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God bless sanity in religion and in politics
This weekend, Jon Stewart is holding "a rally to restore sanity" on the mall, two months after Glenn Beck's religion-infused "Restoring Honor" rally. Beck said he was called by God to hold the rally. Now atheist groups are planning to use Stewart's event to promote "reason." Are "reason" and "sanity" the opposite of religious belief? Is taking religion out of the political debate the answer for restoring reason? Or do we need more faith?
Those who try to oppose "faith" and "reason" often fail to distinguish among the faiths, and paint all religion with the same brush of irrationality and tribalism. I could do no better in beginning to answer this question than to quote Chris Hedges, journalist and theologian, as this is a point he often makes in regard to those who would paint all religion as irrational and who therefore advocate eliminating it.
"[I]ndividualism--the belief that we can exist as distinct beings from the tribe, or the crowd, and that we are called on as individuals to make moral decisions that at times defy the clamor of the tribe or the nation--is a gift of the Abrahamic faiths. This sense of individual responsibility is coupled with the constant injunctions in Islam, Judaism and Christianity for a deep altruism. And this laid the foundations for the open society. This individualism is the central doctrine and most important contribution of monotheism. We are enjoined, after all, to love our neighbor, not our tribe. This empowerment of individual conscience is the starting point of the great ethical systems of our civilization."
This is what the progressive traditions have in common--the absolute ethical priority of love of neighbor over tribe or even nation state. It is the very root of a sane approach to the world, and, as Hedges emphasizes, a bedrock concept for "the great ethical systems of our civilization." In other words, God bless sanity, in religion and in politics.
Thus, answering this question is a case where the "devil (or the angel) is in the details." The answer to the question lies in first asking, which religious faith? And doing a follow up question, that is, what do those who hold those religious beliefs actually do in the world? A religious belief doesn't just sit there; you have to take it out for at test drive in the real world to know what it's actually like.
A question I always ask about any set of beliefs, whether religious or secular, is what do those who hold these beliefs do as a consequence? Do those beliefs increase the amount of love, joy, peace, tolerance and simple kindness in the world? Or does a particular belief promote hatred, anger, conflict, intolerance or cruelty? Does it promote wisdom, common sense, good judgment (all synonyms of "sanity") or in effect does it drive us crazy with conflict and intolerance?
I didn't think this guideline up entirely on my own. I had help from Paul's letter to the Galatians. It's pretty clear that the Galatians are having a hard time of it, with "hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, facts and envy." And that's to say nothing of their sexual immorality and drunkenness.
This isn't the spirit of God, Paul writes, because you know the spirit by its fruits, that is, what people do who hold these beliefs. "[T]he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:19-22)
I joined the United Church of Christ many years ago because of the church's public commitment to peace and the active opposition of many members of the United Church of Christ to the Viet Nam war. As a young person, I saw that senseless war was killing and maiming so many of my generation and I strongly opposed it as well. I was glad to join a church that stood for peace. We in the UCC are far from perfect, of course, both as individuals as a church, but our religious beliefs I think cause us to work for justice in the world. In the UCC we say, "To believe is to care, to care is to do."
More recently, we have become known for our famous "bouncer" ads that ask "Who's really included in a church, and who has to wait outside?" The message of this ad is "We want to be a community that doesn't fence people out."
Also, in terms of joyous progressive values, check out the Unitarian Universalist "Standing on the Side of Love" campaign that just celebrated its first anniversary. It was launched in 2009 at that denomination's National Meeting. The purpose of the campaign is "to harness the power of love to stop oppression, exclusion, and violence based on people's identity."
Irrational? I don't think so. But these churches are doing work that is powerful, inclusive and inspiring, and, in my view, joyously sane. And God bless 'em.
By
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
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October 25, 2010; 5:22 PM ET
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Posted by: kst2 | October 27, 2010 12:54 PM
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ThishowIseeit |
Your post reminds me that the hardest truth to tell is when we tell kids about death and dying. That's so hard (in some situations) that it's easy to lie and tell a kid he'll live forever (oh yeah) in a place called heaven (You're going to love it up there).
But though I had three kids, I was always honest with them, told them death was death and that there was (almost certainly) no God. Now they're adults and are used to reality as we know it.
Honesty is a good policy.
Posted by: Rongoklunk | October 26, 2010 9:12 PM
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Susan, love does not include telling a lie to children nor telling them something you have no proof, while you have plenty of evidences for the opposite. We know that tsunamies and earthquakes - resulting in random innocent deaths and sufferings -are caused by moving tectonic plates, not by any deities. We know that life here started as a single cell and evolved to all forms of life we have now. Love is telling the children these science proven facts , not dogmas.
Posted by: ThishowIseeit | October 26, 2010 8:00 PM
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So many reference the Abrahamic cults ignoring the fact that half are Islamic embracing many cultures and views, most of the rest are Christians of infinite variety, and the few are the Jewish sources of both who failed to adopt the new cults! Meanwhile 2/3 of the people of the Earth are not of these "faiths", have quite different world views, and even embrace science! Most of these other faiths are not in opposition to Science and have the ability to incorporate the knowledge as part of their truth, discarding any dogma that fails to fit with new knowledge! As such, it is the Abrahamic "faiths" that must be discarded having failed repeatably to meet even minimal standards of reason and knowledge!
Posted by: CHAOTICIAN101 | October 26, 2010 7:03 PM
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Okay blasmaic, you've successfully copied and pasted the same post on a bunch blogs. So what's your point? Care to elaborate, maybe even back up what you're saying?
Posted by: twmatthews | October 26, 2010 4:09 PM
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Stewart doesn't use sanity as a antonym to unreasonableness or irrationality.
He uses it to imply that Beck and his followers are insane, as in mentally deranged. Stewart's humorous attack against Beck gets an extra lift by pandering to the hatred people hold toward the mentally ill.
Posted by: blasmaic | October 26, 2010 3:55 PM
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Stewart doesn't use sanity as a antonym to reason.
He uses it to imply that Beck and his followers are insane, as in mentally deranged. Stewart's humorous attack against Beck gets an extra lift by pandering to the hatred people hold toward the mentally ill.
Posted by: blasmaic | October 26, 2010 3:09 PM
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I guess she answered her own question. If it is your religion, then it is engaged in work that is powerful, inclusive and inspiring, and, joyously sane, if its someone else's religion, then it is insane.
Posted by: droberts57 | October 26, 2010 1:54 PM
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Irrational? Totally. There are no gods and never were. Doesn't this reality bother you at all? Is it wise to be religious when - as far as we know - there are no gods? The paycheck must be pretty good.
Let's play make-believe for a moment.
Let's pretend that God had been reported as having dropped in on earth in 1234, and was seen by thousands, and had dropped in again in 1675 and 1841 and again in 1900 and 2002 when he addressed the world on television.
All this would mean that God was a reality not a myth, and that atheists naturally cannot exist anymore - because the whole world KNOWS that God is real and cannot be disputed.
If this was the case - then it would make sense to be religious. but this is not the case. In fact your God is no more real than the gods of the ancient world who we know were mythological.
Religious delusion was expressed powerfully on 9/11 and on many other occasions. One day - some devout believer is going to blow us off the face of the earth for some imagined god or other. It's just a matter of time.
Posted by: Rongoklunk | October 26, 2010 12:43 PM
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You state "A question I always ask about any set of beliefs, whether religious or secular, is..."
You missed the main question "are the beliefs based on fact".
You've chosen a religion that reflects your western, reasoned, sane, peaceful outlook. The Taliban chose a different Abrahamic religion that refected what their location, wants, and needs. Why dwell on the sermon on the mount and ignore the illogic and hatred in the same book?
Clearly your point of view informs you beliefs and not the other way around. The day something changes in you there will be verses in that same book to back up whatever new point of view you wish to express.
Do you take the bible literally or, as so many theologians, dismiss wide swaths of it a allegory as Spong does? And if allegory, then where is its authority?
If all the Abrahamic followers were as gentle as you then the atheists would not need to meet. Why no mention of your angry and well armed co-Abrahamists.
Regards
Posted by: nixonwasframed | October 26, 2010 12:36 PM
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Susan
Do you really believe in the quote from Chris Hedges? It will be very nice to expand the point of view beyond Abrahamic faiths. One will find a lot of wisdom, deep altruism, complete exploration on the nature of the self and so on. I believe that going back to Greek thought is what makes the present good ideas in Western Civilization and not the so-called monotheistic faiths. All one needs to do is look at history of last 2000 or so years.