Sightings

4/25/2011

— Martin E. Marty

Atlas Shrugged, viewed by reviewers of most stripes as being appallingly
appalling, draws crowds of devotees, and has champions on the right,
including the Religious Right. Reviewing movie reviews is not standard fare
in this column, but the support for this film based on the Ayn Rand
perennial best-seller, deserves notice for what its plot and author tell
about our nation and some religious sectors in it. And what it tells
suggests profound contradictions, the reality of blind spots among
ideologues, and the question of what America ¢â‚¬â„¢s real religion, or this
denomination of it, is.

Gary Moore, founder of The Financial Seminary, is the most dogged observer
of Ayn Rand ¢â‚¬â„¢s doings, reputation, and effect. He is mystified, as his online
column title suggests:  ¢â‚¬Å“Et tu, Cal? A response to Cal Thomas ¢â‚¬â„¢s endorsement
of the Atlas Shrugged movie and its attack on Caesar. ¢â‚¬  Caesar? How about
 ¢â‚¬Å“attack on Christ, ¢â‚¬  which is another specialty of Rand? Cal Thomas? Since
that columnist  ¢â‚¬Å“has famously disagreed with the worst excesses of the
religious right, ¢â‚¬  his touting of Atlas, says Moore,  ¢â‚¬Å“cuts like a knife. ¢â‚¬ 
Do not he and his colleagues notice contradictions in their stand? These
should be obvious enough, as Moore ¢â‚¬”no leftist ¢â‚¬”and Charles Colson, etc. have
pointed out.

Now, a novelist, faux-philosopher, or economist does not have to be
religiously orthodox or religious at all to be reckoned with and selectively
appropriated by the religious. The bearded God-killers, Darwin, Marx,
Nietzsche, and Freud come to mind as thinkers whose non-God and anti-God
philosophies have to be dealt with by scholars, writers, theologians, and
activists who use insights from them. But Moore says that the complexities
in the camps need notice. Preachments are absorbed into the religious canon,
and the result is  ¢â‚¬Å“syncretism, ¢â‚¬  mixing of religions. And the public
consequence of Randianism deserves notice as it befuddles Moore, Colson, and
others.

Why expressive conservative Christians waste energies responding to the
comparatively trivial  ¢â‚¬Å“new atheists ¢â‚¬  while giving Rand a free ride or while
taking their own ride on her renewed bandwagon is further a part of the
mystery. The culture ¢â‚¬â„¢s  ¢â‚¬Å“new atheists ¢â‚¬  can be economic conservatives or
socialists, Republicans or Democrats, humanists or anti-humanists and the
world goes on. With Rand it is different, wedded as she has been to
advocates and advocacies in both parties and many conservative camps.

That Rand has said that she wants to kill off all religions may bring her
celebrity. She is consistently anti-government and stridently
pro-selfishness. She sneers at people who care for the needs of others. As a
result, Randists in the Bible-believing cohort of the population ask: is
there anything in her philosophy that is not in direct opposition to the
whole of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament? Grounded in her
contention that selfishness is a virtue and selflessness is a vice, she
evokes a furrowed brow from columnist Maureen Dowd:  ¢â‚¬Å“Rand is blazing back as
an icon of the Tea Party, which overlooks her atheism, amorality in romance
and vigorous support for abortion. ¢â‚¬  Obviously.

Give Rand in her writings credit: she did not set out to entrap or fool
people. She made clear that if anyone would come after her, they had to deny
all their impulses toward selflessness, take up their blinders and
billfolds, and follow her. It ¢â‚¬â„¢s been a long road already, and it threatens
to enlarge as economic confusion continues to reign and religious witness is
muzzled by the religiously confused.

References

Maureen Dowd, “Atlas Without Angelina”

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/opinion/17dowd.html?_r=1&ref=maureendowd>,

New York Times, April 16, 2011.

Michael Phillips, “‘Message’ pictures and the myth of
objectivity”  <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-21/entertainment/ct-mov-0422-talking-pictures-20110421_1_objectivity-ayn-rand-critic>,
Chicago Tribune, April 21, 2011.

Gary Moore, “Ayn Rand: Goddess of the Great
Recession”  <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/september/2.36.html>,
Christianity Today, August 27, 2010.

—. “Et tu, Cal? A response to Cal Thomas ¢â‚¬â„¢s endorsement of the Atlas
Shrugged movie and its attack on Caesar”  <http://thislamp.com/?tag=cal-thomas>,
*This Lamp*, April 19, 2011.

Martin E. Marty’s  biography, current projects, publications, and contact
information can be found at www.illuminos.com.

Sightings comes from the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

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