Our speaker on Friday, Dr. Robert Jones of PRRI, asked a simple question – what kind of country do you want to live in? We can either choose to live in a nation we believe was created for white Christians and based on the Christian Scriptures, or we can live in a pluralistic nation based on the Constitution. There is no in-between, and I know you have heard or read something from me that asked similar questions. Dr. John Fea (Messiah College) wrote a book to answer the question, “Was America founded as a Christian nation?”; his response was Yes and No. Yes, there were a number of founders who practiced the Christian religion, and it would be impossible for those ideas and ideals to not seep into the process, and No, there were also founders who were Deists (and possibly Atheists and Agnostics) who promoted a more open acceptance of other faith traditions. There’s a reason Jesus – or God, for that matter – does not appear in the Constitution. The founders, while vague on the relationship between religion and government, were very clear about not having a state religion or allowing religion to keep citizens from holding political office. Don’t believe me? Read the Constitution. It’s in there.
I want to live in a country where I can lead a progressive Christian community that welcomes the LGBTQ community while, at the same time, my neighbor can attend a conservative Christian community that thinks those folks are going to hell. I don’t like that idea, but it is my neighbor’s right to do so, as long as those convictions do not lead to legal discrimination. I want to live in a country where my neighbor across the street can sip coffee on her back porch all Sunday morning while I am busy leading worship. I want to live in a country where the best people are elected regardless of their religion, race, gender, or sex. Where people who wage violent insurrection against the government are put in jail right next to people who protest and destroy cities to make some kind of point about capitalism being bad. I want to live in a country that defines gun ownership as a Constitutional right that can be lost if you commit violence, not one that sees it as a “god-given right”.
What kind of country do you want to live in? There are some people I speak with who don’t think what is happening today is a big deal, but I, and many others, beg to differ. In state after state, we can see rights being taken away and books being banned because they depict American history as it happened or lift up same-sex relationships as valid. We see school boards attacking educators for showing art that has been viewed for centuries as just art, not porn. We see parents pushing to have creationism taught alongside evolution as if the first were a scientific approach and not a religious perspective. I don’t want religion in the schools or the courts or the White House. Do you know where religion should be taught? In homes and houses of worship. On Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays (every day, if you choose to do so). Of course, that would interfere with people’s leisure and sports life. Better to force it on the schools than take responsibility for our children ourselves. I guess we see the real problem, don’t we?
Prayer – It is tempting, God of free will, to take advantage when we have the chance; invite us to do otherwise. For each other’s sakes, and for Yours. Amen.