The Rachel Dolezal story is hilarious for a boatload of reasons. There’s the obvious comparison to people who insist we pretend they are of another sex. If you can pretend to be the opposite sex, why not another race? More precisely, if sex is a social construct, then why is race not a social construct? Of course, for decades the war on white people has been based on the assertion that race is a social construct.
It used to be that we need not worry about such things. Biology was real and people accepted it. Those who did not were deemed mentally ill and treated accordingly. Rachel Dolezal was not fooling anyone, I suspect. People are not that stupid. They are that polite, however, and no one wants to get in a spat over race, even if it involves someone fraudulently using race to game the system. Elizabeth Warren pulled the same stunt and got away with it for the same reasons.
It’s fun to make sport of the internal contradictions, but it is even more fun to watch the Cult attack itself over something like this. Rachel Dolezal believes all the right things and has literally committed her life to them, but in doing so she has made a mockery of the one true faith. But, condemning someone for not being black enough sounds a lot like the paper bag test or the one drop rule.
Aside from the humor, it does reveal the basics of the New Religion, at least at this stage of its development. The New Religion is based on three principles: egalitarianism, multiculturalism and anti-racism.The order is important as the first two principles are the oldest and most important. Egalitarianism goes back to Rousseau and is at the root of all radical movements since the French Revolution.
If all men are the same, logically all cultures are the same. Multiculturalism is not logically possible without accepting egalitarianism. On the other hand, like Marxism, multiculturalism is a solution to the obvious problem that people will notice that not all cultures are the same and not all people seem to be equal. By ennobling the embrace of all cultures and condemning ethnocentrism, noticing becomes a defect in the noticer, rather than in the noticed.
If everyone is the same and no cultures are better than any other, inequity must be due to something other than biology and culture. Since white societies are the richest and most dominant, they must doing something to upset the natural order. That’s where anti-racism comes into the mix. The sin of racism is what allows whites in particular and white society in general, to rule over the rest of the world.
Therefore, white people of the New Religion jostle with one another for who can be the most ethno-masochist. The ultimate expression of that is to change ones race from white to black. We can all agree that Rachel Dolezal is nuts, but her choice here is not entirely irrational from the perspective of the true believer. Some white women marry black men, but she went even further and converted to blackness!
You see the same thing happening with trannies and homosexuals. In the mythology of the New Religion, women have been oppressed by white men almost as bad as blacks. This cult is, after all, a female cult. That makes white men the ultimate evil. How better to address that than proving maleness is a choice. If Bruce Jenner can choose to be female, then all of those terrible white men are choosing to be terrible white men.
All religions work backwards. By that I mean they begin with an endpoint and layout what must be done to reach that endpoint. For Christians, getting into heaven is about following certain rules and “living a Christian life.” For members of the New Religion, the goal is the earthly utopia where everyone lives in a paradise of equality. Therefore, the anointed are those who work to achieve it, through any means necessary.
Religions also always have a certain amount of hypocrisy and irrationality, too. They are human institutions, after all. The New Religion will ignore Elizabeth Warren’s trans-racialism because she is in the elite. Rachel Dolezal is just a provincial in flyover country. That means the good folks at NPR and the NYTimes can make sport of Rachel Dolezal, while celebrating Elizabet Warren.
It’s why cases like this will not have a lasting impact on the evolution of the New Religion. Hypocrisy, it turns out, is a great adaptation. It solves a lot of problems for human religion. Whether it is Catholic Bishops living like royalty while railing against earthly pleasures or Progressive pundits championing Bruce Jenner while condemning Rachel Dolezal, hypocrisy lets the faithful get past the internal contradictions and outright lunacy of their faith.
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I was laughing too until the many revelations over the past day or so about her past behavior. I’m now inclined to think she’s living totally in a fantasy world, probably has severe mental problems, and probably needs medical help – a whole lot of medical help. I hope she calms down and seeks it.
Well, they say that intelligence is inversely proportional to the greed present…Since NAACP’s greed in near infinite, their intelligence is near the absolute zero…Proof, their leader was a pinko honkie with blue eyes…Cant blame her for squeezing that bunch of morons for all they had…When you are that stupid, you dont deserve to have money…
I’m laughing every time I see a picture of this “black” woman. Her own parents are mystified. They said, “She has issues.” Understatement of the year.
Well, look at all the kids pretending to be dope dealing wigger pimps and listening to grating noises…make you hope Pooty Poot Putin go ape shit and loosen all his nukes on this worthless rabble…I have zero sympathy for this scum of whatever color they may be…Anyone even wonder how the Waffen SS of Looie Farrakhan deal with their hip hop druggies…the heartburn has to be pretty hot!
Egalitarianism means no differences between the sexes either. That’s the real reasoning behind all of the gender bending and related cheer leading going on.
[Psst. I think the sola scriptura (Paulist) crowd just crashed the party.]
One of the stranger things in the last election was seeing Bible-believers call the Mormons a cult outside of Christian tradition. Catholics and most Protestants consider the Bible-only types to be wildly misinformed, at the very minimum.
When I was a kid, the bible reading was not recommended for catholics unless you had a classical education…(It was supposed to make sense of all this charabia written by goat herders)…all this being fairly irrelevant today when you see seven years old sons of muslimines hacking at the neck of bound prisoners with machetes…Jesus did say:”whoever is without sin cast the first stone” While Muhammad said:”Don’t cast too big stones so you make the fun last longer”…
Aaaand this will soon be the “new” new religion, “Kill thy neighbor before he kill you, rape your wife to death and sell your children to arab whorehouses”.
It is my understanding that for a Christian to get into heaven they must accept that Jesus is their savoir. Following the rules comes after that and is of lessor importance.
It’s funny to me that modern Christians are at odds with the people who invented Christianity as what it means to be a Christian.
So the people that invented Christianity believe that following the rules is what it takes? Who do you consider the people that invented it?
Yes.
Pope Leo the Great
You keep using that word (Christian). I do not think it means what you think it means.
But I do know that stupid line from Princess Bride is now only used by profoundly stupid people.
In your opinion I am profoundly stupid. Glad that’s cleared up. I will stupidly keep reading your blog regardless of our difference in opinion, because one doesn’t have to like you in order to consider your perspective. However, if you are ever fool enough to breathe the same air as I, your insult will still be fresh upon me. Cheers.
It’s like this chief. If you have something to say, say it. If you have a question, ask it. I have no patience for stupid Internet snark from the 90’s.
Very well. Internet snark from the 90’s be damned. I do not like my faith being painted with the same broad brush you paint all Christ-affiliated religious fervor. Christianity as I have grown to understand it is based upon the grace of forgiveness for the sins of an imperfect animal (me), free for the asking, requiring no strict adherence to rules. That last part should be fairly obvious, unless you believe there are perfect humans. The concept was not invented by a pope, only the name. It began with a man named Jesus, and the venom you spew would be better directed at fallen men rather than the greatest gift ever given.
I used traditional definitions for Christianity. I would not, for example, consider Mormons to be inside the Christian tradition. By the sounds of it, your “Christ-affiliated” thing is outside the Christian tradition as well. Before you get yourself worked up into a lather over “the venom I spew” keep in mind that I wish you nothing but the best with whatever it is you have going on there.