[Way] Off Topic: Religion in Politics Alabama Style

I find it sad when I come across tangible evidence of how far from its moorings American discourse has slipped. The very ground rules are so different from those I cam across when I first came here in the late 1970’s. Sometimes I try to tell myself that I am imagining things. And that the changes are simply a function of my own hyperactive and politicized way of thinking. I would that they were.

But then I come across things like this:

At a speech on Martin Luther King day, in the very church Martin Luther King used to preach in, the newly elect governor of Alabama told his constituents that those of them who were not Christians in his manner were not “his brothers or sisters”. They were different. He fell short of advocating conversion. But only just short.

Where in this is politics?

Not only is it a sad and massive break with the inclusive, and optimistic message given to us by King, but it is a total negation of the separation of church and state.

Governor: I couldn’t care less what your faith is. I mean that. In fact, that you espouse such faith is a negative to me: I suspect you are blinkered. You do not have the worldly view needed to act on behalf of everyone. You have bought into the mysteries of utopia. That way lies great danger for all of us.

Now, the governor’s aides have made all the right noises: no, we are assured, the governor sees himself of governor of all Alabamans, heck even the great unwashed. Even those damned for eternity. Gee thanks. But just how hard he might fight for those outside the “family”, I suspect is not something we want to know.

The problem is that so brainwashed is the governor that he genuinely doesn’t see how insulting his speech was. He, and others like him, are totally tone deaf to their bias. Their worldview is so restricted, their experience so limited, and their need for exclusivity so encompassing, that they just don’t get the notion that there is an “other” which is not a threat, but is actually a viable alternative. All utopians, all who believe in nirvana, all who base their lives on faith rather than reason, admit of no error, of no other, of no differences. It’s their way or no way. The real world fades into the background because it is seen by the faithful as a pallid and weak image by comparison with the glories of the real deal. Except, of course that the real deal isn’t real at all. It is imagined. Precisely because the world around us is messy, complicated, laden with doubt, and morally questionable.

This kind of limitation is fine when kept within bounds. When it simply serves to offset a person’s own insecurities. But when injected into the maelstrom of politics it is extremely inflammatory. It undermines civility. It takes away the need for compromise. After all why does a person who has seen the “light” need to compromise? All that is now needed to is eliminate the errors. This is why the great monotheistic religions have been so divisive and dangerous. They protect the faithful from the questions that make us human. And in so doing make them willing to turn against others.

When these kinds of attitudes, however honestly or earnestly held, creep into public discourse, that discourse is perverted. It becomes a competition between varying faiths. Between different versions of authoritarian ideals. Between them and us. Fear takes hold and sensibility, reason, and fact based argument goes out the window.

Every time.

There have never been exceptions.

So, as the rise of openly religious belief has been accepted into our politics, it has displaced consensus, community, and tolerance. This is never the objective. On the contrary most faithful people think they are injecting exactly those characteristics. But like all good parasites religion deludes its host.

America has always been prone to great blooms of fervor. We are now living through one. The consequence for tolerance and civility is their degradation. Our current politics reflects that degradation.

And before you leap to attack me: I give you the new governor of Alabama’s speech. As an anachronism it is exemplary. That it flows from the mouth of an official elected in an avowedly secular nation it is stunning. It may be his personal view. That’s his right. It has no place in the public realm.

Keep it to yourself Governor. That way we can all get along just fine. And it reflects the intention of the founding fathers who went out of their way to eliminate religion from matters of state. At least they knew how to create a tolerant and inclusive nation free from the religious based hatred and violence that had torn apart the Europe they were familiar with.