MG 2.0 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 03, 2023 5:46 pm
There were a number of times when there seemed to be a general confusion on the usage of the word ‘secular’. In this article the author uses the word in such a way that I think her usage matches pretty much my own. She also expresses some important things to consider in reference to the GenZ’s movement towards progressivism as was mentioned in the article linked to in the opening post of this thread.
Some food for thought:
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/how-religiou ... al-health/
Some key points:
… a number of scholars have recently noticed, the mental health crisis being experienced by many teen and young adult women may have something to do with how little power they feel they have.
… Writing for the Free Press recently, Jonathan Haidt cited a widely accepted theory in psychology about differences in how people perceive how much control they have:
“Some people have an internal locus of control — they feel as if they have the power to choose a course of action and make it happen, while other people have an external locus of control — they have little sense of agency and they believe that strong forces or agents outside of themselves will determine what happens to them.”
… A number of factors have led young women — and liberal young women in particular — to have more of an external locus of control than previous generations or than their conservative peers. Social media certainly seems to have had an outsized effect on girls.
But it is also the messages that young progressives have embraced as a result of their political ideology — especially the idea that the world is made up of oppressors and victims (or good people and bad people) and the idea that another person’s words can cause a person deep and lasting harm.
What’s interesting is that these are ideas that liberals often associate with being a conservative or being strongly religious. It is not uncommon to see the secular media portray religious young people as powerless, simply following orders from their elders or from God.
… And it is also not uncommon to see religious folks portrayed as believing that the world is made up of good people and bad people, or as being so sensitive as to think that a few words can cause them real harm. They are the ones who want to “ban” books and who condemn swearing or taking the Lord’s name in vain.
But multiple studies have found religious belief is correlated with positive mental health. An interesting paper on Orthodox Jews published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion found that during the pandemic, “A Closeness-to-God Index predicted lower levels of depression and anxiety, less perceived stress, and less loneliness.”
… So what is the difference between this conservative religious worldview and the progressive secular one?
For one thing, rather than making kids feel like cogs in a machine, religion teaches them that God sees them as individuals who are valuable and helpful. Secular progressives see structural barriers to change and increasingly believe that these are all but impossible to change without massive government interventions.
My fifth grader this year was shown a video in school that said the world would end in 2030. It’s hardly the kind of thing that makes one feel empowered; rather, it just makes you feel like you’re doomed and there’s nothing you can do (though one girl did announce she was going vegan as a result). Religious folks are still of the opinion that small actions by individuals have the potential to fix things.
… While secular liberals may divide the world into good people and bad people, or oppressors and victims, religious people tend to believe that everyone is capable of good and evil. But this too gives them a sense of power — power that they can change themselves and that they can influence the behavior of others.
… it’s also worth thinking about how religious affiliation helps young people find meaning and take control of their lives.
Earlier I had mentioned the same thing as this author, that secularization gradually moves a society towards ‘willing’ that government take more control over people’s lives. And as mentioned earlier, secular progressives ought to be concerned with this.
Just how much control to we want government to have vs. individual agency and freedom/liberty?
I realize that secular liberal progressives will find ways to build around this and wrap it all up in a way that makes it look like a utopia. But the fact remains, as time goes on there will be greater and greater conflict between secular progressive liberals and conservatives.
One more important point this opinion piece brings to the fore:
The current attitudes among young progressives were not always the attitudes on the left. Individual empowerment (which often led to communal empowerment) was commonly preached in the past. Indeed, it was preached by folks on the left who were often religious themselves.
Times, they are a changin’.
This is why it is important for religious folks not give up the fight for what they believe is right and good. And it’s important that religious folks follow the teachings of Jesus and be peacemakers when issues are escalated to either the far right or left of the religious and/or political spectrum. Because the truth is, there will be those that resort to ad hominem attacks, twisting of words, and verbal abuse to try and ‘rule the day’.
In conference this past weekend the teachings of Jesus in regards to being a peacemaker was emphasized a number of times. President Nelson’s talk dealt mainly with this. My hope is that as time goes on and as secular progressive liberals become a more outspoken segment of society we can all live together with some degree of harmony.
That would be a key component of ‘civil society’.
As it is, there is just too much bickering, name calling, and incivility these days. Especially online it seems.
Regards,
MG
