The only place in the original US Constitution where religion is mentioned is in Article VI, that makes it clear that there should never be any religious tests as a requisite qualification for public service. I appreciate this rule, which makes sense considering the fact that all the signers of the Constitution were publicly Protestant Christians or Deists. They probably had disagreements about certain aspects of the Bible; Jefferson snipped verses he didn’t like out of it – and they certainly had theological differences. None of them, as far as we know, practiced religions that would have been considered dangerous to the common good or democracy. And while most, but not all of them held racist religious views supporting the enslavement of non-white people, it is probably safe to say that their views of women were fairly similar, which isn’t good in its own right.
Our problem today, of course, is that we are a nation with people of many religious views and denominations, and we are free to proclaim those views without any danger to our religious freedoms. This is true for Pete Hegseth, who practices a fringe form of Christianity that, to me, seems dangerous to religious freedom and democracy. And he is just one example. Over the last 50 years, there have been a number of elected and appointed officials who have proclaimed dangerous, fringe ideologies. In his book, “American Crusade”, Hegseth wrote that he believes there are “irreconcilable differences between the Left and the Right in America leading to perpetual conflict that cannot be resolved through the political process”. He furthermore called for an “American crusade”, which he described as “a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom”. In a May 2024 interview where he talked about education, Hegseth said “Democracy, democracy, defend the democracy. Do you know what our founders did not want us to be? A democracy.”
The First Amendment guarantees the right to practice any religion we want to practice or none at all. So, Mr. Hegseth, like the rest of us, can believe what he wants, and go to church where he wants, but if those beliefs put people in danger, or take away people’s rights, should he hold positions of power over others? I’m not saying that I know the answer – this is a very slippery slope; I am merely posing a question and a concern. Believing women are inferior is a danger to women’s rights and autonomy. Believing democracy is not what the founders wanted is a danger to democracy. Above all, not believing in the equality of all people is in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus, which Hegseth claims to live by. We are in interesting times, so let’s be vigilant in trying to understand the balance that must be held for democracy to flourish.
Prayer – Holy God, You have offered us a gift; help us to be careful how we use it. Amen.
Today’s art is “Family is Love” by Ivan Guaderrama.