Robert Reich on Religion: "Terrorism...is not the greatest danger we face"

Monday, July 12, 2004

Reich on Religion- An entry from the Touchstone blog quoting a column by Robert Reich. (Wonder if his middle name is "Third?")A column on WorldNetDaily cites an article by Robert Reich, the former U.S. labor secretary under President Bill Clinton.
Reich apparently believes people who follow God pose a more significant threat to the modern world than terrorists do: "Terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face, " writes Reich in a column titled "Bush's God" published in the American Prospect. Reich begins his column criticizing the Bush administration as he pushes for a liberal understanding of America's separation of church and state. He uses the term "religious zealots" and says their problem is that "they confuse politics with private morality."
Reich concludes his column: "The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face."
Ah, science, reason, and logic—why didn’t I think of that? And versus . . . what? (Scripture =) Superstition & (dogma =) Ignorance! We should be glad, I suppose, when people like Reich come right and say what he and so many others are really thinking. But I do expect most of the persecution and violence to come from the modernists. Modernist ideologies have done a bang up job in the 20th century. The body count was impressive. Will it be worse in the 21st? God forbid. If modernism means thinking like Reich, then I am certainly an anti-modernist, just on that score alone. —James Kushiner