Religiously secular SJWs

There are two basic reasons, I think, why liberals fail to appreciate the challenge from … [Social Justice Warrior] radicals.

First, they assume that because these students are usually secular, that their orientation towards their cause is not religious. Liberals have it in their minds that only Religious Right people are irrational. They let their guard down around SJWs, thinking that the SJWs are technologically oriented (in the Kolakowskian sense), when in fact they’re mythological.

Second, the SJWs advocate for causes that liberals generally support: equality, diversity, and so on. It’s easy to see why liberals in positions of authority capitulate to these tirades from left-wing students, whereas if they were coming from the right, they would not tolerate it for a second. Liberals, especially those in power, may feel guilty about their “privilege,” and feel that they are not sufficiently committed to the causes of racial justice, gay rights, feminism, and so forth. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/Are full of passionate intensity.”

Rod Dreher, Our Coming War Of Religion

This is a powerful and disturbing synthesis by Dreher, made more disturbing by arriving in my RSS feed concurrently with a Pew Research survey of America’s religious affiliations and attendance.