the horror, the horror

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 18, 2006

The G-word was imprudently used by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the expression "God bless Canada." Progressives are aghast. Mark Steyn is Mark Steyn:

A generation or two back, Canadian schoolchildren sang "God Save The Queen." On public property! Then they went home and their parents sang along to "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys. Voluntarily! Even today we sing, "God keep our land glorious and free." And on every coin in our pockets the sovereign's likeness is accompanied by the phrase "DG Regina" -- "Dei Gratia Regina"-- i.e., she's Queen by the grace of God and not, as many of us thought, by a 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court reversing an earlier decision by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Why do Lefties dislike God? Because religion leads to theocracy which leads to violence? Nah. They have no problem with anyone who worships Quexacoatl or Odin or Chemosh, the necklace-of-human-skulls gang. Lefties respect ruthlessness. It's the business about an objective moral order (with divine sanctions) that they hate, as St. Paul explains in Romans 1. An upsurge of gang violence or drug abuse doesn't rattle them; the secular state knows how to turn animal appetites to its own ends. But citizens -- and especially young people -- who attempt sobriety, piety, and chastity make it clearer than could any street demonstration banners or chants that the state itself is under judgment.