The role of religion in
politics has rarely been so openly controversial as today. Religious
conservatives are trying to reverse decades of their diminishing ability to
determine political outcomes. It’s all about tolerance.
In our own Catholic diocese,
Bishop Thomas Paprocki’s Family
School Agreement reverses the traditional tolerance that Catholic schools
have shown toward non-Catholics. That Agreement would require non-Catholic
families of students at Catholic schools, including Our Saviour and Routt and
schools in Springfield, to attend weekly Mass and donate 8% of their income to
the Catholic Church. It’s hard for me to imagine, for example, how any Jewish
family could accept those conditions and the disrespect for Judaism it implies.
This shift back towards intolerance was prompted by Paprocki’s intolerance for
homosexuals. He initiated the Agreement when a same-sex married couple enrolled
their children at Christ the King elementary school in Springfield.
In Kentucky, Kim Davis has
catapulted from county clerk to conservative
celebrity, one of a number of public
officials who refuse to follow the Supreme
Court ruling that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.
The Republican
presidential candidates are divided on this issue. Those who are more
conservative and more supportive of fundamentalist Christianity echo her
argument: she should be able to put her religion ahead of the law, even when
acting as a government official.
The issue is again
intolerance for homosexuals, but also part of a larger agenda and a broader
intolerance. Note Senator Ted Cruz’s statement: “Those who are persecuting Kim
Davis believe that Christians should not serve in public office. That is the
consequence of their position. Or, if Christians do serve in pubic office, they
must disregard their religious faith — or be sent to jail.” For Cruz, a
“Christian” opposes gay marriage. Other ideas can’t be Christian.
Tolerance eventually leads to
equality. Advocates for equality, as far back as we can see, argued for
tolerance and tried to exhibit it. Those who said “no” were not willing to
tolerate people they felt were inferior and so should be unequal.
These are skirmishes in a
bigger battle between religious fundamentalists and more tolerant Americans
within their own faiths, as well as between fundamentalists and more secular
Americans.
For Cruz and many other
conservative Christians in politics, religion always trumps the law. The
highest law at any time must be their brand of faith. Government must serve
Biblical law. This political ideology is called “dominionism”,
deriving from the passage in Genesis which gives to men “dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle and over all the
earth....” Although there is nothing about one group of humans exerting
dominion over others, Christian fundamentalists assert their own
interpretation, as written by Rousas Rushdoony, the
founder of so-called Christian Reconstructionism: “every non-Biblical law-order
represents an anti-Christian religion.” Rushdoony denied the Holocaust, said
democracy was the enemy of Christianity, and called Southern slavery “benevolent”.
Among current Presidential candidates, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, and
Mike Huckabee follow this line of thought, intolerant of any religious
interpretation except their own.
The politics of our major
religions mirror wider American politics. Not only Catholics and Protestants,
but also Jews and Muslims are divided into factions, one which cannot tolerate
equality for gays, women, and any other religion, and one which preaches tolerance
and supports equality.
That split has always
existed. But as the center has moved inexorably toward equality,
traditionalists have become angry. They are doing everything they can to slow
down the future.
As Pope Francis pulls the
whole Catholic hierarchy explicitly toward more tolerance, conservative
Catholics push back. As Protestant denominations open their doors and their
offices to women, to immigrants, and to gays, fundamentalists shut them out.
The ultimate battle is not
just about religious practice. Conservative Christians claim that they are only
defending freedom of religion, but there is no attack on their freedom to
worship and believe as they like. They want more. They want laws which apply to
all Americans to reflect their religious beliefs. They demand the right to
disregard laws they don’t like. They want their religion to be our politics.
They want dominion over the fish and birds and the rest of us.
Steve Hochstadt
Jacksonville IL
Published in the Jacksonville
Journal-Courier, September 15, 2015
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