FUNDAMENTALISTS OF THE WORLD, UNITE - YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR SOULS

One of the most fascinating aspects of the recent culture wars in America has been the rise of ecumenism among the religious right. Thus, we get the rather odd scenes of fire-breathing Southern Baptist preachers cavorting with Hasidic Rabbis as they take on the "opponents of family values." It was inevitable that anti-modernist Muslims would be the next to be invited into the coalition. Whatever the problems of this odd alliance on the domestic front (which may actually do more good than harm by increasing interfaith tolerance among the cultural right), it is far more problematic on the international scene - where the Religious Right is working furiously to align American positions on the rights of homosexuals, women and children with those of the worst tyrannies of the Islamic world. The Bull Moose crafts a dead-on analogy in condeming the religious right's move.

Just as liberals weakened their case when they joined hands with the Communists, the religious right's moral standing is severely weakened by working with states that enslave women, promote extreme anti-Semitism and support terror against America and the West.

While I'm more sympathetic to the problems that motivate religious conservatives (the search for meaning and community in an atomizing, uber-materialistic modern world), their dogmatic worldview and warped alliance with the economic right drives them to counter-productive solutions (who else would blame gays for teenage pregnancies? or ignore the possibilities of flex-time as means of increasing quality time for parents and children). The revelation of cooperation with this country's enemies should be a wake-up call to the rank-and-file of thse communities that something has gone dreadfully wrong with their organizations' priorities.

This issue also gives Dems a golden opportunity to wrest the monopoly on flag-waving currently enjoyed by the GOP. There are a large number of liberal/libertarian hawks who disdain religious fundamentalism but see the Dems as soft on foreign policy. The Dems need to become the party of exporting liberal values (first and foremost gender equality) abroad. The question is whether they will be able to shed their own culture warriors' instinctive relativism to do so.