America should not legislate Christian faith
By Adam Holmberg
IV Leader Staff
There has been much recent debate all over our nation – in
fact, some of it in the halls and classrooms of this college – over the role of
religion in the governance of the United States. In fact, in some cases “debate”
might be a kind and inaccurate word for what has, at turns, collapsed into
bitter fights and disagreements so deep that it seems common ground can never be
found.
As a moderately liberal Christian, I find myself in an odd
position of being on both and neither side of many of these arguments. However,
I found the best expression of the manner in which our nation should address
these questions of faith in the words of John Kerry.
Tim Russert, during John Kerry’s Jan. 30, 2005 appearance on “Meet The Press,”
referred to controversial comments Kerry had made at a meeting of Democratic
supporters after Thanksgiving. He said this in front of the leaders of a number
of staunch pro-choice groups such as EMILY’s List. Kerry spoke of a need to make
a greater percentage of Americans understand that the Democratic Party does not
like abortion. He also said the party needed to place greater emphasis on its
pro-life candidates by welcoming more pro-lifers into the party. Russert then
asked Kerry if the story, which had appeared in Newsweek, was accurate, to which
Kerry replied the affirmative, then made a statement that still stuns me in its
honesty and common sense: “Too many people in America believe that if you are
pro-choice that means pro-abortion. It doesn’t. I don’t want abortion. Abortion
should be the rarest thing in the world. I am actually personally opposed to
abortion. But I don’t believe that I have a right to take what is an article of
faith to me and legislate it to other people. That’s not how it works in
America.”
Kerry’s answer is not just the perfect expression of my own
personal feelings on abortion, but it also holds the key to the question of
religion in America. “I don’t believe that I have a right to take what is an
article of faith to me and legislate it to other people.”
This is not a Christian nation – however, the roots of our
society are buried in the soil of a legal code influenced by Judeo-Christian
principles. Many of the first leaders of our nation were influenced – if not by
a literal Christian worldview – by an understanding and appreciation of
Christian principles and philosophy. Many were indeed Christian themselves. Even
though I have never seen any evidence that would indicate to me that the
founding fathers intended this to be a Christian nation in the way that Saudi
Arabia is a Muslim nation, the very manner in which many of us were taught to
act comes from at least some Christian influence.
I am a Christian because I have spoken to God. Perhaps I am
deluded, but I have never observed a delusion to communicate with such clarity.
Maybe I am not communicating with a higher power, but instead I am interacting
with the collective genetic memory of a race, except I am confident that our
race does not possess such intelligence as I have encountered, otherwise we
would not be such an unrighteous and brutal people. My faith comes from having
spoken with the Creator. I cannot divide myself from this relationship, and I
feel it is important for me to state this so the reader will know my bias.
However, one must come to God freely. The greatest gift God
gave us – besides his son and life itself – is the wonder known as the human
mind.
And we can choose to turn away from God. He gave us that gift of free will, and
it is not up to me or any other Christian to tell another human being what to
think or feel.
I do believe that we have turned too far away from many of
the Christian principles that have previously guided our nation. Even if you are
not a person of faith, look at religion sociologically – it was created to do
two things: explain the mysteries of the world and to indoctrinate the people
with the mores and values of society. Even if we replace religion with science
to explain how the world “works” (the fact that I don’t believe one is mutually
exclusive of the other is another column entirely), we have not answered how to
replace the influence of religion to encourage such values as kindness, charity,
and goodwill. History shows that human beings do not simply practice those
values on their own without incentive.
We cannot, however, legislate faith. We can, to a certain
extent, legislate morality – laws against prostitution and gambling do just that
– but faith itself is between a person and God. Jesus himself said “render unto
Caesar what is Caesar’s, and render unto God what is God’s.” We Christians do
have a responsibility to build a more Christian nation – without pushing out the
atheists and those of other faiths and practices. C.S. Lewis argues very
eloquently in “Mere Christianity “that this nation should not become Christian
through an adoption of Christianity as the official religion. Instead, he argues
– as I do – that we must become Christian simply by living Christian lives.
It is vital to the future of our nation that we find the
solution to the question of religion soon. We are deeply divided, with less and
less room for middle ground. We cannot forget that it is possible to be people
of faith or people with no faith, yet leave more than enough room for those who
think differently.