Category: Faith

Sane evangelical David Kuo notices a fascinating aspect of the latest installment of the Palin farce released last night. It was her sudden abandonment of her faith for political expediency. Her speech at Wasilla was theologically orthodox when it talks of God’s will. As David puts it:

There isn’t anything terribly controversial in what Gov. Palin is saying. This is orthodox Christian theology – the idea that God controls the outcome of all things. It is true in lives and it is true in politics. It is only because we live in a time of massive theological ignorance that clips like these raise an eyebrow. It is the kind of thing that evangelical Christians say to each other.

And now her response to this:

David notes:

When asked what she meant about saying our leaders were sending our troops to Iraq on a task “that is from God,” Gov. Palin replied that she was thinking about Lincoln at the time.

The idea that she was thinking about Abraham Lincoln at the time she was giving those remarks is laughable. It is the kind of spin that comes from secular political consultants desperately trying to make Gov. Palin sound “not too religious.”

Gov. Palin was giving a speech to a theologically conservative evangelical church filled with Christians who understood exactly what she was talking about – she was saying she believed God had ordained the United States to invade Iraq.

 

In the interview she goes on to say, “I would never presume to know God’s will….”

 

Really? Truly? Does that mean that Gov. Palin is open to the idea that God’s will is for the United States to become a Muslim nation? One under Sharia law? Does Gov. Palin believe it might be God’s will for the United States to pass laws outlawing the freedom of speech? Is her faith and theology so insipid, so tepid that she has no idea what God’s will is? Or is it that she is simply trying to take the edge off her faith because her new political advisers say it is “too much.” I’m guessing it is the latter.

She has already sold out her faith for political expediency and did it "without blinking". Her trainers obviously suggested this Lincoln hooey – which I bet you she hadn’t even heard of till the last week of cramming.  What this suggests to me is that her faith has been a political tool in her career. She will use it when it helps – as in getting to be Mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska – and drop it when its in her way. There is something truly, deeply Rovian about Sarah Palin.

 

By Daniel Larison

As Ross said last week, the Pew numbers on white evangelical support for the major presidential candidates do show that McCain appears to be running poorly among these voters when compared to the support Bush received at this time four years ago.  Then again, according to a Post survey earlier in the year McCain was running ahead of Bush’s mid-2004 support among white evangelicals and was on track to replicate the latter’s overwhelming majority with this core constituency.  If the Pew numbers are right, the drop in evangelical support for McCain seems to be part of the generic "enthusiasm gap" between the two candidates, but in any case this has never translated into greater white evangelical support for Obama.  Instead, we are seeing white evangelical voters become part of the sizeable undecided vote, which may mean that McCain is failing to win them over, but it is certainly not the case that they are in danger of being "mesmerized" by Obama.  Indeed, Mr. Bass is simply wrong when he says that Obama fares better with these voters than Kerry did.   

One reason why the fear (or hope, depending on who you are) of Obama making inroads among white evangelicals is overblown is made clear by Obama’s embrace of a form of the faith-based initiative.  There is an assumption that this move will appeal to some religious voters who are normally wary of Democratic candidates, but even if this is so it will not meaningfully increase Obama’s share of the white evangelical vote.  To the extent that this initiative was welcomed by evangelicals when Bush proposed it, Bush’s own religious identification with evangelical voters reassured them that government support would not necessarily mean any change in how these people ran their charities and organizations.  Among more conservative evangelicals, the response to the initiative was much more hostile, however, because there was the reasonable fear that government rules would follow the acceptance of federal money, and among the most conservative critics of then-Gov. Bush the initative was viewed as a way for government to co-opt and undermine private and religious charities.  Those fears and criticisms are sure to increase if an Obama administration works to implement his faith-based proposal, and my guess is that they will tend to drive those undecided white evangelicals to McCain and motivate them to oppose Obama’s election with much more energy and enthusiasm than they would have ever been able to muster for McCain.

Cross-posted at Eunomia

A reader wrotes:

I read your post entitled "Atheism Has Expelled Me" with great interest. But after reading the essay itself, I have to say it was painfully off the mark, in my view.

To me, atheism is a scientific argument with moral ramifications. Theism is a theory that cannot be reasonably defended within the paradigm our natural world. Just like no scientist would give any consideration to people claiming that the sun revolves around the earth. It's not matter of ridicule. It matter of understanding hypothesis, observation, and conclusion. While this angers many religious folk as somehow condescending, most atheists like Dawkins are simply saying that based on our knowledge of the scientific method, one cannot argue that the world was created in seven days, or that water turned to wine, etc., etc. There is no malice intended. There is only frustration at the number of people who can selectively relax their notion of scientific rigor to allow for these supernatural beliefs.

Personally, I can understand anti-theism, and in many ways support it. The reason has nothing to do with superiority or snobbishness. It pains me in my heart to see the death and destruction that religion has caused throughout history. It gives me anxiety to look at my one-year old son and think that he'll be brought up in a society that doesn't see any link between the erosion of critical thinking and the increase in religiosity. People seem to need figures like bin Laden, Koresh, Hubbard, etc., so they can point fingers and proclaim them to be religious fanatics or "wackos". It makes the average moderate Christian/Muslim/Jew/Hindu feel better about their faith. As if the suspension of scientific thought that they exercise has absolutely nothing to do the extremism that is built on the same principle. I am not trying to lump everyone into the same group here, I'm just attempting to explain how a scientist views this general line of thinking as major threat to society. The slippery-est of slopes.

I sincerely believe that most atheism is spawned not out of hate and elitism, but out of love. Atheists like me have simply lost all faith that religion can exist without being used as a tool for justifying war and subjugation. If it could, even scientists that cringe at the thought of accepting supernatural beliefs would probably learn to coexist peacefully with theism, given that many beliefs system also catalyze acts of great compassion. But in the end, I'm torn as to which notion is more naïve and idealistic: a world without theism or world in which theism does not lead to human suffering.

I've discussed many of these issues in my debate with Sam Harris.

More support for repealing the unique legislative ban on people with HIV entering the United States:

We write as religious organizations with extensive experience in the fight against HIV and AIDS and a commitment to the well-being of all of God’s people to urge your support for restoring authority to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to determine the most appropriate entry policy procedures for HIV-positive persons, as included in the current Global AIDS Reauthorization Act of 2008…

The fear that once surrounded the spread of HIV that paralyzed the response of the international community, including many faith organizations, has been replaced by facts.

  Through extensive experience both domestically and internationally in the fight against AIDS, we believe that eliminating the HIV-specific grounds for inadmissibility to the United States will help reduce stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive persons, enhance U.S. leadership in the global fight against AIDS and allow our ministries to more effectively partner with those most severely affected by HIV and AIDS in the world. 

ANERELA+
Catholic Relief Services
Church World Service
Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
The Episcopal Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
FreshMinistries
INERALA+
Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Missionary Oblates
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Metropolitan Community Church
Presbyterian Church, (USA), Washington Office
Siyafundisa: Africa HIV/AIDS Education Project
United Faith Action Network of The AIDS Institute
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church & Society
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Every now and again, a writer gets an email or a letter from a reader that makes his day. I guess some will consider this self-indulgent, but what the hell:

I, a 55 year old raised Catholic, turned Christian woman had my world rocked by your book. I had been wondering for some time about my political whereabouts. I thought I was a Republican and was comfortable with it. I thought I was a Christian and felt somewhat comfortable with it. Then George Bush came along with his faith, which I thought was a good thing at first, until I began to see the party as hypocritical, or as I call them Pharasitical. After experiencing a Bible Study that I increasingly felt uncomfortable with I decided to stop attending.

Unknowingly then, I had put myself in a fundamentalist prison. Subject by subject you helped shake me out of that box. But now what to do with what I had lived and what I have just learned. I savored each page and slowly unpeeled myself from the fundamentalist box I was in.

A thought came to my mind about the administration’s fundamentalists’ thoughts on homosexuality. If Jesus were to come upon a homosexual in the streets I believe from the scriptures that He would embrace him as He did us all. If the scriptures reflect Jesus’ loving attitude, then how can the fundamentalists judge and treat them they way they do? Don’t they realize they are grieving the Father?

The beautiful message I got from your book was align myself with the work Jesus did for us and continues to do through us if we let Him. And we can’t let Him if we are judging others.

I like your chapters on life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. So much that I am now reading the essays from Thomas Jefferson. You opened my eyes to several philosophers that I would like to read more on. The message I got there was: enjoy God in your life and don’t push God on others – just live it.

The book is about politics, but its core subject is really faith. In my head, I’m sketching a book devoted entirely to Christianity, and what a modern person with eyes open and head cleared can truly still believe.

Yesterday’s homily in full. The best coverage is here:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

"Peace be with you!" (Jn 20:19). With these, the first words of the Risen Lord to his disciples, I greet all of you in the joy of this Easter season. Before all else, I thank God for the blessing of being in your midst. I am particularly grateful to Archbishop Wuerl for his kind words of welcome.

Our Mass today brings the Church in the United States back to its roots in nearby Maryland, and commemorates the bicentennial of the first chapter of its remarkable growth – the division by my predecessor, Pope Pius VII, of the original Diocese of Baltimore and the establishment of the Dioceses of Boston, Bardstown (now Louisville), New York and Philadelphia. Two hundred years later, the Church in America can rightfully praise the accomplishment of past generations in bringing together widely differing immigrant groups within the unity of the Catholic faith and in a common commitment to the spread of the Gospel.

At the same time, conscious of its rich diversity, the Catholic community in this country has come to appreciate ever more fully the importance of each individual and group offering its own particular gifts to the whole. The Church in the United States is now called to look to the future, firmly grounded in the faith passed on by previous generations, and ready to meet new challenges – challenges no less demanding than those faced by your forebears – with the hope born of God’s love, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5).

In the exercise of my ministry as the Successor of Peter, I have come to America to confirm you, my brothers and sisters, in the faith of the Apostles (cf. Lk 22:32). I have come to proclaim anew, as Peter proclaimed on the day of Pentecost, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Messiah, risen from the dead, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father, and established as judge of the living and the dead (cf. Acts 2:14ff.). I have come to repeat the Apostle’s urgent call to conversion and the forgiveness of sins, and to implore from the Lord a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church in this country. As we have heard throughout this Easter season, the Church was born of the Spirit’s gift of repentance and faith in the risen Lord. In every age she is impelled by the same Spirit to bring to men and women of every race, language and people (cf. Rev 5:9) the good news of our reconciliation with God in Christ.

The readings of today’s Mass invite us to consider the growth of the Church in America as one chapter in the greater story of the Church’s expansion following the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In those readings we see the inseparable link between the risen Lord, the gift of the Spirit for the forgiveness of sins, and the mystery of the Church. Christ established his Church on the foundation of the Apostles (cf. Rev 21:14) as a visible, structured community which is at the same time a spiritual communion, a mystical body enlivened by the Spirit’s manifold gifts, and the sacrament of salvation for all humanity (cf. Lumen Gentium, 8). In every time and place, the Church is called to grow in unity through constant conversion to Christ, whose saving work is proclaimed by the Successors of the Apostles and celebrated in the sacraments. This unity, in turn, gives rise to an unceasing missionary outreach, as the Spirit spurs believers to proclaim "the great works of God" and to invite all people to enter the community of those saved by the blood of Christ and granted new life in his Spirit.

I pray, then, that this significant anniversary in the life of the Church in the United States, and the presence of the Successor of Peter in your midst, will be an occasion for all Catholics to reaffirm their unity in the apostolic faith, to offer their contemporaries a convincing account of the hope which inspires them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15), and to be renewed in missionary zeal for the extension of God’s Kingdom.

The world needs this witness! Who can deny that the present moment is a crossroads, not only for the Church in America but also for society as a whole? It is a time of great promise, as we see the human family in many ways drawing closer together and becoming ever more interdependent. Yet at the same time we see clear signs of a disturbing breakdown in the very foundations of society: signs of alienation, anger and polarization on the part of many of our contemporaries; increased violence; a weakening of the moral sense; a coarsening of social relations; and a growing forgetfulness of Christ and God. The Church, too, sees signs of immense promise in her many strong parishes and vital movements, in the enthusiasm for the faith shown by so many young people, and also in the number of those who each year embrace the Catholic faith, and in a greater interest in prayer and catechesis. At the same time she senses, often painfully, the presence of division and polarization in her midst, as well as the troubling realization that many of the baptized, rather than acting as a spiritual leaven in the world, are inclined to embrace attitudes contrary to the truth of the Gospel.

"Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth!" (cf. Ps 104:30). The words of today’s Responsorial Psalm are a prayer which rises up from the heart of the Church in every time and place. They remind us that the Holy Spirit has been poured out as the first fruits of a new creation, "new heavens and a new earth" (cf. 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1), in which God’s peace will reign and the human family will be reconciled in justice and love. We have heard Saint Paul tell us that all creation is even now "groaning" in expectation of that true freedom which is God’s gift to his children (Rom 8:21-22), a freedom which enables us to live in conformity to his will. Today let us pray fervently that the Church in America will be renewed in that same Spirit, and sustained in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel to a world that longs for genuine freedom (cf. Jn 8:32), authentic happiness, and the fulfillment of its deepest aspirations!

Here I wish to offer a special word of gratitude and encouragement to all those who have taken up the challenge of the Second Vatican Council, so often reiterated by Pope John Paul II, and committed their lives to the new evangelization. I thank my brother Bishops, priests and deacons, men and women religious, parents, teachers and catechists. The fidelity and courage with which the Church in this country will respond to the challenges raised by an increasingly secular and materialistic culture will depend in large part upon your own fidelity in handing on the treasure of our Catholic faith. Young people need to be helped to discern the path that leads to true freedom: the path of a sincere and generous imitation of Christ, the path of commitment to justice and peace. Much progress has been made in developing solid programs of catechesis, yet so much more remains to be done in forming the hearts and minds of the young in knowledge and love of the Lord. The challenges confronting us require a comprehensive and sound instruction in the truths of the faith. But they also call for cultivating a mindset, an intellectual "culture", which is genuinely Catholic, confident in the profound harmony of faith and reason, and prepared to bring the richness of faith’s vision to bear on the urgent issues which affect the future of American society.

Dear friends, my visit to the United States is meant to be a witness to "Christ our Hope". Americans have always been a people of hope: your ancestors came to this country with the expectation of finding new freedom and opportunity, while the vastness of the unexplored wilderness inspired in them the hope of being able to start completely anew, building a new nation on new foundations. To be sure, this promise was not experienced by all the inhabitants of this land; one thinks of the injustices endured by the native American peoples and by those brought here forcibly from Africa as slaves. Yet hope, hope for the future, is very much a part of the American character. And the Christian virtue of hope – the hope poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, the hope which supernaturally purifies and corrects our aspirations by focusing them on the Lord and his saving plan – that hope has also marked, and continues to mark, the life of the Catholic community in this country.

It is in the context of this hope born of God’s love and fidelity that I acknowledge the pain which the Church in America has experienced as a result of the sexual abuse of minors. No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse. It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention. Nor can I adequately describe the damage that has occurred within the community of the Church. Great efforts have already been made to deal honestly and fairly with this tragic situation, and to ensure that children – whom our Lord loves so deeply (cf. Mk 10:14), and who are our greatest treasure – can grow up in a safe environment. These efforts to protect children must continue. Yesterday I spoke with your Bishops about this. Today I encourage each of you to do what you can to foster healing and reconciliation, and to assist those who have been hurt. Also, I ask you to love your priests, and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do. And above all, pray that the Holy Spirit will pour out his gifts upon the Church, the gifts that lead to conversion, forgiveness and growth in holiness.

Saint Paul speaks, as we heard in the second reading, of a kind of prayer which arises from the depths of our hearts in sighs too deep for words, in "groanings" (Rom 8:26) inspired by the Spirit. This is a prayer which yearns, in the midst of chastisement, for the fulfillment of God’s promises. It is a prayer of unfailing hope, but also one of patient endurance and, often, accompanied by suffering for the truth. Through this prayer, we share in the mystery of Christ’s own weakness and suffering, while trusting firmly in the victory of his Cross. With this prayer, may the Church in America embrace ever more fully the way of conversion and fidelity to the demands of the Gospel. And may all Catholics experience the consolation of hope, and the Spirit’s gifts of joy and strength.

In today’s Gospel, the risen Lord bestows the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and grants them the authority to forgive sins. Through the surpassing power of Christ’s grace, entrusted to frail human ministers, the Church is constantly reborn and each of us is given the hope of a new beginning. Let us trust in the Spirit’s power to inspire conversion, to heal every wound, to overcome every division, and to inspire new life and freedom. How much we need these gifts! And how close at hand they are, particularly in the sacrament of Penance! The liberating power of this sacrament, in which our honest confession of sin is met by God’s merciful word of pardon and peace, needs to be rediscovered and reappropriated by every Catholic. To a great extent, the renewal of the Church in America depends on the renewal of the practice of Penance and the growth in holiness which that sacrament both inspires and accomplishes.

"In hope we were saved!" (Rom 8:24)." As the Church in the United States gives thanks for the blessings of the past two hundred years, I invite you, your families, and every parish and religious community, to trust in the power of grace to create a future of promise for God’s people in this country. I ask you, in the Lord Jesus, to set aside all division and to work with joy to prepare a way for him, in fidelity to his word and in constant conversion to his will. Above all, I urge you to continue to be a leaven of evangelical hope in American society, striving to bring the light and truth of the Gospel to the task of building an ever more just and free world for generations yet to come.

Those who have hope must live different lives! (cf. Spe Salvi, 2). By your prayers, by the witness of your faith, by the fruitfulness of your charity, may you point the way towards that vast horizon of hope which God is even now opening up to his Church, and indeed to all humanity: the vision of a world reconciled and renewed in Christ Jesus, our Savior. To him be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.

In pondering the Obama bitter-gaffe aside from its political ramifications, it may be helpful to note that faith is not a monolithic thing. Even within one faith tradition, there are numerous ways to believe and modes of belief. Here’s the Obama sentence we’ve all been unpacking:

They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

The term religion in that sentence is too compacted, I think, to mean what some think (but the more I look at it, the less I blame them for misunderstanding). I think what Obama probably meant by it is a certain kind of religion, a neurotic, rigid variety that is often – but not always – part of the fundamentalist psyche. Many atheists and fundamentalists believe that there is only one valid form of religion: fundamentalism. And so you can see why they would intrepret Obama’s off-hand remark the way they have – as a denigration of all faith. But those of us in grayer areas and those of us who believe Obama’s own protestations of faith see something more complicated. What we see – and what history has sometimes shown – is that economic, political and cultural frustration can indeed be expressed by the rise a certain kind of religious belief. And that correlation – between the disorienting transitions of globalization and the rise of religious fundamentalism – is real (see The Conservative Soul). When the world disappoints or disorients, the appeal of a more absolute and unquestioning faith as a rock in a storm is powerful. The key factors are not just economic stagnation but cultural loss and a lack of faith in the responsiveness of the relevant political institutions.

I certainly find it hard to understand the rise of Islamism without understanding the abject political and economic failure of many Arab states to respond to the genuine desires and needs of their citizens. In fact, I thought this link between the bitterness created by unrepresentative political institutions, economic failure and Islamism was a core feature of neoconservative thought.

Obviously, the frustration is much greater in the Arab world – but their fundamentalism is at another extreme level as well. That doesn’t mean that there is no connection between fundamentalism and economic/cultural/political frustration. The rise of anti-Semitism and homophobia in Christianity in the early middle ages also correlates with economic depression and political malaise. And I think the rise of Christianism as an absolutist, defensive and outsider-leery form of Christianity in this millennium is absolutely connected in some cases to economic and political alienation. Note: in some cases. Obviously, wealth and fundamentalism are not crudely correlated – wealthy people and self-confident people can also embrace rigid faith. Osama was very rich. So is Pat Robertson. This is complicated. The truth is buried in there somewhere. Which is why it’s better not to think out loud in public when you’re running for office.

Leave that kind of recklessness to bloggers like me.

More on Thomas Merton – a brief clip from a biographical documentary, "Soul Searching: The Journey Of Thmas Merton". My own essay on how faith and doubt are inextricable, and how fundamentalism is a form not of faith but of spiritual neurosis, can be read here. Merton’s lectures on the Ways Of God are here. You can get the DVD here. Merton’s literary masterpiece, "The Seven Storey Mountain," can be bought here.

A reader writes:

I wonder what the Christian right are going to do now. Out of this ordeal about Rev. Wright’s preaching it has become clear that Barack Obama is a real Christian running for president.

Think about it, he has just been subjected to an all out attack of religious persecution by the mainstream media against a traditional branch of American Christianity and he has bravely and with little apparent support, defended his pastor, his church, his religion, and his faith in God. I think the media doesn’t realize what is going on here. Barack Obama is emerging not only as a great political leader, but as a defender of faith in America. It started as David and Goliath and is now Daniel in the lion’s den as well.

I wouldn’t go that far. I certainly don’t believe anyone should vote for or against Obama – or anyone – on the basis of religious faith. But I have long felt the quiet power of Obama’s doubt-filled, socially engaged, moderate Christianity. It is a great cultural salve against Christianism and fundamentalism. The Hannity-Ingraham-Hewitt right should be a little leery in their attacks on him in case their own often cynical deployment of religion as a political tool is revealed too baldly as the sham and blasphemy that it is. Andrew Sprung analyzes one of the more toxic recent examples in the WSJ here. Another liberal’s take is here.

Apostate Rod Dreher writes about his fellow, doubting and re-believing compatriots. Rod emailed me to ask why I still cling to Catholicism. Sadly, I think "cling" is the right word, at this point. Institutionally, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to overcome the feeling of disgust and despair at my church’s long-standing policy of allowing grown men, in the image of Christ, to rape, abuse, molest and traumatize boys and teens – and persistently cover it up. Seeing, as a gay man does, the depth of the hypocrisy and cant and sexual and psychological pathologies that drive the Vatican, it is very hard to regain trust in such a deeply corrupt and dishonest institution. Benedict cannot help symbolize this to me. He’s a brilliant, brilliant man; he has not been a new Torquemada. But he is so much a part of the reactionary regress of the Church that only his departure will allow a rebirth.

I cling because such a future is always possible; and hope is not the same thing as optimism. I cling because I do not know where else to go. I can no more divorce my church than I can divorce my parents. Becoming an Anglican, given my Irish-Catholic background in England, would be slightly more traumatic than becoming a Muslim. I guess my dialogue with Sam Harris explains why I’m still (barely) a Catholic. Because the message of Jesus and the divinity of Jesus still compel me. Because He will never be adequately represented by a church He didn’t have and didn’t found, but without which He would be lost to me and to the world. And so faith persists. In all its fallen human indignity. Which is all the church on earth is, in the end.