Christian or Muslim Theocracy: Which Would Be Worse?
Rev. Paul Beckel
April 9, 2006
When
I was younger, almost all Baptists were strongly committed on a theological
basis to the separation of church and state. It was only 25 years ago when
there began to be a melding of the Republican Party with fundamentalist
Christianity, particularly with the Southern Baptist Convention. This is a
fairly new development, and I think it was brought about by the abandonment of
some of the basic principles of Christianity.
The
delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the
seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our
history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in
I
trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.
In
2004, forty-eight out of fifty-one Republican Senators
voted
with the Christian Coalition 100% of the time.
theocracywatch.org
This
is the day celebrated around the world by christians as “Palm Sunday.” It
commemorates Jesus’s triumphant entry into
So
is this day to be celebrated because it marks the height of Jesus’s popularity?
...Because this popularity confirms that he must have been a pretty good guy?
No. I celebrate Palm Sunday because of how Jesus responded to the crowd. Because of his humility, his foresight, and
his integrity. When offered the chance to merge his spiritual leadership with
political power... when offered the chance to be the people’s ruler, even their
God... Jesus said, “No.”
GATHERING HYMN Come, Come, Whoever You Are
#188
lyrics by 13th century Afghan/Sufi poet,
Jalaluddin Rumi
[Though
you’ve broken your vows a thousand times...]
Come,
come, whoever you are, wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving
Ours
is no caravan of despair. Come, yet again, come.
(Sources: wikipedia.com;
theocracywatch.org; NRSV Bible; Kevin Phillips, American Theocracy;
Sydney E. Mead, The Old Religion in the Brave New World; Sam Harris, The
End of Faith)
The Book of Exodus, in Hebrew scripture, conveys a
strict code of justice:
o
Whoever
strikes father or mother shall be put to death.
o
When a
slaveowner strikes a...slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the
owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no
punishment; for the slave is the owner's property.
o
If
you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with
them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them.
o
You shall not
wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the
Exodus even speaks about having steps in a place of worship: “You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that
your nakedness may not be exposed on it."
Ancient Christian scripture, rooted
within a similar cultural setting, offers this guidance:
Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the
Lord. [Ephesians 5:22]
Islam honors both the Jewish and the Christian heritage,
whose followers are recognized as “People of the Book”... then adds its own
stamp on social and legal principles:
o
In theory,
Islamic law allows husbands to divorce their wives at will, by clearly saying
"I divorce you" three times in public. In practice divorce is more
involved, and state proceedings vary. For example, a Malaysian court has ruled
that, under Sharia law, a man may divorce his wife via text messaging as long
as the message was clear and unequivocal.
o
In
most interpretations of Sharia, the death penalty is applied for homosexual
acts. According to the opinions of scholars, acceptable means of performing the
execution included burning, throwing from tall buildings, and stoning.
o
Many African
Muslims believe that female circumcision is required by Islam, but a large
number of Muslims believe this practice has no
basis in Islam. Nevertheless it is justified on religious grounds both by
Muslims and Christians who practice it.
Text messaging is one of many ways that
practitioners of these traditions have embraced the modern world. And yet,
certain Enlightenment ideals remain elusive:
o
Christian
Evangelist Jerry Falwell: “I hope to live to see the day when, as in the early
days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have
taken them over again, and Christians will be running them.”
o
Federal
judge James Leon Holmes, appointed in July, 2004 has stated: “The final reunion
of Church and state will take place at the end of time, when Christ will claim
definitive political power of all creation, inaugurating an entirely new
society based on the supernatural.”
o
U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Antonin Scalia writes: "When God brings Noah through the flood
to a new earth, He re-establishes the Dominion Mandate but now delegates to man
the responsibility for governing other men in order to protect human life. He
does this by instituting capital punishment - the backbone of civil
government."
o
John
Whitehead, president, Rutherford Institute: "The challenge of the
Christian attorney is to be a vocal, dynamic spokesman for the true legal
profession - the one with Christ at its center, and stop at nothing less than
reclaiming the whole system."
o
Rev. Sun Myung
Moon, head of the
o
Gary
North, writing in Christianity and Civilization: “We must use the
doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until
we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality,
no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then
they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and
religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of
God."
]]]
"A woman came to the prophet and asked for
purification by seeking punishment. He told her to go away and seek God's
forgiveness. She persisted four times and admitted she was pregnant. He told
her to wait until she had given birth. Then he said that the Muslim community
should wait until she had weaned her child. When the day arrived for the child
to take solid food, Muhammad handed the child over to the community. And when
he had given command over her and she was put in a hole up to her breast, he
ordered the people to stone her..."
]]]
A vicious email I received this week went
on at length about why Muslims cannot be good Americans. It’s conclusion: “...we should be
very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country.... Pass it on. The war is
bigger than we know.”
]]]
SERMON
There has been a great deal of talk
in the news lately of “Sharia,” which is the Arabic word for Islamic law.[1]
The stereotype of Sharia is that of harsh punishment and little respect for due
process, evidence-gathering, or the rights of the accused. Sadly this image is
based on real practices in some countries. However, practices vary a great
deal. Countries with the largest Muslim populations, including
Most countries of the Middle East and
Depending on the country, Sharia may address
anything from criminal law to dietary law. Sharia ensures that animals are
butchered cleanly, humanely, and in the name of God. Properly butchered meat is
called “halal.” Most Muslims will also accept kosher meat as halal.
Theft can be punished by amputation of
one or both hands, adultery can result in stoning, and conversion from Islam to
Christianity, as we’ve been reminded recently, can be punished by execution in
Some will say that these laws are
barbaric; others say they are a helpful deterrents to crime. Regardless, we
should be aware that without constitutional protection of individual human
rights, and religiously-neutral governments, holding elections in
]]]
Phillips compares
1.
widespread public concern over cultural
and economic decay
2.
growing religious fervor, church-state
relationship, or crusading insistence
3.
rising commitment to faith as opposed to
reason, and a downplaying of science
4.
considerable popular anticipation of a
millennial timeframe: that is, the emergence of an antichrist, and the
expectation of the end-times, Armageddon, or a second coming of Christ
5.
hubris-driven military over-reaching
The Church gained imperial power once again in the
15th century under the Hapsburgs, culminating in the reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella and highlighted by the brutalities of the Inquisition. The Spanish
monarchy, which had controlled much of
But we think we’re different. We’re God’s new chosen
people. Some say a modern Christian theocracy wouldn’t be like
Sharia...wouldn’t be like the medieval crusades. Others say Christian theocracy
would be as bad as any other
theocracy, but it’s is never going to
happen here -- our system has checks and balances to prevent that.
And it’s true we do have a strong system of checks
and balances. We are not highly centralized. We have a marvelous web of
overlapping legal and commercial and civic and religious life. And within and
between each of these arenas are countless more overlapping arenas: counties
and school districts and congressional districts not like concentric circles in
a hierarchy, but a collage of power-sharing. Within the religious arena we have
coalitions which may seem a bit strange, such as Unitarians and Jehovah’s
Witnesses who share little in theology, but who work together for religious
freedom. And we have cross-arena coalitions, like the AFL-CIO supporting the
gay rights folks to oppose amending the Wisconsin State Constitution.
You may roll your eyes at this idealistic notion of
a “collage of power sharing.” I admit it’s a pretty light-hearted image. An
equally valid image would be that of a web, and not a delicate web but a tug of
war in every direction. Take your pick of images. The point is that, yes, there
are checks and balances. Whether because of our stubborn independence or
conscientious interdependence, our
political and cultural and religious choreography unite us, and keep us
accountable to one another.
However, in crisis, or when threatened from the
outside, we tend to subvert our independent spirit. We tend to slacken our
commitment to persuasion as opposed to coercion. We tend to fall back into
the pit of American exceptionalism -- the belief that we have a manifest
destiny, we are not bound by the rules that apply to others (not even bound by
the rules that we apply to others), and we need not worry about the
lessons of history, the consequences suffered by other nations who arrogantly thought
they, also, were exceptions.
One month after 9-11, President Bush gave a speech
to the nation not terribly different in tone from that of Osama Bin Laden. Both
described, in effect, a battle between good and evil, “where Sons of Light
confront Sons of Darkness, and all must enlist on one side or the other,
without possibility of neutrality, hesitation, or middle ground.”[2]
We fall so easily into this trap. Instead of facing
the complexities of real life, we sing Hosanna for the King, the Savior, who
will give us clean crisp answers. A Superhero who will carry us through to
safety. Isn’t that much easier than having to listen to one another, and
negotiate our differences; isn’t that much easier than trying to apply broad
principles on a messy reality?
So this is what we get: HIV treatment which has been
identified as medically unsound by the National Institutes of Health, the
American Medical Association, and the
We
get hearings before the Food and Drug Administration regarding a pregnancy
pill, in which rather than hearing the testimony of the
forty-five-thousand-member
We get a statement by
62 preeminent scientists including Nobel laureates and former advisors to the
administrations of both parties which charges the Bush administration with a
widespread and unprecedented “manipulation of the process through which science
enters into its decisions.”[3]
We get a government which is unable to focus on our
real crises in health care, economy, education and environment, and regulates
instead: family, sex, and who can die when. We get a government which looks to
faith-based solutions for natural disasters.
I’m not suggesting that the present administration
is like the Taliban, with its public executions held as half-time ceremonies at
soccer matches. But it is no secret that those who would have Christ return to
rule both heaven and earth have tremendous influence in public life today.
Both the
The Texas state GOP platform also called for
elimination of the income tax, the inheritance tax, the gift tax, the capital
gains levy, the corporate income tax, the payroll tax, and state and local
property taxes. I’m not saying that these are inherently bad ideas. But instead
of proposing an alternative, the goal appears to be: to dismantle secular
government altogether.
[[[
Religious conservatives have every right to promote
their causes and to win in political battles if they can pull together a
majority. The problem is when the winners then dismantle the system, in order
to lock out everyone else.
Those who are elected hold in trust the temporary right to govern -- only as
long as they ensure basic constitutional protections for individuals, and
uphold basic systemic structures designed to prevent the abuse of power, and to
ensure perpetual peaceful revolution.
Instead we now see the dismantling of the first
amendment non-establishment clause, dismantling of the right to privacy,
dismantling of our free and fair electoral process... and a congress made
extraordinarily rigid by the high cost of running for office.
We have elected leaders, including Bill Frist, Tom DeLay,
and influential religious leaders like James Dobson, who have all suggested
shutting down the courts when the courts disagree with them. And we have Tony
Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who claims that the American
courts pose “a greater threat to representative government” than “terrorist
groups.”
We have a veil of secrecy called
“national security” behind which government can do whatever it wants.
[[[
Is there an
alternative? Is there a way to be religious and
a good citizen and supportive of your
neighbor’s religious quest?
I think there is. A
1977 study by the 3 largest Lutheran synods revealed that 75% say belief in
Jesus Christ is absolutely essential for salvation. AND 75% asserted that all
roads lead to god and it doesn’t matter which way one takes. That is, 50% held
two mutually exclusive positions at the same time. Is this a sign of insanity?
I don’t think so. I think it simply points to the paradoxical nature of
religion. That is, most Americans understand that when we talk about such
intangible abstractions as god and salvation, we need to take everything with a
grain of salt.
Religious pluralism
came to be in these
Yes, there can be a
conflict between a strict interpretation of one’s religious doctrine and the
necessity of civil tolerance. But when the conflict arises between love of
country and love of humanity -- which is more christian? Alexander Hamilton
stated that love for mankind must always temper love for country. That is,
national security is not always the ultimate consideration.
Theocracy is not just
bad politics, it is bad religion. It is idolatry. It is worshipping the form
rather than the substance, the transient rather than the permanent.
[[[
How do religious liberals contribute to this mess?
Unfortunately, in our commitment to tolerance we become reluctant to criticize
religion, when necessary, when it interferes with the common good.
In our difficulty articulating the promise of
individual authority, we slip into promoting “you can believe anything you
want”... which makes it impossible for us to meaningfully critique absurdity
and anti-scientific public policies.
Our ongoing task, then, is to better understand,
articulate, and teach Enlightenment principles... to communicate and promote
these principles in public schools, public elections, and through alliances
with Christians and Muslims and Humanists.
What principles? The ideals which
support religious pluralism and neutral civil authority, transparency, open
debate, competition, science, and human rights.
Throughout history theocrats have picked over
scripture to find words to support their point of view. I don’t fault them for
this. We do the same thing. The important difference is that we are up-front
about our process of acquiring knowledge. We allow our evidence to be aired
openly and to be subject to contradiction.
Which brings us back to Sharia. Fareed Zakaria
writes: “Little is to be gained by searching the Qur’an for clues to Islam’s
true nature.... Islam, like any religion, is not what books make it but what
people make it.”
So one can be a good Muslim without “going by the
book.”
As I see it, that’s what Jesus was criticizing --
going by the book; following the laws but losing the
spirit of the law.
Benjamin Franklin
prayed God would “grant that not only the love of liberty, but a thorough
knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so
that a Philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its Surface, and say “This is
my Country.”
CLOSING HYMN This is My Song #159
[1] Much of this explanation of Sharia is from wikipedia.com
[2]
Bruce Lincoln in Holy Terrors
[3] “Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation into the Bush Administration’s Misuse of Science,” February 2004, Union of Concerned Scientists; www.ucsusa.org
[4] Phillips