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Religion's Quagmire
It
was Abraham Lincoln who dared to ask, after years of bloody civil
war, if both the North and South were being punished by God for their
complicity in the evils of slavery.
On the surface it seemed that the North
was on the side of moral justice. Reason dictated that God would grant
them a quick and easy victory. When this failed to happen, and the cost
of war proved higher than ever imagined, he concluded that God's plans
that were meant to be punitive to both sides. He contemplated why, and
came to the above conclusion.
Those were profound speculations from a
man of conscience and conviction who sought to understand and follow the
will of God. Although he belonged to no Christian denomination, his wife
considered him deeply spiritual. His recorded sentiments support this
conclusion.
We find ourselves, like Abraham Lincoln,
in a war lasting longer than we ever expected—longer, in fact, than
the American Civil War.
Today's president, who brought us into this
intractable conflict, openly declares himself a religious man, influenced
by the "philosophy" of Jesus. In light of this, I find it strange
that the religious conscience of this nation has not asked similar questions
to those of Lincoln.
We do experience, beneath all the not-so-high-minded
rhetoric, a degree of perplexity. How is it that the mightiest nation
on earth, propagating no less than freedom and democracy in the name of
God, has been unable to enforce its will in the Middle East. Certainly
those in charge were convinced of the rightness of their cause—sort
of. The patriotic fervor of the extreme right believes that the United
States can do no wrong, and to point out differently is treasonous. We
are, after all, the New Chosen People, which means our greatest
historical sins can be blessed, or just ignored, as the will of God.
It was projected by our prayerful administration
that our troops would be greeted as liberators. It was said that Iraqi
oil would pay for our military venture. It was said that a democratic
Iraq would become a powerful bastion of freedom in the Middle East. We
can only hope that the latter of these three assumptions somehow comes
true.
After killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis,
which opened the door to unending civil strife and the influx of foreign
terrorists, we now face a reality we were never prepared for. The good
guys (us), led by a Christian president on a Crusade for someone else's
freedom, are failing to draw this violent episode to a satisfying end.
The question is this: Is it possible that
God is punishing us?
If so, for what?
Lincoln blamed his tragedy on complicity
of both the North and South in sanctioning slavery. It seems a reasonable
conclusion.
What about us? Have we been complicit in
any moral or religious crime that might provoke God's disfavor?
It's true that we once supported the tyrant
Saddam Hussein, when he was the sworn enemy of Iran. It's true that we
once armed resistance fighters in Afghanistan against the Soviets, sort
of like the Iranians supply dissidents against us today. Osama bin Laden
was one of their leaders. It's true that oil is the reason we care so
much about "Iraqi freedom," compared to the needs of other suffering
nations.
It's also true that our Christian president,
who didn't win the popular vote first time around, seems to ignore the
Sermon on the Mount in his policy decisions. I'm not sure why so many
Christians supported him, but they did. Many still do. Must be something
in fundamentalist theology. As much as they want to abolish Jefferson's
separation of church and state inorder to infuse the nation with higher
moraliry, their morals and agenda seem more politically based than religious.
They seem to pick and choose what teachings of Christ they reject, according
to the dictates of a political party.
Maybe God is tired of values that tend to
bless the rich instead of the poor. Maybe we don't love our
enemies enough, despite our economic interests in cheap labor and
foreign-based profits. Perhaps we've been trying too hard to render
unto God what we were supposed to give to Caesar. Maybe we haven't
been exemplary stewards over the environment God gave us. Could
it be the decision to hide scientific truth, out of fear that it
might make us free? Perhaps too many political leaders prayed
out loud in the marketplace, like the hypocrites that Jesus condemned.
Or we wanted school prayer when He told us to pray in private.
Or harassed homosexuals instead of repairing our own questionable behavior.
Did we say "Lord, Lord"
too much, instead of too little?
Maybe it wasn't a Christian violation at
all. Maybe it was just pride and arrogance and the elevation of money
as our Golden Calf.
Any of these reasons, or mixture thereof,
may have invited God's retribution in the folly of our own actions.
On the other side, of course, Islamic terrorists
are no closer to winning this war than we are. Come to think of it, terrorists
never do win wars. They just kill a lot of people and make the world a
horrible place to live. Won't their martyrs be surprised when wake up
in a different location than they expected. Their leaders will be held
accountable for much.
Pied-piper religiosity.
We
see it on our side as well. Some charismatic preacher spouts his prophetic
certainty with a confident, sometimes quivering voice, and listeners follow
like sheep. As much as they call themselves Christian, they miss the meaning
of their own parable. The Good Shepherd abandoned his sheep to
find the one sheep that refused to follow the crowd. What he was saying
is that God's presence follows the one who thinks independently and honestly
searches for truth. The others, the group-think quote speakers who use
the name of God in vain gratitude, stand alone while God seeks out the
blessed integrity of one who has eyes to see and ears to hear. The Kingdom
of God has indeed occurred, but they see it not.
But
all this speculation is meaningless. We don't know the mind of God. How
can we? Preachers say they do. They've been making wrong predictions for
centuries, and have no qualms about continuing—the louder the better.
With every cataclysmic failure, they merely predict something else and
the sheep follow. Blind guides. Just as Crusaders went joyfully
to their deaths under the banner "God wills it," jihadists
do the same. We learn nothing, but that the dull mind that thinks too
little is a killing mind withut discernment. Those in power know it. That's
how they thrive.
I
admire Abraham Lincoln. He asked the right questions. He prayed not for
God to be on his side, but that he might be on God's side. So different
from today's lock-step, but always disappointing certainty. He turned
to God for guidance, not to preachers with their hands out; not to indecipherable
eschatology; not to the lure of greed or the willfulness of pride. He
walked the narrow path less traveled.
Few
are willing to do that today—to the dtriment of all.
