I have always been skeptical when affairs of religion and
affairs of state become mixed. An examination of history tells me
that some of the greatest atrocities have been performed in the
name of religion. The Thirty Years War tore Germany apart over
issues of religion – Catholic and Protestant competing for the soul
of mankind with cavalry and cannons.
I have always been skeptical when affairs of religion and affairs of state become mixed. An examination of history tells me that some of the greatest atrocities have been performed in the name of religion. The Thirty Years War tore Germany apart over issues of religion – Catholic and Protestant competing for the soul of mankind with cavalry and cannons. That war saw the rise of the Lutheran Swedish Kingdom of Gustavus Adolphus and its punishing demise.
Catholics and Protestants still fight each other in modern Ireland. The weapons are more sophisticated and the practices less justifiable as car bombs and Kalishnikovs have become the weapons of choice.
Man has a tendency to demonize our enemies. Wars were waged against the enemies of God and the armies of Satan. Little has changed. The modern Democratic Party, at least in California, has been very skillful at demonizing their opponents and getting many to vote against a Bill Simon or a Richard Riordan. The Republicans were not so skillful in attempting to demonize Clinton for his lack of Christian moral virtue.
Political choices are positioned in terms of good vs. evil rather than whether or not they would be effective as solving our current problems and building a better future for all.
In the United States of the 21st Century, we have a large, vocal Christian element who wants to return the nation to some envisioned days of higher moral standards. We are told in an opinion page column in the Jan. 1, 2003, edition of the Morgan Hill Times that “Once our churches were aflame with the liberty these basic principles produced.” That day never existed.
No matter how much one tries to interpret the past to fit one’s beliefs, it is hard to change facts. A good student of history would be able to find out that, in 1797, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution stating, “… the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on Christian religion … .”
Many of the founding father of this country were not the highly visible Christians who make leaving church on Sunday into a photo op for their virtue. It was never so with the leaders of our revolution and the early presidents of this United States. Thomas Paine helped galvanize the colonies in their fight against King George. His views were that “The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion.” (The Age of Reason, 1794).
Paine’s thoughts were similar to those of his fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson, who at the end of a long life of public service, wrote to his lifelong friend John Adams that “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, the Supreme Being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classified with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”
Where did we get this idea of the founding of this country on the basis of Christian moral precepts? I am not sure. Religion has been part of the political life of this country since the Puritans arrived seeking the freedom to practice their religion and then cast out Roger Williams for daring to practice something different. It is still here when some seek to display the Ten Commandments at the Alabama State Supreme Court. It is alive in the controversy over the inclusion of the words, “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
One is tempted to ask “which God?” Is it the God of Moses and Abraham? The God of Jesus of Nazarath? The God of Mohammed? In some historical sense, they are all the same God.
Lest a reader think me anti-religion, I am not. Nothing brings more good into the world or more joy to the heart than the private exercise of religious belief. I was at one time a licensed lay preacher in the Methodist Church. Such a personal belief system is something that lasts all through one’s life.
I do fear the followers of some true belief who organize to exercise political power at the expense of those who do not share those beliefs. When Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin can stand in his uniform and address evangelical church audiences and define the war in Islamic countries in religious terms as a battle against Satan, I am truly frightened. Such language began the Thirty Years War. With today’s sophisticated methods of media manipulation, this could be the beginning, not of the war to end all wars, but of the war that will never end. Osama bin Laden used the term “Crusades” to position American policy as being, at heart, anti-Islam. General Boykin confirmed it.
General Boykin, by appearing in uniform, spoke not as an individual, but as a representative of my government. He does not represent my views. I truly believe that he does not represent President Bush’s views. He should be removed from duty and given the opportunity to speak all he wants, in retirement.
“I find I have a great lot to learn – or unlearn. I seem to know far too much and this knowledge obscures the really significant facts, but I am getting on.” – Charles Rennie Mackintosh
