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Thomas Jefferson said it best. In his work “A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom” he wrote: “Almighty God hath created the mind free” and attempts by the state to coerce faith by making it law “tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion….”
An increase of troops in Iraq is not the pursuit of a “Just War,” it is just more war. Indeed, the attack on Iraq has never been a “Just War.”
African-American folk wisdom is important here. If American voters demand religious rhetoric from political candidates as a litmus test of “character,” they are just begging to be lied to.
During the beginning of the war in Iraq, I was asked to give a lecture in Paris on some of my very public statements against the war and especially my rejection of the concept of preemptive war, that is, the idea that it is okay for the United States to attack a country that has not attacked us or one of our allies.
I believe that the “end of the world” theologies of the radical Christian Right helped to get us into the war in Iraq and are still fueling the drive to extend the war. “The war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse,” says Rev. John Hagee, a mega-church pastor in Texas.
If we care to really look, what we can discern in the posturing of terrorists who claim to be Muslim is a political movement wrapped in the language of religion. I have Mahmood Mamdani to thank for this insight in his book Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, The Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. In order for all of to keep our balance in the earthquake of rhetoric about Islam current today, it is important, when invited to play the game of “good Muslim, bad Muslim,” to learn how not to play.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) is the fastest growing world religion. From a reviled and feared sect for much of its history, the LDS have become a politically, economically and globally powerful church. The partial accommodation Mormons have made to American culture, especially in the official repudiation of “plural marriage” (polygamy), as well as their growing economic and political power makes it inevitable that their cultural and religious location would change.
“Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.” (Mark12:41a)
Everybody knows the touching biblical story of the “widow’s mite” where the poor widow puts all she has into the temple treasury. Jesus contrasts her generosity in giving out of her poverty to the gifts of the rich, who give only give out of their abundance. (Mark 12: 42-44)
The Rev. Jerry Falwell will be remembered very differently on the religious and political right and on the religious and political left.
The current polarization of American religion and society is a product of the mixing of religion and politics that Jerry Falwell advocated. That is his legacy. If you like that polarization, you will remember Rev. Falwell as a pioneer; if you decry that polarization, you will hope that the country repudiates the mixing of religion and politics that he so typified and that he orchestrated so effectively.
In 2005, a diverse group of religious leaders in Ohio formed a group called “We Believe Ohio.” This network sprang into being in response to a conservative Christian pastor announcing in on the statehouse steps in Ohio that he and other conservative pastors were “locking, loading and firing on Ohio” to restore what they claimed were traditional religious values.
When the U.S. decided to pre-emptively attack Iraq, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa predicted that the invasion would “open the gates of hell” in the region.
As the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” This administration had a grand vision of ‘bringing democracy to the region’ and did not stop to check that vision against historical precedents for conflicts where religion plays a significant role, nor moral precedents against pre-emptive war.
The U.S. Air Force recently released new data indicating that Pagans (sometimes called Wiccans) have nearly 1,000 registered members, more than Muslims or Jews. Of course they should have their own chaplain in the military since there are Pagan adherents serving their country. Pagans are as entitled to having their religious needs met as are Southern Baptists. Religious freedom is religious freedom is religious freedom. That cannot be said too frequently today.
In these “On Faith” discussions we have dealt several times with the Islamic faith as it seeks its place and voice in the American religious landscape. We might call those discussions “Religious Pluralism 101”. We have dealt with the Mormon faith and the prospect of a Mormon president. We could describe those discussions as “Religious Pluralism 201”. And now we are discussing a Hindu chaplain from Nevada, Rajan Zed, who is the first Hindu to deliver the morning prayer before the U.S. Senate. This is “Religious Pluralism 301” or, “Introduction to Non-Monotheistic Faiths.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:9)
When I was confirmed in the Lutheran Church at age 13, the pastor had us each pick a verse of scripture that we wanted to guide our lives. I chose “Blessed are the peacemakers.” I have really tried to live by that teaching and it is ironic that the duty of the disciple to be a peacemaker ended up being the reason I left the Lutheran Church and joined the United Church of Christ at age 18.
Some of you might think that Jesus couldn’t run for President of the United States because he did not live to be old enough to meet the minimum age requirement (35 years of age). But according to John McCain’s views, that is not the only thing that would keep Jesus from becoming U.S. President. You see, Jesus was Jewish and Mr. McCain thinks you need to be Christian to be President.
Fire is a multivalent biblical symbol. Fire scourges the earth as the end of days approaches; fire also means the inspiration of the spirit.
The fires now burning in California are unprecedented in their scope and danger. Thirteen major fires are raging in the southern part of the state even as I write this. The instability in our weather cycles caused by global warming has not only heated the desert where the Santa Ana winds are baked and so increased the temperature difference that when the night’s cooler air comes down, it works like a giant bellows and they are blasted toward California, but has also increased the rainfall in that part of the country. That means that more vegetation grows, dries out and then becomes the fuel in this dangerous and accelerating cycle of heat and rain. This is a global warming catastrophe that portends more such to come.
This question reminds me of an SAT-type problem: “What do these four names have in common?” What Clinton, Craig, Swaggart and Paulk have in common is power, lots of power. Sexual misconduct is not so much about the sex as it is about the fact that power corrupts.
A profound sin these people have committed is the abuse of power, their unfaithfulness to the public trust that comes with being in positions of power. Conservative religion always wants to focus only on the individual and private transgression and ignore the massive issue of the betrayal of trust that is the result of the sexual misconduct by a public figure.
If you confine the issue of the behavior of these four men to whether "sex outside marriage" is sinful, you miss a deep wrong that is being perpetrated. When a public person deceives and dissembles and is ultimately caught and exposed as a hypocrite, a great part of their sin is in the infidelity to the public trust. Thousands and even millions of people are let down and disillusioned. It is important to underline, however, that this is by no means to disregard the fact that it is sinful on their part to betray the trust of those with whom they are pledged to be in an individually intimate and committed relationship.
Mitt Romney’s speech was so chock full of buzz words, it was difficult at first to tell if he subscribes to any recognized belief system at all, let alone the very strict beliefs of the Mormons. The words free, freedom and liberty appear 25 times in his short address on faith. Freedom, one could well conclude, is his faith.
When you look a little deeper, however, you can see that freedom is not his creed. Beyond the buzz words, he is clearly ascribing to the ‘Christian America’ idea that is, at bottom, the rule of the state by religion or what we call “theocracy.”
I hope Bishop Desmond Tutu is willing to make house calls, because the United States desperately needs a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be appointed immediately.
This is more urgent even than calls for a “special prosecutor” to be named by Congress to investigate the blatant coverup of torture practices, especially waterboarding, by the Central Intelligence Agency. Yes, the destruction of evidence of possible criminal activity is still a crime, and needs a formal investigation, but we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission even more urgently.
The reason we need Desmond Tutu to pay a house call on the U.S. is because the first word in the Truth and Reconciliation process is “truth”.
Mike Huckabee has dragged the devil into the presidential campaign. Huckabee apologized personally to Mitt Romney for saying, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?” There are some who have speculated this is “code language” for Evangelical Christians, signaling that Huckabee is the “godly” candidate, and Romney is not.
This is not the first time, by any means, that the devil has made an appearance in politics. Michael Gerson, when he was a speech writer for President George W. Bush, mused, “It was almost as if Saddam was an agent of the devil.” General Boykin, before he was told to stop, appeared before Christian audiences dressed in his military uniform and told them that he knew he would prevail against Muslim warlords in Somalia because he was “fighting Satan”.
The prevalence of the image of Satan as the opponent of all that is godly is not new. The figure of the Devil has been used over and over again in Christian history to personify the forces that oppose goodness in this world. This is how it is being used in politics today.
I’ve watched Mike Huckabee’s new campaign video, the one with the Christmas tree and the Merry Christmas message. The white-edged, cross-like object in the background looks like a cross to me. "No, no," Huckabee said later, "it’s a bookshelf." Really?
My husband and I took our whole family to Christmas Eve services in Vail, Colorado a few years ago. As we were sitting in the pew, listening to the prelude, it began to dawn on us that the very large cross on the altar of this church in the mountains was made of skis. We all got up and left. Trendy ski themes for the central symbol of the Christian faith are not in our faith tradition. But the cross of skis was, in fact, recognizable as a cross. It is also clear that for the vast majority of people attending that church, it was meant to symbolize a cross even though it was made of skis.
That’s a cross, Rev. Huckabee, even though it may be made of a bookshelf.
Reading HR 847, it is easy to understand the incredibly low approval rating given to Congress by the American people (Gallup reports in December 2007 that only 22% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing). After staying up late to pass a bill loaded with pork for many of their constituents, Congress apparently moved on to dishing up a huge helping of piety for them as well. HR 847 ponderously proclaims, “Whereas many Christians and non-Christians throughout the United States and the rest of the world celebrate Christmas as a time to serve others…” The irony of this bill is that it seems designed not to serve others, but to serve the Congressional representatives who voted for it. There is no other reason such legislation would see the light of day.
Here’s what I don’t want. I don’t want to have presidential candidates engage in professions of faith in order to garner votes. Faith is the easiest thing to fake. The candidates don’t need a voting record in order to profess religious faith. All they really need is a few Bible passages to quote and the occasional reference to God and they are good to go.
It is late in the evening on January 3, 2008 and I have just arrived at a motel in Des Moines, Iowa. The Iowa caucuses, both Republican and Democratic, have produced remarkable results, insurgents have emerged victorious in both sets of caucuses. It seems that younger people, first-time caucus goers, have had a huge impact.
In the parking lot of my motel, there are young people milling around cars with Obama stickers. They seem stunned, just standing about with goofy, happy looks on their faces. It is difficult to wade around them and try to get to the door to check in. I’m not campaigning in Iowa, I’m just driving home from vacation on my way to Chicago.
“God is watching you,” sang Leslie Phillips in her evangelical Christian chart-topping hit. One verse is particularly apt in regard to the sudden decline in religious references by some presidential candidates in the “Granite State.” “When you always have to win - God is watching you” seems especially to apply in the noted decline in God references by some as the campaigns switches to this New England state.
Since “stupid” is not one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” (though I think it should make the list), I’m going with pride as the deadliest sin for the United States of America in recent years. Deaths of U.S. troops, deaths of Iraqi civilians and military, death upon death has been the result of overreaching pride on the part of the United States in attacking a country that had not attacked us first. In theological terms, this is hubris, hubris or hybris from the Greek. According to its modern usage, hubris is exaggerated self-pride or self-confidence (overbearing pride), often resulting in fatal retribution. I’d say that fits.
As a citizen, I want to keep Mike Huckabee as far away from the U.S. Constitution as I possibly can. If the constitutional amendment he proposes were successful, we would also have to take out the First Amendment, or at least edit it down and eliminate “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” “God’s standards,” in Huckabee’s words, are establishment of religion, i.e. legally privileging one religious view over another.
In the 17th century, John Locke published Two Treatises of Government and also A Letter Concerning Toleration. These two essays challenged both the church and the state and made a strong claim for toleration of religious freedom and dissent, in effect, a claim for the freedom of speech. The works were so dangerously controversial that Locke first published them anonymously, and then, in fear of his life, fled England and went to Holland from 1683 to 1689 to avoid being hung.
Actually, the title of this post should be, “It’s the Politicized Religion, Stupid.” The overly pious rhetoric by some politicians betrays a superficial faith and a lack of respect for democracy.
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” That, of course is the text of the famous cable that Mark Twain sent to the U.S. from London after his obituary had been mistakenly published. Huckabee's strong showing this past weekend shows reports of the death of the Religious Right may also be greatly exaggerated.
Emily Dickinson called hope “the thing with feathers that perches in the soul”. For those impatient of poetry and who demand pose as the condition of political discourse, I’ll spell it out for you. What Dickinson meant is that hope is the spirit moving among and through us, lifting us up.
Hope is the profoundly religious cord that Obama has struck in the minds and hearts of Americans. Religion is the search for ultimate meaning and purpose in life. So many of us had become so stricken with despair in the last years; Americans were cowering in fear and living down to their worst selves, instead of aspiring to be our best selves. Parts of the Christian faith were even co-opted and dragged down to be a “wedge” to drive us apart and to fear one another.
The Internal Revenue Service has notified the United Church of Christ that the IRS has opened an investigation into Senator Barack Obama’s address at the UCC’s 2007 General Synod. The IRS is accusing the UCC of engaging in “political activities.”
What the gospel portraits of Jesus of Nazareth and contemporary politics have in common is that both were and are conducted during war.
Thirty years after the death of Jesus, a Jewish rebellion broke out against the Roman occupation. This became a horrible and devastating war, culminating in massacre and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Roman legions. All the gospels were composed after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem; the gospel of Mark perhaps in the last year or almost immediately in the wake of that devastating event, and the other gospels somewhat later. In this sense, all that we know of Jesus, his life, his teachings and his death and resurrection should be read as wartime literature—and read in that light.
President Bush has just vetoed the bill that would have made it uniformly illegal to engage in waterboarding, the interrogation technique where a restrained prisoner has water poured over the face until they are willing to answer the interrogators' questions. This is torture.
Geraldine Ferraro, former vice-presidential candidate in the 1980’s and a prominent fund-raiser for the Hillary Clinton campaign, last week told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.: “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”
On March 19, it will be five years and counting on this war in Iraq. Five years ago, just before the attack, I appeared on a special Nightline Town Meeting with John McCain (and four others) to debate whether the United States should attack Iraq, a country that had not attacked us. McCain, along with Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and James Woolsey, a former director of the CIA, argued in favor of this pre-emptive attack. Ambassador Joe Wilson, Senator Carl Levin and I argued against.
The Question: How should Barack Obama have responded to inflammatory remarks made by his former pastor, Dr. Jeremiah Wright? Are you responsible for what your spiritual leader says from the pulpit?
So this is what it looks like when a political leader tells you the truth. I had forgotten. I had forgotten what it looks like when a political leader talks to the American people, as one CNN commentator said, “like we were grownups.” Obama spoke to all of us yesterday not just in complete sentences, but in complete thoughts. He did not move away from the deep and abiding conflicts of race in America. He moved toward those conflicts. His speech was more invitation than pronouncement. He didn’t say ‘Here’s how we fix this’. He performed the truth that when you tell the truth, as the Bible says, it will set you free.
The Question: Which "ism" is more entrenched in America, sexism or racism? Which should religion address?
For many years I have taught a class called “Good and Evil.” One of the most important things I hope students take away from this class is the complete and total uselessness of dueling “isms” in considering social sins. In fact, when people square off against each other, shouting that the particular form of oppression to which they are subject, whether racism, sexism, classism or any other ism, is the most sinful, that itself is just more evidence of the interlocking ways human beings fail each other under the conditions of sin.
A member of Trinity United Church of Christ, the church once led by Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and where Senator Obama is a member, told me there are “spies” among them in the pews, strangers who take notes during the service and try to record the message.
Check it out for yourself. Go to the Trinity UCC website, select "Why The Black Church Won't Shut Up!", and listen to Rev. Otis Moss politely ask that there be "no recording equipment." He repeats over and over, "We are in worship. We are in worship." When visitors are asked to stand, you can see those with paper and pencil in hand. Are these folks members of the press or political operatives? Impossible to know if they don't, as Rev. Moss requests, sign in.
This is what happens when politics intrudes into the sanctuary of the church, a sacred space.
The Question: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago. What are your memories of that day? What impact did it have on you? How is King relevant to you and to us today?
On April 4, 1968 I was in my dorm room at Smith College when I heard someone yelling, “Dr. King has been killed.” I rushed out and there on the television in the lounge was the news bulletin. “Dr. King has been killed.” I went back to my room alone and beat my fists on the top of my dresser until they were bloody.
The Question: John McCain's spiritual guide, televangelist Rod Parsley, calls Islam a "false religion" that should be "destroyed." Should McCain renounce Parsley? Will Islam be an issue in this year's U.S. presidential election?
John McCain should immediately renounce Rod Parsley not only for his astounding hate mongering against Islam, but also for his extreme views on a range of issues including his denunciation of separation of church and state.
The “Compassion Forum”, sponsored by Faith in Public Life and held at an evangelical college in Pennsylvania, did put an end to the idea that only Republicans have values. It also succeeded in drastically broadening the concept of morality to include trade policy, global poverty, protecting the environment and the struggle against the AIDS pandemic.
The Question: In his speech to U.S. bishops last week, Pope Benedict XVI said: "Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted . . . To the extent that religion becomes a purely private affair, it loses its very soul." Do you agree or disagree? Why?
I agree profoundly with Pope Benedict that religion that restricts itself to the private sphere alone is missing a vital spiritual component. Indeed, I think on this we agree completely that it is a matter of your very soul.
We are at a national crossroads on race. There is a way forward out of this current mess and that way requires us as white Americans to refuse to accept making race a political wedge to divide us, white and black, yet again. As white Americans, we can delve more deeply into the African American preaching tradition represented by Rev. Wright, or we can accept the distortions of this tradition zipping around on YouTube. It is critical for our national future that we make the choice to move toward understanding and away from a new, sharper race divide.
The Question: Jeremiah Wright's sermons continue to be an issue in the presidential campaign. Why? What do you think of his preaching style? What do you wish you understood better about it?
Senator Obama has built his campaign on the premise that Americans can reach out to one another across historic divides and regain national strength and purpose after decades of “divide and conquer” politics. It has become clear to me this week, and I think probably to many Americans, that this is who he really is and what he most deeply believes. It plainly pained him terribly to separate himself and his campaign so decisively from the statements of Rev. Wright, but he had to do it because their views of the future are so different.
The United States has become a “liar society.” I regret to say that I think the electorate, and not the candidates and elected officials, are most to blame for the wide-spread acceptance of the fact that it’s pretty much okay for people in public life to lie to us. People may respond to pollsters that they find this or that candidate less than honest, but it doesn’t seem to prevent them from supporting the candidate.
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