Obama and Religion

Here we go again. Yet another politician who is blurring issues by including religion and faith in discussions about civil laws, civil rights, and government values.

Whatever happened to ethics? We do not need a ‘higher power’ to tell us the difference between liberty and oppression. We do not need to ‘have faith’ to know what to do in response to behavior that causes destruction and chaos in the world. All we need to do is see and act. See those who are homeless, poor, oppressed, and terrorized with eyes of empathy rather than blame, disgust, or indifference. See that alongside the homeless, poor, and terrorized there are people who have more wealth, power, and safety than they will ever need in one lifetime. Is this right? Does this reflect a country that claims to offer liberty and justice for all? If our answer is ‘no’ then we have the moral responsibility to act. We must use the resources we have to change things, and encourage others to do the same.

Whatever happened to examining how our actions impact others? We do not need to belong to a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple to do this. All we need to do is see and speak. See what is going on in Iraq, for instance. We bombed and invaded this country under the banner of establishing freedom and ending terrorism. Now the people there have less freedom, less safety, and a new generation of ‘terrorist’ is being formed through our actions today. In addition, we claim our fight in Iraq is to bring the people there freedom and democracy all while people in Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean… are, and have been, living in oppression, political corruption, poverty, and war. We need to speak and be curious about what this ‘war’ reveals about the values of our country. In other words, speak and ask, what do our actions in Iraq say about who and what we value?

It is time to remove references to religion, faith, God, Manifest Destiny, Yahweh, Allah… from political discussions. References to religion and faith are what brought our country to this point in history. The point where women are facing the threat of losing their right to personal freedom, gays are facing the threat of never obtaining full citizenship, blacks are facing the threat of losing the battle to full equality. Faith, religion, dogma, and religious rhetoric, while very important to some of us, all belong in our private lives. In a pluralistic country, religion cannot be justification for civil decisions. The first battle we must fight when we misuse religion in this way is over whose religion will justify. When we include religion in the political process of deciding what is right and what is wrong, we end in confusion, bickering, name calling, bullying, ostracizing, shunning--familiar? Meanwhile, people continue to suffer and die.

Obama’s speech is just one more illustration of how little backbone, and even less imagination, and even less vision most Democrats and Republicans have when it comes to standing up and speaking out for liberty and justice for all.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.