Ruminating, meditating and listening to music in the seasoning of renewal,
all can be religious or secular, depending on your beliefs. Easter
and spring are not coincidental events, at least they aren’t for me. I’ve written
many times about religion and faith over the years, because both have shaped
my life from the beginning. No doubt many of you feel the same, with some of
your experiences drawing you nearer to the questions, while others have become
convinced that the practices of faith serve no purpose but to fool the lame.
No doubt my experiences over the last few years are changing my outlook, as well as turning me towards investigating
faith practices I simply do not understand. That this journey has been simultaneously
met with revelatory experiences through meditations is not accidental. It will
continue, I have no doubt, because it is part of my personal journey.
A discussion we have often at our house revolves around whether religion and
God are necessary for man and woman to treat each other well, or if it’s part
of our nature to know what is right and wrong, without guidance, then act accordingly
or not. You do not need religion or God to be moral and just, as far as I’m
concerned. Choosing a faith path has to do with a spiritual curiosity, I believe,
but also about a personal draw to the questions, as well as something hardwired
perhaps. However, it’s not quantifiable.
As for how all this ties into our political challenges today, the rise of the
religious right has brought some Democrats forward to pontificate that our party
tends to be mute on matters of faith and God, or uncomfortable with the public
display of both. I always thought it was respect for the private journey of
faith, as well as for the differences and freedoms of others. Now, with the
recent and very public embrace of the Democratic Party to join the faith fight
from the political platform, it inspires me to go back to my guide on all things
surrounding our country and faith. Of course that person is Thomas Jefferson
(which long time readers already know). It’s interesting to note, however, that Jefferson’s views were
used against him by Adams during the election season of 1800 with this slogan: “God-and
a Religious President or … Jefferson-and No God” (source: American
Gospel, pg 104). Speaking as a spiritual and religious person,
the contest isn’t even close.
Jefferson never disappointed.
The God of the Declaration is a divine force that created the universe, endows
all men with human rights, and is an actor in the drama of the world he made.
Jefferson’s God may not favor one nation over another, but his God, Jefferson
said, “watches over our country’s freedom and welfare.” It was this
God who became the God of America’s public religion. “We are not a world
ungoverned by the laws and the power of a superior agent,” Jefferson
said. “Our efforts are in his hand, and directed by it; and he will give
them their effect in his own time.” His God merited attention and prayer,
for mysteriously, by grace, God could, Jefferson said, “enlighten the
minds” of the people and guide the nation’s leaders. As far as possible,
religious debate belonged outside politics. Jefferson, for one, relished theology,
but saw such arguments as private intellectual affairs, not fit subjects for
government. “I write with freedom,” he said to one correspondent,”
because, while I claim a right to believe in one God, I yield as freely to
others that of believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest men,
and that is the only point society has any right to look to.”American Gospel, by Jon Meacham (pg. 75)
But on this Easter Sunday I must also point out something that won’t be coming
from the right. America was absolutely not
founded as a “Christian” nation, even though many of the Founders
were indeed Christians. This distinction is usually missed or ignored, while
the so called righteous target cultural influences, the people who are not religious, as
well as the Democratic Party in general in some sort of religious death match. One Fox “News” personality
and former congressman, Mr. Kasich, called out Quentin Tarantino’s recent film “Grindhouse,” as well as “The Sopranos,” which will begin its final season
tonight. On Easter? The horror! Onward marches the culture war from
the wingnuts. Onward Christianist warriors.
Jefferson would have loved the “culture war” argument and he would
have said there is room for church on Sunday morning, or even my preferred elongated
moments of meditations, as well as a little entertainment during the day. He
was ever democratic. God bless him.
Sanctimony on Easter was not written into the Constitution and neither was
atheism, certainly not by Jefferson who put together his own “Bible”
using only Jesus’ words because he loved the man but hated the religious, as
he often invoked God publicly. In the end it was about freedom. Coming from England,
the last thing Jefferson, Adams and Franklin wanted was to create our country’s
first documents enforcing one religion on the people. Our Founders, who signed
the
Tripoli Treaty, also knew it was dangerous to the fledgling United States
to pigeon hole the idea of God, a diety or that other force that pulses through
nature and all of life, if you believe. It still is.
The Senate ratified the treaty at the recommendation of President John Adams.
There is no record of any debate about Article II, one that defines the federal
government as secular, not religious, and which most likely has roots in the
American awareness of the Crusades and the ever-present threat that religious
fervor in foreign lands could fuel attacks on America. By declaring the United
States a secular nation, the president, the secretary of state, and the Senate–through
two administrations, for negotiations had only begun under Washington–were
doing what the Founders had thus far done best in the construction of the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights: they were seeking to learn from, and
thus avoid, the mistakes of the past. Violence between Christian monarchs
and Islamic powers in the Holy Land had been a recurring feature of life for
five hundred years …American Gospel, by Jon Meacham (pg. 104)
The question then turned to slavery and how a supposedly righteously religious
nation could condone such a barbaric atrocity, let alone literally make money
off the backs of others.
Today we might ask how a overtly religious president, his Administration and
the political party of both can posture and proselytize so religiously, especially
on this Easter Sunday, or Passover, while blasting the never ending guns of
war. It’s a good question.
Comments are closed.