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Back to { Articles } 12 | 13 | 2003 ....................................................... The Muddle-Headed Debate Over Church and State By Robert H. Stucky |
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It is curious and telling that the people who stridently insist on omitting all religious references from public life under this constitutional rubric do not file law suits against political candidates or office holders (no matter what their politics) for ending speeches with the ardent benediction, "May God bless America" - especially in times of national crisis like the tragedy of September 11. (The memory of the heartfelt bipartisan singing of "God Bless America" on the Capitol steps stands among the most moving in the public response to that horrific event.) It is also ironic that those who insist on the Separation of Church and State as a mandate to eliminate religious reference, do so in the name of democratic ideals. Yet Gallup and Pew polls in recent years have demonstrated that a huge majority of Americans (in the range of 90%+/-) profess belief in a God, and 56-65% consider religion a central issue in their lives. It would be easy, and tempting, to dismiss the furor over this issue by national referendum, but it would not solve the deeper issue fueling this debate. Part of the consequence of our atrophied use of logic, fact and reason in political dialogue has to do with the deterioration of our educational system. The Separation of Church and State issue has been fueled by a growing religious illiteracy and furthered by a litigious society's opportunism in seeking punitive damages for supposed offenses. We are a culture increasingly persuaded that the individual has a right to everything, but is not accountable or responsible for much of anything. This is, of course, big business and keeps much of the United States' disproportionate majority of the world's lawyers gainfully employed. But litigation and opportunism aside, the morally flaccid attitudes of public policy are promoted by a serious lack of noncompetitive, balanced, factual and spiritually appreciative education about all the world's major religions and their inestimable influence on the entire history of the human race. We do not live in closed systems any more. Information technology and rapid transportation have drastically shrunk our planet, and not even the dictatorial censorship and xenophobic isolationism of some repressive regimes can totally prevent the globally free exchange of information and knowledge. Much conflict in human society is spawned by ignorance and the selective manipulation of information. It is certain that this has been done by both religious and secular leaders. Yet it is also an incontrovertible fact that human history has been positively shaped and guided by the spiritual values, beliefs and practices. Arguably, the highest aspirations of each and every society, and of humanity as a whole, are enshrined in them. Our histories differ in the particulars of how that has happened, but not in the phenomenon of it happening. This is, by general consensus and fiscal fiat, a Holiday Season. Its observance has become an economic necessity producing 60% or more of our annual consumption. (Interstingly, nobodyıs suing about that.) But the Holidays came into existence as Holy Days- a tacit collective acknowledgment of our dependence on some form of higher power and wisdom that has the ability to provide hope, comfort, inspiration and joy, not only in times of crisis, but constantly. The Pledge of Allegiance's reference to our nation being &qout;under God", our currency printed with the motto "In God We Trust," the reference to our Creator in the founding documents of the nation, the swearing in of officers with a hand on scripture, our commercial acknowledgment that even if we don't all worship the same way, all recognizes there is something to which Jew and Gentile, Christian, Muslim , African American, Latino or Asian- all of us- owe homage. Clearly, and rightly, the founding fathers knew only too well the dangers of either Church or State being controlled by the other. It was to prevent that spirit-killing autocracy and promote the free exercise of conscience that they framed the Constitution as they did, thank God! None of the founders of our nation, however, denied the existence of a higher power, nor shied from invoking it. They felt that the desire, perhaps even the necessity, of every individual to approach that higher power as they see fit is, in fact, a sacred and inalienable right, not something to be hushed up and hidden from public view. Sneaking granite tablets of the Ten Commandments into courthouses, or banning Nativity Scenes or Menorahs from the village green, and chastising school children for reciting a reference to God in the routine civic exercise of pledging allegiance to the nation's flag (arguably a sort of religious ritual of commitment itself) seem like childish tugs-of-war on the playground of public opinion. The disproportionate attention given to such disputes is indicative of the dumbing down of America when compared to finding solutions to the more crucial and life-threatening issues of poverty, health care, ecological disaster, and violence. Ironically, appealing to a higher power might well raise the level of public debate. We would do better to grasp why every civilization in history has sought to find its well being by living in harmony and cooperation with an unseen force from which they universally have believed we all have sprung. Robert H. Stucky is the Executive Director of Faith In Diversity Institute. Copyright İ 2003 by Faith In Diversity Institute back to top |
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