05/06/2024
Pastor Fred Toerne's memorable sermon on May 5, 2024:
Religion and Politics
Traditionally, there are two words we are taught to avoid in polite conversation: politics and religion. Yet those two words summarize the theme of today’s worship service and sermon.
One reason to avoid them in polite conversation is that they comprise two of the most important components of human life. Thus they cause a great deal of controversy.
Politics can be understood as our attempt to relate to other human beings in positive and helpful ways. Religion can be understood as our attempt to relate to the transcendent reality that is always over, under, and all around us.
As such, both politics and religion are among the most important concepts in human life. Because they are so important, they are always charged with deep emotion and conviction.
As we consider both politics and religion and the ways they interact, we will work together to bring more light than heat to bear on both. In an election year, like the current year, many messages come through for each and all of us, seeking to persuade us to support a particular party or candidate. Those messages can flow over or through us like water, or they can nourish us with information and renewed hope.
It’s really up to each of us to determine which option will happen to us. Ignoring most of the messages that try to persuade us to one point of view or another is also an option, but we are not likely to be nourished or uplifted by any messages that we ignore. Our minds have filters that usually work automatically, removing information and messages that are not likely to be helpful for us.
Because we are not free of error in our thinking, it’s good to keep our minds open to new possibilities, but there is a limit to the benefit of open minds.
Two warning signs that we may have our minds too open to various points of view are: (1) feeling overwhelmed and (2) feeling confused by the abundance of possibilities.
Taking time out from considering political or religious opinions of others is one good strategy to avoid suffering from an excessively open mind. A closed mind is an even greater risk than a mind that is too open.
In matters of religion and politics, it is especially important to be able and willing to learn new things. No matter who we are or what we believe, it is possible that we may be mistaken in some of our opinions. The less we are able to sustain open minds, the less opportunity we will have to find correctives for our mistaken opinions.
As we are hearing more and more about the coming elections, it becomes especially important to get as much information as possible. Making a distinction between opinions and information is especially important.
One important matter to be aware of in our time is the interaction of religion and politics as a source of persuasive power. The use of either political or religious opinions or beliefs as a way of persuading others to one’s own point of view is a dangerous path to walk. Confusion between politics and religion is risky, and it can all too easily be manipulated. Religious leaders sometimes use their perceived authority as a way of persuading their followers to follow their political opinions. Likewise, political leaders often use people’s religious beliefs as a way of persuading them to subscribe to a particular political point of view.
Either way of leading people is all too open to abuse. In many places in the world today, the controversies of religion and politics are leading to conflict.
In India, Christianity and Islam have dominated religious life at times. Now Hinduism is in the process of taking the lead, and this kind of change is not always peaceful.
Ireland has had a widely varied religious life. Under English rule, Roman Catholic Irish people were forced to embrace the Church of Ireland, which is a branch of the Church of England. Wars were fought as a result. Today, democratic Eire, the Irish Republic, is mostly nominally Roman Catholic, and the Northern counties, Ulster, are mostly Protestant. The result is a somewhat uneasy peace, far better than the terrible wars that have happened in Irish history.
Mexico has had a violent religious history. Under Spanish rule, the Inquisition dominated. As a result, democracy enabled a unique kind of anti-Catholic movement, a surprise to many people in a country whose dominant religion has long been Roman Catholicism.
In our own country today, one of the worst religious controversies involves a deeply personal decision, abortion. Based on their own strongly held beliefs, some religious leaders tend to hold the opinion that they have the right to impose a large measure of control over women’s lives and bodies. Obviously many or most women would tend to disagree!
Because religion and politics are so important to all of us, it’s the better part of wisdom in every case to take a grain of salt (so to speak) with the statements of leaders in either area. For every adherent to a political program and for every believer in religious traditions, it is vital to be supportive of the separation of politics and religion.
Separation of church and state is essential for the well being of both.
Political and religious programs can and often do work together successfully for the meeting of various needs and goals, but they cannot try to control each other without harm to both.
The issue of mutual respect is basic. We have to respect the people whose opinions differ from our own, whether in regard to religion or politics. Without that mutual respect, it is impossible to work together for the common good of our human societies and cultures. The common good is, after all, the great goal, whether in an interim or ultimate sense, of all our religions and political programs.
Amen
Let it be.
So mote it be.
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