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DEMOCRACY REQUIRES US TO BE "OF THIS WORLD"
10/14/2008
There is a bumper sticker that adorns many cars in my city. It says simply "Not of this World" or the shorter NOTW, with the "T" shaped like a cross. It refers to the Bible verse John 17:16 in which Jesus says about his followers: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." Obviously, the owners of these cars consider themselves to be Christian.
Interestingly enough, many of these stickers are found on very expensive, worldly cars: Humvees, large decked out pick-up trucks, huge SUVs, which seems a bit ironic to me, but oh well….
I had an interesting thought today when I squeezed in next to one of these cars, which had been parked badly, about how this one phrase illustrates what the religious right believes, and how it conflicts with what I and many others believe with respect to both religion and the world.
Of course, all devout Christians are familiar with Jesus saying that he is not of this world, and his promise of eternal life in another world. Most Christians believe they will go on to another life. But in Jesus' time, and for many centuries after his death, this world and life on it was not very pleasant. All but a fortunate few were born into poverty, with only the small ruling class having any level of comfort or leisure. Life spans were short, and after thirty or forty years of hard work and misery, one expected to die and receive one's reward with Jesus in heaven. Often, faith in the existence of an afterlife was all that made this life bearable. And so it is understandable that new Christians in the Roman Empire, and peasants living in a feudal system, and even slaves living in America, might turn to the promise of Jesus and console themselves with the certainty that this life was not important. What happened in this life, which was largely beyond their control, made no difference and so it was not important to concern oneself with anything other than helping one's family survive as long as possible and leaving everything else in God's hands.
Then came the Enlightenment, and a new form of government that derived from the ideas of the Enlightenment: democracy. Suddenly, in this new land called America, people (at first, just white males) were told everything was in their hands. They didn't have to suffer under monarchs who inherited their power. They didn't have dictators and autocrats telling them what to do and how to live. There had something called freedom. They could do as they pleased as long as it was legal. And they were the ones who made the laws and chose their leaders.
They also didn't have to live in poverty. If they worked hard they could move out of an impoverished class into something called the "middle class," and live a comfortable existence. In other words, they had far more control over their lives than their predecessors did in previous centuries. It didn't mean their problems were over. It only meant they had a say in the solutions. No longer helpless to control the larger aspects of their lives, they now had a voice. They no longer had to resign themselves to their fate and say "God is in control" and someday there will be a better life. Now they could say "God helps those who help themselves," and they worked hard to help themselves in this life and to create a civil society for themselves and their children.
Time after time, as they faced difficulties – wars, internal conflict, depression, natural disasters, corruption, epidemics – they turned to the leaders they had elected, and if those leaders were not equal to the task, or did not do as they expected them to, they threw them out and elected someone else.
Today, our problems are mounting. The planet is overpopulated. The climate is changing and creating horrific problems. Wars and genocide rage. Racism simmers below the surface in some countries and breaks out into violence in others. Terrorism threatens. Globalization and greed have led to economic disaster. Religious fundamentalism becomes violent. Cultures clash in an era of rapid travel from one location to another. Technology replaces human labor and leaves people without a means to support themselves. Greed among the wealthy is destroying the middle class and equality of opportunity. The people in this and other European countries have the means to at least address these problems through their democratic institutions.
Since the dawn of our own democracy, religion hasn't disappeared. Just because citizens no longer had to resign themselves to conditions they couldn't control didn't mean religion was irrelevant. In fact, the American people are very religious. And until recent decades, religion has not just focused on the next life, but has in many instances worked to improve this life. Our social justice movements, for instance, have always been led and supported by the churches. However, the "Not of this World" sentiment which dominates some religious groups today is different and seems like a throw-back to the Middle Ages. And it is dangerous. Those who still look only to the next world have been behaving in very irresponsible ways towards the problems of this world, which they apparently consider unimportant.
By believing in metaphorical Bible stories about creation, for instance, and by trying to get into positions of power so they can mandate the teaching of this story to public school children, they threaten to do damage to the progress humans have made via science and the scientific method. By not believing in evolution, they reject the entire germ theory of disease, and the cures that can come only through a scientific understanding of how germs evolve. By rejecting man's contributions to global warming (as Sarah Palin does) they are actually trying to stop the funding that would lead to solutions that might save the planet. By insisting that pastors can tell their congregants how to vote, they subvert the very idea of democracy, which is that citizens inform themselves and vote on the person who would best protect and defend the Constitution, not the person who would best protect the Bible, or one interpretation of it.
Today a diarist on Daily Kos wrote about an email he received from his aunt. In it she said "Our pastor recently made this statement. 'Christians don’t have the right to vote the way they want to; they have the responsibility to vote the way God wants them to.' "
This statement is a perfect representation of the "Not of this World" mentality. Of course, we are free as citizens to vote any way we want to vote, for any reason, but for groups of people to believe they must vote some way because this is what God wants is dangerous for two reasons.
First, how does anyone really know what God wants? It is arrogant beyond measure to insist that anyone does. Yes, I know, Bible fundamentalists will say we know because the Bible is written by God, but this is a matter of belief, not of certainty. And my objection to this belief in the inerrancy of the Bible is simple: The Bible was not written in English; it has been translated from several different languages and undergone many revised translations; prior to the invention of the printing press in 1440, every new Bible had to be hand written. We have no way of knowing how many of those scribes inserted or deleted things here or there for political or other reasons. There is no way to know exactly what the original writers of the Bible actually said or actually meant. By way of contrast, we know who the writers of the Constitution are, and while courts fight over some of the meanings of the Founders, at least our founding document was written in the language we now speak.
Second, our government and our elections are about this world, not the next world. Our leaders are not elected to tackle theological problems, nor prepare citizens for the next life. Our leaders are elected to promote the common good and the general welfare here in this nation, to conduct diplomacy and to keep the economy healthy, to sign bills into law and to keep a civil society, to address problems of each generation and find acceptable solutions. They are not in office to represent God or the will of God. There is no religious test they are expected to pass, as it clearly states in the Constitution. They are secular or civil leaders. They are not priests or ministers or spokespersons for God. In fact, the brilliance of the Founders of our country was to guarantee freedom of all religions so that we would never consider combining what some think is God's will with the will of the people. We can know the will of the people every time we have an election. We can only guess at God's will. This is a democracy, where people of all religions or no religion gather in the public square to make decisions about their welfare on this planet, not a theocracy, where priests impose their view of God's will on the people in order to ensure happiness in some other world.
Interestingly, a non-citizen, an African Catholic Bishop, seems to understand our system better than some of the preachers who tell their congregations how to vote. In contrast to many preachers, including Catholic priests and Bishops, who condemn Barack Obama and other pro-choice Democrats and insist one cannot vote for them, Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, thinks otherwise. As reported in the National Catholic Reporter, Onaiyekan said "he would 'obviously' vote for Barak Obama if he could cast a ballot on Nov. 4" and that "Obama’s pro-choice record wouldn’t stop him from voting for the Democrat."
He further said "The fact that you oppose abortion doesn’t necessarily mean that you are pro-life….You can be anti-abortion and still be killing people by the millions through war, through poverty, and so on."
Archbishop Onaiyekan understands that moral issues are important, but that there are many moral issues, including social justice issues, and that in a democracy, one must weigh many things. He went on to say what an incredible example of equality and civil rights the election of a black man in the world's oldest and greatest democracy would show the world.
It is one thing to believe in God and hope that there is a better life ahead. One can do that and still be part of this world, where problems of all types require our attention and our fulfillment of the duties of citizenship.
Our democracy was created to take care of the problems of this nation. As we have that power and responsibility, and as we live much longer lives, it becomes our duty to attend to the many issues that we can control. Therefore, no one issue should determine our vote. If we decide, for instance, that abortion and gay marriage are issues that trump all others, then it might be said that we are willing to approve of immoral wars, or people losing health care or jobs or homes because of ill-advised economic policies, or the proliferation of nuclear weapons, or the destruction of the planet, because we think we know that God's will is for us to vote only on these two issues.
It is a huge problem in a democracy to say you care only about a possible next life and nothing about this life. That makes you traitors to democracy, that precious gift of self-determination and self-governing. In effect, if you don't care about solving the problems of this world, other than abortion and gay marriage, you are living as the peasants of the Middle Ages lived, uneducated and ignorant, guided only by religion, and caring little about the well being of your fellow citizens who depend on you to make wise choices about many things in elections.
In addition, you set yourself up to be used by those who say they agree with your moral position on issues like abortion, but do little or nothing to accomplish the goals you wish to accomplish. Instead, they use these issues as wedges to divide you from your fellow citizens and to convince you to vote for them so they can implement their greedy trickle down economic ideology and fill their coffers and those of their friends with the money they steal from the Middle Class.
Our democracy was never meant to be an institution that was controlled by clergy or the Bible. It was created to allow citizens to govern themselves, through representatives who would enact policies to ensure safety and prosperity for all. To participate responsibly in a democracy, one must be Of This World, at least to some extent. One must care about what happens to one's country and fellow citizens in this world, not just in the next.
The sarcastic side of me wanted to leave a note on the car with the sticker, saying "If you paid more attention to this world, maybe you could learn to park." But the better side of me decided not to. Instead, I wrote this essay, expressing in a more serious way how religion, as it is practiced by some today, is not helpful to our survival as a democratic and prosperous nation.
All content © 2005 outragedcitizen.com
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