Republican Party and Religion

Some things I write here might cause a twinge, but get over it. There’s a reason it’s called a rant. Organized Religion’s impact on American society is like race in America: it’s about time we start talking bluntly about it, rather than sweeping our differences under the rug or allowing only one group to claim total authority.

For three years I shared an office with a Jesuit priest. Not once did he drop a tri-fold pamphlet on my desk, nor ask me who should be “the one ruler of the world”. We got along quite well.

I called him father. He called me Debbie. We both thought Jesus was a pluralist (and definitely not an isolationist). He was smart enough to give us wee non-gods some wiggle room. The two of us shared that space in perfect harmony (we worked in the Music Department). In that room we both had freedom of religion. He his. Me mine. No judgments, because we both knew that – in the end – we’re all seeking the same thing. This sort of religious harmony is easy to achieve with one Jesuit and one college student. In large countries when many souls and billions of dollars are at stake, however, it gets far more complicated.

Welcome to Republicanland: the Western religious Mecca in which  “religious freedom” means “only evangelical Christians”, where democrats want to kill God, and the Four Horsemen point AR-15s at the government because they refuse to pay land use taxes.

But first, we need to talk a little more about faith as a concept. It’s not limited to deities. That’s where a lot of the GOP problems stem. Traditional organized religion is a problem for the GOP. But even more problems arise for them because republican strategists used the religious feeling and applied it to political issues. All of the sudden people have “faith” in things that before were very manageable social policy issues. That has caused all sorts of problems for the national credibility of the Republican Party.

Religion vs Religious Faith, Victimhood, and the Authority to Damn Other

Remember when the kings and queens of Wall Street were trying trying to convince us all that they were the victims in the 2008 crash of the world economy? That was funny. Those who have the most privileges in their niche claiming they are oppressed. Clearly, the “I’m being oppressed!” mentality extends beyond the caverns of downtown New York.

Be it money or a man in the sky, when a group of people have steadfast faith in something their understanding of what it means to be oppressed begins to mutate dramatically. That mutation coupled with the sudden authority to damn anyone who does not also believe in their god makes a feisty ruckus. The “thing” in which man has faith doesn’t matter. The result is always the same: victimhood and vigorous damning of everyone not sharing the faith. We might be kind and gentle with people who don’t share our faith – but they’re still going to hell. We still pass judgement and label them damned just as much as we label ourselves saved. Saved vs Damned. Rich vs Poor. Jew vs Muslim. Manchester vs Liverpool. All are religions that result in Me vs Other: Creating separation in the name of salvation.

That in which we have faith changes all the time. Religious fervor isn’t merely about the name you use to label God. I’ve seen people who are religious about their shoes. In Junior High religion is our circle of friends – just look how we “damned” all the other kids not in our social circle at that age. Same goes for the size of our house and the price of our car. Size of our TVs, size of our guns. Humans have faith in many, many things. The problem is: faith is all or nothing. Once can’t “sort of believe”. That’s why too much faith in a political party causes such drastic problems. That’s why we Crusade and Jihad.

The relative power of each faith is the determining factor in how much we use it as a benchmark to judge those around us on that human-worthiness criterion. If we hold the highest value in the all mighty dollar, then we are disgusted by those who do not have it (just look at the scowls of Wall Street vs Occupy Wall Street). If we sink to our knees multiple times each day, then we are disgusted by those who do not. It is extraordinarily rare for people who practice do not judge. If we don’t judge them, then we lose sight why we’re doing it ourselves. The only people who practice and do not judge end up being sainted – some we’ve called prophets. The rest of us they call their sheep or flock. Once the prophets leave we start to… interpret… the meaning of what the shepherds taught.

That’s when we all get lost.

Times like that are when Ronald Reagan becomes a prophet of the Tea Party – deified into a symbol of things he never even believed. That’s when people start bombing clinics and subways. That’s when armed vigilantes sit on bridges wielding assault rifles in support of a rancher who brakes the law. That’s when religion becomes a cause.

That’s when we all go to hell.

The irony being that so long as such acts are in the name of their lord… then it’s all OK. Witch hunts, Crusades, on and one in history we can show examples. In response they say, “Well, of course those people shouldn’t have done that!”, but when the mirror turns on them: righteous. Clueless to the parallel that when they are in the past the future will look at them as we do witch hunts and holy wars. Religion can create anything inside people from high school bullies to prophets and saints. The sad part is far too few of us realize we’re just bullies. The more staunchly conservative are bullies with a weapons cache. “Well of course back then they were wrong…”

Freedom of Religion in the United States

Freedom of religion is a funny thing, especially in monotheistic religions and for anyone who has never lived in a city. It’s most especially humorous in the Über Christian pockets of America in which faith in ones own God overrules everyone else’s right to their own. This is where the victimhood of the elite we often see in the privileged again shows its head.

“I’m right and everyone else is wrong” is where organized religion stops for me. Damning billions of people to Hell seems like it’s lacking a wee bit in the humility area. I also have too many non-Christian friends who are quite amazing people. Most are better and more caring that I am. No matter what that nice family at my door tells me every other week, I refuse to believe my friends’ afterlife will be filled with fire unless they accept an different doctrine.

Jesus didn’t say to Muhammad at dinner, “Hey, Mo, I like you but  you’re wrong, so you’re damned and going to hell. While I’m at it I’m going to throw your wives in jail and see if the women of this land sink when I throw them into the Red Sea. Nothing personal. It’s just business.” True religious leaders teach, but they don’t judge. Those aren’t easy thing to separate, but that’s why they were better than us. Since the time of prophets and burning bushes, unfortunately, the faithful seem to find more strength in their condemnation of others than they do in their own hearts. Bullies.

How like their extremist Islamic brothers those within the religious right are. Even Jesus chats with Muhammad, but that literal truth is about as inconvenient as global warming in Republicanland. I won’t go as far as calling it ignorance, but I will label it selective knowledge. No matter how hard we try, we’re not always in control of the information we have at hand, and often times we make decisions based on influences of our environment – even if we don’t think it’s necessarily the right decision.

People can choose to not be hypocrites who base their beliefs on narrowly defined falsehoods, but the surrounding culture often times makes that difficult. Just look at red states vs. blue states. Geography has an awful lot to do with what a person believes. We’re pack animals who mold our own systems to fit into the group. From there, repeat a phrase enough times and the human brain automatically makes it “real truth”. When it comes to matters of Truth, we give our brains way too much credit in their ability to establish connections on their own. That’s a core reason a billionaire can play the victim card and genuinely believe what he’s saying: repetition of those around him. Brains are complex, but how connections are made within them isn’t.

Is Religious America Forever Stuck in Republicanland?

There are just as many religious democrats as religious democrats. Somewhere in our timelines, however, the religion one practices became a part of what it means to be a republican. Whereas democrats, for the most part, keep their faith outside daily political operations. Separation of church and state doesn’t exist in the base of the Republican Party, and that continues to cause problems for the GOP as diversity increases in this country.

Democrats also don’t seem to have the narrative that they are “in a constant battle against evil”. I’m curious how much of that religious story comes from modern church, and how much comes from the rantings of right-wing media trying to sell books and bunkers. Either way, the result is the same. One side of the aisle always believes it’s in a battle. America has many people of faith are on both sides of the political aisle, but only the republican side seems use faith as an excuse for bad behavior in the name of winning a religious war.

For that reason the “overtly” religious in America will remain staunchly in the more extremes of the Republican Party. The story tells that they must be in a fight against evil, and the GOP has branded itself as exactly that. For the time being, the Democratic Party still believes in religion not being the sole driving force of policy, and therefore aren’t always giving battle cry against Satan on the floor of the House or Senate.

America has always been a country of “we’re the best!”. It should come as no surprise that we tend to do the same with practicing religion. Not only are evangelical forms of Christianity the best religion, but they’re particularly better in America (ever noticed that?). As such, knock, knock on our doors. Shot shot into women’s clinics. Shout shout in our faces. All in the name of saving souls that are probably already saved. Ahhh, the religious right: where the Constitution and the Bible can be interpreted in any way that fits an angry agenda. I am honestly surprised we haven’t yet seen a Ronald Reagan memorial mega church in Mississippi…

…give it time.