: left-wing hysteria about theocracy.

The fantasy of theocratic menace

The liberal elite's obsession with the insidious threat posed by faith-based films is paralleled by its paranoia about the religious right. Anti-religious crusaders, in particular in the US, continually exaggerate the influence of Christianity in culture and politics. Every time I visit America, this fear seems to have worsened. Raising the alarm about Christian fundamentalists has become a taken-for-granted affectation among those who define themselves as liberal or left-wing . . . .

It is now commonplace to attribute the re-election of President George W Bush in 2004 to his army of religious supporters. . . .

The idea that religious fundamentalism is on the offensive and threatening to dominate public life is widely held on both sides of the Atlantic. . . .

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This trend for blaming the rise of theocracy on ordinary folks' apparent penchant for simplistic black-and-white solutions shifts the focus from the elite's failure to promote and uphold a positive vision of the future on to the alleged political illiteracy of the masses. . . .

[Rabbi Michael] Lerner represents a growing body of liberal and centrist opinion that recognises it is not enough simply to denounce religion. Intemperate attacks on the religious right resonate with progressives, but such attacks clearly do little to undermine the powerful search for meaning that prevails across society. That is why a growing number of liberal and leftist politicians have called for a new moral dimension in their own political platforms.

The curious rise of anti-religious hysteria. It is the Anglo-American cultural elites' insecurity about their own values that encourages their frenzied attacks on religion. By Frank Furedi, Spiked!, 1/23/06.