Fundamentally wrong

The recent successful appeal to the right-wing Christian fundamentalists in the United States election brings to the fore the question of the role of religion in politics. The constant reference to their God as justification for everything from security to banning same-sex marriages only emphasizes the growing closeness of politics and religion in the US.

While it may be approaching an urban myth that the religious right elected George W., Bush himself seems to believe it. He has gone so far as to saying he feels he was picked by God to be President at this time. Call him a Supreme Commander if you want, but those many non-Christians in the United States (and elsewhere) may not feel all that comfortable with this belief in his self-anointment.

Thankfully, we in Canada were not exposed to this blatant manipulation of people’s fears and religious superstitions in our last election. In fact, many Canadians expressed a fear of the old Reform Party because of their fundamental religious roots. We got bogged down in mundane fiscal matters, defence, free trade, the weaponization of space and the environment. Heck, we even briefly discussed the decriminalization of marijuana! But I can’t recall anyone mentioning they had God’s blessing on their campaign.

But how do you separate the desire to rule or govern ourselves from religion when we are continually appealing to a greater power than ourselves? This is especially troubling for atheists, agnostics or folk who have not adopted the main-stream religion of their particular country. It is even a problem for moderates who cannot accept the fundamentalist extremism. Fortunately, we in Canada can thank Pierre Trudeau for our Charter of Rights which applies the brakes when fundamentalists try to take over.

We would have to go a long way back in our human history to discover how we became such religious animals. At some time we decided that we would be safer in a community, where we could look after one another for mutual benefit. There was a place in the community for the small and the weak, those who had skills other than killing for food or protection. We gradually developed rules of conduct that served the interest of the whole community.

But somewhere back in our history we found enough leisure time to start thinking about why we were here. There being no obvious answer, we made up deities to explain everything from the weather to why the sun came up each morning. We soon anthropomorphized these gods into human form and coded their (our) wishes into rules of conduct for which we would be rewarded after we died.

Despite our increasing knowledge of the world through science, reason and study, many still are stuck on the question of Why we live instead of How we should live. Shakespeare expressed this in a few lines through Macbeth:
Out, out brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

The Why has no ready answer, so we set out to create an afterlife that rewards the suicide bomber or the fundamentalist alike in a place called ‘heaven’. Surely we ought to be focussing on How we live. Not only how we live, but how we treat our fellow inhabitants on this little sphere whirling in space.

Do we have compassion for the millions suffering from AIDS or do we say to ourselves that it is their own fault for homosexual behaviour or fornication as defined by the scripture writers of old? Do we ignore the science that says we are over-taxing the world’s resources because it is God’s will that we go forth and multiply and multiply? But for many fundamentalists, science has no place in their understanding: witness their trouble with Darwin and creation. It is not a long leap from believing in Biblical creationism to denying the causes for global warming.

Do we base our policies concerning the environment on science or do we say that the ozone holes are God’s will and part of the greater plan that we cannot understand? Does the Kyoto Accord have anything to do with reducing climate change and the destruction of habitat or is this just a warming phase that God is giving us as a test of our faith that everything will work out if we only believe in him / her?

Maybe it is the Second Coming or Armageddon when we will all be called home to our heavenly reward, so forget about the environment. Forget about the imminent demise of the polar bears, tigers and whales as well as thousands of smaller species of flora and fauna. Besides, is it not written somewhere that we shall have dominion over all things? Of course it is also written that chucking stones at adulteress folk was a proper thing.

And we have not come so far from those days of seeing visions and getting directions directly from god, although the Kool-Aid thing was a bit much. Yet some are so superstitious as to see the Christ’s image on a piece of French toast! (Maybe it is a sign to invest in wheat futures?) Worse still, someone bought it on eBay!

There can be no question that America has every right to secure its people from harm, even if it means pre-emptive strikes to slew the enemy. But one has to wonder what the basis is for any aggression against America. Is it their foreign policy – a policy of economic domination? Are their religious beliefs colouring their policies? Do they believe that every country should be governed in their ‘democratic’ image and not some other political arrangement because American policy is based on God’s commands as given to the Supreme Commander?

It must be difficult for Americans to keep their religion out of their policies when their money proclaims In God We Trust and they sing God Bless America at the drop of a hat. President Bush seems a pious man and sincerely believes it when his sign-off for speeches ends in a prayer that ‘God Bless America.’ But one must wonder what his blind faith in a higher being is doing to US policy – domestic and foreign. How long before we go to war against the infidels, non-believers (in our God)? Did George really misspeak when after 9-11 he said it was a crusade?

One might hope that education would be the tool that enlightens leaders to keep their religion out of politics, but after listening to a couple of Yale grads for several months, one wonders what they learned while at university. Perhaps that is the source of our problem – the way in which we pass on our belief systems to our young before they are old enough to do their own reasoning. “Give me a child until he is seven and he will be a Catholic for life” was one of the old dictums from Rome.

Fortunately in the US, there is still support for a public school system where religion is taught as a subject, not a way of teaching. Students ought to be taught about the various types of spiritualism, the different philosophies of life and the tenets of the mainstream religions. Perhaps then when they mature and become our politicians and law-makers of the future, we can enjoy a secular state where anyone’s personal beliefs do not impinge on others.

From my perspective, religion in politics is fundamentally wrong.