Reactionary and Progressive Labels

the evolutionists: the struggle for Darwin's soul (Freeman; New York: 2001) by Richard Morris

Two of my closest friends are McGill psychiatrists. We’ve been friends for forty years. David was born in my hometown, Kingston, Ontario. As psychiatrists working in hospitals, they deal with seriously crazy people. They tend to label everyone. As a consequence of this long close friendship, I try to avoid labeling anyone.

Nevertheless, I would say that in the United States the classic reactionary is a born-again Protestant male. Credo quia absurdum, wrote Tertullian: “I believe what is absurd.” If you claim creationism is true and evolution is false, you will also believe the lies of George Bush. On the other hand, religion can be progressive. I attended a Jesuit high school. In biology, evolution was taught as fact. The Catholic Worker is a progressive movement within the Catholic church, perhaps a political antithesis of Opus Dei. The Catholic Worker helped create Liberation theology.

The progressive seeks to correct injustice. The reactionary perpetuates injustice, for he believes it is God’s plan. The reactionary seems to gloat over the suffering he causes.