The Hypocrisy of Liberals/Progressives on Religion

Hunter Baker has a good post on "The Hypocrisy of the Champions of Secular Democracy" in which he points out that the recent attacks on Rand Paul's (Republican candidate for the Senate in Kentucky) faith by his Democratic opponent, Jack Conway, is an example of the way that liberals use the "separation of church and state" as a stick with which to beat conservatives. You can't take them seriously, so why try?

Baker writes:

In my book The End of Secularism, I have a chapter which is a case study demonstrating that the high-minded adherence to secularism is easily discarded by leftists whenever they find religion convenient to their agenda. Were I to rewrite the book today, I would include the ad being run against Rand Paul by his opponent in the Kentucky senate race.

Here is the Democratic attack ad:



Here is Rand Paul's response:



If a conservative Christian argued that his opponent should not be elected because he was an atheist and anti-Christian, the liberals would be up in arms. But their silence on this issue shows how hypocritical they are. They just cynically use the religion issue either way as it suits their purposes.

Baker again:

Now, first off, I have to say that the claim against Rand Paul has to do with a stunt from his college years at Baylor. Having read the original story about Rand's classmate's claim, it was clear that he and a friend engaged in a fairly typical fraternity-style prank. I am familiar with the "secret society" he belonged to at Baylor. It is a humorous part of campus-life. A little edgy, but viewed as a real part of the Baylor tradition.

More important, though, the text of the ad shows that liberals are more than ready to use religion as a political issue when it suits their purposes. If the shoe were on the other foot and a conservative were running an ad of this nature, many gray eminences of church-state separation would come forth from the Ivy Leagues, Washington, D.C., and New York City to explain to us how scurrilous and unprincipled it is.

I have yet to hear from Barry Lynn or any of the other great separators of church and state about the Conway ad being run against Rand Paul. And we won't hear from them. Because this story doesn't fit their template of conservatives using religion to engage in holy war.

Well said Mr. Baker.

NOTE: As you can see, however, from this post the other day, there is one member of the liberal media who must be exempted from this hypocrisy charge: Chris Matthews of MSNBC.