The other day I was sitting and watching television, and thinking about relgion and faith and how it plays out on the world stage. And, I was amazed at people's fear of religiosity, particularly Christian religiosity in the United States.
Certainly issues of faith have been important for people throughout history. Most wars have been jusified in one way or another by religious rationale. After all, how are you going to get people to fight and die for you unless you somehow coopt God-thought to justify it?
And certainly today they are even more at the forefront when more and more we hear rhetoric about civilized freedom loving people vs. Islamic fundamentalism when we talk about the war in Iraq. And in the United States we deal with the red state/blue state issues and how to deal with the religious impulse in our own domenstic politics. Much of the issues we debate today such as abortion, gay marriage, and immigration have relevance and impact with issues of faith and justice.
Now let me state up front, I emphatically disagree with the religious right on many issues, especially as they present themselves in Colorado Springs. Both the left and the right try to ignore issues of faith at some points and coopt them for their agenda at others.
But let me also say this...if you expect anyone at all to separate their belief system and world view from how their public life, you are going to be sadly disappointed over and over again.
Much of what the "modern" era has tried to do is to separate public and private, sacred and mundane. Authentic faith, however, does not live within these boundaries. Christ said, "I am the life" and "I have come to give you life, and life abundant".
He also said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life". Part of what this means is that part of being a Jesus-follower is submitting your life to certain truth claims and ways of living. Furthermore, being a follower of Christ is believing that the "way" and the "abundant life" is not merely a personal truth, but a truth that is important for everyone to hear about and know, and in an ideal world it is hoped that everyone would subscribe to the way of Jesus.
Thus, faith has high stakes not only for our own personal eternal destiny, but for humanity as a whole. The kingdom of God that Jesus talked about, and that many in Christendom have ignored, is either the most dangerous lie in the world or the most important truth. As are truth claims of other religions, particularly Judiasm and Islam which make more exclusive truth claims.
And this is where the work on spirituality that Eugene Peterson has done becomes so helpful for me. Because, I believe the way of Christ to be a volitile, world changing, universally true way of living as an individual and as a community. But, I also believe that the truth Jesus is that Jesus consistently calls us to be subversive agents for his truth. The truth that love is stronger than hate. The truth that the world would be a better place if we lived, as the Dixie Chicks suggest, the commands of "turn the other cheek" and "thou shalt not kill".
Christians are called to be working in the underground. And although I think my faith has direct relevance on public issues of justice, both the teachings of Jesus and lessons of history show faith is utterly comprimised when united with political power. When it is united with political power, it takes the most important truths of Jesus and twists them into dangerous lies make a mockery of what Jesus said in the name of money, power and fame.
