Dobson's World: Enlightenment is bad, embrace the darkness

Chip Berlet is continuing his series of posts on Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series of books and related products. In Chapter Four, he talks about the Christian Right concept of "secular humanism". That phrase has particular resonance among the Christian Right and refers to a whole collection of ideas as part of a larger conspiracy theory. Barlet describes briefly what he calls " the basic political agenda of the Christian Right over the past 30 years":

Here is what is bad:

Abortion
Homosexuality
Teaching Evolution
Comprehensive sex education
Criticism of unregulated Free Market economics
Subversion through public schools
Myth of separation of church and state
Liberalism in general

This is not about secularists being rude to Christians. This is about a comprehensive conspiracy theory about secularists and humanists used to justify a Christian Right mobilization that seeks to roll back the Enlightenment. More on the details of the conspiracy theory in the next installment.

That's correct, he said "roll back the Englightenment".

In Chapter Three, Berlet explains:

Tim LaHaye sees the earth as a battleground between the Godly and the Satanic, facing an approaching confrontation prophesied in the Bible's book of Revelation. The master plan of the Satanic conspiracy, according to LaHaye, is Secular Humanism.

LaHaye is not referring to an actual existing group of secular humanists, mind you, but his fantastic idea of a vast socialist utopian conspiracy hatched back in the 1800s.

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