Religious Freedom?

For Americans religious freedom means a lot. It is historical. It is principle. It is part of our value system. It means we are free to believe what we will without interference from others. It requires us to provide others to believe as they will different from us, again without interference from us.

Freedom to believe. Freedom to explore life and its meaning. God and spirit. Dogma and church. Theology and intellect. Warring factions within the mind and body that creates the tension that helps us come to understanding – to knowing in our own way what matters the most to us.

Americans are mostly raised in the Christian heritage. There are millions raised in the Jewish faith as well, but still a small fraction of the American population. Of course there are those who do not belong to any religious tradition – or perhaps they were born into a family faith tradition but chose later to abandon it. They are agnostics or atheists, or whatever they wish to label themselves. They are free to do so without our interference.

And the laws we live by are the result of political process and legislative protocols that give weight to our traditions of Bill of Rights freedoms. Or so we think!

Not so fast in accepting compliance with the Bill of Rights. Political process often allows prejudice and bias to enter our laws. Religious tenets are buried deep in our social psyches. We include religious belief in many ways in our laws. Not always evident until you look closely.

Just the same the laws of our land are faulty in some ways. Over time they are corrected by courts who are asked by our own citizens to review the laws and reinterpret their meanings.

In time of old religion played a role in social life and structure that was enormous. Life surrounded the local place of worship. News of the community was shared and broadcast there. Families were formed there through marriages. Life was saluted there in funerals. Tragedies and joys were trumpeted there in memorials and celebration.

Hallmarks of community life were deeply embedded in the church. Small towns with one church; focused activity and meaning as viewed through the lens of the local congregation.

As social institutions grew with population, urban growth and sprawl, so did pluralism of social contact, religion, commerce and governance. Multiple churches were built. In them religious thought multiplied and specialized into different denominations and whole churches entirely. The Reformation occurred. The Crusades occurred. The Renaissance happened. Thought by one and all expanded exponentially. The world was alive with new thought and art and appreciation for history.

Trouble was then – and now – the focus was on Western Civilization. What about Middle Eastern sophistry, religion, history? What about Asian peoples and cultures and their religions and sociological institutions? And their anthropology?

It is no wonder that our egocentric view of the globe excludes whole regions of the Earth with diverse peoples and belief systems.

Hence we are left scratching our heads over Egyptians killing one another over Islamic Brotherhood and more traditional Islamic faith traditions. The one is a life led strictly by religious dogma. The other allows life to be lived with the help of religious faith and guidance while governance is about other things shared by the population unaffected by religious traditions. One faction wants religious freedom; the other does not. The latter fear that life will shut down their religion if they are not allowed to practice it! Yet their practice eliminates all other thought and belief systems!

Is America in danger of the same thing? Yes. Perhaps a little more benignly. But the threat remains nonethesame. If birth control is a religious fundamental, then those who believe in that should practice it. Those who do not so believe should be free to follow their own hearts and minds on the issue. Legislating the practice is not acceptable to Freedom of Religion. Same with abortion. Same with defining marriage narrowly or broadly.

We live by religious terms more than we are aware or admit. And they live in our laws.

Understanding the Middle East – Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Iran – should be easier than we admit. Their religious freedoms have run amok. But so have ours.

August 20, 2013