I believe that there is common ground in America on the founding fathers' principle that everyone is entitled to believe whatever they choose in this country. There is disagreement on the meaning and value of the separation of Church and State, but the right to freedom of religion or from religion is, I believe sacrosanct.
In a Religion News Service article an examination of the Pentecostal beliefs of Sarah Palin's former church are documented. Some of the highlights of Pentecostal beliefs cited include a. all non-christians, including Jews, are going to Hell b. America is a Christian nation c. Pentecostals embrace speaking in tongues and also in faith healings. Additionally Sarah Palin herself has said that we need to pray that our soldiers and our leaders are following God's plan in Iraq and that God's will has to be done in building a Natural Gas pipeline in Alaska. We are already familiar with the religious beliefs of Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright.
Clearly, in this country, no one can question the right of any individual to hold any of these views mentioned, or any other views not mentioned. Freedom of religion means that I can believe in God, Jesus, Allah, or no God. The question is, in the public domain, what is the appropriate role for these beliefs to play in governing. This is a huge issue and one that I don't believe has been explored carefully enough.
The most important point is that while we are entitled to believe whatever we want, we have a critical responsibility to respect the beliefs of every one else. We cannot impose our beliefs on others either through force or legislation. If you impose your beliefs on me, then I no longer have freedom of religion. In the past many of us were religious but didn't talk much about it. Of course our beliefs informed the decisions we made and the actions we took, but we didn't claim that our decisions were right or wrong based on our religious beliefs, but based on what we determined to be best for our country.
Sarah Palin's turning to prayer seems appropriate in terms of what we have heard, but it also helps us to highlight just what may or may not be acceptable. For example, to pray that our mission is the right one in Iraq makes sense to a believer; to believe that our mission is right in Iraq because of our Christianity is dangerous. To pray for the success of the Natural Gas pipeline is sensible for a believer; to insist that we must build a pipeline because it is God's will is an entirely different matter.
I fear that by placing our religious faith at the center of the political discourse a number of things are likely to occur, most of them not so good. There is a danger that those of us who don't believe as others will be seen as somehow less than what we need to be - the tyranny of the majority. Can public servants serve all people equally, even those who might believe differently from them and are therefore going to Hell? One of the problems with religion is that if you believe something based on your religion there is no further discussion possible. God has spoken and he can't be wrong. But of course, God has not spoken. We only think we know what he wants, but everyone doesn't see things the same way. Even Christians within the same denomination have vastly different interpretations of God's word on many issues. Abortion is one of those key issues where those who see it as wrong sometimes fail to appreciate the fact that others can disagree and still be people of goodwill.
Abraham Lincoln said it best in saying that we need to pray that we are on God's side. Why is that so important? Because if we know anything about God, it is that his ways are inscrutable, unknowable. We try to follow God's will, but we do it as men and women struggling with the tasks of daily life. We seek God's help, but we must put forth our own human effort to try and make things better. We may think we know what God wants, but we need to listen to everyone else, because God just might be speaking to us in the voices of those we might least likely expect to be speaking God's word. As my former pastor used to say, We need to pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends on ourselves.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment