Instead of the liberal doctrine of the separation between church and state, these figures promoted the institutionalization of a secular morality to strengthen popular sovereignty and combat injustice. They all addressed oppression and social alienation in contrast to the elitist “New Atheist” approach of directly attacking the religious beliefs of the poor and the marginalized as a political solution. [...]
Spinoza is usually seen as a liberal on religious and philosophical matters, and he was. In order to counter the theocratic tendencies Calvinism represented, Spinoza proposed a liberal national civic religion that would include all subjects. The liberal norms of the state would be enforced by a public cult promoting an ideology of “justice and charity,” which meant the practice of solidarity and love of our neighbors. [...]
Robespierre had a deistic aversion to atheism, but he was practically opposed to the de-Christianizers who wanted to resolve political contradictions through one-sided ideological warfare. Robespierre’s main opponent in this struggle was the radical journalist Jacques Hébert, who called on the French people to exterminate Christianity root and branch.
Robespierre’s position on religion holds important lessons for the Left today. To wage war against Christianity or religion as abstractions, instead of attacking the more mundane sources of alienation and oppression, is politically foolish. There is nothing inherently progressive or revolutionary about being an atheist, since atheism in itself is not a positive basis for politics.
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