An Evangelical Invocation

Team Obama has announced that Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, Riverside, CA will deliver the invocation for the Obama/Biden inauguration ceremony in January. You will remember that in August the Obama/McCain debates began with a forum moderated by Mr. Warren at his church.

Mr. Warren, also a best-selling author, represents the next generation of Evangelicals. He claims to be, not "pro-life,"but "whole life." His mega-church has a relatively broad perspective, concerned with issues such as AIDS and global warming. But he also opposes same-sex marriage and abortion.

Some on the left who supported Mr. Obama feel betrayed by this choice. In a similar fashion those on the social and religious right feel that Mr. Warren shouldn't lend support to the Obama agenda.

In my estimation this choice supports my contention that Barack Obama is the most integrally religious president since Woodrow Wilson. (Mr. Obama's faith is influenced by the Prophetic Tradition of the Black Church.) It's beginning to appear that in this regard, Mr. Obama is right of center on the American religious spectrum. I'd judge the Warren Invocation more of a personal faith choice by Obama, rather than a matter of political expediency.

Resurrecting a Neanderthal?

Last week in Nature magazine a pair of scientists speculated that it is now feasible to resurrect extinct species (60,000 years and less ago) through genetic engineering. The first resurrected animal might be the Mammoth. Soon the Mammoth genome will be mapped from clumps of Mammoth hair frozen for millennia in sub-arctic regions. Next a cell from a contemporary elephant could be altered (painstakingly) on some 400,000 differing genetic sites to make it resemble the Mammoth genome. The altered cell could then be converted into an embryo and implanted in an elephant's womb until term. Voila! A resurrected Mammoth.

The Neanderthal genome will soon be mapped. And in a similar way a human cell could be altered on differing sites to result in a resurrected Neanderthal. Now this strikes secular as well as religious ethicists as unthinkable, something of an abomination against nature.

However, would it be unethical to take a Chimpanzee cell and alter it so as to produce that same resurrected Neanderthal? For some, this seems less odious or more justifiable.

In my estimation this ethical quandary--from chimpanzee to Neanderthal or from human to Neanderthal--is an exquisite ethical conundrum to tease out what is possible versus what is right and good.

I cringe at resurrecting a Neanderthal from either a chimpanzee or from a human. But I'm fascinated by the possibility of a Mammoth or group of Mammoths once again walking the earth.

Right now we have a window to speculate, to ponder in depth the meaning of Nature and Human Nature. What resources do we have to resurrect a Mammoth or a Neanderthal? And having those resources for what reasons do we proceed. And ultimately whose decision is it?

Same-Sex Marriage and the Separation of Church and State

The recent elections featured several plebiscites on same-sex marriage, including California's now infamous Proposition 8. Fifty-two percent of Californians voted against same-sex marriage. Some commentators speculate that an assertive campaign by Mormons tipped the balance. In the final weeks they raised nearly five million dollars and canvassed the state, house-by-house, claiming they were not anti-gay but pro-marriage.

According to a November 15 NY Times' article, "First approached by the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco a few weeks after the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in May, the Mormons were the last major religious group to join the campaign, and the final spice in an unusual stew that included Catholics, evangelical Christians, conservative black and Latino pastors, and myriad smaller ethnic groups with strong religious ties." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/us/politics/15marriage.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=november%2015%20mormon&st=cse&oref=slogin

This coalition's campaign raised concerns regarding the Separation of Church and State.

In my estimation the Separation Issue that Proposition 8 raised is worth scrutiny. For perspective read Barack Obama's 2006 speech before the Call to Renewal convention, in which he opined on the role of religion on public policy: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/ In this speech Mr. Obama asserted that religion has a place in public policy, yet religion must argue, not from narrow faith perspectives, rather from universal values that can persuade even the most ardent secularist.

Barack Obama and Same-Sex Marriage

Barack Obama personally opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds. In 2004, while running for the Senate, he said, “I’m a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”

According to an article in today's New York Times he's not doctrinaire about same-sex mariage. He also acknowledges he might be wrong about this, relative to his religious beliefs, just as he might be wrong about where his faith takes him regarding reproductive choice.

In my estimation this punctuates what I've been saying for some months, that Barack Obama, if elected, would prove to be the most religious president since Woodrow Wilson. His words suggest that he's informed by his religious beliefs. Yet he acknowledges a curious tentativeness about that faith: he might be wrong and he acknowledges that in a secular setting faith has certain limits relative to policy.

Another Campaign Low: The God Test

In the North Carolina race for U.S. Senator, incumbent Elizabeth Dole has launched a t.v. spot that charges her opponent Kay Hagan as being "Godless." After attending a September fundraiser in Boston sponsored by a number of liberals, Ms. Hagan accepted a contribution from one of the the co-hosts, an individual associated with the "Godless Americans PAC." Ms. Hagan has owned up to accepting the money, however she insists it did not come from the PAC.

The Charlotte Observor offered the following commentary: "...Dole has resorted to the Big Lie technique, morphing a kernel of truth into a monumental fiction. How so?

"The Dole campaign stepped across a broad line, portraying Hagan as not Christian and suggesting she does not believe in God. The Dole ad shows a picture of Hagan while a woman's voice, not Hagan's, intones, “There is no God.”

"This is indecent. It is the modern-day version of the “white hands” ad, a lie born of Dole's desperation in a race in which she has trailed for weeks. It is also a deliberate attempt by Dole's campaign not just to distort the truth, but to shatter Hagan's admirable record as an elder for more than a decade in Greensboro's First Presbyterian Church, as a Sunday School teacher and a volunteer in her church's fundraising campaigns, worship services and community service programs."

In my estimation this intemperate act by Ms. Dole is another low point of religion and politics in 2008. It echoes the tacit religious test that all candidates are put to.

Remembering Colin Powell's recent comments, the issue isn't whether Ms. Hagan is "Godless" or not. The issue is the First Amendment right any American has relative to belief or non-belief.

Pentecostalism and Spiritual Warfare

Sarah Palin's vice-presidential nomination is shining a spotlight on Pentecostalism, a branch of Protestantism that emerged in the early years of the 20th century. Many trace Pentecostalism's organized origins to the famed Azusa Street Revival that took place in Los Angeles in 1906. Its basic belief involves the active agency of the Holy Spirit, touching believers with "spiritual gifts," including the speaking in tongues, casting out of demons, and prophesizing. It is estimated that a quarter of world Christians are Pentecostals (sometimes called Charismatics). It is the fastest growing branch of Christianity in the U.S. and around the world.

Ms. Palin has recently associated with several independent Bible Churches of a Pentecostal bent. Videos available on YouTube link her to a subset of Pentecostalism that practices "spiritual warfare" in prayerful battle with demons. One video shot at her Wasilla Bible Church (as she ran for Governor) shows a Kenyan preacher praying fervently over her, beseeching God to "protect her from every form of witchcraft."

Ms. Palin has mostly declined interviews regarding her religious outlook. (James Dobson of Focus on the Family did interview her by telephone this week and Ms. Palin referenced "spiritual warriors.")

In my estimation the spotlight on Pentecostalism cast by Sarah Palin's fame is one of the treats of the 2008 campaign, in the same sense that Barack Obama's association with a Chicago Black Liberation church was a treat. The fabric of American society, including religion, is pluralistic and complex. This year's campaign has made us more aware of the variety of religious expressions, while reminding us of First Amendment rights.

In this regard Christianity is a big tent. One component can assert that it provides the means to overcome racial oppression; another component asserts that in the imminent "Last Days" Alaska will be a refuge state where the multitudes will flock to avoid the tribulations.

Colin Powell on Freedom of Religion

On Sunday Colin Powell (former Secretary of State under George W. Bush and Republican) endorsed Barack Obama. His rationale had several components including the following:

"I'm also troubled not with what Senator McCain says but what members of the party say and it is permitted to be said, such things as, 'Well, you know Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is that Mr. Obama is not a Muslim. He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no. That's not America."

In my estimation Mr. Powell uttered one of the more honorable statements regarding religion in the 2008 campaign. He stood up for First Amendment rights. He also affirmed that there is no litmus test regarding citizenship and who's a real American.

In a February post, citing a Pew Forum poll, I argued that there is a tacit religious test on political candidates to have a particular religious outlook. I wrote, "I'd love to see a candidate or two move us toward a greater appreciation of what freedom of religion means in the grand and great scheme of the Republic." Though not a candidate, Colin Powell has done just that.

An Invocation for We the People

When I'm asked to offer a public invocation, I'm sensitive to the many faiths and philosophies in the audience, as well at the overarching rubric of the separation of church and state. At political events, I'm particularly careful/mindful. A few years agoI delivered the following invocation at a Presidents' Day Gathering of DuPage Democrats. It made its way to the Internet and was used at other public events around the country.

An Invocation for We the People

We the People pause, as we do at events such as this,
So We the People might acknowledge, together,
deeper rhythms of our common life.

Some of us choose to pray, invoking a deity
Some of us choose to meditate or reflect,
invoking timeless ideals and universal
principles.

Some of us simply choose to keep a silence--
alone in our private chambers of thought--
listening, perhaps waiting for a Word.

We the People invoke God--the Nameless One of the Jewish 
tradition, the Incarnation of Jesus of the Christian faith,
Allah of Islam, Brahma in the many avatars of
Hinduism, the Buddha Spirit, the Goddess,
--all manifestations of the Divine realized by
persons of strong traditions and good intentions.

Or We the People invoke the Substances
behind the Forms we cherish: Love,
Humanity, Justice, Democracy, Sisterhood
and Brotherhood, Freedom, or Community.

Or We the People invoke, in our silence,
inner resources: reason, conscience, intuition,
inspiration, or imagination.

When We the People gather, as we gather now,
we gather under a Great Covenant:
Liberty for all and equality among us,
centered in an impartial Justice that edges
closer and closer to fairness and compassion.
When We the People gather, as we gather, now,
we join the faiths and philosophies that
sustain us separately and honor our Great
Covenant

In this expansive spirit, we pause, we invoke, we
recall, we dedicate,--now,--in this moment and
in this place:

Let there be humility for the bounties
we freely enjoy.
Let there be gratitude for the labor of those
who preceded us, as well as those who serve and keep us now.
And let there be hope for those who will
follow, for whom we prepare a way.
We the People seek these things
In our many voices and in our varied integrities.

An Offensive Prayer

At a Davenport, Iowa, McCain/Palin rally Saturday the following invocation was offered by Rev. Arnold Conrad, retired minister of the Grace Evangelical Free Church. (Mr. McCain had not yet arrived.)

In part Rev. Conrad intoned: “I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god - whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah - that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons.

“And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day.”

In my estimation this is an offensive prayer. It offends Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims. It offends Mr. Obama by implication. But even more it offends Rev. Conrad's God by presuming to tell that deity what to think and do: "guard your own reputation" and "step forward and honor your own name."

This odd pronouncement has set a new low standard for public prayer.

Challenging the Separation of Church and State

Since 1954, in order to maintain tax-exempt status under IRS guidelines, churches have to maintain election neutrality. Their representatives can neither endorse or not endorse a candidate. The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization, is rallying ministers to stand up for their first amendment rights and defy this half century edict by endorsing candidates. This Sunday certain ministers throughout the country have vowed to do so, to uphold what they're calling "scriptural truth about candidates for office or issues." They're calling September 28 "Pulpit Freedom Sunday."

The IRS will likely impose the law, that is take away participating churches' tax exempt status. And the churches will subsequently appeal in the courts, challenging the constitutionality of the law.

In my estimation the relatively strict separation of church and state, certainly as expressed in the 1954 edict, is good for both religion and for the nation.

An organization that's been active since 1947, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, expresses the right perspective of the delicate balance between religious institutions and the interests of the nation.

Religion and Race

Nicholas D. Kristof wrote an important column in Sunday's New York Times: "The Push to 'Otherize' Obama." Mr. Kristoff drew on a recent Pew Research Survey that found only half of Americans know that Mr. Obama is a Christian. Thirteen percent responded that he is Muslim. A surging sixteen percent responded that they "weren't sure" about his religion.

Mr. Kristof chronicled a campaign on the conservative side to portray Mr. Obama as Muslim. Certain Christian Rightists have even called him the Antichrist.

Mr. Kristoff made an audacious and troubling assertion: there's an effort to "otherize" Mr. Obama, rendering him "unAmerican." "

"What is happening. I think, is this: religious prejudice is becoming a proxy for racial prejudice," Mr. Kristof declared.

In my estimation Mr. Kristof is on target. Race lurks beneath the surface of this 2008 election. How the Religious Right is complicit illuminates an ugly aspect of the so-called culture wars that have engulfed the nation for years. These culture wars are not just about values; on white underbellies, hidden from the light of day, prejudice lurks.

Meanwhile, In Europe

Europe is secular and becoming more so. Pope Benedict XVI has been persistently reasserting the Church's moral authority for European states on such issues as same sex marriage, euthanasia, and communion for the divorced. He has focused on France, which is the model for a strict separation of church and state, as well as a leader in secularization. A good article on the Vatican's reassertion of its authority on European culture is in today's New York Times.

In my estimation Benedict and the Vatican's attempt to recoup the Church's authority through political wrangling is worth monitoring, particularly as the Church portrays itself as the underdog/outsider beleaguered by cultural elites. (This sounds familiar to Americans who have watched the political and religious Right follow similar strategies.)

Sarah Palin's Religion

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal narrative has energized the Evangelical/Religious Right base of the party. Baptized Roman Catholic and raised Assemblies of God, she now occasionally attends Juneau Christian Center—a church with Pentecostal origins, but which goes by a non-denominational label. She and her family have affiliated with a hometown nondenominational Bible church, the Wassila Bible Church.

Her surprise selection by John McCain seems to be, by consensus, a bow toward born again Christians, who make up some 40% of the population. Pentecostals and Charismatics make up almost half of all born again Christians.

Knowledgeable commentators have judged the churches in which she has been recently active as “post-denominational." Post-denominational Christianity blends Evangelical and Pentecostal (Charismatic) ways of faith and worship in independent congregations, which are without denominational ties.

In my estimation Ms. Palin’s candidacy brings religion once again to the forefront of this election. We will learn more about her beliefs, as those beliefs potentially affect public policy. From the outset, regarding sexual education, it’s clear she echoes the Republican National Convention’s platform plank of “abstinence only” with a hostility toward “family planning.”

The culture wars continue and issues such as sexual education, abortion, gay marriage will divert attention from more substantive issues of national defense/international relations and the economy.

That’s too bad, but that’s why the Republican hierarchy settled upon her.

Her candidacy returns religion to the forefront of this year's presidential campaign.

A Civil Forum

Last night John McCain and Barack Obama each had an hour to answer the same questions posed by Rick Warren, pastor of the mega Saddleback Church in Southern California. This forum was the first dual appearance of the two presidential candidates to take place in the 2008 Presidential contest.

Mr. Warren emphasized that this was intended to be a civil forum, that is, a discussion conducted in a respectful and fair way.

It also had a decidedly religious and ethical emphasis, with character highlighted.

In my estimation the contrast between the two candidates was remarkable: Mr. Obama's thoughtful and nuanced answers directed to the host; Mr McCain's answers brief but often fortified by a personal anecdote from his storied past spoken to the audience/camera. In terms of getting the message out to the Evangelical audience in the Saddleback church as well as the country, Mr. McCain was effective.

What I found most salient was the nature of the forum itself: Evangelical, yes, but more, the new Evangelicalism Rick Warren represents, what he calls not "pro-life" rather "whole life," meaning a broader outlook than just abortion and gay marriage and narrowly American. In the Evangelical mix, an important component of the electorate, Mr. Warren co-opted Evangelical high ground with his world perspective and and emphasis on civility. In the culture wars of recent decades civility has been hijacked. Whether this tempers the Evangelical tone, remains to be seen; however Mr. Warren has positioned himself and outlook against an old guard.

As the face to face campaign began, it is noteworthy that it began in a Church, with an emphasis on civility.

An Imperfect Storm: No Joke!

Stuart Shepard, director of digital media for Focus Action, the political arm of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, created a two and a half minute video in which he repeatedly asked, "Would it be wrong to ask people to pray for rain?" He wanted a certain sort of storm with a particular effect. "I'm talking-umbrellas-ain't-gonna-help-you rain. Not flood-people-out-of-their-houses rain, just good ol' swamp-the-intersection rain...network-cameras-can't-see-the podium rain." The aforementioned podium of course would be the one Barack Obama will stand behind on August 28 at Denver's Mile High Stadium to accept the Democratic nomination for President.

The video was posted on the organization's website on July 31. Though Mr. Shepherd and his organization called it "a joke," the video was recently removed after some labeled it objectionable.

In my estimation Mr. Shepherd and his Focus Action colleagues (and by association Focus on the Family, Mr. Dobson et. al) weren't really joking, but engaging in what Mr. Shepherd called "hyperbole."

He wasn't joking when he said,"I'm still pro life, and I'm still in favor of marriage as being between one man and one woman. And I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree." By implication he wanted his God to show concurrence with a timely "rain of biblical proportions."

The video had an edge, in a mildly mean spirited way. It had an attitude: that Mr. Shepherd's God would want to rain on Mr. Obama's parade, because God doesn't approve of Mr. Obama.

The tone of the video is no surprise, including its questionable bad taste, given the source. What I found most offensive was Mr. Shepherd's protest that it was only a joke. It wasn't just a joke.

I'm tired of those in the populist media who refuse to stand up for what they say, but like Mr. Shepherd hide behind transparent humor. The words disingenuous and calculating come to mind.

A Hate Crime in Knoxville

On Sunday a shotgun bearing gunman invaded a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, TN, and killed two and injured six. I sent the following message to my Hinsdale Unitarian congregation today:

The congregation of the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale has been affected by Sunday’s shooting spree that killed two and injured six others in a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville.

Our hearts are heavy for the murdered and injured of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

Our hearts are heavy for the congregation that must now try to understand and then respond to the single gunmen's hate for liberals and gays directed at them.

Our hearts are heavy for violence that marbles American society.

Our hearts are heavy for what drives a man, such as this gunman, to resort to such an act as the consummation of his 58 years.

The shooting spree on Sunday could have been even more devastating, for the gunman had 73 rounds of unspent ammunition. It's likely that the courage of an usher and others, who subdued the gunman, saved many children, youth, and adults. For this we are thankful.

The Unitarian Universalist liberal religious community throughout America now knows a larger measure of the violence spawned by hate. Yes, this is being categorized as a hate crime by the Tennessee authorities.

Speaking on behalf the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale, I know this senseless act of violence will only increase our resolve to promote progressive values in peaceful and democratic ways, that justice and love will one day prevail over such senseless acts of violence and hate.

The Chicago Sun Times website has a thorough July 29 AP article on the shooting.

A letter to the editor, the text similar to the above, appeared in the July 30, edition of the Chicago Sun Times.

Barack Obama's Prayer

Last week, while visiting the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Barack Obama followed the custom of placing a note between the stones. Someone pilfered the note, handwritten on hotel stationery, and made available to the press the following prayer:

Lord,

Protect my family and me. Forgive my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.

The publication of the prayer raises issues of sacrilege: violating an act of private prayer as well as the sacred space that is the Western Wall. Some have questioned whether or not this was a ploy by the Obama camp in the first place. Bloggers and media commentators have scrutinized every word, including the non-capitalization of the word your, for theological and personal implications, regarding Mr. Obama.

In my estimation this brief utterance will be imprinted on our collective consciousness, if Mr. Obama is elected president. Because of its brevity and manifest implications, it is memorable. I continue to emphasize that Mr. Obama is integrally more religious than any presidential candidate since Woodrow Wilson. I welcome this additional glimpse into his religious character.

A Conversation on Race

This year's presidential campaign continues to bring race to the forefront of our national consciousness. Several months there was a general call by media and political leaders to have a culture-wide "conversation on race." President Clinton made a similar call in the early 1990s, but that call went nowhere.

Leading the way, CNN, with correspondent Soledad O'Brien anchoring, is offering valuable programs on various aspects of race: Black in America.

In my estimation race, long the shame and scourge of American culture, has reached a new threshold because of Barack Obama's presidential possibilities.

Within my own congregation, I' m leading a year-long "conversation on race." On Sunday, August 10, at 10 a.m. in the UCH auditorium, I'll present, as a slide show, Jacob Lawrence's monumental (1940) 60 panel series on the "Great Migration," in which southern blacks came north to work the factories during WWI. This show will be backed by music composed by the African American composer William Grant Still.

I'm also urging all members and friends of UCH to read Frederick Douglass's classic Slave Narrative. Without a sense of the many evils of slavery, it's impossible to understand the course and outcome of racism in America. Visit my web page to learn about the program and how to download a free copy of Douglass's 1845 book, an outstanding first person account of the slave experience: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Animal Rights Gains Support

On June 25 the Spanish Parliament took a giant step toward granting the so-called great apes certain rights (life and freedom) heretofore exclusively human. The environmental committee passed resolutions that echoed scientists and philosophers of the Great Ape Project, who advocate for humane treatment of our species closest animal kin.

The Great Ape Project's website declares: "The idea is founded upon undeniable scientific proof that non-human great apes share more than genetically similar DNA with their human counterparts. They enjoy a rich emotional and cultural existence in which they experience emotions such as fear, anxiety and happiness. They share the intellectual capacity to create and use tools, learn and teach other languages. They remember their past and plan for their future. It is in recognition of these and other morally significant qualities that the Great Ape Project was founded. The Great Ape Project seeks to end the unconscionable treatment of our nearest living relatives by obtaining for non-human great apes the fundamental moral and legal protections of the right to life, the freedom from arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and protection from torture."

In my estimation animal rights is an ethical frontier that illuminates our human relationship with Nature--the great web of life. Compiling my quote collection In Praise of Animals (Skinner House, 2007), convinced me that we are just beginning to appreciate animals as kindred and that a once assumed dominion over animals is a fallacy.

Bravo to Spain for taking this first legal leap granting animals their intrinsic rights.

Church, State, and Barack Obama

In July 2007 Barack Obama said, "For my friends on the right, I think it would be helpful to remember the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy but also our religious practice."

In more recent prepared remarks delivered on July 1 at Zanesville, Ohio, Mr. Obama vowed not only to continue George Bush's Faith Based Initiative Program, but to expand it. He added one disclaimer, that faith based agencies could not discriminate on the grounds of religion in hiring employees. (Many questioned this disclaimer as undermining the very nature of faith in faith based initiatives.)

The greater hue and cry focused on the issue of the separation of church and state generally and Mr. Obama's politically expedient flip-flop about it.

In my estimation Mr. Obama's affirmation of faith based initiatives is further evidence of his own strong religious values, rooted in his experience as a community organizer on Chicago's Southside. I found one of the final paragraphs of his July 1 remarks particularly telling (note my highights):

"And my Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will also have a broader role – it will help set our national agenda. ... If we’re going to end genocide and stop the scourge of HIV/AIDS, we need people of faith on Capitol Hill talking about how these challenges don’t just represent a security crisis or a humanitarian crisis, but a moral crisis as well."

For my Unitarian Universalist readers, take a look at Forrest Church's take on the church/ state issue on the UUA website: http://www.uua.org/visitors/uuperspectives/55665.shtml

Magic Mushrooms and Religious Experience

Since the 1960s they've been called magic mushrooms for their hallucinogenic visions. A recent, reputable study provides evidence of their means to provide immediate and long term, mood altering experiences.

Roland Griffiths, a John Hopkins' researcher, has been experimenting with a group of 36 volunteers who've ingested psilocybin, the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms. In the July 1 edition of the Journal of Pharmacology Mr. Griffiths reports, "We have people saying these eight hours in the lab are among the most meaningful in their lives. Some rank it alongside births and deaths of loved ones."

One of the research subjects, John Hayes, a professor of pastoral counseling said, "It gave me this sense that space and time are human constructions that can collapse. The ultimate reality is something beyond those constructions, and more importantly, everything in the world is connected."

Many of the subjects not only had such profound mystical experiences, the residual effect (measured by life satisfaction) of those experiences lasted throughout the study's first year.

In my estimation this study points to the neurological basis of religious experience, especially those categorized as mystical experiences. Compare this to the experiences of Jill Bolte Taylor as chronicled in a recent book “My Stroke of Insight.” (See my May 27 posting.) Ms. Bolte had a stroke that immobilized the left lobe of her brain that resulted in a "nirvana-like" awareness of the oneness of the universe.

I've long maintained that the center of Religion is personal religious experience. I'm now persuaded that religious experience is a discrete phenomenon within the brain. Our knowledge of this phenomenon grows daily.

Expanding Faith Based Initiatives

This afternoon Barack Obama will propose significant government support for faith-based community service organizations, an expansion of George W. Bush's controversial initiative. The speech's site, a Zanesville, Ohio church that serves its impoverished community with a food and a clothes bank, as well as a youth center, is in a crucial swing state.

In today's speech Mr. Obama will describe the evolution of his own Christian faith during his years as an organizer in Chicago, highlighting the significance of that faith now: ``In time, I came to see faith as being both a personal commitment to Christ and a commitment to my community; that while I could sit in church and pray all I want, I wouldn't be fulfilling God's will unless I went out and did the Lord's work,."

Mr. Obama promises to elevate this commitment to faith-based organizations to a ``moral center'' of his administration, by renaming it the Office of Community and Faith-Based Partnerships. He wants the larger organizations to train many smaller organizations at work in their local communities, similar to the Zanesville church where he will speak.

True to his community organizer's roots, he will seek a "bottom ups" approach in providing grass roots support for the needy.

In my estimation what Mr. Obama will say today has two sides to ponder. First, there's political posturing to curry the favor of the Evangelical and the poor voters--a very clever two-for-one. Second, there's reiteration of Mr. Obama's Christian identity.

Once again Mr. Obama is speaking like a preacher/theologian. In this instance he parallels his commitment to Christ to a commitment to community. My June 16 blog proposed that Mr. Obama is the most integrally religious candidate since Woodrow Wilson. This bumps that analysis up a notch.

Rather than less religion in this year's presidential campaign, thanks to Mr. Obama, we have more in a way that can significantly affect religion's role in politics and culture. I'm wary.

The Love Guru Offends Hindus

The film “The Love Guru” featuring former SNL comedian Mike Myers has fallen flat on its face in just two weeks. Panned by critics, it is a box office bust in the States, despite a blitz marketing campaign that even paired Mr. Myers with Deepak Chopra, the prominent self-help/new age author of Indian heritage.

Now the film’s about to aired in India, to the Indian/Hindu culture the movie satirizes. (Mr. Myers plays an Anglo born in India who becomes a guru with a potty mouth and an aolescent sexual appetite.) Many in India take offense. They contend that those who are unfamiliar with Hinduism will acquire an inaccurate, if not bad, impression.

At the very least the film has caused an uproar. At the very worst is has stirred up a call for a nation-wide boycott.

In my estimation this film’s tone is but one example of a scornful attitude toward Indians, yes, but also many other people/cultures. There’s a metaphor to describe this attitude: Apu, the owner of the convenience store in the cartoon series “The Simpsons.” When Indians describe the stereotyping they experience, they use a form of the verb “to Apu.”

The world is shrinking and culture butts up against culture. Rampant globalism recommends that we all —all 6.6 billion of us—practice understanding, acceptance, and even respect for the world’s diversity of race and culture.

James Dobson Blasts Barack Obama

James Dobson, a leader of the religous right, on his Tuesday, June 24 broadcast of Focus on the Family, for 18 minutes blasted Barack Obama for distorting the Bible and for presenting a "fruitcake" intepretation of the U. S. Constitution. At issue was a June 6, 2006 speech that Mr. Obama gave to a meeting of Call to Renewal. In the speech Mr. Obama declared that faith had a place in political discourse. But he also said that any faith that sought to implement its agenda had the obligation to present it, not in its narrow sectarianism, but in a universal way that would appeal even to secularists.

Mr. Dobson took offense. He declared, “What the senator is saying is that I can’t seek to pass legislation that bans partial birth abortion because there are people who don’t see that as a moral issue. Now that is a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution. … We don’t have to go to the lowest common denominator of morality which is what he is suggesting. Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?"

In my estimation I'm surprised it's taken the religious right so long to respond to Mr. Obama's 2006 remarks. (See my February 15 post about this remarkable speech in which I opined that these were the most important contemporary remarks regarding the place of faith in American political life.) Mr. Obama's rubric regarding narrow sectarianism versus a universal outlook is akin to what was once known as "suasion versus coercion."

Suasion stands in opposition to coercion. Suasion prevails over time because of the moral truth that drives it. (Truth outs!) It's axiomatic that faith groups should be committed to suasion in contrast to coercion, if only for the realization that coercion inevitably fails.

Picking Up Trash as Religion

Eighty-nine year old Pete Seeger spends most of his Saturdays at the intersection of Route 9 and 9D in Wappingers Falls, New York. He stands vigil with a dozen others in protest of the Iraq War. On the other side of the intersection pro-war supporters counter demonstrate.

He also picks up litter. “This is my religion now,” said Mr. Seeger. “Picking up trash. You do a little bit wherever you are.”

In my estimation Mr. Seeger has long had a personal narrative rich in activism, one song at a time, before thousands of small gatherings and a few large gatherings, year after year. He has distilled his activism into a strategy of little deeds. He now reckons that a hundred little demonstrations across the country might have more effect than in one big demonstration in New York City. So he stands by the roadside in Upstate New York with a home fashioned peace sign and picks up litter.

Pete Seeger is our culture's greatest ethiticist--both in practice and theory. (You can measure his success through his instrumental role in the miraculous cleanup of the Hudson River.)

And I recommend that if you understand and implement his organizing precept ("do a little bit wherever you are."), you will align yourself with an irresistible moral force. You will also feel good at the core of your being.

[See the New York Times June 22 article about Pete Seeger's roadside vigil: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/nyregion/22seeger.html]

A Wide-Ranging Religious Tolerance in America

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has published the second part of its expansive U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. (See blog entry February 26: "A Long Arc of Decline" for commentary on the first part of the survey.)

In this telephone survey of 35,000 persons, a majority of respondents claimed that religion was very important to them. Of that group nearly 75% believed faiths other than their own could effect salvation. This has been widely interpreted in two ways: 1) Americans of faith traditions are exceptionally tolerant and 2) Americans of faith traditions obviously don't adhere strictly to their faith groups' exclusive teachings. For example, 79% of Catholics agreed that “many religions can lead to eternal life."

In my estimation surveys are like Rorschach tests. They reveal the interpreter's point of view. Traditionalists, rather than first seeing the virtue of tolerance, say this survey demonstrates a luke warm commitment and/or ignorance to doctrine and dogma. I'm somewhat of that mind, too, that commitment to and ignorance of professed faith traditions are at work. In this regard I further read that the seeming tolerance relates to that "long arc of decline" of traditional religion I wrote about in a February posting. Traditional religious forms are losing their hold in face of secularism and in what has become a familiar refrain by many, "I'm not religious, but I am spiritual." I read the results of this survey as evidence that doctrine and communal ritual are giving way to individual experience and personal practice.

Visit the Pew Forum at http://religions.pewforum.org/

Undermining Science in Louisiana

The Louisiana legislature has passed a bill that allows local school districts to seek help from the State Board of Education to teach “critical thinking” and “objective discussion" on the origin and evolution of life, global warming, and human cloning. To become law the bill needs the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal, who is a potential candidate for vice president on the Republican ticket.

In my estimation the Louisiana proposal is yet another transparent strategy by the religious right to undermine sound science. Critical thinking and objective discussion are certainly worthy intellectual skills. But to present creationism/intelligent design as an equal and parallel theories to evolution is simply a disservice to students already knowledge-impoverished. It also places an unnecessary burden on teachers.

I’m going to keep an eye on Governor Jindal. How he proceeds will be a test of his own critical and objective skills, as well as a measure of his qualifications to hold our nation's second highest office.

Triage Ethics

We have catastrophe on the mind--a society wide disaster that will severely tax resources, including medical care. Such a catastrophe might be pandemic flu or a terrorist attack.

The medical community is drawing up emergency plans to meet such catastrophes, using the battlefield principles of triage. Triage divides the injured into three groups: 1) those for whom immediate care will save lives, 2) those who can wait for care and will probably survive, and 3) those with the severest injuries, whose survival is least likely. The third group also includes individuals who fall into undervalued categories, such as the most aged. Medical care is not first come first served, but in the order of group 1, group 2, and finally group 3. In extreme circumstances group 3 may never get care.

Ethiticists justify triage on the grounds of maximizing the survivors, while best using limited resources. In May the American College of Chest Physicians issued a report in their magazine "Chest" that declared, "If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing."

Among those in the triage bottom third are (as summarized by CNN) people older than 85; those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings; severely burned patients older than 60; those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease; and those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

In my estimation this and the many similar reports (including a recent 1900 page California document) has had insufficient attention rather than say the likes of gay marriage with which society is obsessed. Triage causes us to consider both the essential and the contextual value of life. For example, relative youth trumps advanced age.

A thoughtful conversation about triage ethics might make us all more compassionate and understanding of what really matters when it comes to the human co0ndition.

(The Rev.) Mr. Obama

Barack Obama and family went to church in Chicago on Sunday, Father's Day, not Trinity United Church of Christ from which he and his wife recently resigned, but another black mega-church on Chicago's south side, the Apostolic Church of God. Mr. Obama addressed the audience: "Too many fathers are MIA, too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes." He spoke to his experience as a son, abandoned by his father; and he spoke to his own imperfections as a father of two young daughters. His larger audience was a black community not in the pews: its young men who conceive children but do not father them, particularly in a functioning family.

As Rev. Al Sharpton quickly pointed out, some in the black community see this as airing dirty laundry and also a beating up on the victims. So Mr. Obama's remarks in the black community are somewhat controversial.

In my estimation Mr. Obama spoke on a topic and to an audience no white politician would/could address, using his stature to speak from a proverbial "bully pulpit." He has a preacher's rhetorical skills (reminiscent of Dr. King). He also has a preacher's inclinations to moralize, as in this Father's Day address that preached the virtue of personal responsibility in the context of self-confession. ("I trangress, too.") Even his motif of hope, as in his memoir The Audacity of Hope, has a profound theological dimension.

I'm beginning to think that Mr. Obama might be the most integrally religious presidential candidate we've had since Woodrow Wilson.

Elegant Truth of Evolution

An editorial in the Saturday, June 7 New York Times once again stated the case for not letting creationism or any other faith-based explanation of life on earth creep into the science curricula of our public schools. The editorial focused on the deliberations of the Texas State School Board of Education regarding a proposal to teach the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution. The Times accurately identifies this as just another attempt by creationists to further their religious agenda. The Times declared, "Every student who hopes to understand the scientific reality of life will sooner or later need to accept the elegant truth of evolution as it has itself evolved since it was first postulated by Darwin."

In my estimation the Times has it right. I love the phrase the "elegant truth of evolution." All proponents of a naturalistic and scientific view of reality know an elegance that satisfies the aesthetic/religious sensibility. Proponents of the origin and evolution of the universe, including the evolution of life on earth, can further the cause by speaking to this undeniable elegance in inspiring ways.

Obama's Resignation from Trinity: Too Bad!

Father Pflager apologized, his Cardinal publicly reprimanded him, and he was suspended from his parish for a time of reflection. But Father Pflager's mocking tirade of Hillary Clinton at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, captured for the world to see in a video clip, was the final straw for Barack Obama's campaign. He and his wife resigned their twenty year membership from Trinity.

In my estimation the Obamas' resignation was "too bad." We, meaning American society, had much to learn about the culture of the urban black mega-church through Mr. Obama's association. In the promised dialogue on race, Trinity would have been a wide window on the African American experience. I'm afraid that opportunity has been lost. I doubt we be able to get beyond video clips of the Revs. Wright and Pflager to ever see the real Trinity.

Another Clergy Renunciation

Chicago Catholic activist priest Michael Pfleger last Sunday preached on white entitlement at Trinity United Church of Christ, where Jeremiah Wright was senior minister until his recent retirement and where Barack Obama has been a member for over two decades. Father Pfleger ended his remarks by mocking Hillary Clinton's imagined sense of white entitlement. This two minute histrionic tirade was captured digitally--a perfect snippet for these You Tube Times.

Mr. Obama was quick to renounce Father Pfleger, an early and avid Obama supporter. Mr. Obama said, "As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that that unites us. That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."

In my estimation the pulpit can be an intoxicating setting, especially with a responsive audience. Father Pfleger allowed rhetoric and hubris to take him to a very ugly place. Shame on him!

Inner Peace Circuitry

In 1996 a 37 year old neuroscientist had a stroke that caused the left lobe of her brain to shut down. A golf ball sized tumor and a burst blood vessel arrested motion, speech, memory, self-awareness, along with other functions that cluster to create ego. As a consequence she had a dramatic change in perception. Not only did her usual mind chatter diminish, she “saw” her own body blend with the world around her.

Jill Bolte Taylor has recovered. Her new book “My Stroke of Insight” has just been published. It chronicles her stroke and recovery: the extraordinary perceptions the stroke brought, as well as how she’s now able to return to the left lobe’s way of perceiving and knowing.

Her subsequent ability to shut off her left brain and return to the right hemisphere’s blissful awareness has been likened to the enlightened state that is the goal of Buddhist meditation.

You can view an 18 minute video of a talk by Ms. Taylor that has had more than 2 million hits since February: http://www.ted.com/speakers/view/id/203.

In my estimation Ms. Taylor’s chance experiences, a portal to the body/mind conundrum, is yet another significant recent event that illuminates what we have long called religion. Regarding this revelation, she makes no judgment, because she’s more interested in results, what she calls the “deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres.”

Getting What Was Wished For

Yesterday John McCain rejected the endorsements of two preachers of the extreme religious right: John C. Hagee and Rod Parsley. Mr. Hagee's pulpit oratory has been offensive to Catholics and Jews. Mr. Parsley has offended Muslims.

Mr. Parsley has characterized Islam as an "anti-Christian religion," and declared that “America was founded in part to see this false religion destroyed.”

Mr. Hagee's theology includes what is known as premillennial dispensationalism, that takes a literalistic approach to biblical prophecy. In this view, the nation of Israel has a special place in the trials and tribulations that will end history.

In my estimation this insinuates the precarious relationship between politics and religion in this year’s presidential campaigning. Eight year’s ago Mr. McCain vilified Christian conservative as “agents of intolerance.” This year he courts them to expand his base of supporters.

Mr. McCain's rejection of Mr. Parsley's endorsement resulted in one of my favorite utterances of the campaigns to date: “I believe that even though he endorsed me, and I didn’t endorse him, the fact is that I repudiate such talk, and I reject his endorsement.”

A Fitting Nod to Science

David Brooks in the May 13, 2008 New York Times, published an Op-Ed piece, "The Neural Buddhists." Mr. Brooks considered the effect science has had on religion in the last decade. He focused on how science's materialism had shaped the atheist/theist debate.

He concluded, "In unexpected ways, science and mysticism are joining hands and reinforcing each other. That’s bound to lead to new movements that emphasize self-transcendence but put little stock in divine law or revelation. Orthodox believers are going to have to defend particular doctrines and particular biblical teachings. They’re going to have to defend the idea of a personal God, and explain why specific theologies are true guides for behavior day to day. I’m not qualified to take sides, believe me. I’m just trying to anticipate which way the debate is headed. We’re in the middle of a scientific revolution. It’s going to have big cultural effects."

In my estimation Mr. Brooks is one of the more informed and tempered opiners on the conservative side. He reaches conclusions I don't generally agree with, but which I find reasonable. However, I usually find his garnering of facts similar to my own. This opinion piece fairly estimates contemporary science's impact on contemporary religion. I'm pleased Mr. Brooks recognizes these are revolutionary days for American culture, relative to science and religion.

Barack Obama and Islam

In a New York Times May 12 op-ed piece, "President Apostate," Edward N. Luttwak, explored the significance of Barcak Obama's Muslim father in the Islamic world view. Contrary to conventional American wisdom, this will most definitely not lead to closer ties to Islam, so opined Mr. Luttwak.

Once a Muslim, always a Muslim is Mr.Luttwak rubric. Mr. Obama's father was Muslim (though he seemingly renounced it), so by Islamic law Barack Obama was born a Muslim.

In this light, according to strict Muslim law, Mr. Obama, who is an avowed Christian, is an apostate. Apostasy is a grave Muslim sin, punishable by execution, should religious authorities so deem. While an Islamic state wouldn't carry out such an execution, radical Muslims might.

In my estimation, the writer of article was slyly offering an argument why not to elect Mr. Obama. But the argument also reveals a piece of the tension between Islam and the non-Islamic world.

Our world is a treacherous place. Organized religion of all ilks have a moral imperative to make this treachery less so. Yet how can we expect causes to be solutions?

Spirituality vs. Religion: A Contemporary Distinction

Pat Tillman, the pro football player who gave up that celebrity career and joined the military after 9/11, was killed by so-called "friendly fire" in Afghanistan in 2004. His mother Mary has published an account of his death and how the military and government, at first, misrepresented his death for propaganda reasons. Her book Boots on the Grounds by Dusk sheds light on how and why the authorities hid the truth about her son's death.

One of the many tragedies of this story involved a superior officer, an avowed Christian, who after learning that the family did not wish a chaplain at the final service, disparaged the Tillman family. His mother responded that her son was very spiritual, but not religious.

In my estimation Mary Tillman did not have to explain to anyone, including said superior officer, about her family's memorial choice. Hadn't her fallen warrior son died on behalf of a large freedom, that includes complete freedom of religion?

This little anecdote also points out the contemporary distinction between spirituality and religion. Increasingly I hear people say, "I'm not religious. But I'm spiritual."

A Challenge to Understand

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. has had a remarkable few days, including Friday's appearance on Bill Moyers's Journal (Mr. Moyers was sympathetic) followed by Monday's appearance before the National Press Club.

On the latter, Rev. Wright was a Jekyll and Hyde. On one hand he demonstrated his scholarship as a contemporary theologian; and, on the other hand, he postured and appeared arrogant , if not narcissistic, to many during a Q and A with the press.

Rev. Wright continues to be a political vexation/liability for Barack Obama's political campaign.

In my estimation Rev. Wright's message is a challenge to the nation, as an element in the hoped for dialogue of race in America. I maintain that the burden, for historical as well as contemporary reasons, is to seek understanding of the so-called black church and black liberation theology. (The church and the theology do not necessarily go hand-in-hand.) This is a rich opportunity for learning as a citizen and progressing as a society, that is, if we see the larger scheme: the message and not the messenger.

No Religious Rites for Arthur C. Clarke?

The celebrated sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke died last week. He was best known for co-authoring the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and the subsequent book of the same name.

He was a visionary, perhaps the visionary, of our times.

He also had a low estimation of organized religion. He once spoke of religion as "a necessary evil in the childhood of our particular species." His personal instruction declared upon his death : "Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral."

The reports emphasized that the funeral, held in Mr. Clarke's adopted home in Sri Lanka, was secular

In my estimation Mr. Clarke's funeral was religious. (Just look at the photo of his body before burial.) All death observance's are religious in nature. Death is the Great Arbiter and must be accounted for in a human life.

I agree with my colleague, Forrest Church, "Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die."

Even the most avowedly secular funeral is a patchwork of religious symbols and practices that I suspect are intuitions and archetypes, hardwired in our psyches.

Obama and Race in America

Well, Barack Obama’s remarks regarding Race, delivered yesterday to an expectant audience, were extraordinary. In subject and frankness Mr.Obama spoke with insight and eloquence. His unique talent—genius, even—is to lift the tone of political discourse and to transcend the moment. Of the multitude of words spun in the primary campaigns, these will most likely endure, particularly if Mr. Obama succeeds in becoming President.

He did not repudiate his minister, Jeremiah Wright, Jr., though Mr. Obama called some of Rev. Wright’s words incendiary. Taken out of context, as video clips, the words do appear incendiary.

What’s missing is the theology behind the seeming incendiary words, a black liberation theology. (Rev. Wright has a masters degree from the world class Divinity School of the University of Chicago and a doctorate from the well regarded Chicago Theological Seminary.)

His take on the Christian message involves a fierce conviction that Christianity can free oppressed African Americans and overturn entrenched systems of oppression.

In my estimation, what’s been missing in the furor over the relationship between Rev. Wright and Mr. Obama is a willingness to look at black liberation theology, particularly within the larger Christian context.

I wonder, will there be many sermons this Easter, from Christian pulpits across the land, speaking of Jesus as a champion of oppressed people, whose ministry implicitly threatened to root out systems of injustice whether in the synagogue or the state or the empire? If Jesus’s ministry was about anything, it was about overturning systems of oppression.

Obama and Black Liberation Theology

I'd thought the impact of religion on the 2008 presidential primaries had peaked with Mitt Romney's January speech on "Faith in America" and Mike Huckabee's, an ordained Baptist minister, more recent withdrawal from the Republican race. But tomorrow, when Barack Obama addresses race and incidentally his relationship with his minister of twenty years, the controversial Jeremiah Wright, will be an even higher peak relative to religion and politics.

In my estimation, at issue will be the notion of black liberation theology, a variety of Christianity that preaches self-definition, self-affirmation and self-determination for African Americans, who are posited as historically oppressed by American society. I hope Mr. Obama does not repudiate/denounce/reject this pertinent and challenging take on Jesus's message and mission. That would be a supreme irony during Holy Week.

Mr. Obama's speech tomorrow will be his most crucial speech to date, particularly for the sake of his own integrity.

Oprah's Virtual Church

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What's the biggest spiritual/religious phenomenon of our time? How about Oprah Winfrey's ten week, ninety minute on-line course "A New Earth?" She and best selling author Eckhart Tolle of the book of the same name as the course, are collaborating. The course is free; there's a workbook to download; and 700,000 folks have signed on. That's right 700,000!

In my estimation this may well represent a shift in public religion. Not only does this phenomenon operate outside the realm of institutional religion, it gives permission (by Oprah) for that shift to be okay.

Many say Oprah's become America's leading spiritual guide. It's her authority that legitimazes a freelance "spiritual teacher" such as Eckhart Tolle. In Oprah there's a huge cult of personality operating for a large number of persons willing to be influenced. The World Wide Web takes these infuences and creates a virtual community (church?).

In an age of traditional religion's slow decline as well as shifting affiliations, Oprah's Virtual Church and her imitators will be a phenomenon to be reckoned with.

A Long Arc of Gradual Decline

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Arguably, religion is the greatest signifier in American culture. Religion drives attitudes and behaviors. The so called culture wars of recent years is anecdotal evidence supporting these contentions.

Religion is a cultural phenomenon in flux. Today the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published a report: "U.S Religious Landscape Survey." Counting shifts within Protestantism, some 44 % of Americans have changed religious affiliations.

According to this comprehensive survey, nearly 20% of men, mostly under 50, have no affiliation, as compared to 13% of women.

The unaffiliated are growing, while the Protestants are declining. Now 51% of the population, Protestants in the 1970s made up nearly 2/3rds of the population. Catholics have suffered a net decline, too, though immigrants have buoyed their ranks.

Statistics such as these can be interpolated in varying ways.

In my estimation these findings presage a decline of organized religions' general influence. While the U.S. is behind the decline-curve compared to Europeans and Canadians as well, I've long predicted a similar cultural shift for American culture. It won't be sudden and dramatic as was the "greening of Quebec." But it appears to me that a younger generation is leading an inevitable decline. The reason? I'd say its a matter of traditional religion's decreasing relevance. To use a biblical reference: "You don't put new wine in old wineskins."

Obama on the Role of Faith in American Political Life

Arguably, the most important contemporary remarks regarding the place of faith in American political life were made to the Call to Renewal convention in June 2006, by Barack Obama. Mr Obama declared “secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King— indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history — were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause.” Yet Mr. Obama also argued that those motivated by faith must seek universal values (to persuade even non-believers) when seeking to implement their faith based objectives in the political arena.

Mr. Obama has posted this address on his website: http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/

I recommend that you visit YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4nPeC8SIM, to hear this keynote address.

In my estimation this speech is worth the attention of study groups on both the religious and secular side of the separation of church and state debate.

A Lenten Piece 2008 : Jesus, a Revolutionary

[A local newpaper, The Hinsdalian, asked me for a Lenten meditation. though I'm not a Christian, I nevertheless see Jesus an examplar, at least as understood through the contemporary lens of the Jesus Seminar. John Dominic Crossan presents Jesus as a social revolutionary.]

A Revolutionary Message

The contemporary quest for the historical Jesus has convinced me: Jesus, the man who lived so briefly some 2000 years ago, was a revolutionary. Jesus’s teaching stripped away the unessential to touch the very heart of the human condition. And he practiced what he preached.

He grounded his teachings in a doctrine of love. A teacher of the law once tried to trick him by asking which of the commandments was the greatest. Jesus sidestepped legalisms by replying, “First love God. And second love others as you love yourself.”

Jesus taught and lived a radical egalitarianism in which the underclasses of his day, including women, were lifted up to the level of the social swells and the political powerful. He was an itinerant activist; and his radical teachings got him into trouble with authorities who didn't want their order upset and their power challenged.

Using the cruelest and most humiliating of means, the authorities who executed Jesus failed to silence his message. To the contrary, Jesus's influence was magnified through his followers until a religion about Jesus became the state religion of Rome and eventuality the dominant religion of Western Civilization. Such a victory is nearly incomprehensible, except for the precept that “love endures all things.”

In spite of all the concretions of theology about Jesus devised through the ages, many antithetical to the radical vision he preached and lived, the core of his transformative message survives, summarized as divinity, egalitarianism, and love. Strip away ancient mythologies of dying and rising gods that seeped into Christianity, there is nevertheless a reality that doesn't die.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once characterized Jesus as the “one man [who] was true to what is in you and me.” Jesus, in person and in practice, proclaimed the transcendent worth and dignity of each and every person.

This season compels us to search ourselves. Do we realize our inherent worth and dignity? Do we respect the worth and dignity of others? What is our call and capacity to love?

Candidates and Beliefs

In a Septermber, 2007 posting, the PEW FORUM looked at religion and politics. Among diverse findings, the PEW FORUM offered this: "Roughly six-in-ten Americans (61%) say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who does not believe in God, while 45% say they would be reluctant to vote for a Muslim. At the same time, more people express reservations about voting for a Mormon (25%) than about supporting a candidate who is an evangelical Christian (16%), a Jew (11%) or a Catholic (7%)." (http://pewforum.org/surveys/campaign08/)

In my estimation such statistics place a distinct burden on candidates to proclaim belief, and perhaps of a particular kind. And isn't this a tacit religious test contrary to the spirit of the First Amendment?

I'd love to see a candidate or two move us toward a greater appreciation of what freedom of religion means in the grand and great scheme of the Republic. As I look back over the past couple of months, Mitt Romney had the opportunity to do so but pandered to the 61%.

The Seven Unitarian Universalist Principles in Film

In my estimation film (cinema) is our age's primary art form. Films are accessible and popular. In 2007-2008 I'm hosting a film series, "The Seven Unitarian Universalist Principles in Film."

• "Fried Green Tomatoes" (1991), The inherent worth and dignity of every person: Lesbian lovers, an extended African American family, a mid-life woman seeking her identity, an aged woman in a nursing home present layers of the human condition . The story jumps back and forth from the 1920s to the 1990s in the relatively rural South. A capable cast, including Kathy Bates as the over the top mid-life woman, wring out the emotions.

• "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), Justice, equity and compassion in human relations: This classic and always highly ranked film features Gregory Peck as the American father figure. Harper Lee's bestselling novel of the same name resonated to the great civil rights movement about to happen. Palpable evil and violence testify to a troubling aspect of the American soul.

• "Twelve Angry Men" (1957), The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large: The movie is faithful to the play that preceded it. Henry Fonda once again personified the virtuous American male, who stands alone at first but ultimately persuades eleven fellow jurors to acquit a defendant being tried for murder. The characterizations of the jurors deftly paint portraits of types of men circa 1950. Shot in one room with carefully contrived camera angels add to the films understated power.

• "Joyeux Noel" (2005), The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all: A French film with subtitles, the story recasts an actual event that occurred along the Western Front at the beginning of World War I. Romanian and German troops strike a Christmas Eve armistice with French and English troops. The Holiday Season proved to be a particularly meaningful time to view this offering that questions the sanity of war.

• "Koyaanisqatsi "(1982),Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part: This cult film appeared just when the ecological/environmental movement was gaining traction. Both lyrical and tumbling images build on the sometime liquid, sometime frenetic score by Philip Glass. The title relates to a Hopi term meaning "life out of balance."

• "The Truman Show" (1998), A free and responsible search for truth and meaning: Jim Carrey, playing the title character, has his entire life broadcast on television for the entertainment of all. His world is one big set populated by actors. Directing The Truman Show is puppetmaster Christof, played by Ed Harris. The result is another thoughtful and artful production by Peter Weir, prescient of the current craze for reality shows. Will Truman escape and realize his freedom?

• "The Breakfast Club"(1985), Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations: Five high school students, each a sterotype (a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal) band together against a common enemy, and in the process learn about one another during a Saturday detention in a Northshore (Chicagoland) high school. One of several John Hughes' films about the teenage condition. The message: "We were brainwashed."
  

Proud Christian, Barack Obama

In a CNN debate (January 21) in South Carolina Barack Obama declared: "I am a proud Christian. There have been times times where our Democratic Party did not reach out as aggressively as we could to evangelicals, for example, because the assumption was, well, they don't agree with us on choice, or they don't agree with us on gay rights, and so we just shouldn't show up. And when you don't show up, if you're not going to church, then you're not talking to church folk. And that means that people have a very right-wing perspective in terms of what faith means and of defining our faith. And as somebody who believes deeply in the precepts of Jesus Christ, particularly treating the least of these in a way that he would, that it is important for us to not concede that ground. Because I think we can go after those folks and get them."

In my estimation, after reading these words a number of times, Obama is not only declaring he's a Christian, dedicated to the precepts of Jesus Christ, he also wants to 1) seek the Evangelical vote, while 2) engaging the Evangelicals in, at least, a tacit conversation about Christian values and beliefs, hoping to win them over and perhaps bending them toward a more liberal interpretation of those values and beliefs. I'd like to see this tacit conversation become explicit as we move through the primaries toward the November elections. At the very least, such a conversation would highlight that Christians of good conscience have a variety of outlooks.