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| Hoosier United Methodist News |
July 2002 |
Commentary:
Religion and patriotism:
creating God in our own image?
By Reba Boyd Wooden
Two extremely powerful words are often misused, and when misused in combination with each other can be lethal -- religion and patriotism. As physicist and Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg said, "With or without religion, you will have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things, but for good people to do evil things that takes religion."
The same could be said of patriotism. That is, when people become so convinced that their religion and/or their country is the right and only true way of life, they will justify any kind of behavior including killing others in the name of their religion or country.
One of the problems with religion be it Judaism, Christianity, Islam or whatever is that man has created and continues to create God in his/her own image. Human beings of all faiths project into their concept of God what they want him to be like, whose side they want him to be on, etc. The German soldiers in WWII wore a belt buckle which said, "Gott Mit Uns (God Is With Us)"
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'What does all the flag waving … everywhere today really mean?' |
What does all the flag waving, pledging allegiance, praying and "God Bless America" expressions that are everywhere today really mean? Are they militant expressions of "we are right and everybody else is wrong," "God is on our side"? Are they saying we need to get revenge against any and everybody who believes differently than we do? Are they blind approval of decisions made by our leaders to use military force and to bomb and kill innocent people in an attempt to get revenge against a few? Do they mean that anyone who dissents is unpatriotic?
My patriotic zeal is directed toward the defense of the Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights -- freedom of speech and press for dissenters, the right to due process in the legal system, freedom to practice their personal religion, including the freedom not to practice any religion, and the admonition that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
National leaders have the right to their private religious beliefs but they should not portray their personal religious beliefs as the religion of the State. That is a violation of the First Amendment.
These freedoms are what make the United States a great country, and I fear that in our zeal to get revenge for the horrendous loss of life on Sept. 11, we will lose the true essence of what makes our country great.
I close with a quote from the Roman philosopher Seneca: "Religion is what the common people see as true, the wise people see as false, and the rulers see as useful."
I caution against letting our leaders and the media use religion and patriotism to gain our unquestioning support for their actions. We have a right as free people to think for ourselves and to let our leaders know our opinions.
Had more people in the 1960s -- including people in national leadership positions -- had the courage to speak their convictions, the Vietnam War would have ended long before it did and many lives on all sides would have been saved.
Last updated on 01/14/2004Reba Boyd Wooden is a member of University Heights UMC, Greenwood.