Thursday, June 19, 2008
How Separete Church/State?
Out of Ur recently published a review of the book "Jesus for President" which argues that our religious identitiy and our spiritual ones are indistinct.
What I was struck with was how similar this discussion about separate identities sound to those advanced by conservatives when something very liberal happens - when churches decide to ordain homosexuals for example.
The simple fact of the matter is that while there is church and state separation, that is to say, the institutions are separate and to have minimal influence on each other, we as individuals draw our identity from both institutions. And there comes times when we must identify more with one than with the other.
This is, in part, where the overabundance of religious diversity on our nation comes from. Because we have common religious identities, but may be fractured as to our political identities, the church fractures into pieces along those political lines.
This fact, and this fact alone, has allowed national unity for the United States. And it has provided for religion to flourish in a way unique in the world. In Europe, people simply stay away from church since there seems only to the the national church.
Here, in American, I am free to worship in a church that applauds the troops robustly, and my friend the reviewer is free to worship in sackcloth and ashes for the destructive course our nation has taken.
And that dear reader is the national identity that, in the end, matters, because that national identity enables my religious one.
I disagree with this reviewer profoundly politically, but he is a brother in Christ, and a fellow citizen of this nation. I hope he feels the same way about me.
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Jesus for President wonders if the reason the American church does not articulate a Christianity distinct from national citizenship is that we have lost our godly imagination. Or perhaps we have become so used to living with power and privilege that we are hesitant to articulate a different way of living. Let’s assume these modern-day monks are on to something. What then? What is the role of the church within the empire?This all came up in the context of a church that was enthusiastically supporting the troops. The author chose to sit during an ovation honoring the troops. I am tempted to launch into a diatribe about how regardless of one's political opinion on the war, or the military in general, people, brothers and sister in Christ, are putting themselves in harm's way and that fact alone is worthy of our appreciation. But that is an old hackneyed argument at this stage.
What I was struck with was how similar this discussion about separate identities sound to those advanced by conservatives when something very liberal happens - when churches decide to ordain homosexuals for example.
The simple fact of the matter is that while there is church and state separation, that is to say, the institutions are separate and to have minimal influence on each other, we as individuals draw our identity from both institutions. And there comes times when we must identify more with one than with the other.
This is, in part, where the overabundance of religious diversity on our nation comes from. Because we have common religious identities, but may be fractured as to our political identities, the church fractures into pieces along those political lines.
This fact, and this fact alone, has allowed national unity for the United States. And it has provided for religion to flourish in a way unique in the world. In Europe, people simply stay away from church since there seems only to the the national church.
Here, in American, I am free to worship in a church that applauds the troops robustly, and my friend the reviewer is free to worship in sackcloth and ashes for the destructive course our nation has taken.
And that dear reader is the national identity that, in the end, matters, because that national identity enables my religious one.
I disagree with this reviewer profoundly politically, but he is a brother in Christ, and a fellow citizen of this nation. I hope he feels the same way about me.
Technorati Tags:church, state, identity, freedom, religious expression
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