Faith and Politics and this Week's Election Results

If the Democrats succeed in integrating progressive religious values into their rhetoric and swing back into power in the next 4, 8, whatever years from now, it is important that progressive religious activists do not make the mistake that the religious right made with the Republican party. No faith should put itself entirely behind one political party, molding its values to match with other backers of that political party, and then watching its politicians embroil in ethics scandals. The right role of religious groups in politics is on the sideline serving as a voice of moral integrity, holding politicians accountable for their actions and their votes.

Great article. Gives me hope.

One addition I'd like to make is to this comment:
"It would be wonderful if our best science pointed us back to God the Creator."

In my opinion, it already does. It can't not. All things point to God. Because God is in all things.

The only question is: Does science point back to the Bible? So far, the answer seems to be sometimes, but usually not. But who cares? It doesn't change the core message of Love found in it...

Greg

I agree with the points made by both John and Greg, and I thank them for their comments.

FP

Nice piece! I agree with Greg when he said science does point to God:

"In my opinion, it already does. It can't not. All things point to God. Because God is in all things.

The only question is: Does science point back to the Bible? So far, the answer seems to be sometimes, but usually not. But who cares? It doesn't change the core message of Love found in it...

Greg"

Pat Robertson is more than a nut case. He's a wolf in shepherd's clothing. Just ask the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone where he is heavily invested in diamonds and minerals and maintains ties to Charles Taylor, the former dictator of Liberia.
I cannot see how you can call yourself a Christian and NOT embrace some aspects of Progressive politics. Believe or not, a century ago there was such a thing as a Christian Left, and it was large and influential. As Bishop Desmond Tutu pointed out in a recent sermon, Christ said that when He is lifted up, He will draw ALL to Him. He didn't say "some". The Saving Embrace of the Crucified and Risen Christ will shine through for everyone of every kind in every condition despite all the hateful poison of Robertson and his kindred.

I wouldn't say that science only sometimes points to the Bible. I would say that more often then not, we're looking for science in the Bible when that was simply not the intention of the authors.

The authors were engaging nature and the universe to the best of their ability, which left us with the image of God sending the rain when people are righteous and sending draughts when people are sinful. Nowadays, we engage nature and the universe with more advanced science and some people seem surprised that we see things differently. Imagine how differently these things will be seen 3000 years from now.

As a Virginian, I urge everyone NOT to make too much of last week's election. We elected a Democrat as governor in 2001, too, but Bush won here handily in both 2000 and 2004. Most likely Tim Kaine was elected because so many people abhored the horribly negative campaign run by his opponent, Jerry Kilgore, and because people remember what a mess our last Republican governor, Jim Gilmore, made of the Commonwealth's fiscal situation. Both Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have their headquarters in Virginia; they'll be ready in 2006 and again 2008.

What baffles me is how can the purporters of intelligent design miss how "intelligent" is Nature's ability to change, adapt, and evolve.

As for Robertson and his ilk, they could stand to learn a bit about natural selection themselves. In particular, they should learn about symbiosis as their relationship with the neocons may be the next test (let's hope)of how one organism can not survive without another. What's more, we may be about to see: Does political ideology evolve?

I agree with you, Greg. Isn't the mystery of our Christ as He appears in forever mutable Nature the most marvelous of all signs of the immutableness of His Love? Again, how can these intelligent design folks be missing this?

Cathie,

Thanks for your words of reminder. This election in an off year is hardly an indicator of anything than the need for lots and lots more hard work.

While its all fine and good for us to bask in these victories, we should make sure that we quickly turn back to the issues. We need to demand candidates who are anti-war, anti-poverty, and anti-oppression. Sadly, I don't think many candidates from either party has these characteristics.

Then, once we get the parties to give us these candidates we need to get them into office. And once there we need to hold them to their anti-war, anti-poverty, and anti-oppression values.

The road toward bringing progressive religious values to politics is going to be a long hard one. Lets celebrate, but still keep our eyes on the prize.

The backslapping above from amongst creationists & fundamentalists is indeed an embarrassment to this CAP site, if "progressive" is to have any significant meaning. Moreover, the "closet creationism" of "It would be wonderful if our best science pointed us back to God the Creator" reeks of a tremendous lack of perspective. The "i.d." upsurgance being experienced is just a dressed up version of literalist biblical creationism, once the thin veneer is stripped. To dignify the religious rightists in the early comments with acceptance & support needs juxtaposing with the bland biblicism one of them extols in the "Jimmy Carter..." piece that immediately follows this one & the fallout there from it. Accomodate where one can without compromising principle, but at the same time know who you are accomodating. These same people so inundated the Sojourner clickon response feature that it has been abandoned entirely: hence, their appearance with their mischief here. If anything can be learned from other truly progressive organizations (e.g., Interfaith Alliance & Americans United), it is that you cannot work with fundamentalists for their proselytizing, which will always come to the fore. To give them a forum here is but to help them with your destruction: buyer beware.

What the Religious Right intended by fully aligning with the Republican Party can only be seen with their singularity & its subcultural focus. When they reached a third or slightly more by their own counting of victory margins and more, they pushed for "veto" on agendas and Court nominees, as we have seen. Even if they are as much as 40%, that still is the minority, but they don't see it that way with the "wedge effect" they hold. Their ignorance & low gene pool they do not see as a defect, but the fallout in Europe puts it in a perspective that is a detriment to us all. The BBC World feature this morning on "i.d." & its attempted takeover of school science was very true, but the rest of us get painted with the same brush for their folly.

We no longer live in a status where the Rockefeller's & Harriman's could alternate election victories in N.Y. state and still we'd survive without too much notice, for this new breed of religious rightists are mean spirited & dictatorial. Long gone are John Lindsay & Jacob Javitts, and a more ideal state of affairs with them. This current dispensation (yes, the pun is intentional) want to dominate us all if we'd only get out of the way, and W's notion of uniting the county with us becoming fundamentalists with him was serious in his delusion. We are today in this country where Germany was in 1933, and if you are not scared yet, get there before it's too late. Yes, a coalition with some assent mixed with consent is far more healthy than a takeover of any kind, but we exist with gerrymandered lines which make it harder & individual votes in the last Presidential Election, even when fradulent, that determine how public monies from IRS return checkoffs will get meted up next time. It may not be possible to just stay somewhere on the sideline with a moral perspective with which to check now & then. And "truth in advertising" does not translate well through "negative campaigning" which, once begun, must be answered whether one likes to or not. These considerations are newer ones & surely beyond any "original intent" questions. Diligence is needed and yesterday, not tomorrow. Are we up to the task to save Plato's maxim that "Politics is the art of the possible"?

Prof. Hander wrote: "Moreover, the "closet creationism" of "It would be wonderful if our best science pointed us back to God the Creator" reeks of a tremendous lack of perspective. The "i.d." upsurgance being experienced is just a dressed up version of literalist biblical creationism, once the thin veneer is stripped..."

I agree with your basic point about ID and I said so in the original post--called it crude and junk science. However, there is also a whole lot of excellent science that is suggesting that faith and science can compliment and reinforce each other. For example, Dr Richard Davidson's work studying the neuro-psychology of Buddhist spiritual practice, published as Visions of Compassion by Oxford Press. This just one of many areas that is evolving with emerging research suggesting that humans may be hot-wired for spiritual belief...It doesn't take a great leap of either faith or imagination to hope that this trend continues to reconcile the realms of faith and science. Einstein, of course, long sought his elusive "unified theory." But, obviously, in the case of ID we are not there.

With respect to your comment about "truly progressive" (versus what?) groups--I have been a member of both of the groups that you mention at various points in time, and continue to belong to the Interfaith Alliance. It is a valuable group that I have great respect for-but it can not and does not serve the same function as this group, to reclaim Christianity from the religious right.

FP

The Dalai Lama noted the collaboration of faith and science in a recent NY TIMes OP Ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/12/opinion/12dalai.html?incamp=article_popular_5

"...Already this collaboration has borne fruit. Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, has published results from brain imaging studies of lamas meditating. He found that during meditation the regions of the brain thought to be related to happiness increase in activity. He also found that the longer a person has been a meditator, the greater the activity increase will be.

Other studies are under way. At Princeton University, Dr. Jonathan Cohen, a neuroscientist, is studying the effects of meditation on attention. At the University of California Medical School at San Francisco, Dr. Margaret Kemeny has been studying how meditation helps develop empathy in school teachers.

Whatever the results of this work, I am encouraged that it is taking place. You see, many people still consider science and religion to be in opposition. While I agree that certain religious concepts conflict with scientific facts and principles, I also feel that people from both worlds can have an intelligent discussion, one that has the power ultimately to generate a deeper understanding of challenges we face together in our interconnected world."

FP --- I am certainly glad that you see the inadequacies of "i.d." and that we can be sure that we are on the same side! Nevertheless, I am very aware of not stumbling into anything that would give the opposition any comfort or that would enhance their delusions about what constitutes Christianity or even "christian."

Be assured that I had read the Dalai Lama piece in the NYT soon after it had hit my driveway. I have NO problem with ANY documentation that some other world religions contribute to the psychic health agenda, and for that I did not have to wait until I formally studied Comparative Religion either, which I did with two of the foremost names in the field: Wilfred Cantwell Smith in the Institute for Islamic Studies of McGill University & Bernard Phillips at Temple University. I have been known to choose a Buddhist book, Pema Chodron's WHEN THINGS FALL APART, to put in the hands of a colleague with two forms of advanced cancer & ditto for another with depression. And a daughter is a practicing Buddhist over which I have no ultimate concerns, her choice there in part a response to in-your-face fundamentalists & her hatred for fundamentalism for what it has done to the Native Americans, seen by her in her work as a USPHS medical worker firsthand. At the same time, however, I lashed out vehemently about four years ago or so at an extreme cultic sectarian hollyroller who was trying to take refuge in preliminary data flowing from the notion of spirituality enhancing medical healing & specifically prayer, letting him know inexorably that his cultic damaged subjects in their delusions had NO claim to being 'spiritual' in the sense to which healing
applied betterment, but especially in their individual & group psychosis. Inclusive & inclusion cannot include all, and so be it.

I too am proud to be in TIA and SEPIA (Southeastern PA I.A.) & our last month's forum put on at Gwynedd Mercy College with C. Welton Gaddy. You'd have been a welcome 'third party' in our very frank & colorful private conversations, ample with specifics. But he and TIA I think you understate: they are very much about this same mission of taking Christianity back from the R.R. & in far more direct ways that you seem to reference. Yes, inclusion of Sikhs/Jains, Muslims, Buddhists & Christians of several stripes on the "Board" seeks not only a fairer playing field politically but tolerance & fraternity religiously too. And even if TIA has a slightly different mission than AU, even with Lynn & Gaddy appearing as witnesses in Congressional hearings together, the mission overlaps with Separation of Church & State inevitably. So, too, is there a MUTUAL quest in TIA & CAP and a certain overlappage even as some aims are more narrowed (notice I said 'narrowed', not 'narrow'. Since I am somewhat uncomfortable in this format & really DO try not to respond until later most times, you may feel free to write me directly on this or other matters anytime: we ARE together on the same side.

But...look at the responses under the "Jimmy Carter...." initiative just below this one, at least initially before it goes to Archives, and three of mine there too, reluctantly. The fundies always broach any subject title into one of two pretexts: biblical literalism there or abortion. They are single-issue kooks or at best dual-issue kooks. Please look at this carefully before a response here on CAP will have to follow that at Sojourners site & for the same intruders too shamefully. Progressive and Retrogressive are not the same thing. [I'll take your answer by email!].

Greg and others,

If you can't believe Genesis, how can you ever justify believing any of the rest of the Bible?

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