Ancestral culture vs anachronism: the left wing's double yardstick for religion

Every year, when Holy Week arrives, we attend the same show of disrespect towards this Christian celebration.

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For years, a part of the left (and I say a part because there are many leftists who attend the traditional Holy Week processions) has been considering it a source of shame that there are massive religious acts in Spain that recall the death of Christ on the Cross and the profound meaning that His sacrifice still has today, for a largely secularized society.

The dream of the most extreme left is a de-Christianized society, and I use this word and not the adjective "atheist" because the far-left has abandoned its old discourse of hostility towards all religions. What bothers some fanatics is not the religion itself, but Christianity, perhaps because it is the spiritual marrow of Western culture, in which the anti-establishment left concentrates all its hatred for representing not only Christianity, but also from two other enemies of Marxism: liberal democracy and the free market.

Unlike the hostility it directs against Christianity, the left is much more sympathetic and friendly towards Islam, without seeming to care much that in Islamic countries women suffer great discrimination, the freedom religion is mostly restricted and even homosexuals are hanged, as is the case in Iran. In the same way, any other animist religion from some lost tribe of the Amazon or Africa is better treated by the left than Christianity, even though practices that would be unacceptable in Western society persist in those tribes.

Thus, and very frequently, the same ones who consider the expressions of Spanish Holy Week "anachronistic", and who even assimilate the clothing of the Nazarenes (who are people who are hooded in an act of penance) with the Ku Klux Klan, at the same time asking for respect for other religions and their "ancestral cultures", even openly blessing the imposition of head coverings on women because they consider their hair to be a reason for scandal. It is already something common to see that same left excuse any atrocities from other cultures saying that "they are their customs and we must respect them", at the same time that they detest the religious traditions that we have in the West.

In Spain we have an admirable Holy Week, with processions that -even apart from religious matters- are a very valuable asset of cultural interest and that must be protected by the administrations, as they are an important part of our cultural heritage. What some call "anachronism" is, in reality, a very old religious and cultural tradition and whose conservation is worthy of admiration, or at least respect. But it seems that everything that has to do with Christianity, with the West and with Spain -a traditionally Catholic country- is something that irritates a certain left. Of course, what must change is not our Christian tradition, but the hatred and intolerance of many leftists towards it.

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Photo: Elentir. Procession of the Virgen de la Soledad on Good Friday, April 20, 2019, in the city of Vigo.