Jesus Meets Muhammad

Saturday, October 21, 2017

The Symbiotic Relationship between Freedom and Religion

By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

The ideal of liberty and justice for all begins with the freedoms of religion and speech. Those freedoms have been the hallmark of American democracy, and have allowed diversity in America to be its strength rather than its weakness—that is, until recently. Now evangelical Christians are making our diversity a weakness by claiming that their freedom of religion allows them to discriminate against those they consider sinners, including homosexuals.

There is a symbiotic relationship between freedom and religion. When some demand religious freedom that denies the rights of others, it undermines the freedom for all of us. And if political freedom is eroding in America, it doesn’t even exist in Islamic nations, where apostasy and blasphemy laws deny the fundamental freedoms of religion and speech.

Political freedom originated in the natural law of the Enlightenment, not in religion; but the fate of freedom in religious nations depends on religious values. Religions in the libertarian democracies of the West have long conformed their doctrines to political freedom and the secular rule of law, but not so in the East, where Islamic law (Shari’a) continues to stifle freedom.

But even in America political freedom is threatened by extremist religious values. When religions promote unlawful discrimination they undermine equal justice under law. Edmund Burke warned Americans before their revolution that in a democracy they would forge their own shackles. The evolution of American democracy indicates that Burke may well have been right.

The greatest challenge for America’s democracy is to balance individual rights with providing for the common good, and religion plays a pivotal role in striking that balance. The ancient scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all emphasize providing for the common good, especially for the least of those among us. That’s a common word of faith expressed in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves.

It is ironic that evangelical Christians in America advocate extending their freedom of religion to allow them to discriminate against those they consider sinners. It not only denies equal justice under law, but it also contradicts the moral imperative taught by Jesus to love all our neighbors—even those we consider sinners—as we love ourselves. And the same is true for Muslims who use Shari’a to deny women and non-Muslims equality under the law.

The end of freedom comes as its beginning, in the shifting tides of religion and politics. Freedom cannot begin where religious laws prevent it, and freedom ends when religious values deny equality under the law. Religion provides our standards of political legitimacy and justice, for good or bad; and today the bad seems to have gained the upper hand.

Faith and freedom are interwoven in American culture. That has been ignored in white mainline churches that avoid controversial issues of religion and politics, while black mainline churches and evangelical churches are politically aggressive. It seems that politics have to get really bad before respectable white Christians recognize the relevance of their faith to their freedom. Well, hello! In case they haven’t noticed, things have gotten really bad.

Sadly, Americans are forfeiting their political freedom, and Christians are leading the way. They are promoting individual rights that trump their moral obligation to love God and their neighbors—even sinners—as they love themselves. Altruistic Christian values are needed to provide for the common good and to preserve freedom and democracy in America.

In nations where most people are religious, freedom has a symbiotic relationship with religion. In Islamic nations, the enforcement of apostasy and blasphemy laws deny the freedoms of religion and speech, while in the U.S. evangelical Christians promote their freedom of religion at the expense of equal justice under law. In both cases political freedom depends upon religious values that support individual rights and balance those rights with promoting the common good.

Notes:

On changing values on homosexuality, gender and religion in America, see http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/5-homosexuality-gender-and-religion/morality.

The 2017 Values Voter Summit held October 13-15 in Washington, D.C. was an exposition of how far Christian values have deviated from the teachings of Jesus. Thousands of evangelical Christians professed their loyalty to Donald Trump, who exemplifies the self-centered objectivist morality of Ayn Rand rather than the altruistic morality taught by Jesus. On the 2017 Values Voter Summit and Trump’s unlikely Christian covenant, see http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41617793. For a list of the purpose, participants and sponsors of the Values Voter Summit, see its website at http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/about.

On why Trump is evangelicals’ “dream president”, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-evangelicals-dream-president-heres-why/2017/05/15/77b1609a-3996-11e7-a058-ddbb23c75d82_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1. On how the prosperity gospel explains Donald Trump’s popularity with Christian voters, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/15/how-the-prosperity-gospel-explains-donald-trumps-popularity-with-christian-voters/?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1. On why Christians will stick with Trump, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-christians-will-stick-with-trump/2017/10/05/7d7d2bb6-a922-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html?undefined=&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1.

Mustafa Akyol has asked, Is free speech good for Muslims? He noted “…a paradox Muslims, especially those of us living in the West, face in the modern world [is that]…they are threatened by Islamophobic forces against which they need the protections offered by liberalism — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, nondiscrimination. But the same liberalism also brings them realities that most of them find un-Islamic — irreverence toward religion, tolerance of L.G.B.T. people, permissive attitudes on sex. They can’t easily decide, therefore, whether liberalism is good or bad for Muslims.” Akyol noted double standards on freedom, and that “Muslim opinion leaders have to decide where they stand.” See https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/opinion/is-free-speech-good-for-muslims.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FMustafa%20Akyol&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Collection&region=Marginalia&src=me&version=column&pgtype=article.

Egypt illustrates how fundamentalist Islam (Islamism) can deny human rights. With midnight raids and chat-room traps, Egypt has launched a sweeping crackdown on the gay community. See https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/with-midnight-raids-and-chat-room-traps-egypt-launches-sweeping-crackdown-on-gay-community/2017/10/17/6a8397fc-b03e-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?undefined=&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1.

Saudi Arabia promotes an especially intolerant form of Islamism. See Saudi Arabia: Religion Textbooks Promote Intolerance at https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/13/saudi-arabia-religion-textbooks-promote-intolerance.

Related Commentary:

(12/8/14): Religion and Reason

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2014/12/religion-and-reason.html

(12/15/14): Faith and Freedom

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2014/12/faith-and-freedom.html

(1/11/15): The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html

(1/18/15): Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/love-over-law-principle-at-heart-of.html

(4/12/15): Faith as a Source of Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/04/faith-as-source-of-morality-and-law.html

(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/who-is-my-neighbor.html

(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/the-politics-of-loving-our-neighbors-as.html

(2/27/16): Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy in Faith, Freedom and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/02/conflicting-concepts-of-legitimacy-in.html

(6/18/16): A Politics of Reconciliation with Liberty and Justice for All

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/06/a-politics-of-reconciliation-with.html

(8/2/15): Freedom and Fundamentalism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/freedom-and-fundamentalism.html (8/9/15): Balancing Individual Rights with Collective Responsibilities

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/balancing-individual-rights-with.html

(2/7/16): Jesus Meets Muhammad on Issues of Religion and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/02/jesus-meets-muhammad-on-issues-of.html

(7/9/16): Back to the Future: Race, Religion, Rights and a Politics of Reconciliation

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/07/back-to-future-race-religion-rights-and.html

(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/who-is-my-neighbor.html

(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/the-politics-of-loving-our-neighbors-as.html

(4/30/16): The Relevance of Religion to Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/04/the-relevance-of-religion-to-politics.html

(8/5/16): How Religion Can Bridge Our Political and Cultural Divide

http://www.religionleitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/08/how-religion-can-bridge-our-political.html

(9/10/16): Liberty in Law: A Matter of Man’s Law, not God’s Law

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/09/liberty-in-law-matter-of-mans-law-not.html

(9/17/16): A Moral Revival to Restore Legitimacy to Our Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/09/a-moral-revival-to-restore-legitimacy.html

(11/19/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation Based on Shared Values

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/11/religion-and-politics-of-reconciliation_19.html

(11/26/16): Irreconcilable Differences and the Demise of Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/11/irreconcilable-differences-and-demise.html

(2/25/17): The Need for a Revolution in Religion and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/02/the-need-for-revolution-in-religion-and.html

(3/4/17): Ignorance and Reason in Religion and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/02/the-need-for-revolution-in-religion-and.html

(4/22/17): The Relevance of Jesus and the Irrelevance of the Church in Today’s World

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/04/the-relevance-of-jesus-and-irrelevance.html

(5/20/17): The Freedoms of Religion and Speech: Where Human Rights Begin

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/05/the-freedoms-of-religion-and-speech.html

(7/1/17): Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html.

(7/15/17) Religion and Progressive Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-and-progressive-politics.html

(8/5/17): Does Religion Seek to Reconcile and Redeem or to Divide and Conquer?

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/08/does-religion-seek-to-reconcile-and.html.

(9/2/17): The Evolution of the American Civil Religion and Habits of the Heart http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/09/the-evolution-of-american-civil.html.

(10/7/17): A 21^st Century Reformation to Restore Reason to American Civil Religion http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/10/a-21st-century-reformation-to-restore.html.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

In the Midst of an Islamic Reformation

By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

Calls for an Islamic Reformation have coincided with the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Perhaps Islam is in the midst of its own Reformation and the world hasn’t noticed. The Protestant Reformation was not a liberating event. Instead it initiated Christian sectarian conflict between religious leaders like Luther, Zwingli and Calvin and their political patrons, similar to Islamic sectarian conflict in the Middle East today.

The libertarian reforms of the Enlightenment were not given serious consideration in the Western world until after 1648, when the Treaty of Westphalia ended those religious wars that plagued Europe for more than a century after the Protestant Reformation. If Islamic sectarian conflict in the Middle East and Africa is analogous to the Christian sectarian wars that followed the Protestant Reformation, then perhaps they portend a coming Islamic Enlightenment.

There are other analogies between current Islamist sectarian conflict and Christian sectarian wars. Leaders of the Protestant Reformation like Luther, Zwingli and Calvin opposed religious reforms and used political alliances and violence suppress dissent, much like radical Islamists today. And just as Luther used the first generation media printing press to promote his ideals, radical Islamists are using the internet and current social media to attract supporters.

The role of Islamic Law (Shari’a) is at the heart of Islamic violence toady. Islamists argue for the strict enforcement of Shari’a, but Mustafa Akyol has noted that Islamic values “are much better protected in Western democracies than in ‘Islamic’ states” and that “…Shariah should be translated into a doctrine of the inalienable rights of all people.” To that end, Akyol has suggested that the Jewish Enlightenment provides a useful precedent for Islam.

Islamic scholars remain divided on whether to accept libertarian democracy, human rights and the secular rule of law. While there seems to be a trend toward human rights, Shari’a continues to be an obstacle to political freedom and justice with the enforcement of apostasy and blasphemy laws and discrimination against women and non-Muslims in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan—all U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Many Islamic scholars have agreed that the greatest commandment to love God and their neighbors—including those of other religions—as they love themselves is a common word of faith for Muslims and Christians. If that love command is accepted as a principle of Shari’a, then those Muslims who love their freedom will feel obligated to share their freedom with others, and interpret Shari’a to give non-Muslims the fundamental freedoms of religion and speech.

Equal justice under law requires fundamental human rights that provide political freedom. There is no place for religious law in a libertarian democracy, where religious standards of legitimacy must be voluntary moral standards, not coercive laws. Loving others is a moral obligation that cannot be enforced by law, and that allows immorality. The test of any religion is whether its followers obey its moral standards when they are free to disobey them.

Some Islamic scholars argue that moral decadence in libertarian democracies is evidence that Shari’a should limit political freedom to protect people from undesirable immoral behavior. But radical Islamists and authoritarian rulers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have used that same rationale to suppress their political opposition with blasphemy laws.

Current Islamic sectarian conflicts in the Middle East and Africa are similar to those Christian religious wars that followed the Protestant Reformation of 1517. Perhaps Islamist sectarian violence is but a prelude to an Islamic Enlightenment that will allow political freedom and redefine justice under Shari’a with democracy, human rights and the secular rule of law.

Notes:

In reviewing Jared Rubin’s Rulers, Religion and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not, Christopher Kissane of The Guardian considered Rubin’s view of the Reformation (and printing press) in Europe and how it related to Islamic culture:

“The driving motivation of most rulers is not ideology or to do good, but to maintain and strengthen their hold on power: “to propagate their rule”. This requires “coercion” – the ability to enforce power – and, crucially, some form of “legitimacy”. In the medieval world, both Islamic and Christian rulers claimed part of their legitimacy from religious authorities, but after the Reformation, Rubin thinks that European governments had to turn away from religion as a source of political legitimacy.

…Islamic rulers, by contrast, continued to rely on religious legitimation and economic interests that were mostly excluded from politics, leading to governance that focused on the narrow interests of sultans, and the conservative religious and military elites who backed them.

…The source of Europe’s success, then, lies in the Reformation, a revolution in ideas and authority spread by what Martin Luther called “God’s highest and ultimate gift of grace”: the printing press.

…Europe’s long reformations were more a maze than a path. As Rubin notes, “getting religion (mostly) out of politics took centuries” – centuries of radical social upheaval and destructive warfare. He argues persuasively for the importance of both religion and secularization in economic history, but religious change affected not just politics but culture and ideas.

In the Middle East the powers of state and religion were fused by Ottoman sultans intent on legitimising their rule and expansion through Islam. Unity that had been a medieval advantage became an early modern hindrance: with no political need to negotiate with economic interests, the Ottomans failed to pursue modernizing reforms in finance, currency and law.” See https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/04/rulers-religion-riches-jared-rubin-review.

Alan Wolfe has described the merger of Christianity and other religions in Western democracies with the secular libertarian values of the Enlightenment, and projected that Islam will follow suit.

See https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/and-the-winner-is/306654/.

For reforming trends and movements in modern Islamic history and misunderstanding Luther’s Reformation, see https://www.juancole.com/2017/09/should-islamic-reformation.html.

Mustafa Akyol has noted that “…polls show that most Muslims living in the West, especially the U.S., are happy with liberal laws and norms;” and that because Islam shares an emphasis on religious law with Judaism, it is likely that Islam will likely follow the precedent of the Jewish Enlightenment and embrace libertarian values through a progressive interpretation of the Qur’an and Shari’a. See https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/opinion/shariahs-winding-path-into-modernity.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region. See also, free speech is good for Muslims at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/opinion/is-free-speech-good-for-muslims.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FMustafa%20Akyol&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Collection&region=Marginalia&src=me&version=column&pgtype=article.

Dr. Shuki Friedman has noted the similarities between Jewish and Islamic Law:

“…the most significant…similarity of the holistic religious-legal worldview in both Judaism and Islam [is]…both religions seek to regulate every aspect of reality, from the most marginal details of daily life to the organization of the state and the world as a whole.

Both religions organize reality through total legalization. Almost all human behavior is addressed, in either positive or negative terms. And the believer’s world is framed by a long list of commandments and prohibitions which govern his private conduct, his conduct toward his God and his conduct toward those around him: family, neighbors, business partners, community, city and country.

In both religions, this legal code brings religious law into every corner of people’s lives and gives great power to religion and religious leaders, be they muftis, rabbis or imams. They are the authorized interpreters of the sacred texts; they are the final arbiters of the believer’s most personal questions; and they (in both religions’ ideal world) influence the conduct of believers and their countries.

Therefore, in both religions, a similar religious-legal conversation has developed. One finds the same considerations in making rulings, the same efforts to cope with problems like science and modernity, the same deliberations over the loss of believers to other ideologies. In both faiths, the religious arbiters’ goal is to keep power in their own hands to the extent possible.” See https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.816831.

On the differing views of Islamic scholars on human rights and democracy under Shari’a, see Barnes, Religion, Legitimacy and the Law: Shari’a, Democracy and Human Rights at pages 10-18, posted at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4qPfb4MvEswV2ZHS3hyWTcwbmc/view.

Nour Soubani has asked, Does Islam need saving? and provided an analysis of human rights in Islam. See https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/nour-soubani/does-islam-need-saving-an-analysis-of-human-rights/.

On how Saudi Arabia promotes intolerance of fundamental freedoms in its textbooks, see https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/13/saudi-arabia-religion-textbooks-promote-intolerance.

On a recent poll that indicates most Muslims continue to believe in the American dream and that Islam is subject to interpretation, see http://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/religious-beliefs-and-practices/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=6e48ccb6e9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-6e48ccb6e9-399971105.

Related Commentary:

(12/8/14): Religion and Reason

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2014/12/religion-and-reason.html

(12/15/14): Faith and Freedom

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2014/12/faith-and-freedom.html

(1/11/15): The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html

(1/18/15): Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/love-over-law-principle-at-heart-of.html

(4/12/15): Faith as a Source of Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/04/faith-as-source-of-morality-and-law.html

(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/who-is-my-neighbor.html

(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/the-politics-of-loving-our-neighbors-as.html

(2/27/16): Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy in Faith, Freedom and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/02/conflicting-concepts-of-legitimacy-in.html

(6/18/16): A Politics of Reconciliation with Liberty and Justice for All

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/06/a-politics-of-reconciliation-with.html

(6/28/15): Confronting the Evil Among Us

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/06/confronting-evil-among-us.html

(7/5/15): Reconciliation as a Remedy for Racism and Religious Exclusivism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/07/reconciliation-as-remedy-for-racism-and.html

(8/2/15): Freedom and Fundamentalism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/freedom-and-fundamentalism.html (8/9/15): Balancing Individual Rights with Collective Responsibilities

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/balancing-individual-rights-with.html

(2/7/16): Jesus Meets Muhammad on Issues of Religion and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/02/jesus-meets-muhammad-on-issues-of.html

(7/9/16): Back to the Future: Race, Religion, Rights and a Politics of Reconciliation

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/07/back-to-future-race-religion-rights-and.html

(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/who-is-my-neighbor.html

(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/the-politics-of-loving-our-neighbors-as.html

(4/30/16): The Relevance of Religion to Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/04/the-relevance-of-religion-to-politics.html

(5/7/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/05/religion-and-politics-of-reconciliation.html

(8/5/16): How Religion Can Bridge Our Political and Cultural Divide

http://www.religionleitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/08/how-religion-can-bridge-our-political.html

(9/10/16): Liberty in Law: A Matter of Man’s Law, not God’s Law

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/09/liberty-in-law-matter-of-mans-law-not.html

(9/17/16): A Moral Revival to Restore Legitimacy to Our Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/09/a-moral-revival-to-restore-legitimacy.html

(11/19/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation Based on Shared Values

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/11/religion-and-politics-of-reconciliation_19.html

(11/26/16): Irreconcilable Differences and the Demise of Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/11/irreconcilable-differences-and-demise.html

(2/25/17): The Need for a Revolution in Religion and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/02/the-need-for-revolution-in-religion-and.html

(3/4/17): Ignorance and Reason in Religion and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/02/the-need-for-revolution-in-religion-and.html

(4/22/17): The Relevance of Jesus and the Irrelevance of the Church in Today’s World

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/04/the-relevance-of-jesus-and-irrelevance.html

(6/24/17): The Evolution of Religion, Politics and Law: Back to the Future? http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/the-evolution-of-religion-politics-and.html.

(7/1/17): Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html.

(7/15/17) Religion and Progressive Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-and-progressive-politics.html

(8/5/17): Does Religion Seek to Reconcile and Redeem or to Divide and Conquer?

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/08/does-religion-seek-to-reconcile-and.html.

(8/19/17) Hate, History and the Need for a Politics of Reconciliation

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/08/hate-history-and-need-for-politics-of.html.

(9/2/17): The Evolution of the American Civil Religion and Habits of the Heart http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/09/the-evolution-of-american-civil.html.

Saturday, October 7, 2017

A 21st Century Reformation to Restore Reason to the American Civil Religion

By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

The Protestant Reformation gave birth to civil religion 500 years ago. That watershed event was enabled by the printing press, the first generation of social media that informed the public of religious and political issues. Today its progeny, the internet, has had the opposite effect. It has overwhelmed the public with too much information, blurring fact with fiction and sacrificing reason to personal preference. Fake news has corrupted the American civil religion.

America did not experience a Reformation and a catharsis of religious war before it became a libertarian democracy. Perhaps that’s why the American civil religion has evolved into a parody of religion, reason and politics, with radical religion and politics now the norm rather than the exception. America needs a reformation to restore reason to its civil religion.

Thomas Jefferson was a founding father of the American civil religion who understood the symbiotic and often dysfunctional relationship between religion, reason and morality. Jefferson was an enigma: He was a slaveholder who understood the importance of liberty and reason in politics, and he was a deist who was critical of the church but considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man.”

Reinhold Niebhur (1891-1971) was a 20^th century theologian who, like Jefferson, emphasized reason and the moral teachings of Jesus in politics. Kurt Andersen is a religious skeptic who has described how the internet has created a media fantasyland that defies reality and reason to promote fundamentalist Christianity and its political progeny, the radical right.

Over 70% of Americans claim to be Christians. Most are politically active evangelical neo-Christians who now follow a self-centered prosperity gospel that conflicts with the altruistic gospel of Jesus. In 2016 they elected Donald Trump president, a narcissist who is the antithesis of Christian morality; and in September 2017 they elected Roy Moore as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate—a man who exemplifies a similar toxic mix of religion and politics.

To restore sanity and reason to the American civil religion, its moral foundation must be the greatest commandment to love God and to love our neighbors—including our neighbors of other races and religions—as we love ourselves. That love command is a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, and it can promote a politics of reconciliation if it is made a moral imperative of both our faith and our politics in the American civil religion.

The love command is a merger of the mystical and moral components of religion. We love God (the mystical) by loving our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves (the moral). There can be no politics of reconciliation with exclusivist religions that condemn unbelievers, or with fundamentalist religions that consider their scriptures and holy laws to be the inerrant and infallible (perfect and immutable) word of God.

The moral decadence and radical politics in America are evidence that Christians have ignored the moral standards of legitimacy taught by Jesus. The remedy is not more laws to restrict our freedom, but more moral restraints in exercising our freedom. There is no place for religious law in a libertarian democracy. The test of any religion is whether its followers obey its moral standards when they are free to disobey them. Christians in America have failed that test.

Americans, like the Jews of Jesus day, often confuse obedience of the law with doing the right thing. Jesus taught otherwise. He asserted the primacy of love over law with the greatest commandment. Loving your neighbor as you love yourself is a moral obligation of faith that cannot be enforced by law, but one that must be obeyed by the faithful.

In America, Christian moral standards of legitimacy shape its civil religion; but most Christians now follow a “prosperity gospel” that is closer to the objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand than to the moral teachings of Jesus. To restore sanity and reason to the American civil religion, Christians must restore the primacy of the moral teachings of Jesus to a church that has subverted those teachings to self-centered, exclusivist and divisive religious doctrines.

Notes:

Thomas Jefferson embraced the moral teachings of Jesus but expressed contempt for institutional Christianity. Jefferson wrote Henry Fry on June 17, 1804: "I consider the doctrines of Jesus as delivered by himself to contain the outlines of the sublimest morality that has ever been taught; but I hold in the utmost profound detestation and execration the corruptions of it which have been invested by priestcraft and kingcraft, constituting a conspiracy of church and state against the civil and religious liberties of man." Thomas Jefferson, The Jefferson Bible, edited by O. I. A. Roche, Clarkson H. Potter, Inc., New York, 1964, at p 378; see also Jefferson’s letter to John Adams dated October 13, 1813, at pp 825, 826; Jefferson's commentaries are at pp 325-379. While many considered Jefferson a heretic, Jefferson wrote of himself: “I am a Christian in the only sense in which he [Jesus] wished anyone to be; sincerely attached to his doctrine in preference to all others and ascribing to him every human excellence, believing he never claimed any other.” (p 334) Jefferson cut and pasted selected portions of the gospel accounts from four Bibles in four languages: Greek, Latin, French, and English (from the King James translation). Jon Meacham described Jefferson’s prominent role in shaping the American civil religion in American Gospel, Random House, New York, 2006 (see pp 56-58, 72-77, 80-86, 104, 105, 247-250, 263, 264, and reference to Jefferson’s Bible at p 389). See also, Introduction to The Teachings of Jesus on Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy, at page 10, posted at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3gvZV8mXUp-aTJubVlISnpQc1U/view.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1872-1971) is considered by many to be America’s foremost theologian, who “…wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr.

In Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, a 500-Year History, Kurt Andersen states that the Reformation allowed Protestants to reject the Vatican and start their own religion, then reject that religion and “start their own new religions again and again.…The Enlightenment liberated people to believe anything whatsoever…and in the marketplace of ideas, [it was assumed that] reason would win.” But Andersen observes that reason has not won in America’s fantastical religious free-for-all, and he cites Emanuel Kant’s explanation that religion is burdened by questions “it is not able to ignore, but which…it is also unable to answer.” In religion fantastical mystical doctrines have always trumped moral doctrines (pages 52, 53). Andersen emphasizes the rise of the evangelical and fundamentalist “prosperity gospel” of Christianity and its right wing politics, but ignores the more mundane but reasonable moral imperatives taught by Jesus.

Christopher Douglas has taken exception to Andersen’s assertions that the origins of current Christian craziness was in the Hippie New Agers of the 1960s and in Postmodern Academics. See https://progressivechristianity.org/resources/how-america-really-lost-its-mind-hint-it-wasnt-entirely-the-fault-of-hippie-new-agers-and-postmodern-academics/.

Modern Christians are split on the two major theological issues of the Protestant Reformation: sola fide, being saved by faith/grace alone, and sola scriptura, considering the Bible the sole source of religious authority for Christians. See http://www.pewforum.org/2017/08/31/u-s-protestants-are-not-defined-by-reformation-era-controversies-500-years-later/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=bf7c71a186-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-bf7c71a186-4001.

Alan Wolfe has observed that following The Protestant Reformation, Every new outburst of religious passion, while producing ecstasy and revelation for some, had disrupted established loyalties, fueled intolerance, and led to violence between the chosen and the damned. Wolfe cited a cover story in The Economist, titled “The New Wars of Religion,” that asserted that “Faith will unsettle politics everywhere this century.” In contrast to Andersen, Wolfe predicted a coming religious peace based on two basic facts: First, many areas of the world are experiencing a decline in religious belief and practice. Second, where religions are flourishing, they are also generally evolving—very often in ways that allow them to fit more easily into secular societies, and that weaken them as politically disruptive forces.…The most important phenomenon in the United States. is…the creation and spread of a free religious marketplace which …revives religious devotion wherever it reaches, but also tends to moderate the religions offered within it. Wolfe also asserted that American evangelicalism is becoming more tolerant and pluralistic. But political events since 2008 have proved Wolfe’s sanguine views wrong, unless the elections of Donald Trump and Roy Moore indicate that the U.S. is moving toward peace. See https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/and-the-winner-is/306654/.

On the cheap prosperity gospel of Trump and [Joel] Osteen, see https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/opinion/trump-osteen-harvey-church.html.

On Roy Moore’s radical right religion and politics according to the gospel of Bannon, see

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/roy-moores-deep-devotion-to-the-gospel-of-bannon/2017/09/28/fbe40c48-a479-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1.

Robin R. Meyers has urged Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus (HarperCollins, 2009). Myers emphasized restoring the moral teachings of Jesus to prominence over mystical and exclusivist beliefs in Christianity.

For an example of how the internet has distorted reason and reality to create Islamophobia, see https://progressivechristianity.org/resources/islamophobia-misinformation-and-blatant-lies/.

Related Commentary:

(12/8/14): Religion and Reason

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2014/12/religion-and-reason.html (12/15/14): Faith and Freedom

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2014/12/faith-and-freedom.html

(1/11/15): The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/the-greatest-commandment-common-word-of.html

(1/18/15): Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/01/love-over-law-principle-at-heart-of.html

(4/12/15): Faith as a Source of Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/04/faith-as-source-of-morality-and-law.html

(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?