It could be argued that it is the anti-Trumpers who as a general rule support all those "progressive" causes such as late term abortion, same sex marriage, a borderless genderless world and who preach tolerance but practice intolerance who truly have a problem with morality.
Trump by contrast stands as a paragon of virtue which may explain his increasing approval ratings.
2
Yet another instance of a devout Christian linking goodness to religion. Not that followers of other religions don't do the same, but Christians are the usual purveyor of that particular foolishness here in the US.
I don't have to be religious to understand that being mean to people is bad and that being kind is good.
The advantage (and disadvantage) of religion isn't the belief, it's the organization. The willingness of religious people to do what their god (in their heads or through their religious leaders) tells them to do.
3
I just heard that Pope Francis suggested that instead of giving up some favorite food (chocolate, sweets) for Lent be kinder to each other. Stop trolling, criticizing, etc. and do good deeds for someone in need. There are so many worthy causes that could use our help that it will not be difficult to do. This is the real meaning of Easter. Giving of oneself is the greatest gift to humanity.
7
Faith does not offer hope for liberation and progress, reason does. The Deist Thomas Jefferson did a great job of pointing this out when he wrote "... man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such person, gullibility which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck."
It was reason combined with hard work, persistence and courage that made the Enlightenment and the American Revolution possible. Both of these momentous events helped to lessen the power of the faith-based religions and to give more freedom and power to individual people. Hopefully we will move forward with the next great momentous event, a reason-based revolution in religion based on our innate God-given reason and Deism. This is what the American Founder and Deist Thomas Paine called for in The Age of Reason ( https://www.deism.com/theageofreason.htm ).
4
The history of century of Christian wars and Christian persecution does not support the author's argument.
For a bit of "interesting history", look up the war of "The League of Cognac".
"...(1526–30) was fought between the Habsburg dominions of [a very Catholic] Charles V—primarily the Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg Spain—and the League of Cognac, an alliance including the Kingdom of France, Pope Clement VII, the Republic of Venice, the Kingdom of England, the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Florence."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_League_of_Cognac
The pope was taken captive by the Protestant German troops who also killed a large part of the Roman population and looted the city of Rome.
2
I’m not particularly religious but I firmly believe Trump is the Anti-Christ and am astounded that Evangelicals can’t see this.
8
Religion gave birth to Trump because religious people are willing to believe anything even if it’s contradicted by empirical evidence: virgins don’t give birth, the meek do not achieve power, dead men do not rise from the dead, etc. Once you’re willing to believe something because it aligns with a fantasy that tells you that you’re special and that anything that challenges that belief is “evil,” believing political lies is a small step. This country does not need a new “Awakening;” it needs a new “Enlightenment.” We can only solve the myriad problems threatening our freedom and existence by making decisions based on evidence and reason not fables.
4
Sorry. The best hope against Trump is reason.
6
Pandering nonsense intended for middlebrow readers who seek affirmation of their beliefs rather than a meaningful historical analysis. There is nothing inherently moral about Christianity. Christian dogma has proven commodious to every sort of depredation known to man from genocide, to ethnic cleansing, to slavery, to white supremacy and it even provided the religious-cultural substrata upon which Nazi Antisemitism was built. And to look back with wistful nostalgia is dangerous; it is a variety of MAGA.
4
Dear Times since you invite editorials from outside sources, may I suggest one.
- A Martian, to answer the following question:
"Why is it, that the lowest sample of sentient life on Earth has exerted the gravest impact on the entire body of life on Earth?"
If Martians have nothing they call "faith," but are "thoughtful," they might come up with an answer.
3
Our pastor quoted Daniel 2:20 "He removeth kings and setteth up kings." And admonished us that our duty as Christians is first to pray for ALL leaders per New Testament instructions, and to resist being embroiled in politics for God will hold us responsible for the action of those we put in office.
1
Oh, this has to be the joke of the week! The leading religion-hating outlet of the anti-religion media gang trying to appeal to its semi-religious readers to step up their push against the American President.
Next week, a word from chraracter Speedy Gonzales on why friends of Latinos need to step up their push against Donald Trump.
Greeks and Turks, you show up in March. Stay tuned.
Why does the NYT article title refer to “Religion” but the illustration is specifically Christian?
Isn’t long passed time that American society and The New York Times’ editors, writers, and illustrators stop (mis)representing Christianity as The religion or the cross as The symbol of religion?
If the article is about Evangelical Christians or Christianity, then the title should reflect that specificity; if the article is about religions other than or in addition to Christianity, then the illustration should reflect that generality.
Please do better, NYT!
7
We do not wish to ban the gods from the public sphere. We want to keep the gods from running the public sphere. Which is what they tend to do. For the common history of mankind is that gods are used to oppress and suppress the underlings on behalf of the nobility of the time. (Christianity went from suppressed to state religion overnight with Constantine's victory; and so Christ instead of Sol Invictus was used to suppress and control.) Individuals may have, and still do, commit acts of heroism on behalf of others based on their individual faith. But as a church, a temple, mosque, community, meeting, or any other organized religious grouping? For some other faith? Never.
4
Being a Biblical Christian is the best hope against a socialist who envies, covets, and steals.
1
I grew up an evangelical southern baptist.
Yeah, I know. So I've heard these rationalizations since forever, they aren't new. The church was into this before trump.
Religion in this country is dying, thank god, and the reasoning for why religion is good is too. There is no need for invoking the supernatural to do what's generally understood to be the right thing. But, the supernatural is handy if you want to do irrational.
7
George Washington and other thinking founders were Deists. Deists do not claim to know how or why a sentient being would be motivated to create the universe, but they believed that, if a sentient being did create the universe, it had been left by that being to run on autopilot.
5
For me, Evangelicals have been the ones who, against all historical evidence, insist that the US is a Christian nation. It is not a Christian nation by population nor was it intended to be one, given the major documents produced by our nation's Founding Fathers.
One might say the Evangelicals are, "fundamentally wrong."
6
It is paradoxical to say the least. Religion has been an instrument for many people. As history records it, religion remains a factor for great social movements but also inquisition.
On a personal level, it has redeem people that there's no one is far from grace and forgiveness but shows no one is so pure to never be condemned.
Overall, religion has worked for everyone to an extent. How that will shape us will fall into what C.S. Lewis once said, "...here will be two people. Thy will be done and thy will be done."
@Lee: Nothing based on fantasy can endure in the face of advancing knowledge, which explains why fantasists resist the progress of science.
3
Mr. Meacham speaks about a world that does not exist. It's a world of values based on what Jesus preached without a shared understanding of what he said or what it means. The gospels don't agree on any of the details of the crucifixion or resurrection which should give one pause before quoting from those events. But even if we were to accept the quotes from the Bible as accurate and true, evangelicals have demonstrated that their willingness to follow Christian principles is trumped (pun intended) by their love of power. Much like Republican distaste for deficits, their principles are infinitely malleable and change depending upon who is in the White House.
Evangelicals have demonstrated that they gave no values, Christian or otherwise, only a thirst for power over others.
8
@Tom from: The entire tale of Jesus that comes down to us is hearsay.
2
Jon Meacham wrote: "The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed."
This is one of the favorite tropes of right-wing religionists -- that secularists want to suppress the civic rights of the religious -- and it is completely false.
What secularists want is to banish religious prejudice & favoritism from GOVERNMENT, which is not at all the same as "the public square." Unlike in countries such as China & the former Soviet Union, where religion is & was very strongly suppressed, in the U.S., religion is a very prominent feature of the public square. On the contrary, it is secularism that is stigmatized.
7
Apparently, the NYT has no qualms about cheering on for a Christian viewpoint to permeate the public square in this country, but heavens forbid if the Hindus contemplate their equivalent in India.
4
Your thoughts and reflections are appreciated, Mr. Meacham. Thank you.
Always dismaying, though, that almost any time the subject of faith and religion come up, there is a predictable onslaught of thoughtless, garden variety bigotry that would get comments flagged and booted if the context was discussion of race, ethnicity, or gender.
A humble Lenten wish. That if people abhor bigotry, they check occasionally to see if they themselves might be practicing it.
Peace and blessings.
10
Oh please. It is sooooo much easier to hope there are imaginary beings with imaginary interventions, then to do the hard work of change. Meanwhile, those who do the hard work of change are over-burdened, under-funded and exhausted. I know from experience.
5
Looking a little farther, over the immediate dust and feathers of all this loving verbiage and hateful action, let us compare the future of the church to its recent past. After it's "victory" in the 1927 Scopes trial verdict, the fundamentalist faithful were summarily drummed out of secular society. They were mocked and (figuratively, I think) spat upon, and sent out to wander for their 40 years (my estimate) in the wilderness. Then they made a comeback and were again cynically welcomed by the politically ambitious.
The fundamentalists are packing their bags again for their next stint in their wilderness. In their quest for legal dominance over the rest of us, they chose unwisely, and so will pay. The contempt the wider society has for them and their vandalizing of our legal system and institutions is growing and will be manifest in some extreme unpleasantness. This is beginning to dawn on Meacham and his fellow apologists, so they are attempting to weakly make amends with their pretty songs. Nope and nope.
3
Mr. Meacham is, perhaps, a man too good for his times.
In a world where Hindus beat Muslims in the street, where Shias bomb Sunnis, and Jews are persecuted in Paris even as they annex land from Palestinians, I don't think it's wise to put one's money on religion for either healing divides, or vanquishing the seven deadly sins.
Power often brings out the worst of human nature (to wit, the current administration and impeachment "trial"). Sorry Mr. Meacham, but religion reflects that truism. it will not defeat it.
130
@peter Yeah, terrible things are done in the name of religion. But I can't fathom the argument that some Christians can't be swayed by the words of Jesus himself (around treatment of the stranger, the weak, the poor) if they are actually exposed to it. Is it any wonder the right has been able to spew out teachings that demonize teachings of Jesus himself when our politics discourages faithful on the left from countering hateful speech on religious terms.
16
@peter writes "Power often brings out the worst of human nature ..."
-------
Except that Jesus wasn't about power.
12
@peter Religious texts, grossly misinterpreted by uneducated adherents, are responsible for violent, repressive, racial, gender hatred. It is not the religion itself in Christianity. It is no accident that those evangelicals who support Trump are poorly educated and convinced against all reason that their religious beliefs are true and faithful when they are not.
22
Is this a serious article? I have a high regard for Mr. Meacham's past work, but now I'm beginning to question his analytical skills - he obviously has some big blind spots.
Religion, with it's reliance on "faith" instead of "evidence", and it's directive to follow higher up beings and leaders, is THE direct cause of Republicanism and Trumpism. There is no mystery about why evangelicals lean right politically.
Believing in magical beings without evidence and accepting ancient texts with demonstrably false and immoral content was the first step on the path to first, evolution denial and now, the current state of climate science denial and the general mistrust of science and "experts".
Also, Trump's white nationalism is a direct descendant of the intolerance inherent in religion (we are the "chosen" people, our god is the true god (not yours), etc.)
No, Mr. Meacham - the best hope against Trumpism is education, science, and a wider acceptance of an evidence-based worldview.
9
Anyone who ives by the Golden Rule "Do unto others as you would have them do to you" is someone who loves their neighbor, who believes that we do have a commitment to our fellow citizens to level the playing field for all.
You do not have to believe in a God or an organized Religion to have a life well-lived.
As John Lennon sang in Imagine "Imagine there's no Heaven,... ...no hell...only love....peace... You can if you want to...
The Evangelicals and other organized Religions just want to keep the masses under their control.
No Freedom, no Choice, only heaven, only hell
12
Since you can never put yourself on someone else shoes I would suggest a new variation: Do not do unto othersothers whatever THEY may not want not to be done to themselves.
1
Hasn't religion done enough damage?
404
@Nick: “Religion” has done a lot of damage. Godliness has done a lot of good.
15
True religion teaches kindness, forgiveness, and especially justice and fairness. The real problem is those who profess to be religious but ignore its most important teachings.
111
@qiaohan
Re-read those teachings, please, and not selectively. MANY religions prescribe the opposite of forgiveness, justice, fairness, etc when you do not adhere to their dogma.
8
@David A. Lee
Re: These “unborn children” who millions of Americans believe should be “served”.
Where are they after the child is born possibly in terrible poverty or loveless environments? And where is their support for the women forced to give them birth?
Isn’t this a part of “the least of these”?
7
Misplaced Modifier,
You have no right to tell me how to feel. People have told me that they envy my religious beliefs. I cannot tell them how to feel. But religion is a gift that you do not know anything about. Let’s respect each other all right.
2
Jon Meacham seems a beautiful soul. I love listening to him on news commentary because he has such a clear mind and wonderful ability to communicate profound ideas especially dealing with American history. I'm glad the country has such people in our midst. This article is a valentine from him to the remnant of decent Christians out there.
7
I grew up in an evangelical Christian in the Deep South. I remember discovering some social activist priests I met in the MidWest who smoked and cursed (very unChristian to my expectations) who never-the-less seemed to personify the best of Jesus's teachings and life. It's very sad to see my evangelical family and relatives so easily tricked by sociopathic politicians who simply want to take from the needy to give to the rich. Reagan taught them that to be poor was sinful and the rich were our true saints and they were so easily convinced. I am so ashamed of what the label "Christian" has become associated with. It seems a good education and good critical thinking skills are a better path to a being truly Christ like. If it wasn't abortion the clever republicans would find another key issue to convince my evangelical family to do their bidding. Without good reasoning ability a person is lost it seems.
10
I may vote for Donald Trump this time despite being a Christian and conservative Republican. Here are some of my main reasons why:
1. I am in favor of not aborting unborn children.
2. I want to retain capitalism and its benefits for all. Although capitalism creates many problems to solve, it has done more to reduce human poverty in the world than any leftist economic approach. The most likely Democratic candidates seem to want to dismantle it and pursue policies that may result in more equality, but in the long term more human want.
3. I want more limited government, because I value human freedom, which includes First Amendment rights such as free expression and the free exercise of religion. The Democratic Party seems to believe that sexual expression is more important than any of the former and will use the power of government to tell us what we can do and believe in that regard, including the indoctrination of children.
It bothers me terribly to support President Trump given his public expression and his behavior in general, however, I really have only two realistic choices which are undesirable so I will do the best I can. That is not hypocrisy – it is making a difficult choice in an adult world. I feel confident that many non-religious Democratic voters have and will continue to have to make difficult compromises as well and I will refrain from calling them hypocrites. It would be such an unloving, unchristian thing to say.
12
@Silas it's not either/or with capitalism. 20th century Western Europe had to strengthen their social safety net, what republicans call communism or socialism, to save their capitalism. Western Europe's more humane form of capitalism is a success compared to the U.S.
42
@Silas And do not forget that 20th-century American capitalism was saved by the FDR social safety net in place until its assault by Reagan and in its death throes here with the tRump.
Might also want to have a look at the Nicholas Kristoff's recent article here on the myth of individualism and "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps." You or your family are the beneficiary of a far more socialized society than you care to see or admit.
And if you truly do not want to keep abortion legalized i.e. impose your moral feelings on others--then you had better support a social safety net to care for these mothers and children in that world or yours.
59
@Silas
You may want to consider that the Constitutional right of free exercise of religion does not mean that people with your particular beliefs get to do exactly what they want. In order for EVERYONE to enjoy this right, you may have to put up with some restrictions and tolerate some constraints. Trump and others who only want to guarantee the rights of right-wing evangelists don't seem to get this.
38
Even tho I consider myself a secular/spiritualist, because let’s face it there are things in the universe that even scientists can’t explain, I will defend Mr. Meachum and others like him his right to freedom of religion. It’s a basic tenet of this country. But I will not condone or accept it as policy.
4
@Joseph Luchenta Just because there may be things we can't explain through science at this time, when it comes to explaining what we see in the world around us, science has a much, much, *much* better track record than any religion in all of time.
That's not likely that that will change, either.
2
You can write all you want about the virtues of Christianity, but the truth is that your fellow believers are the ones right out in front for Trump. Once again, we see the intractable link between Christianity and white supremacy. Nothing you write here will change that, and you’d better believe that the younger generations will remember the hypocrisy of these so-called believers.
6
@Blah
What? Martin Luther King and John Lewis white supremacists? Really?
Please take a deep breath. Reflect a little. Read a little about Dorothy Day, the Berrigans, St. Francis, and legions of others.
An open mind won't hurt ya any.
6
Correct!
... and as a historian you must be aware of all the wars and suffering caused in the name of God - any God of any religion.
1
The only public display of moral courage and principle that I have seen from a religious person since 2016 was Mitt Romney's vote and speech. Too bad there are so few others out there that actually follow what they claim to believe.
11
@Aluetian: No matter. Romney still voted to wipe out Congressional supervision of the president by deflecting all its inquiries of the executive branch to the judiciary to be stalled for years and years
2
I was never aware of the total hypocrisy of the church until seeing the overwhelming support of trump. It is time to rid politics of religion.
8
@john The Founding Fathers thought they did exactly that over 200 years ago but, as we can see, superstition is a persistent bugger that will find an excuse for itself no matter how illogical. And there will be people fooled by it. Yes, even in this enlightened day and age.
3
Thoughts:
For far too many Christians this life is far less important than the next. Christianity, for many, has become a religion of fear and death rather than love and life as espoused by its namesake.
The Christian cross, symbol of God’s love, death & rebirth, sin and redemption is used by racists and bigots as a tool for inducing hatred and fear.
Matthew 22:20-22 (KJV)
20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
Perhaps it is time for the Beatitudes to become ascendent and the Christianity of Paul to become a relic of meaner times.
2
Yes.
How many burning crosses were used to intimidate Blacks in America?
1
@Oron Brokman And how many died at the end of a short rope?
1
The religious, by definition, are people of faith, people who believe without evidence in the existence of supernatural beings and the lore that goes with them. When I meet a religious person I don’t automatically think I’m talking to someone who is especially moral. (In my experience religious people are no more moral than the nonreligious.) Instead I find myself wondering on some level what else this person believes without evidence.
I hardy think that’s what we need to defeat Trump. What we need are people who have the habit of acquiring and filling their heads with evidence-based knowledge, and use it to guide their actions.
8
Without compassion, facts and knowledge are insufficient to trump Trump.
1
@Oron Brokman
In my experience, religious people are no more compassionate than nonreligious.
Your implication that they are is, unfortunately, one more thing many religious people believe without evidence.
2
One of the greatest tragedies of our time is the perversion of Christianity by fundamentalist doctrine. When we are reminded of Christ's own teachings, as Mr. Meacham has done, a path towards reconciliation is revealed. I agree that religion, or a spirituality not linked to any particular religion, is the only thing that's going to show us how to overcome the hatred and divisiveness of the present times.
2
@Sarah Another great tragedy is the perversion of Christianity by what is its largest sect.
....is the only thing that will lead to more divisive shh Ovid this and wars...
Unfortunately, Meacham may be correct in that "religiously inspired activism may hold the best hope for those in resistance to the prevailing Trumpian order." But that's not a confidence builder for me, quite the opposite.
It's dismaying that so many millions of people look to a supernatural middleman for answers that can be found more surely through use of their own human senses and innate abilities of thought and comprehension. It's sad that most of society still relies on entirely subjective interpretations of centuries-old religious teachings rather than trust their common sense interpretation of right and wrong.
3
This is the result of promoting education which yields high income while disdaining pursuit of education in the humanities...
I so appreciate Mr. Meacham perspective, and I recognize, that given the poor state of our educational system the word "religion" has a small chance of being rescued any time soon. A larger question for me is, can any educational system, begin to open up the question of the moral good, what supports the making of a dignified person? At the heart of all true religions, who remain close to their spiritual, mystic roots. How to gently hold the question /are we more then matter, what is consciousness, in the deep tradition of Socrates and Plato.. how do we go beyond the 'image of god' (nietzsche's god is dead) to rediscover, reconfirm our basic dignity, in the tradition of those we most admire? How to we create a dignified society. I have always wished our Bill of Rights had included the phrase.. "in the pursuit of wisdom"
1
Jon Meacham always inspires me, moves me to reason, offers words of wisdom that very often heal, very often enlighten, always educate in the finest manner. Thank you Jon Meacham.
3
Thank you for this beautiful essay.
Of all the candidates currently running for president, Pete Buttigieg most authentically represents the tradition you so eloquently evoke. Without seeking to impose his faith on anyone, he humbles himself in a spirit of service to the people he aspires to represent -- "those of all faiths and of no faith." He cites scripture from both Old and New Testaments with the ease of someone who actually turns to it regularly for solace and guidance, and connects the dots between what he finds there and the policies that he advocates. Buttigieg is not a man who compartmentalizes his spirituality; for him, it is of a single piece with his call to service and his political beliefs.
5
If well-meaning people want to use fantastical stories to direct their lives, I have no problem with that...until their actions affect the lives of others in a negative way. When they tell me GOD has inflicted Donald Trump on us, I can only shake my head at their ignorance of the meaning of their own stories. The words in the Bible were written by men, not by a supernatural god. Time and again, humankind has used these words to justify some truly horrific activities (the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, Jim Crow, etc.). The time has come to set aside our childish toys and become adults.
3
The best hope is people. Religion is one of the causes of this mess and of a lot other messes. At this moment Evangelical Christianity and maybe a right wing version of Roman Catholicism are the closest to an official religion in the USA. As you can see in India, Myanmar, Israel, Iran and Saudi Arabia when you have a religion "in power" the infidels suffer regardless of the "religion in power".
1
The author has got it wrong: it is not that religion is the best hope against Trump, but Trump is the best hope against religion. The solid endorsement of the American Christian Right community of such a despicable character only makes the inveterate hypocrisy of this group evident for all to see. I am sure not all Christians are like that, but many millions of Americans are.
3
I'm sorry, but Homer was wrong.
1
True Christians have always been "never trumpers" because he is a vile human being and they are truly charitable. True Christians represent the beliefs of Jesus. He would not accept the current occupant of the White House as a legitimately elected representative of our nation. Anyone claiming to be Christian and also a supporter of Donald Trump is lying about one of those things. The two are inimical.
4
I wished to submit my small rational Humanist view admiring anyone of any faith who proposed these ideals. Then add that no rationalisation could penetrate a Trumper.
However, nothing I have seen for a long time surpasses the thoughts of Tom Paine earlier. Please put him at the top of NYT Picks!!!
1
What a hopelessly naive article.
3
Republican politicians use religion as a manipulative tool and a dividing wedge. The Founding Fathers understood this. That is why they wrote "freedom from religion" into our constitution. Nevertheless, Republicans have been using religion, including abortion, as a dog-whistle dividing wedge since Ronal Reagan. Today, under pseudo-Christian Trump, a Republican majority Supreme Court, Republican politicians and Evangelicals are determined to undermine the Constitution's requirement of "separation of church and state." The Constitution be damned.
4
I feel very sorry for people who lack faith and religion. When I was much younger, I was envious of people who did not have to attend Church. I came from a devout Catholic family and it was expected that we attend Mass every Sunday. I no longer feel envy but a tremendous peace and joy that my religion brings me. It is a gift from God and my wonderful parents and I need if more as I get older. I go to Church because I want to and that is a reassuring feeling. God has been wonderful to me and I have been blessed. Today is Ash Wednesday and later I will attend Mass and receive ashes. This is what life is all about. It has brought me an inner peace that the world cannot give.
4
@KMW
I know that many religious people feel as you do. But your pity is not wanted or needed in the secular world. Your religion seems like a private and personal experience. Please keep it that way. Most of us understand how to derive "tremendous peace and joy" from a humanist heart and life (out in the real world) that isn't answerable to an authoritarian religious construct that commands obedience to a male dominated, dark ages world-view. I take particular issue with the Catholic Church and its systemic and widespread history, tolerance and coverup of sexual assault crimes on children by pedophile priests.
3
God’s name in ancient Aramaic is Abba which means Daddy as much as Mommy and He/She: The Lord has said, “My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not yours.” -Isaiah 55:8
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
The essence of meek is to be patient with ignorance, slow to anger and never hold a grudge. In other words: how comforted you will be when you also know humility; when you know yourself, the good and the bad, for both cut through every human heart.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be filled.”
In other words: how comforted you will be when your greatest desire is to do what “God requires, and he has already told you what that is; BE JUST, BE MERCIFUL and walk humbly with your Lord.”-Micah 6:8
“Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy.”
In other words: how comforted you will all be when you choose to return only kindness to your ‘enemy.’
“For with the measure you measure against another, it will be measured back to you”, Jesus warns his disciples as he explains the law of karma in Luke 6:27-38.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they see God.”
In other words: how comforted you will be when you WAKE UP and see God is already within you, within every man, every woman and every child. The Supreme Being is everywhere, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Beyond The Universe -and yet so small; within the heart of every atom...
PS: These words and more I heard in my heart during my first trip to Israel
4
Amen
To the regret of the minority, religion historically has been used to uphold the power of the ruling class. Landowners, slave owners, the industrial and financial elites historically had the support of right wing reactionary religious leaders and layman. Most recent examples of this are Franco being supported by the church, the right wing clergy in Poland and Slovakia support to the extremist nationalists and homophones there and the backward beliefs and practises of the Russian Orthodox clergy.
The liberal and compassionate religious leaders and followers have always been in the minority, but helped achieve societal progress and liberation of the oppressed.
I would rephrase the headline of this article to something in the line of 'why love and compassion is the best hope against Trump'. This is more matching to its content too.
1
No.
Amen.
Evangelicals are a disgrace. They're supporting an amoral, self absorbed con man who is the antithesis of Christianity. Trump even used his so called charity for personal advantage. He would turn on them on a dime. The only thing he believes in is Donald Trump. Evangelicals should be ashamed of themselves.
6
Once again, an article that claims to be about "religion" is narrowly Christian. This might be the headline writer's fault, but it's wearying.
3
Religion put Donald in the White House.
1
Why Religion Is the Best Hope Against Trump"…………
Yeah, maybe…….
If and when they decide to put Christ back in tp Christian……..
But don't bet the farm on it……...
2
Jesus would be on a travel ban to this country if he were alive today.
4
What would your message be if you’d been born to Muslim or Jewish parents.
4
Good Grief Mr. Meacham.
You must be either joking or delusional.
Religion is truly the curse of mankind.
Was it Diderot who said:
"Mankind will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
1
Religion is a great comfort for many of us. I am a practicing Catholic who places my trust in God during good times and bad. He has never failed me. Let’s be honest. Life can be hard and it is so reassuring to know there is someone to turn to when we need help. God is there always but we must ask his help. He never turns anyone away. Money is not the answer. Material things are not the answer. Faith in God is the answer. He is permanent the other things are all temporary. Let’s place our trust in him.
1
American Christians are. in large part, hypocrites. Otherwise, they would never have elected a morally bankrupt vindictive white supremacist as their leader. They do not even pretend, anymore, to believe in the so-called Christian values of decency, mercy, compassion and honesty. I would not depend upon them for anything.
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I think Mr. Meacham was speaking to every side of the Trump Train Wreck, not just Christians, be they of the "poor" or "cafeteria" variety. The values of Jesus are espoused by religious and non-religious groups. I believe therein lies the hope that Mr. Meacham envisions.
If King and Lewis can cobble together a strategy with such staggering success, we should give come contemplation to this message. After all, the Trump Train rides on tracks laid long ago.
1
In the 1960s, the United States was at the pinnacle of its wealth, influence and power. Lyndon Johnson launched the Great Society based on that fact. There was time and psychic room, along with the material means, to begin addressing long-deferred American issues such as racial exclusion and structural poverty.
In 2019, the United States is deeply in debt, mired in useless Mideastern wars, and above all, politically polarized to the point of nonfunctionality. We are, nominally, led by the most cynically corrupt American ever to achieve high office--who, moreover, looks quite likely to extend his misrule for four additional years. Major departments and programs have been shredded by budget cuts, deliberately unfilled positions, and deliberate appointment of people openly opposed to the stated legislative purpose of an agency to lead it. Under these circumstances, optimism of any kind is either ignorant or irresponsible. Jesus isn't going to make it all right.
2
Christianity has been hijacked by evangelistas who would love to live under a Theocracy that is ultra white and male-dominated and a Republican party that is the antithesis of being Christ-like. Jesus weeps.
3
Trump is not "an amoral president". He's an immoral president. The NYT should look it up, in a dictionary.
2
Your column:
Rep. John Lewis
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Mahatma Gandhi
Jesus of Nazareth
America's reality:
Franklin Graham
Rick Wiles
Jerry Falwell Jr.
Joel Osteen
Pat Robertson
Jim Bakker
Creflo Dollar
Paula White
Jesse Lee Peterson
See the difference?
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@David Albrecht --plus Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, Jeffries and many more who have become gurus for Evangelicals.
10
Do the clergy who appear on Fox News speak of Jesus?
3
I gave up on faith and religion.
Understand that we humans are too stupid to fully grasp the workings of God, but…I’m really not seeing the point of continued hypocrisy and rewardment while millions suffer. The thing people tell themselves that this evil “is bringing people together” … I am not understanding. All I seeing is lies and chaos, and after the dust settles, nothing will change. There is no lesson here. There is no grand plan. It’s just another lie people tell themselves in order to get through the day.
It makes much more sense to me that there is no God to make sense of it.
If Trump and his gang believe in God, I don't want to be a part of their team.
1
Mr. Meacham is a fool. The facts show that religious people, particularly the white conservative "Christian" churches worship Trump as much or more that they do their God. If "faith" and the teachings of Jesus Christ meant anything to they they would never have vote Republican, let alone for Trump.
1
Excellent article. Perfect achievement of a blend of Christianity and NYT-approved religion. It checks the anti-Trump box early on and so qualifies for NYT consideration. It also makes it clear that Christianity is not necessarily an exclusive religion with a unique claim that might lead to evangelicalism but one religious way among many. This exposition of Christianity also perfectly toes the line between the Gospel and the Social Gospel--and so avoids an offense against something like NYT religion. No messing with the sanctity of life or religious freedom or other passe religious notions here. Well done! Well done!
Sorry. With both the leadership and rank and file of American Protestant Evangelicalism fighting to show who's the most racist, authoritarian, violent magahead I don't buy this. Religion of your sort is a large part of what got us to this pitiful low point in our history.
3
Is there a greater conspiracy theory in the US than that the religious majority, which encompasses over 70% of the population, is a persecuted minority?
It is best that we remember that there are no democratic religions and no free theocracies. And that every religion endorses authoritarian governance, either by spirits, gods, or someone who claimed to act as a divine agent.
Religion has always bee subverted to the cause of despots.
From the ultimate terrorist of all time:
"The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life."
Speech delivered at Berlin 1 February 1933; by Adolf Hitler.
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Jesus did not 'triumphantly' enter Jerusalem. If was a spoof. He was sitting on a DONKEY for Gods sake!
The NYTimes here is attending to it’s ‘diversity of letters’ by publishing an article that advocates religion as a response to the intellectual political blackhole we live in.
2
Change the title of this piece of gibberish to :
" Why Religion Is the Best Hope For Trump "
Eliminate the 3rd paragraph - and :
And it's author could credulously be Donald Trump.
This column is satire, right?
Evangelical Christians are the biggest supporters of the vicious lunatic in the White House. And you're preaching religion??
3
A more perfect union would be absolutely devoid of religion. Everyone understands the hypocrisy, misogyny and racism of "Evangelicals", but let's face it, we don't hear any big outcry from Christians about keeping children in cages.
2
Your religion is not my religion, your morality is not my morality. Understand that while you think you have god on your side, you have no tangible proof of that. Until you can provide said proof, please refrain from trying to run my country with your religion.
Not Christians, Hindus ,Buddhists , Moslems or any another religion should be invoked against Trump. This country has a CONSTITUTION. Have you forgotten this?
1
Y G T B K. We appreciate the NYTimes especially for the sublime satire occasionally presented by such as this Op-Ed. You leave an entire infidel tribe smiling, shaking our heads again at the ever-renewing human capacity for perfidy and self-deception.
1
In the Bible Satan's defining characteristic is that he is the Father of Lies. The truth is not in him. When he lies he speaks his native language. He lies to Adam and Eve and brings original sin. He lies to Christ himself when he takes him to a mountaintop and promises him the world if Christ will just bow down and worship him. And here we are with Evangelical Christians bowing down to Donald Trump.
3
On Ash Wednesday in this year of our country's horrible political nightmare, I can't help remembering Martin Luther's saying that he would rather be ruled by an honest Turk--meaning a Muslim--than a corrupt Christian.
As I listened last night to what turned out to be a wretched caricature of serious political debate, I heard some extremely rational discourse from two Jews about Israel--and other things. As I left Church this morning, I concluded that I would infinitely rather be ruled by a righteous Jew than a corrupt Christian, or a crowd of corrupt Christians.
And, in any case, I was extremely turned off by the political hypocrisy of a self-righteous Christian pouncing on Mayor Bloomberg faults, such as they are. In the debate she lectured Mayor Bloomberg and the rest of us about Matthew 25, where Jesus is heard commending those who serve "the least of these," totally forgetting that millions of Americans believe, as she evidently does not, that unborn children surely qualify on that score.
There is confession and repentance aplenty to go around the sorry political and cultural life of the American people today, but I repeat: I would infinitely rather be ruled by Mayor Bloomberg--for all his faults--than by a crowd of self-righteous, arrogant Christians, the pharisaical left-wing Christians--and the corrupt and wholly blind right-wing impostors of Christ who worship a man who worships himself.
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@David A. Lee If you want to show your respect for Jews, then don't use the term "pharisaical" as a term of reproach -- for anyone. The Pharisees were not law-obsessed, self-righteous, and anti-compassion. They were religious innovators who enabled Judaism to continue after the fall of the Second Temple in 70CE. Using their name as an insult perpetuates the antisemitic language of the New Testament that reflects early Christian infighting.
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@AHS I accept the amplification of meanings here, but I used the word as it has been commonly employed for many centuries in English, without in the least intending any offense to Jews. I am myself descended from a Jew. And it requires no great acquaintance with the New Testament to comprehend that it is false to say that the conflicts involving Jews depicted therein reflect little more than anti-Semitism as we today commonly that word. The deep conflict in the early Christian Church involved the question whether the Goyim--the Gentiles--were fit to belong to the divine economy of truth and grace rather than being excluded from the benefits of the reality of God as Jews had confessed it.
2
I find reality to be quite the opposite. Religions are used as excuses SUPPORTING an amoral president, SUPPORTING terrorism, SUPPORTING genocides. It is the nonreligious people that have a real moral compass. Go figure.
2
I wish Mr. Meacham had started his essay with an examination of a phrase from the last sentence, the "will to power." He is, I think, referencing Nietzsche, who coined the phrase, and who suggested that religion in general and Christianity in particular are really just veiled strategies for acquiring power. I do not subscribe to this notion myself, but what else could explain the evangelical support for Trump? I applaud Meacham for trying to be positive rather than divisive, but in this case I think the phenomenon needs to be unpacked more, given the danger it presents not just to the division of powers on American government, but the notion that that system has any religious religious underpinnings whatsoever.
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Seneca the Younger, c. 4 BC – AD 65)
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Amoral president?!????!!!!???
Mr. Meacham, Trump is an immoral president who is currently battering our justice system with a log like Vikings trying to break into a fort with a wooden gate.
And if religion is our best hope, well, we don't have a prayer.
1
Amorality is correct. Trump has no character, and no moral compass to adequately judge good versus bad. There is only him. Textbook amorality.
2
You know, Jesus also went into the house of the money changers, flipped tables and beat them with a whip.
Maybe, it's actually time to flip some tables and break out the whip.
WWJD?
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"that initially inspired the Negroes of Montgomery to dignified social action,”
That is such a telling quotation. What inspired many followers (of whatever color or belief) of Dr. King was his focus on dignity.
What many of us today long for in all the choices that face us is a little dignity to shine through all the chaos.
Jesus wasn’t political. He offered humankind a pathway to Eternity and he NEVER said it was going to be easy.
“The Kingdom of Heaven is within you” was one of the greatest statements he ever made.
Yes, all of us have a “perfect” guide.
Now all of us have to Trust that guide, get off your couch of hatred and prejudice and get to work!
1
Sorry. On balance, I think religion just teaches its believers whom to hate.
Mr. Meacham equates "religion" with "Christianity" as if that were the only religion there is. Of course the entire article is aimed at Christians, and the message he is attempting to deliver is certainly one of greater inclusiveness. It is sad that such a message is flawed by such an assumption that undermines it.
1
I am a Christian. In addition to the Sermon on the Mount, I find guidance from an early hymn Paul quoted in his letter to the Christians in Philippi. Jesus is praised as someone who counted equality with God as a thing to be grasped but chose to empty himself and become a servant to all persons. The hymn opens by calling believers to have the same mind as Jesus. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in "Letters and Papers From Prison" meditated on living a humble and more authentic life. He hoped for a Christianity without the garb of religion, a religionless religion. In other words, like Jesus' calling the common folk gathered before him light and salt, he charges believers to be luminaries in the world and the special savor enhancing life.
we need a new way to frame and respond to right-wing religion as it functions for the many who dominate the religious-political scene today.
We need a new response that’s neither the old “nice” liberal one that’s been tried again and again but has not worked well, nor the embittered anti-religion one that’s contributing to our corporate addiction to religion.
Sorry but I refuse to believe that "religion" is the "best hope" for anything. Religion should be a private matter and serves no useful purpose as part of what is supposed to be a secular country.
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Jon Meacham: If I provide an 'uplifting post' in support of your hypothesis, would you give me a discount on your book? That's my quid pro quo. I'm just following the teachings of the Current Occupant.
2
You don't have to look very far to realize religion isn't exactly a unifying force beyond regions. I'm not holding my breath here.
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"All men have need of the gods, Homer wrote." Ugg. There are many, many intelligent, kind people who need no such thing. I know that I am a biological being, living in a natural world, and when I die, I am gone. I will have no more awareness after death than I did before my birth. This whole life experience should be about living the Golden Rule. Anyone and everyone can do it.
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A very noble effort, Mr. Meacham. But one does have to wonder just how you thought such sublimity would go over in the pages of the New York Times. Did you assume you'd receive the response you actually got? Or were you simply willing to give the "smart and sophisticated" set the benefit of the doubt, and see how it goes?
Perhaps the real lesson here is that what generally passes for "social conscience" actually has very little to do with real spirituality, beyond the most superficial sense of the word.
But I do thank you for giving it your best shot. Some of us appreciated it, and are most obliged.
An appeal to the faith of the evangelicals in the NY Times is a voice crying in the wilderness. Try getting this message on Fox. I wish you luck in convincing his cult that Trump is more an anti-Christ than a Christian, or that his "favorite book" is one he's never read with a philosophy he's never followed.
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The recent embarrassing theatrics at the National Prayer Breakfast is the perfect example of the absolute need to banish religion from today’s “public square “.
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Trump is not amoral; he is immoral.
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@Jim Nope, he's both. Trump is a single-cell and solipsistic amoeba.
I am tired of the same old self-congratulatory talk about how great, pious, virtuous this country is. Look back at our history and you will see we never cared about the common good, that politicians only talk about it. Look at the short-lived stars like MLK who were rewarded with martyrdom. Look at how quickly any gains to the downtrodden were erased. Those people that Mr. Meacham speaks to could not care less about inequalities, about sending back asylum seekers to their deaths. They only care about abortion and tax breaks. Because their piety goes only so far. Because they don't care about the malnutrition of children after they are born, or the lack of education that will condemn them to a life of poverty, or the way we are destroying this wonderful world that was entrusted to us. When is someone going to tell people the truth: that the king has no clothes, that we are a selfish lot, that as long as we get a few more shekels we contentedly talk about the great economy. We are as bad as those that we constantly criticize. We tut-tut people in India, Burma for their abuse of minorities and we forget that in this country it is dangerous for an African-American to drive, to hang out with friend. When a child is killed on the other side of the border for throwing stones, and his assassin goes free. So instead of fasting this Lent, eat to your heart's content, but then think about who you really are, not who you dream you are
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If religion is our best hope against Trump, then God help us.
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@S.P. Just look at the list of Catholics in Trump's cabinet and on the Supreme Court, and then tell me religion will help us.
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A beautiful column. I would, however, refer readers to another and unforgettable meditation on Jesus and his place in the world, the story Dostoevsky embeds in The Brothers Karamazov as "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor." Jesus returns to earth (16th-century Spain) and begins again to perform miracles. Again, he is arrested. A cardinal visits and tells him that the world has no place for the real Jesus: he came to offer moral freedom and true moral freedom is an impossible burden for humans. They want to be told what to believe and what to do, and that is the work that the Church has taken on. No wonder our President has such an evangelical following: he offers them precisely that release from the burden of moral freedom.
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I wish that Christians would condemn Trump's bullish, immoral behavior, but there is scant evidence that they will do so. The number of Christians that support Trump despite his non-Christian behavior suggests that they are more interested in getting their Christian values expressed in the law (e.g. opposition to reproductive rights) then their concern for Trump's outrageous behavior. They fail to see that in our constitution, freedom of religion is combined with freedom FROM religion;a religious group does not have the right to impose their beliefs on others.
I wish Christians would stop supporting Trump, they should do so because his behavior is decidedly non-christian, but also because his behavior violates a rationally derived set of ethical rules regarding respect for others.
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Please please don’t lump all Christians together! I am a Christian who deeply believes in justice, the power of love over hate and the call to work ceaselessly for a more just, peaceful society and world. I am appalled by the support of so many who profess a Christian faith for Trumpism and for this massively flawed man. They as I have a ‘right’ to our interpretations of Christian gospels but I wonder how they miss the clear teachings of Christ on the primacy of love and care for the least among us.
@Sally Peabody Sorry Sally. I didn't mean to imply that Christians were of one-mind about Trump's behavior. That is why I used the phrase "the number of Christians." My father is a Deacon within the Roan Catholic Church and his disgust with Trump's behavior matches my own. As with you, he is disappointed with how some of his fellow Christians turn a blind eye to Trump's shenanigans. Again, my apologies, and please take care. -paul
As a Christian of the Catholic tradition I think Mr Meacham raises an important, but frustrating point. It is important for people with a strong foundation in morality (and that includes people of Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist etc, atheistic and agnostic backgrounds) to stay grounded in their morality and subordinate political views to moral and ethical principles. Politics, policies (and even dogmas) and their systems change constantly but basic morality cannot change or else we are on quicksand. Always find it baffling why Evangelicals who base their beliefs on the words of Jesus could have gone for a person so lacking in morality and ethics. One hopes that at some point their moral compass returns to normal and takes control again. With an election coming up and intolerance of anybody who thinks different from "me" growing, it is up to people of morality to make a stand for morality and be guided by it rather than politics, power and economics.
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Forgive me for being a little cynical at this point, and to be fair the author has pointed out the shortcomings of various religious institutions, but........ Every christian religious organization in America has had nearly four years to search their souls and compare the teachings of Jesus with the words, actions, deeds and professions of this man in the white house and his pious enablers (such as our Vice President) and they have clearly found no contradictions in their hearts.
Which tells me that all of these otherwise (with some exceptions) intelligent people, have either badly misread or misunderstood the teachings of their God and savior to whom they have devoted most of their lives, or, they are perfectly comfortable with living a life of total hypocrisy in the interests of some narrow financial, political, or philosophical goal. Given the huge success and following of the Pat Robertsons of this world, I am not very optimistic that your solution is a viable response to our current pain, and it only further supports the notion that at all costs, we must resist the ceaseless creep of theocracy into our nation and public policy.
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@Alfred Know Making generalizations about religion, including Christian religion in America, is always a fraught enterprise. The oft-quoted "80% of evangelicals support Trump" figure is composed of whites who are evangelical by self-appellation, and ignores actual beliefs and behaviors, and obviously discounts both the ~20% of evangelical whites who don't support him as well as the much larger percentage of non-white evangelicals who don't support him. I appreciate that self-appellation is convenient for pollsters, but more in-depth polling has revealed that most evangelicals are heretics from a "beliefs" perspective, and are hypocrites from a "behaviors" perspective. Evangelical: the press keeps using that word. I don't think it means what they think it means.
There are, of course, Christian voices that are critical of Trump (and the NYT has published some). We live in a pluralistic and market-driven democracy, however, and "I'm pro-life and don't like Trump" will always be drowned in a sea of shrieking. Long story short, I share your cynicism, though for somewhat different reasons. The solution to bad theology is good theology, but admittedly Americans have never been particularly good at thinking, especially on emotionally-charged topics.
Based on past experience since about the beginning of time, I would say that morality is the best hope against Trump- not religion.
Morality is very different than organized religion. They should not be confused with each other.
13
Mr. Meacham has good intentions but little to suggest in terms of an action plan that would end our current national nightmare. It would be more helpful to call for upholding the non-sectarian morals and behavior that have stood the test of time across civilizations, such as honesty, kindness, compassion, dignity, and self-sacrifice, as well as valuing reason and knowledge. And that said, what should an ethical, enlightened person do, prior to voting straight Democratic next November?
One can certainly agree, however, with Mr. Meacham’s too-gentle implication that mainstream evangelicalism should be discredited for its utter failure to embody the religion it professes.
4
I threw the exact quote from Margaret Mead away, but it was to the effect that America was the most interesting country in the world because you could walk down any street and meet someone who was totally different from yourself. This curiosity and open-mindedness is something wonderful that doesn't necessarily require a religious belief. I wish we had more of it.
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It's one of the few areas where there is a possibility or revitalization. I've been kind of distressed the last few days that Sanders is being taken to task for insinuating that the Cuban revolution is more complicated than 4 legs good, 2 legs bad. Looking the other way and the insistence that history occurs in a vacuum comes from a kind of lazy political correctness on steroids. Christ wanted his followers to treat others as they would want to be treated themselves. This forces you to try to walk a mile in somebody else's shoes. That's the only effective way to try to understand societal and political issues. Without that, it's just a matter of who gets what. The philosophy of the Houston Astros.
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I would reframe this whole discussion, away from religion and towards moral behavior. One of the great flaws in religious circles is the unspoken meme that only the religious (if it’s YOUR religion) can promote moral behavior in flawed humans.
I would argue that living a moral life ( the definition of which is the discussion I would hope we could have ) is, for someone agnostic or a-religious, even more impressive and powerful than for those whose morality is too often guided by fear (e.g. of hell, etc.)
As a secular nation, the discussion by Mr. Meacham should be expanded, to begin a national dialog on what it means, independent of religion or any other “compulsion”, to be moral, ethical, compassionate. We know these traits are built into human consciousness, as is greed, hate (fear), and all the rest. It’s my belief that the majority of our people would welcome such a discussion, and such a calling in these dark times.
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I've enjoyed and respected Mr. Meachum's writing for years but I can't agree that the solution to living with bad religion in our Trump-dystopian country is best answered by more of the same. Let's try something new.
We have a burgeoning population of young Americans who are increasingly uninterested in religion. Churches are emptying. The world is relentlessly globalizing and exposing us to different cultures and ideas, many that are completely at odds with Christianity.
As a non-believer, I see that so much of religion that is make-believe. We need to get a reality check. We would be better served in a reality-based world bolstered by good education and a dedication to making society here and the rest of the world better. Reliance on an immutable higher power who is the possessor of the only true knowledge is the cornerstone of tribalism and xenophobia.
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Perhaps the essay should be titled "Why Religion May Become a Force Against Trump". For many it is a Hope already and will remain so. For others, it may become a Hope. But what it needs to be, as what it is a Hope For, is action. Sadly, this heartfelt and yearning essay, written in the face of majority religious supported action in these times, offers no path to action or reason to believe that the Hope we Hope for will rise and move us to the actions it champions. Yet it is still better to encourage candle lighting than to mock the candle snuffers or accept the darkness.
1
"The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed" this is precisely where I believe evangelicals misunderstand the vast majority of non-Christians. It's not that we want to banish religion, we just don't want it being shoved down our throats in the form of Christian versions of sheria laws.
I've also noticed a tendency amongst some Christians these days to be selective in who they apply "Christian forgiveness." It seems like Trump gets a pass but liberals are all evil.
I would love to believe that there are more woke Christians out there, but they've been a bit too silent since 2016.
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Meacham is the best author of all time
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"King had been deeply influenced by the theologian Walter Rauschenbusch and his 1907 book “Christianity and the Social Crisis,” which argued that Jesus called the world not simply to contemplate but to act. "
Another leader profoundly influenced by Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel: George McGovern
https://www.noozhawk.com/article/102412_wayne_mellinger_george_mcgovern_social_gospel
Remember Nixon's Southern Strategy turned the Republicans directly against these values starting in 1968
4
Sure, sure...religion. But to avert a candidate you don't want.. you still need a GOOD candidate. Where is that?
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@Anon-a-Mouse in DC. I assume you mean a GOOD GOP candidate as there are several good Democratic candidates. But....how about Mitt Romney? The only Republican with moral fibre willing to stand for his faith beliefs. Why haven't the christians who dislike trumps tand behind someone like him? Oh, wait....he's a Mormon!
An exercise in fantasies. The Christian church, during Trump, has been an enabler or silent observer. I expect zero help from them, based on the past. And of course, the Christians are the people who like to tell everyone else how to live, unlike most religions. They have always been overly aggressive, in my opinion.
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"Why Religion Is the Best Hope Against Trump"
Ugh--it isn't, of course. It is only false hope to go with a false president--par for the course and the president is a legendary cheater.
Faith is diametrically opposed to reason, which is the bane of Trump and Trumpism.
Putting trust in sky wizards, invisible friends and magical thinking over reason is a symptom of the age of lemmings.
Orwell and Huxley were both right.
7
@J Your comment left me with odd feelings. I agree with it wholeheartedly.
However, it might (or might not?) surprise you to learn that as a white, theologically conservative American male evangelical, I don't see it as describing me. I appreciate it as rhetoric, but it often seems more like skeptic shibboleths than an actual analysis of the problem. In "1984" there was ample blind faith in invisible powers (aka Big Brother) which was arguably one of Orwell's main criticisms; that this was not "religious" in any conventional sense is presumably obvious. Raw atheism (especially of the "lack belief in god(s)" sort) will always be inadequate (and was very comfortable, philosophically, in Orwell's world). Merely banishing the religious is not helpful; the cure for bad philosophy isn't no philosophy, but good philosophy, something which modern American atheism generally lacks (and sometimes explicitly opposes).
Finally, on a practical level, such wording is often less than useless. People who do consider themselves devout either don't know what you're talking about, or simply label you as an ignorant Philistine and an enemy to the common good. It's certainly not a recipe for civil peace.
The United States has been tainted by a very corrupted version of Christianity so it seems a stretch that it is the best hope against Trump. Indeed, it is this very evangelical taintedness that put Trump in office. It is not an exaggeration to say the we have seen the rise of the Anti-Christ in Trump and through his right wing evenagelical base.
5
I'm not buying this argument...there is an obvious sheeple element to what is occurring in the fundamentalist religion community writ large...the truer colors are on full display...
5
I don't know whether this op-ed is naivete or just willful ignorance. People who are religious don't follow Trump, don't make me laugh. If they follow Trump they are by nature using religion as an excuse for power, or they are just lying about being religious. Wake up please.
4
@Bruce The evangelicals who are Trump supporters are decided to be "evangelical" by polls which almost never use anything other than self-appellation for their analysis, usually just a box on a form labelled "evangelical or born-again." As such, it is a measure of self-concept, not theology or behavior or even affiliation as such. Other more in-depth polls have shown that most of these evangelicals are heretics theologically and hypocrites ethically. This has always been true in most religions, of course (Martin Luther was complaining about it in Germany in the 16th century). Unfortunately, reporting that goes beyond facile labels is time-consuming (and therefore expensive), nuanced (and therefore lengthy) and rare. To their credit, the NYT has done some, but it is unusual; usually the nuance ends at "80% of white evangelicals....".
I'm not so sure of that.
Putting religion into the hands of Americans produces results comparable to putting nuclear missiles in the hands of five year-olds. By now it seems likely that Americans using bibles have caused as much pain, death and misery than Germans using Mein Kampf did in 12 years of self-immolation.
Christians complaining about abortion and the mortal sin of producing flower arrangements and cakes for gays yet proclaiming as a gift from Jesus a man who separates children from their parents in crimes against humanity is what makes me completely finished with them. We've fought wars against better people than that.
8
Many people confuse Jesus with those who profess the religion of Christianity. I happen to believe that Jesus was not of this world and religion is absolutely of this world including the modern day “Christians”. It was the religious leaders of His time that opposed him primarily because they had built a kingdom of their own in His name and His coming meant they were going to lose their power. Sound kind of familiar, the Christian Right has a pretty nice kingdom going these days and Trump is behind them. Many non-believers who believe in peace, equality, justice and love might be surprised to know that they are His followers. Regarding Trump, He was also pretty clear about who was the father of lies....google John 8:44.
2
Jon I keep looking for your savior Anybody But Trump but all I see are more Chief Priests and Pharisees.
1
Frankly, there is little that I find more tiresome than harkenings to religiosity. When I read that our best hope is religion I feel my teeth grinding in my head. In America references to religion almost always refer to Christianity, although, in my worldview, the others are equally odious. If we were to merely, as Meacham does, see Jesus and those inspired by him, as exceptional humans beings that would be fine. But that is not what we do. Religion, all religion, brings centuries of idiocy and bad practice along with it. With the exception of Judaism all of the later religions bring along a next world focus that is detrimental to fully living the one life that we know we have. And there is nothing more frightening than the religious morons, like Pence or Pompeo who feel the need to help make "prophesies" actualities. We are a tribe of somewhat smart apes who have explained existence in a variety of ways since we first scratched images on the walls of caves. And while we are able to laugh at the silliness of a geocentric universe, a flat earth and the efficacy of blood letting; we cling to the hope of religion, rather than exceptional humans, as moral exemplars. But, maybe, it's human thought, that should lead the way. The idea that religious minds will be changed if we can just distill the best parts misses the point. One can boil down all religious writing and thinking to four words; "be kind, be tolerant". Yet, simple as that is, cultures, as a whole, can't grasp it.
2
Religion always divides people. Look at what is happening in India now with the bigot Modi hosting the bigot Trump, and persecuting Muslims. That's why the writers of the constitution positioned America to be a secular society. America was never meant to be a "Christian" nation. It is a country built on law, not superstitious belief.
3
How about the Hindu Golden Rule:
Vasudev Kutumbhkam
Sarva Kalyanam Prathmo Dharma
Translation:
All beings are one family
The welfare of all is our prime obligation
This rule could be the basis of all politics. It would require healthcare for all as well as kindness towards all animals, human animals as well as non-human animals.
4
As much as I respect and admire Mr. Meacham, he couldn't be more wrong on this one.
Religion is the CAUSE of the current state of affairs, it will not defeat it.
No, sadly, all religion has done lately is prove that it has no place in government.
5
Religion continues to be crippled in society by the tendency to depict God in the image of ourselves. I recall this described in two ways. The first is how we respond to the commandment "love thy neighbor as thyself." We tend, as one description went, to draw circles in our mind and love only those of our neighbors who qualify to be within those circles. The oft-quoted phrase "an honest man is the noblest work of God" gave food for thoughts well when paraphrased thusly: "An honest God is the noblest work of man."
Based on what we know of the evangelicals, why would anyone dream of seeing them take of their blinders are become rational?
This is the most idiotic notion of the entire campaign so far.
2
On this one, I have to say Mr. Meacham should defer to Garry Wills re: religion in the public sphere. As many here write, which god, which religion, what of secularism and evangelicals? Muslim v. Jew in Palestine/Israel: whose country is it? The Brits decided, USA supports continuing huge military assistance as well as other financial assistance, and the ME from Iraq to Syria a holy mess. Those poor unfortunates in Idlib: which religion allowed that? And the Muslim unfortunates in India killed by the Hindus who have the majority in their leader, recently visited by our fearless leader. A holy mess.
2
In a world that has witnessed Evangelicals support a vile and mean spirited President, Catholics protect pedophiles over the safety of children in their care, Muslims hating each other due to different interpretations of the Koran.....it seems odd to ask 'religion' to step in and mend our differences. I really enjoy John Meacham and his insights, but he misses the mark on this one.
5
Meacham claims that “the more productive task is to manage and marshal the effects of religious feeling on the broader republic”. I hate to have to point out reality to him, but historically the people doing the managing and marshaling have been men like Hitler, Stalin and Trump. Modi in India is currently showing exactly what happens when evil men mange and marshal the crowds’ religious feeling for their own purposes. The sad fact is that people who wish to gain earthly wealth and power exploit their followers’ need for a big daddy in the sky. That the vast majority of evangelicals in America support Trump, an avid practitioner of the seven deadly sins, is a perfect example of how Christianity can be anything you want it to be and the words of Jesus can be read as an endorsement of anything including murderous bigotry and greed. The cover story may be that Trump will ban abortions, but the real story is that those so-called Christians actually delight in Trump’s lust, greed, race hatred and defiance of the laws of God and man. So no, managing and marshaling the effects of religious feeling is not what this country and the world need. What is needed is more rational, fact-based thought and actual morals.
4
I too am a very poor Christian and I hope the author is right that "religion is the best hope against Trump" but I doubt it. Most people just bend their religious beliefs to fit their politics, not the other way around. The best hope for any type of social progress is to organize and make common cause with people who share your views, no matter what their religious beliefs may be. And it will be an uphill battle no matter what because the other side has all the money.
Using the words of Jesus to try to convince Christians to vote for a certain politician is a futile exercise because the ones who will vote Republican will use different parts of the Bible to try to convince you that they are right. And you can wave Martin Luther King and John Lewis at them all you want. They will ignore you and counter with Franklin Graham and the TV Preacher du jour. Jesus was executed, not elected, and his modern-day followers like Doctor King were only able to accomplish anything politically because they put at least as much energy into organizing and networking and strategic civil disobedience as they did into preaching what the Bible teaches.
2
Mr. Meacham, Courage is required to write about religion in 2020, so I admire you for writing this editorial. When good takes action, that is God at work in the world as Jesus taught us. And, yes, the Sermon on the Mount helped us understand what good is.
1
@Saba Now that so many Christians have learned what good is from the Sermon on the Mount, where are the good works?
2
Rauschenbusch's speaking of the whole man, of "not only his soul, but (additionally) his body, not only his spiritual well being but his material well being" points to one of the most overlooked and powerful words in our English language: "and." Rauschenbusch, King and Lewis alike do not fall for the false argument of too many Christian thinkers that I hear of these days wrangling over the false binary choice of "Gospel vs. Social Gospel." What is most pleasing to God is necessarily "both." Man does not live by bread alone, but clearly bread is still required. King and Lewis lived lives where they not only spoke, but lived lives that showed what they spoke of; "Love that is held only inside the heart, is no love at all." To love thy neighbor is to act, to the glory of God.
4
The author lost me with this straw man:
"The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed."
"Public square" is not coterminous with "government." American Christians are free to establish churches, broadcast stations, newspapers, proselytize, form interest groups or even political parties, to their hearts' content, and I know of no "seculars" who wish to change that. But Establishment Clause prohibits government from endorsing religious views. A desire to maintain the Establishment Clause is hardly a "wish to banish religion from the public square."
9
@batavicus I agree with you, but most of all I am saddened by that person's lack of understanding of the Constitution. Their vote actually counts as much as the vote of people who take the time to understand and sort out the issues we face.
1
Mr Meacham overlooks the power of knowledge. We, people, human beings, have powerful instincts, some which we recognize, some which are almost operating silently out of consciousness. Yet we we believe we are the beings that have risen above instincts, that we decide to do things. We have not, far more than we know, overcome our instincts - we have not come to understand how powerful, and contradictory, they can be. Having said that, what may be most remarkable about us is the complex ways we manifest the fact that we are social animals. Our instincts, our consciousness, who we are, is an evolutionarily unique accident, which may or may not persist much longer. I agree with you that faith is essential to overcoming those times when our destructive, paranoid, predatory, instincts dominate our social world - our communities. It is pretty clear that people, communities, whether families, our nations, or all of us on the planet, are most successful when we tap into our bonding instincts - to have affection for, care for, befriend, to love one another. The ongoing struggle of our species, is to act on our faith in loving one another, not fearing and loathing each other. Religions may or may not help us choose love over loathing, and generosity over greed. I am not persuaded that we are bad, and that a magical outside force, whether Christianity, or any other religion, is good. The struggle, and the answer, lie within.
2
As a former believer turned atheist, I have much to quibble about Mr Meacham's assertions. Current examination of events in the world shows us that religion is fostering more pain, sorrow, and division than any other philosophy. Its history is deplorable. Religion was used to justify slavery, and now that I read the Bible through non-believing eyes, I agree that the biblical authority for slavery far outweighs any biblical authority for its abolition. The Bible is a cruel and heartless book, which extols genocide, slavery, mistreatment of women etc. It has also been used to justify driving the Native Americans not only from their lands in this country, but their lands from here to the tip of South America. Spanish priests burned Mayan codex which contained a wealth of information concerning the Mayan history, because they believed that they were of the devil. In order to find those gems in the New and Old Testament upon which Dr. King and Mr. Lewis relied, involves a substantial amount of cherry picking. I'm not disputing that these gems are not useful, the Sermon on the Mount is a beautiful piece of philosophy, that would be wonderful if Christians actually followed it. It would be my hope that one day we would recognize each other for our humanity, our common ancestry as evolving beings on this planet, and find that our place is only as secure as our ability to make sure that all humans are treated with respect and dignity. Something that religion will never do.
5
Too many have promoted books using the false promises of religion.
I will never forgive Evangelicals for voting for Trump. The political hypocrisy of Evangelicals is despicable.
6
Give me a break. Are you for real? Trump is president because America is lost. There is no way back because there was never a way back. America is like all nations that rise and fall. Our time has come.
1
Religion is the problem, not the solution.
7
Religion is not the best hope for anything. Non-starter.
6
Despite it's claim or designation of being our "National Religion", Christianity may be the most misunderstood religion in history.
No blogpost can adequately give time or space for a full explanation of why I trust that that statement is true, so let me just say this: the faith that was born in first century Palestine bears little resemblance to what is being practiced in modern America.
More's the pity.
2
Remember when Evangelicals argued that HIV and AIDs were god's punishment for their evil ways? And these crazy views were actually aired in some media?
Things have not changed at all with the exception, perhaps, that Evangelicals picked up some media savvy beyond the ken of Jerry Falwell et al.
4
Believe what you want, just don't try to convince me that it is true or relevant and don't use your beliefs to subjugate non-believers via the government.
5
Is this intended as a vignette of delusion? Trump has shown Christianity in this culture to be a joke. The evangelicals leaped at fascism like it was Jesus come to Earth, and the mainline denominations have been as silent as ghosts. If you take a call from the message of Jesus, great. But the institutions built around praising him are useless and decayed.
4
Religion is powerful but as a double-edged sword. Many do use religion selflessly for the greater good. Like MLK and other in the civil rights movement.
But the most vocal block of religious people in America for two generations, the religious right, have tapped religion’s most subtle power. It enables them, because they are religious, to believe they are incapable of committing seriously bad acts.
Their religion essentially shields them from criticism, in their minds, for embracing a completely immoral person (cough, Trump, cough, cough) who recklessly and consistently commits acts of cruelty. Like separating parents and their children. Like cutting food programs for the poor to help pay for tax cuts to corporations and billionaires. (I could go on but there’s a word limit here.)
Physicist Steven Weinberg captured this sentiment, saying, "With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil – that takes religion."
5
I was born and raised 60 miles from Jon Meacham's home of Chattanooga. My church offered an "us against them" message was powerful and often repeated. Those who were not Fundamentalist Christians were doomed to burn in hell for an eternity. This condemnation also included most other Christians that did not follow a certain narrow doctrine. BUT this "us against them message was also often preached in more main stream Christian Churches. I attended both types of churches.
Just 3 months ago I attended one of the largest churches in my home state. It would likely be considered a mainstream Christian Church. The message was the same. Those who did not take Jesus Christ as their own personal savior were sinners doomed to Hell. The minister went on to provide a long list the damned.
Good luck on an effort to appeal to any Christian that has not already recognized the total lack of morality in the Trump Administration. Yes many Christians have seen these moral failings and many have not. But don't be expecting a wide Christian awakening that has not already happened.
4
Although I'm not among them, I respect and sometimes envy those who derive spiritual inspiration, sustenance and peace from their religion. But I don't consider vocal "evangelicals" to be among them.
Seems to me that they are every bit as much of a political cult as an organized religion, whatever label they apply to themselves.
3
There is an excess of religion in human society. Received wisdom can not be demonstrated through logic or evidence, and is hence authoritarian by its very nature. Of necessity, societies developed religious tolerance in an attempt to limit the strife and violence of conflicting religious dogmas. Religious tolerance is the peculiar assertion that world views often in stark conflict and unsupported by fact, logic, or anything discoverable in the natural world can somehow be simultaneously "true" and compatible. Unfortunately, religious faith has escaped its bounds and infused almost all areas of contemporary life, metastasizing into a false egalitarianism that holds that all knowledge is merely opinion and that, not just all men, but all men's beliefs, are created equal. The religious mindset is profoundly at odds with how the universe really works, and ultimately divides and sets people against each other. Good intentions are not enough.
2
There might be an argument to be made that because religious intolerance is largely responsible for the declines in our political culture, that a religion-based resurgence of Christian values might repair some of the damage. Pretty much all “hot-button” political campaigns from anti-abortion to anti-gay, xenophobia to economic moralism, have been directed toward a religious sentiment that encourages intolerance and hatred for “other,” to where now all conservative political energy is bent on pushing the next hot button. It’s just hard to see how a person comes back once you’ve forsaken both rational considerations and your moral commitments and wrapped your arms around Trump.
3
Biblical Job is tempted by satan who says that Job is only faithful because god has bestowed wealth and prosperity to him. In the Bible, Job stays true to his faith. Can Christians say they stayed true to their faith when they were tempted and helped elect this profane president? They sold their souls toTrump and in the process Christianity will undoubtably suffer the loss of a great many believers. I am an atheist. I didn’t believe in Christianity but I thought evangelicals did. I stand corrected. They are believers for selfish reasons. It is very clear that Christianity is on the wane in the USA. Young people aren’t just turning more liberal, they are turning away from religion in huge numbers. I predict that we will see an even more precipitous decline in religious affiliation among young people.
3
The world is not Christian. Only 16 percent of the world is any kind of a Christian at all. The ideals, the values and the vision defined by Christian civilizations are not the ethical, social or moral cornerstones of the rest of the world. The world is also not male, half the population of the globe is female, visible or not, more than that if you bother to consider the females who are not allowed to be born or are allowed to die at birth simply because they are female.
2
I wish I shared your optimism on religion delivering us from this morass, but I don't. Religion got us here, by causing and fomenting division, and blindly backing the most despicable person to ever be elected president, as well as fully supporting Republican policies that can only be described as anti-christian, anti-family, and anti-American. Most religions, Christianity especially, have an authoritarian bent and aren't really interested in sharing power - only keeping it. Looking to religion to "help" us only strengthens their hand and weakens ours, trading one authoritarian overlord for another, and that doesn't help anyone.
4
I am sure God does not have a religion. I believe that God is who Jesus told us. Jesus knew God, he said God is Love and that's good enough for me. For every situation let God rule your actions and you will be overwhelmed with the results. Religion only complicates our lives and gives the impression that one is superior to the other while the charlatans line their pockets.
2
I stopped halfway through Meacham's trip to Fantasyland and threw up my hands in bewilderment that someone as educated and highly intelligent could believe that religion could somehow lead us out of this hideous morass.
Religion is the worst scourge ever perpetrated on humankind, from the Crusades to the Inquisition to the modern day when Sunni's and Shi'a slaughter each other over minor disagreements in scripture and Evangelicals, whose god tells them that a microscopic fertilized egg is a baby, twist themselves beyond recognition to support the most immoral president in our history.
Yet here comes Meacham to tell us that religion just might be the ticket. Oh, please. Imagine how much different and more people-centered our politics would be if atheism prevailed and most of us believed that we get just one life. Religion is not the answer. It's the problem.
5
Jon, MLKjr and Gandhi found inspiration before Rauschenbusch in Tolstoy's "The Kingdom of God is Within You." There Tolstoy points out the truly radical challenge of Jesus: where you find evil, return good. Go beyond the golden rule. Turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile. If need be - pluck out your eye, break all of society's rules.
Popular public religion could not be further from challenge to be like Jesus, instead catering to the wealthy and warmongers, peddling magic and superstition.
The choice is between the Sermon on the Mount and the Nicene Creed.
For more see:
SentimentalStargazer.com - An Atheist Sermon
Fr. Gareth Harris
2
Way off the mark. Black liberation was far more a social and class movement. WWII showed how integration could work, blacks had fled the repression of the southern states for jobs, unionism and affluence, schools and colleges were federally mandated to integrate, music and arts flourished, black militancy, leadership and activism, equal and voting rights amendments became law and much more.
All were flawed and had symptomatic digressions but to credit religion or Christianity more than a peripheral attribution is misleading and insulting.
3
Mr. Meacham's article will probably boost sales of his book among people who already agree with him. The problem, however, is the cultural enslavement of Christianity in so-called E(eeee)vangelical Christianity. Which is everything but 'evangelical' in the root Biblical meaning of the word. Trump is their imagined King Cyrus. Trump, of course, is anything but Great; but he's their most useful tool. Does anyone really believe that people in powerful positions (Pompeo, Pence, Barr et al.) do not have this agenda at heart? I certainly don't. And the Christianity of people like Jon Meacham will continue to pay the heavy price of personal and public disinterest and rejection by the growing portion of the society that finds everything about the Trumpian world and its worldview detestable.
4
“In our time, the will to power has all too often overwhelmed the words of Jesus — and that is why we must hear and heed those words anew.”
The problem is that the will to power is embedded in the perverted version of Christianity that we have inherited. Before Christianity can be trusted it must repudiate the malignant Pauline doctrine of the unique divinity of Jesus.
No other religion makes the insidious claim that its prophet was divine, at one with God. By reframing Christianity this way Paul repudiated Jesus teaching that all people were equally children of God. Pauline Christian doctrine encouraged Christians to puff themselves up with the belief that they were better than the ‘heathens’ because they were closer to God. This egotistic notion made Pauline Christianity an ideal choice for the established religion of Empires, from the Romans to the English, and it allows Americans to hang on to their delusion of being morally exceptional.
Christianity has been effective when it returns to the teachings of Jesus, but before it can be trusted it must repudiate its anti-Jesus Pauline element.
3
I think what a lot of people might miss (including Christians) is that Christians aren’t Holier than thou. As followers of Jesus we are called to live like Him, which makes it seem like we are trying to be holier than thou. In reality we are just as much sinners as everyone else as Jesus sees all sin as equally evil. The only difference is that we follow Jesus who covers our sin. We are still sinful like everyone else, so we aren’t holier than everyone. The only difference is we have Jesus covering our sins and are now trying to reach others to Jesus
Christians are called to live a life like Christ, but we are still sinners like everyone else because we are human.
1
@Nate -- Unfortunately when you say "we" you mean a subset of identifying Christians that is probably a minority, and I think certainly a small minority of strongly identifying Christians today. My knowledge of history is limited, but it appears to me that the main historical influence of Christianity has been as a tool of Empire and European conquest.
3
@Nate Everybody thinks that they know what Jesus thought and each one will tell you a different story. This is the history of Christianity as well as the history of *all* religions.
The same thing goes for the so-called, "Originalists" and their interpretation of the Constitution. These people really are telling us that only they can crawl into the minds of our Founding Fathers and discern their 18th century minds and intentions. Right! I'll believe that when monkeys can fly! Leave us reasonable people along!
2
Love, compassion, thoughtfulness and a willingness to help those less fortunate than you are something that I thought religion stood for.
No longer, religion seems to be a poison that is used to oppress others and elevate yourself and your particular beliefs above all others, in particular those that don't share your faith. A prejudice and anger that seems to just have been waiting to find a voice and has in a hate filled and divisive president.
You do not need to subscribe to a particular religion to live a life that promotes love, you only have to try.
The more they shout about being oppressed it seems they feel the need to force their views on those of us that have other perspectives. It's not religious freedom if you only strand up for your beliefs while you suppress others.
It feels like hypocrisy is the only thing that religion brings to the table anymore.
I know that not everyone is but your voices are being drowned...
Religious freedom is not just for Christians and Catholics. You think that people that don't share your beliefs are oppressing you and your views.
I implore you to do some self reflection. I don't go into public spaces and feel like I MUST see my views written on the wall or into other public space, they might not align with someone else and I respect that and don't need the icons to be a good and caring person.
4
This is why many argue that the only Christian there ever was, died on the cross. And even he really did not live up to his reputation.
What we have in the New Testament is second-hand information. The writers never even heard Christ speak much less met him. That is why they need to resort to "miracles." Please. Don't insult reasonable people with mumbo-jumbo.
We can find that in any market of unfounded claims.
1
I can't believe I can still identify a "sayings gospel" but I know one when I see one. Mr. Meacham's devotional publication is a sayings gospel. I was immediately reminded of the Gospel of Thomas.
The Gospel of Thomas is an ancient Egyptian text found buried with Gnostic documents sometime in the early years after Jesus's death. AD 140 is the high end. Unlike other Gospels, the text didn't bother describing the events of Jesus's life. It doesn't actually assert or deny his divinity at all. The text is simply a catalog of direct quotes from Jesus.
There are some familiar sayings.
"Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine."
But also more disturbing and cryptic lines.
"Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war.
"I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I'm guarding it until it blazes."
"Whoever does not hate father and mother cannot be my disciple, and whoever does not hate brothers and sisters, and carry the cross as I do, will not be worthy of me."
Not exactly the beatitude slinging Jesus you leaned about in Sunday school, now is he? Granted the text is apocryphal. However is the text apocryphal because the document is historically inaccurate or because major religions found elements of the text problematic?
If you've studied humans at all, you probably know which answer is more likely.
1
Religion eventually destroys everything. The worlds two great evils are religion and racism. They share equal responsibility for the reprehensible history humans share. I have ZERO confidence in any religion curing the worlds ills, especially in a world this divided.
2
Christianity has not become the arm of the Republican Party. We simply cannot support a Democratic Party that maligns us and whose God is Marx.
Constantly catering to the needs of a steadily shrinking minority of people has not been a successful strategy for democrats. But here is a devout Christian telling us that no, we need to keep paying attention to people like him and kowtowing to their warped world view.
Uh, it’s a trap.
1
The greatest trick the devil ever played, was to convince them he was on THEIR side.
67
@M.B. from Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (STColeridge)
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
3
I have faith in the Enlightenment.
3
And yet the voices from the pulpits are oddly and eerily silent, or at least soft-spokenly oblique, on the subject of the current presidency and its mean-spirited, divisive agenda and blatant un-Christian immorality. Could it be because churchgoers are generally more 'conservative' than those who don't attend? Are the pastors uneasy about ruffling their flock's feathers? Is intestinal fortitude in support of what's right overpowered by self-aggrandizing hypocrisy?
1
Get religion - ALL religion - out of government and politics. These silly, contradictory mythologies are nothing but roadblocks on the road to human progress.
2
I am tempted to agree with the evangelicals:
* Perhaps Trump was sent by God....
but not for the reasons they think.
60
@Lydia: These people project that an imaginary all powerful being likes being prayed-at. If this entity were for real, it might just get irritated by it all. None of them even consider that possibility.
7
@Lydia - I think so too. Trump has the virtue of stirring people up, and making obvious the sins of our government that were previously covered up.
3
@Lydia Maybe God ran out of locusts...
15
Having Evangelicals in my family who voted for and still support Trump is hard to deal with, as a Democrat and an atheist.
But, IMO, it is delusional to think that they will abandon him in 2020, because they do not see him for what he is but what he says he will do --- change the law so abortions cannot happen. Change the law so that immigrants will remain on the other side of the fence. Continue to put people in his administration who are loyal to him only, because loyalty to Trump in the minds of many Evangelicals is a patriotic action.
Dr. King and so many others opened the door and turned segregation out of power. But racism and hate are still in hearts and minds, and many of those hearts and minds go to church on Sunday and pray that those who are not like them are visited with the wrath of an angry god.
2
"The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed"- so sad, but true, for now. If we survive religion, at some point in an enlightened future, they will marvel at the primitive cult worship of fantasy deities and get a good giggle. Until then, let the dark ages roll on.
Trump embodies envy, greed, wrath, gluttony, sloth, lust, and pride.
His “mark’ is his thing. He is all about his brand, isn’t he?
One of those sets of circumstances that have a curious person of faith wondering...
1
The deeper religion is rooted in a country, any country, the poorer it is, the more unequal it is, the the more misogynistic it is, the more violent it is.
The wealthiest, most equal and peaceful nations are those where religion play little or no part.
Christianity, in particular, has brought nothing to this world than exploitation, war, abuse, opression and hatred.
Especially in your country, where the constitutional separation of church and state is nothing but a sick joke, and where the so-called Christians are the ones who are doing everything they can to keep executing prisoners, robbing the poor to give to the rich, arming the whites whilst opressing the blacks, denying health care to the sick and keeping the refugees out.
Some Christians you are.
5
Contemporary "evangelicals" who shamelessly and unconditionally support Mr. Trump are a greater fraud than he is.
3
Blah, blah, blah. Religion gave us Trump. Had Christians voted their morality instead of their politics someone else would have been elected.
4
Thank you Professor Meacham. In reading this article I was reminded of Mark 8:27: Jesus asks his disciples:" Who do you say I am?" Beliefs are both personal and communal.
What's been lost in this most recent manifestation of 'group-think religion' is the idea that when judgement day comes for us all, the Almighty may not be interested in what others said, thought or acted upon. The only response accepted will be to the question posed by Jesus to the first disciples: "Who do you say I am?" The life lived by the respondent will be more important than their words of reply.
I cannot pull my eyes away from the illustration. Although the image is otherwise excellent, physics would seem to demand that the cross would not remain suspended over the edge with nothing but the necklace anchoring it to the table.
2
To sum up: Do what Christians say, not what they do.
5
Meacham may be writing about Christian Democrats. Christian Republicans? Not so much.
1
Trump is so alarming that atheists are considering prayer.
2
@fourfooteleven
Amen to that!
1
"We cannot attain to so great a mystery by one way."
This should be the motto of every person, of every religion, and of every atheist as well. Our very existence is a mystery, and science, thought it promises much, cannot explain it either.
1
Interesting that you should mention Gandhi, who supposedly told Christian missionaries: “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” With their support for Trump, they have definitely shown what Gandhi was talking about.
7
I was raised as a Methodist, in Alabama, in the late 1950s through the 1960s, then my parents declared the Methodist Church "dead" an went off the Evangelical cliff--Jim and Tammy Bakker and all that.
My Methodist upbringing is something I hold dear, my parents turn toward Evangelical Christianity in the 1979s, and then Prosperity Christianity, this was a travesty for our family.
Quit beating me about the head with your religion and get your religion out of my government and go into your room (and you know what I am talking about).
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
MB
4
I am so sorry to hear of your Christian leanings, Jon. Surely you see by now that religion is nothing more than a device used by the rich and powerful to accumulate yet more power. In this case to stack the courts with theocrats in the vain hope of turning America into a theocracy.
I don't see any sentient being believing in such ridiculous nonsense as Christianity asks of them. Surely you can see the outrageous hypocrisy of the evangelicals now. Only they can be so blind and gullible as to support the traitor in the Oval Office.
4
It seems the only things christians are united in is their belief that a womans' body is not hers to control.
6
Sorry I'm not buying. Not when about 80% of Evangelical Christians voted for a man that is a liar, and philanderer. He also seems to enjoy some support among black Christian ministers and other conservative Christian leaders.
4
Every so often, I get this idea that America might ultimately be saved by the rational self interest of its citizens. Thank you for straightening me out.
6
Why is it left unspoken that the world's major religions all hold women as lesser beings- relegated to follow men's lead in practicing their faith? Religion is authoritarian and patriarchal- why should it have any role in deciding how we run a country that is supposed to be democratic and equally include women?
8
I have no problem with anyone practicing their faith as they see fit. I have a problem when that person tries to shove THEIR religious beliefs down MY throat. More precisely, I have a problem when a person uses their faith as a justification to shove their POLITICAL beliefs down my throat.
Anytime someone says, "God wills it!" to rationalize their politics (as in the elimination of abortion, immigration, food stamps, etc.), then we ALL have a problem. The First Amendment supports a multiplicity of faiths--and even no faith at all. I find it appallingly egotistical when people think the Creator of the Universe cares about THEIR particular political issue.
I also have a problem when Evangelical voters support a man who breaks most of the Ten Commandments gleefully (especially about adultery) while they look the other way. I hope they have a painful time explaining their choices to Jesus someday. Somehow, I think he will NOT be pleased with their excuses.
8
For all the Christians that don't like Trump the man, but vote for him because he gets them closer to where they want to be - I don't think Jesus was an 'ends justifies the means' type guy.
8
This is a difference between religion and salvation. The Bible tells us that there is only one way to Heaven, and that is accepting what Jesus did on the cross - dying to save our souls from eternal damnation, as we were all born sinners because of Adam's fall from grace. And of course, rising again. We serve a risen, living Savior. John 3:16 and Romans 10: 9-10 describes the path to salvation. I am not a Trump supporter at all, but the Democrats do not seem to have a champion I truly feel I can get behind. I know that God can use whoever He chooses to accomplish His Will. I also know that pride goes before a fall - all I can say is that we all need to pray, study Scripture, and let our own conscience/hearts tell us who to vote for this coming November. And just know that a Sovereign God is in control, no matter what the outcome is. And . . . we can all try to brighten the little corner of the world we live in, by His help.
Walter Rauschenbusch was one of the greatest religious thinkers of the twentieth century. The nation did well by him.
1
Mr. Meacham says that "The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial".
Is it?
I've never heard any secularist wish to banish religion from the public square. Instead secularists wish that religion not be PRIVILEGED in the public square - that it have the same weight as any other source of morality. For example:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/jul/07/secularism-neutrality-religion-atheism
7
Unfortunately, Calvin has had more of an impact shaping the beliefs of modern "Christians" than Jesus himself. The idea that your poverty is proof that God doesn't love you has been the driving principle behind the religiosity of conservatism for hundreds of years. It is also handy in excusing unbridled greed and corruption, for your wealth, however you got it, is proof of God's love and favor. All of which has led us to the modern theocracy of the GOP, led by their pastor the Rev Dr Trump. (You know it it only a matter of time before some Bible college gives him an honorary PhD).
6
Perhaps our historian can reconcile how Christian slave owners justified their practices and wealth?
Standing at the foot of the cross, foe me, is not "terrifying." But I can imagine it would be for any so-called Christians who put this man in office and continue to support him. Exactly what brand of bible are these miscreants reading?
2
One reader commenter wrote: "Perhaps they will begin asking themselves “What would Jesus do?”
I tend to think that in the minds of most of these 80% Christians, they truly believe they are answering the WWJD question, by supporting a president (no matter how amoral) who will fill the Supreme Court to end abortion. This I believe is not only bad faith, but a way to rationalize their uneasy cognitive dissonance.
Bad faith is not being authentic, which is the cardinal virtue of being a real anything, especially a practicing Christian -- not just a professing Christian. So, please to all you Christians who support Trump, please practice what you preach.
Jonathan Swift said “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.”
3
Let religion help believers on an individual level. Religion in the public square leads inevitably to "holier than thou" pronouncements as egos tangle. The mix is positively toxic. Christopher Hitchens was correct: "Religion poisons everything."
6
As I read the comments, I see so much intellectual mush. The truth is that human beings are spiritual creatures. Yes, many of ignore this aspect of us but we do it at our peril. Just look around us: exploding level of anxiety, suicide rates, drug abuse, etc, etc, etc. Please stop for a moment, breathe deeply and look inside of yourselves. Live for a greater purpose than yourselves. Meditate, read the bible and ask Jesus to come into your life. You will find love, joy and peace.
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." - Blaise Pascal
6
Meacham avoids to mention at Christians, not only "Evangelical," who see a conflict between those embracing traditional biblical morals, e.g. abortion and homosexual conduct, and positions of presidential aspirants on the same and what it may mean for them if one of those aspirants should win. Decisions may be made on conflict avoidance. Jesus, the Son of God, talked about the Kingdom of God. God is not subject to approval by vote, parliamentary procedure, or high or supreme judiciary.
Evangelical Christians support Trump because they get what they want out of it, and then they kneel before their God every Sunday as hypocrites and lecture the rest of us about morality, justice and family values. I have no reason to believe that religion will offer hope. Empathetic, fearless, tolerant patriots who aren’t intellectually lazy or blinded by a false prophet is where our hope lies regardless of what their beliefs are.
5
The uber wealthy fund family foundations. The family foundations in turn fund institutions. The institutions in turn infiltrate and sprinkle money onto religious entrepreneurs with the quid pro quo that they yank their flocks to the right - despite the fact that for Christians & Buddhist, the right is antithetical to their founder's thesis.
This is the result of the political philosophy of Leo Strauss and his followers (David Brooks). Strauss was a Nietzscheian athiest who believed that the masses were prone to decadence w/out religion. Only super-men can handle atheism and not become decadent. So these atheist supermen should run society & control the masses using religion.
The right has institutions set up to infiltrate just about every religion. The Democracy & Religion project exists to infiltrate mainline protestantism. The Catholic League, which is not formally recongized by Catholicism, exist to yank Catholics to the right.
I can't speak for all religions but it should be about one's spiritualism & relationship with the divine, and the inspiration that gives you to elevate in yourself brotherly love towards all humanity and acts of kindness that go along with that. The institutions should contribute towards that but should be a distant second to it. It should have almost nothing to do with civics other than inform your conscience.
@Tim Kane Aye sir, Plato's Noble Lie in action.
But that is where the story Christians profess begins. It is a story about love, not loathing; generosity, not greed.
This is such a quaint and unrealistic view of Christianity. Trump is the new version, the Christians' second coming.
1
The author ignores the fact that the US is filled with people of other religions. It is filled with atheists and agnostics. He shares the arrogance of the Evangelicals by insinuating that religion might fix America’s deep divisions. People can and will continue to be kind, just and moral without a religion telling them they must. Instead of trying to influence behavior through the lens of Christianity, since that hasn’t worked out too well perhaps the focus should be on learning to respect and tolerate each other, period. Personally the more the Religious right tries to force this country to accept only their idea of what America should be the harder I will fight against them.
3
Faith traditions do offer a balm for the soul in these times. I recommend tikkun.org, which seeks to "heal the world by embracing revolutionary love, compassion, and empathy." It provides a model for social change that is very inclusive, emphasizing building bridges between people. The Jewish notion of tikkun olam, in which the broken world is made whole, can help us remember the importance of overcoming our divisions.
Religion, far from the hope of vanquishing Trump, is the vehicle he marshalled to win the presidency. There once was an era referred to as the "age of reason" which happened to overlap the creation of our constitution of 1788. It's no accident that the world "god" is not to be found in the entire document.
When the term was used by those known as Deists, it was always, "nature's God" implying that we can't understand the dynamics of evolution but we eschew the idea that a single human-like being created it all. While enlightenment and erudition has ballooned over the centuries, our culture has failed to fully appreciate how close we are to other primates, with a profound need to belong to a species, and also a band within a species usually led by an alpha male. Humans have myths, called religions, that organize our species, but also congeal into violent homicidal wars
It is time for atheists to acknowledge that faith in god is an essential aspect of humanity, the need to transcend the very loss of dying. Atheists believe in an inexplicable creation
ex nihilo 14 billion years ago, which is as impossible as creation by a human-like creator.
Atheists/agnositics must redefine our own belief, to view belief in a creator as an emotional need for our species, and not a lesser type of understanding. With more humility, it could be that we rationalists can co-exist with the various functional myths called religion.
2
I was a weekly church-goer until I moved to a different community and encountered a very judgmental congregation when in my 50s. That was the end of my association with any organized religion, and I've discovered that I don't require that in order to sustain my own relationship with a creator. The "Christians" surrounding DJT would have finished me off if I'd not had my prior encounter with judgmental and non-loving Christians already. The hypocrisy oozing from them, starting with Mike Pence, is utterly revolting. I've been honestly awed by Mayor Pete's faith, displayed primarily by his policy choices. If we must have overt people of any faith in the public square, please let them be loving ones.
5
Beginning with the Edict of Milan in 314 C.E. when Constantine declared that Christians would no longer suffer persecution for their faith--and culminating at the end of that century when Christianity was declared the official religion of the realm--Christianity has been, in many countries, more fully associated with supporting the state and with empire than with the teachings of Jesus. In the 4th Century C.E., as Encyclopedia Britannica online's entry on "Christianity" states, "Many new converts were won, including those who converted only with the hope of advancing their careers." The conflation of Christianity with empire continues today in our country (as it did in Northern Ireland when, supposedly the war was between Protestants and Catholics when really it had everything to do with a war between British and Irish rule). It is easy enough to look at the words of Jesus, especially in the Sermon on the Mount and in Matthew 25, and see that the support of so-called "evangelicals" for the Trump Administration has nothing to do with Christ's teachings and everything to do with empire. Perhaps these people are "evangelicals," but they are not evangelizing for Jesus' teachings; they are evangelizing for their particular view of what they want the U.S., and the American empire to look like.
9
I have always admired Jon Meacham. But his mistaken belief that religion can make a serious problem better proves that even a powerful intellect like his can become irrational when thinking about religion.
When has religion ever solved a serious societal problem?
Religion is responsible for the longest and most intractable wars in history, and they are usually followed by lingering resentments (e.g. Northern Ireland).
In contrast, non-religious wars (like WWII) are relatively short, and are followed by reconciliation.
2
Evangelicals are regressive. Their beliefs are based on stories from thousands of years ago when the world was a very different place. These are people of simple mind and little vision of advancing humanity. They would be willing to put the rest of us in chains if we didn't adhere to their ways. Unfortunately for them they have hitched their wagon to an amoral president and his party and have lowered themselves to his level. He will turn on them in an instant. We've seen this movie before and it's littered human history. Evangelicals have totally lost their way.
7
Please explain to me how people who support an obviously and scandalously amoral president can be anything other than amoral themselves. I don't believe it's possible, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack of them.
9
Most of my friends are agnostics if not atheists and I find them more moral, kinder, and far less judgmental than the evangelical crowds cheering on the orange anti-Christ. Jesus has left their buildings and been replaced by he who shall not be named.
7
These conservative evangelicals are not Christians, in the truest sense. They preach out of, quote and mostly study the Old Testament. They preach an "eye for an eye" etc., not love those who hate you. They call themselves Christians because that is what they learned as they were growing up in a Christian family, but (chances are) those relatives were also "Old Testament Christians" who stayed in the Old Testament and nitpicked what they liked out of the New Testament. The homophobia, sexism and just sheer meanness to be found in a lot of these churches is pure Old Testament. Because of this, true Christians who follow the teachings of Jesus, have been lumped together with these more political and vengeful "OT Christians" and it has tainted the reputation of all of Christianity.
5
Thank you for this comment. I have spoken to many evangelicals over the years who quoted with ease from the Old Testament and used those quotes to justify a particular position. Rarely did I find an evangelical discussing the message of the New Testament, with the exception of an occasional reference to some prohibition or pronouncement from an epistle of Paul. I always found it curious. Didn’t Jesus take issue with legalisms and those who would elevate them to absurd positions? Didn’t Jesus state that, in the end, the laws and commandments could be boiled down to two — love of God and love of neighbor? Sadly, the simple blueprint Jesus left the world for the living of a life that honors God and humanity has been discarded by many who loudly proclaim themselves God’s elect.
1
Trump doesn't have "enemies," he has dupes, cronies, henchmen, counterfeiters ... and victims, lots of those. Reference to his behavior at a so-called prayer breakfast should begin by calling him by his real names: "bigot, ignoramus, deceiver, thief, faithless adulterer, profaner, and defiler of every chapter of the Ten Commandments." That would get us a bit closer, I suspect, to how Jesus dealt with the pharisees and money-changers in the temple. Also, to how He mocked the philistines who cast heavy but cheap and ostentatious monies into the collection box, while Jesus blessed the widow who cast her last cent, and added that she alone was serving God.
Finally, the author (but I thank him for his good sermon) should call out by name Trump's personal priestess, who is labelled by the oh-so-polite media as 'the president's spiritual adviser," and who called for the murder of "strange (i.e., non-white) and Satanic babies" by "miscarriage."
2
Religion is the problem.
It is used to justify the motivations (greed and avarice) as a glorification of god and wealth the more obscene the better, proof of gods approval.
3
When did the expression "people of faith" become an acceptable substitute of "religion or religious"?
When Bush II wanted to avoid the Constitutional prohibitions against the establishment of a religion and started the use of "Faith Based" to allow religious groups to work to gain governmental advantage.
This has not gone away.
https://www.dhs.gov/dhs-center-faith-based-neighborhood-partnerships
It is a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
2
Abortion.
One word explains the horrible mess we Americans have created by mixing Religion with Politics.
Prior to GHW Bush, it seemed to me that religion was a matter of individual choice. Like minded individuals thought about it, taught their kids about it, went to a congregation on Saturday or Sunday and discussed it....but it was still a matter of personal choice.
...
Politicians used religion. Oh Yes. but it always seemed to be a matter of wrapping themselves in the Flag and saying wonderful things about a generallized version of G0d that everyone could agree with. YOu know, like the old paper place setting that we used see in the Restaurants "Attend the Church or Synagogue of your choice".
Then GHW Bush harnessed the power of Abortion......"g0dless abortion doctors killing children". And the GOP has been cynically manipulating a non-issue ever since. The DNC, not to be outdone, picked up the same non-issue from the opposite side. "if you allow a Repub to get elected, you wont be allowed to have an abortion".
Trump DESTROYS all your misconceptions about Abortion.
Abortion has been used by religious groups left and right to CONTROL you. Absolutely nothing has changed since 1973, Wade-Roe/
Politicians have been neutered by the Religious Abortion Issue....frozen in place.............forced to take a side on an issue that has no political solution.
Trump doesnt care.........if you're against abortion.........dont have one..........problem solved.
2
Those who don't want to hear about religion might just remember Jesus was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for others. We should remember those who did the same; the woman killed in Charlottesville, the refugee children on the border, those who died by betrayal or neglect of this administration. This election is unlike any other in our memory.
1
Every single one of the worst people I know are conservative evangelicals. Coincidence? I doubt it. Trump is simply a mirror reflecting the worst of America.
5
Religion is, and always has been, the most destructive force in human history. It has inspired, and continues to inspire, murder, terrorism, and mayhem of all kinds, not to mention rank hypocrisy. It has never cured what ails humanity, and never will.
4
It appears to me that all Christianity is good for now a days any more is for born-agains to stay sober and tattoo the verses on their arms. Sorry, not buying it.
4
It is hard to imagine anything to shake Evangelicals out
of their Trump stupor. Depth of thought is not
a fundementalist trademark; hypocrisy heavily clouds
their path as they blindly gulp in Fox News.
3
Evangelicals in particular are single issue voters - abortion. The end.
3
Maybe we should put our trust in people who act morally instead of those who claim religion is the answer. Of course, you don't get a tax break for simply acting morally.
4
Is this an appeal to non-believers who despise Trump to convert and "Trust in Dog?"
2
Evangelicals returning to their post Civil War roots of racism is a surprise to post Regan America. The notion that Christians support trump due to his (supposed) position on abortion is a smokescreen clouding the inherent historical and suppressed racism. trump has released the pent up racist hounds.
How does America cleanse and move on from the onslaught? Perhaps we need to fight the final battle of the Civil War today?
5
Trump will be remembered as the ONE who precipitated the reckoning of millions of Americans and the now entirely obvious fact that Religion is a mean farce.
The Conman in Chief latched unto this with glee.
Let Trump and the Evangelical Christians sleep together for a little longer. They will self destruct.
1
"An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated." ~ Madalyn Murray O'Hair
3
Our nation's founders believed in separation of Church and State for good reason. What we're lacking is not necessarily religion but a uniform moral code of ethics. Adherence to the Ten Commandments as well as the Beatitudes would solve many of our problems. When politicians cloak them selves in piety while allowing the demagogue in Washington to run free, they are not Christian no matter what they call themselves.
3
Can’t even stomach reading past this ridiculous notion:
“And yet history suggests that religiously inspired activism may hold the best hope for those in resistance to the prevailing Trumpian order..”
What propaganda! “Religiously inspired activism” fir millennia has only ever resulted in war, terrorism, oppression and cultural genocide.
5
Despite respecting Jon Meacham a lot, I could hardly disagree more.
The deafening silence of U.S. religious leaders in the face of the current mistake in the White House is hard to forget. And when Mark Galli, outgoing editor of Christianity Today, finally spoke the truth in a December 19 editorial, he was roundly slammed by those religious leaders. Most of these are religious leaders in name only, a very sad comment on what religion means in the U.S. today.
One experiences love, forgiveness, redemption in their life or not.
What's the end game for a person as Trump unlikely to ever experience love & redemption?
2
It's not that Christians don't see Trump's failings, but merely that we can see the worse failings of the entire democratic field. Neither is it that we care for so much for Trump, but for the millions of unborn humans who are still being being slaughtered in the worst human rights atrocity in history. King, who died five years before Roe v. Wade, would be completely aghast.
End abortion-as-birth-control now!
This piece is delusional at best. Religious voters, particularly evangelicals, cannot save us from Trump because he is their false God - the Golden Calf they built on foundations of nationalist racism, forged on the internet in St. Petersburg, and worshipped on countless Christian alters from sea to shining sea. There is no Moses coming down from the mountain of the Justice Department to punish the wicked and save the faithful after deliverance died alone on a cross wrapped in a flag the day the GOP Senate acquitted Trump and gave him dominion to consume the soul of the very nation he swore to protect. Jesus can’t save us, only the voters can.
3
Medicare for All IS the Good Samaritan. How many of you will stop and help the stranger in need?
4
Some Americans focus on current differences rather than what we share in commonality when we graduated from star stuff into humanity many years ago.
Religious certainty can become comfortable smugness absent of personal reflection and utterly devoid of meditation let alone calm self awareness of that transcendent bubble buster, conscience.
America's conscience is doing its job.
Mine is very annoying even in the Antipodes.
After 120 years your Congress is about to pass the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act according to NPR today.
America is a land of faith, hope and charity is often unfairly evaluated by its works but more importantly its national conscience is doing well.
2
Keep religion out of government and politics. It is never the solution, and often the problem.
5
Having posted a comment earlier that expressed disbelief at the sheer implausibility and incoherence of the writer's attempt to explain away evangelical support for Trump, I am heartened by the overwhelming number of like-minded responses. It's nice to see my disgust for these faithless phonies shared by so many others.
The start-up of new churches in America is frequently just another get rich scheme. Not only does the very generous, hands-off treatment by the IRS allow churches to escape taxes on their properties and their hundreds of billions in revenues each year, but in many cases their costs of operation are directly or indirectly subsidized by taxpayers through government grants.
If Bernie is looking for a way to pay for universal health care, this would be a great place to start.
3
Americans mixing religion and politics is inconsistent with the words of their constitutional framers. Now we are reminded how a person like DJT ever learned to ignore the US Constitution. ‘The establishment’ was doing it all along.
1
A secular approach to living loving ethics and morality is equal to or better than organized religion for the simple reason that there is no good reason for religious exclusion of non-believers in a particular sect of religious belief. The diverse population of agnostics, atheists and secularists offer a broader selection of viewpoints for problem solving in our democracy. Hypocrisy is born from the belief that once you have been saved by accepting Jesus while you live on this earth easily morphs into the belief that you cannot do wrong in this life. Which is nonsense that high priests and the lowest layman in in a congregation fall for because the ego is blind falsehoods the self accepts.
Mr. Meacham,
This Buddhist would remind you that compassion is the root of love.
Christianity preaches compassion, but to Xians, words are wind. Their actions reveal a lack of common decency and compassion, and demonstrate an intention to dominate, judge, and destroy the separation of church and state.
Instead of the Xian god, I'd prefer Americans observe the words of Thomas Jefferson.
3
Perhaps a little off topic but we wouldn't be having a conversation about "hope and liberation" based on religion if one simple thing happened: remove the tax-exempt status from religion in the U.S.. This would force churches to have skin in the game. They would cease being tax havens for institutionalized hypocrites. They would truly do charitable work for charitable reasons rather than being money-laundering operations for political/racist agendas. Another result would be that 90% of the churches would close up because they would have have to collect revenues and be part of the system rather than standing outside, imposing their will on the rest of us without paying dues.
5
Religion? Trump enjoys overwhelming support among Evangelical Christians.
So how exactly is religion helping?
2
@Cyberax Religion is not exclusively comprised of Evangelical Christians.
1
If religion sparks a high voter turnout against Trump in the people who still practice a religion I would not only be very surprised but gratified.
This should be the prayer of the Ameican electorate.
Lord God, grant that I might always be right,
for THOU knowest I am hard to turn.
It all goes back to the womb and childhood — humans who are abused and neglected will take whatever philosophy of life and/or spirituality either to deny or minimize their abuse and join the persecutors of the world or wake up and see their abuse and neglect and work with others for healing. That applies to atheists, agnostics and those of faith. You see this in the comments. Abusers defending their unrecognized shaming will shame others in these comments. Their rage and vengeance expressed in their comments. Persons with religion or no religion are not exempt from being manipulated by others who perpetuate the severe abuse patterns they inherited; until we recognize this and do our inner work of healing, we go on projecting our shame and rage on others.
1
God is a loving father to everyone, at all times and everywhere. The next person you see anywhere, including in a mirror, is one of God's well-loved children.
1
I can’t stand to read this to the end of even the first paragraph.
We are supposed to be a Nation of Law.
That system failing in part because of people of many faiths (but most vomitously the holier-than-thou Evangelicals) who are valuing greed and power over their (supposedly) deeply held beliefs (the same beliefs they rally to have protected and enshrined under Religious Freedom laws, btw), choosing to support the current corrupt Administration and line their pockets and those of everyone else in their circles who are willing to deny their values with much more frequency than what’s-his-name was denied in Gesthemane.
Now, I’m supposed to hope and pray that eventually THEY will hope and pray deeply enough to become aware of their own willful disregard for our nation and that they will repent and pray so that their God(s) will reach down and help out??
I need to go find some opioids ...
2
A significant number of new-age Christian evangelicals are self-described "prosperity Christians" who pay only vague lip service to Jesus while advocating practices to maximize personal profit. The so-called "mainline" Christians like Methodists, American Baptists, Presbyterians, etc. are shrinking because they don't promote wealth building, but rather believe in an ancient ethic of do unto others as you would do unto yourself.
3
Christian morality is a great guide... too bad that so many who profess to be religious don't follow it.
1
Religion is always the best hope in all possible situation because religion is all about hope. I do not quite see the point of developing this truism in so many sentences.
For those of us who were raised as Christians and lapsed years ago in our faith, the loud support by white evangelical Christians for suppressing people of color in America and their enthusiastic applause for Donald Trump remind us of why we rejected religion as young adults.
Religious people who self-identify as evangelical Christians wallow in hypocrisy when they cheer for a grifter-turned-politician whose dishonesty, coarse language, conduct and cruelty ought to be considered anathema by any Christian.
As a white American, I find the bigotry of Donald Trump and his support for white supremacists shameful. Trump’s fascination with dictators and his willingness to tear apart families fleeing from dictators are disgusting, but white evangelicals adore him.
So, reading this column by Jon Meacham, an excellent historian, let us remember in this Lenten season the young Jesus chasing the money lenders from the Temple.
Forgiveness for a corrupt president will have to wait.
4
I would like a poll to see how many Americans are feeling agnostic in the trump era.
3
Romans 13:1 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” What that means is that leaders under God are those who lead with God in mind, as in, ‘What would God think of my actions as a leader?’ In that respect, leaders under God are those that strive to fulfill what God wants.
God wants that we love Him with all our heart, soul and mind and we love our neighbor as ourselves. As Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan points out, anyone who can help us is a neighbor to us. God also wants us to help the least among us. Also, 1 Timothy 5:8 says, “…if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
A true God-fearing person, then, would not support leaders who are divisive, who have no regard for the poor and needy, and who would put our nation, our household if you will, in jeopardy by ingratiating themselves with leaders of other nations at our peril as a nation, or by neglecting to assure that our nation is provided for in the face of those who would do us harm.
1
Faith. The belief in something based on no evidence. The world would be a better place without the many thousands of, often conflicting, faiths.
Imagine...
4
You are fundamentally wrong when you say it is, "The secular wish to banish religion from the public square".
In fact it is religion's wish, particularly Christianity here; Muslims in the middle east; Jews in Israel; and throughout each their respective realms, to impose themselves in all consuming ways on the public square to the exclusion of a secular and each other's voice. For each of them the idea of religious tolerance begins and ends with tolerance for their own religion.
5
I have heard this argument against Christians supporting trump before. People wonder why we choose to support a president who is clearly not a Christian. A man who attacks people. A man who married 3 different women. I can not condone those actions. But evangelicals don’t focus on the man leading the United States, but His policies. We could get into a debate about economics or foreigner policy, but what sticks out to us is protections of our religion. Many Christians don’t like trump but see voting for Him as the lesser of two evils. If a democrat wins, we stand to lose much of our religious (and other) freedoms while trump has worked to protect religion.
Additionally, when talking about trump and His amorality, we must remember that God does not choose perfect people to do his job. He chose the cowardly Prophet Jonah. King David with who murdered a man for his wife. Saul who wanted to kill the early church. All of these people were despicable but God used them for His own purpose. So to attack Christians about supporting an anorak president, people need to remember that we believe God chooses sinners for His purpose.
2
This may be ironic. Trump and his followers and opponents are remarkably similar in a certain sense. Trump and his Evangelical supporters
share a strong sense of grievance, a sense of victimhood, a rather negative view of the world. Remarkably, Trump's principle opponents, especially Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren share these same character traits. According to Trump, Warren, Sanders, and the Evangelical followers of Trump, the world (except themselves) is corrupt, they all seem to share a strong sense of victimhood, self righteousness, and they are all "fighters" in the words of Elizabeth Warren. Warren says she is running for president because she is a "fighter." Very insightful
actual. They all are the self righteous fighting the corruption in everybody else in the world. An unhappy disposition.
Trump is a walking version of the seven capital vices, but some branches of "Christianity" support him wholeheartedly. They also believe in speeding up the end of the world so they can be taken away by God to Paradise, so they are indifferent, or even supportive, of global environmental destruction and endless wars in the Middle East. When will the US Evangelical Movement be forcefully denounced for what it is -a dangerous, unchristian ideology wreaking havoc in the world? I think it's time.
2
It is true that many of my role models have grown strength through their faith. But I am confident none of those role models would have aligned with a liar who cheated his own charities and his pregnant wife, and mocked the families of dead soldiers while trying to charm foreign dictators. Not for one second.
1
Thank you for making an effort to admonish Evangelical leaders and by extension their followers of whom 80% support Trump.
They have an agenda, which iis to enable Trumps continued acceleration of the process to bring about Armageddon in Israel and the middle east to pave the way for the return of Jesus.
Therefore, they have found scriptural cover in Biblical passages to suggest that Trump is fulfilling prophesy, even if he personally is far from the embodiment of the kind of Christian you and they might otherwise support.
So, “guilt tripping” these followers into abiding in the teachings of Jesus is essentially denying their prophesied moment to be with him in their lifetime. It’s for them a no brainer.
The problem for American Christianity today is that it is setting itself up for internecine conflict like Northern Ireland or any number of religious based wars in European history.
However, the far more likely outcome if they are successful in returning Trump to power will be the installation of a theocracy in the United States.
So, please pray for this not to happen and vote for any and all Democrats in 2020.
2
We don't need religion to teach us the best that it has to offer: honesty, kindness, compassion and humility. We have found them both with and without religion at different times in different places.
We don't need religion to teach us harmful exclusionary policies, practices and acts that are harmful to select groups of human beings based on ethnicity, race, language, religion, sexual preferences and other specious guidelines either. These aberrations would have come up any way, just as well. In fact, we don't need religion for much of anything at all.
2
Mr. Meacham: The Spanish Inquisition was "State religion." The mass extermination of Albigensian and Protestant movements in France was "State religion." Leave aside the Hundred Years War, it's too obvious. Millions died in South Asia under the impetus of State Religion.
Look to the seat of power, and see the Beast occupying it. There is no compromise.
1
The most vehemently "Christian" among Americans, especially Southern white evangelicals, seem to be the most enthusiastic supporters of Trump's racism. Why is that? Could it be that both religion and racism stem from the same basic tribal instincts? If religion really was a result of communication to humans from a single god, why do different groups get such different messages?
3
I am personally irreligious. I have no faith in religion or religious leaders of any stripe. They just attract followers to stroke their egos and build their castles. I do not have any respect for a religious leader who espouses hatred of others or supports those who do. If you cannot hold in your heart the idea that all people have a right to live a good, peaceful, righteous life, then you should not speak. You need to look into your own heart to find the flaw.
3
Calling Christianity repressive is like saying Trump is a below average president. South and North America were invaded by Christians who demanded conversion by indigenous people or death. This history is quickly forgotten by holier than thou present day Christians.
2
Given the significant number of highly critical but respectful, well reasoned and compelling comments to Mr. Meacham’s opinion piece, including from those who are obviously fans of his superlative historical writings, I wonder whether this adverse reaction will alter his views about “religion in the public square”? A follow-up by him in the NYT taking into account those cogent criticisms would be informative and interesting.
Freedom of Religion implies Freedom From Religion.
That was clearly the intention of the Founding Fathers of our nation, so let's keep it that way. Visit the FFRF website.
2
The only way to get the Evangelicals away from Trump is to steer their leaders and pastors in a different direction. As long as they proffer and prop up Trump, their sheep follow without question.
2
Faith has proven itself to be nothing more than the projection of a fantasy. Evangelicals may call it religion, but it's a cultist nightmare of control and deception. To say that one believes in Christ and supports Trump is a major contradiction. They may read and quote the bible, but these are lost sheep.
1
"For many Americans, especially non-Christians, the thought that Christian morality is a useful guide to much of anything these days is risible".
There is one reason for this. For an ever growing number of humans mankind, in awe of it's own "achievements", has no need for God. God in the sense that there are things that cannot be explained or understood. To so many, especially the Socialists, mankind is god. Maybe not literally deified but never less the effect is the same. That we can not only engage in grandiose exercises, say building a giant dam, but we can reliably predict the future outcome of all efforts, great and small.
"The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed"
Correct. All that has to be done is look at Totalitarian regimes in recent history. Decades of efforts to eradicate religion just served to push the true believers underground.
The tenets of every major religion espouse peace and understanding. What today's societies seem to be experiencing is a perversion of original intent and a co-opted hypocritical religious "base" that is politicized in an ultra-partisan way.
Muslims in Iran are at odds with those in Saudi Arabia, the many flavors of Christianity are at odds with each other here as are ultra-orthodox Jews in opposition to Reformed and Conservative Congregations.
OUR CONSTITUTION assures the freedom to worship as each of us deems appropriate, but NOT to politicize or weaponize those beliefs, especially to favor a demonic narcissistic sociopath who is a-religious and ignorant of what this is all about, caring only for himself. Trump has engaged the hypocrisy of religion and its varied, narrow-minded views, to profit his power.
All it would take to eliminate the stalemate in American politics and social progress is for everyone who believes in the best of religious values - those simple, honest tenets of peace and subjective belief instead of cult following - to put aside their group hypocrisy and strive for the common good. I am pretty sure that Jesus, Mohammed, Buddah and Solomon would agree. Trump would not, nor would he understand that there is a belief that trumps his or Putin's.
1
What is going on in American politics is in itself an obvious demonstration of the failure of Christianity.
Yeah, religion (you mean Christianity, of course) has been great for many indigenous peoples, people of other religions, various immigrant communities, and women.
"If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Brothers, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth." 1 John 3:17
Those of who are Christian should try harder to live up to the example and to the standards of compassion for our brothers and sisters set for us by Jesus. Perhaps an appropriate reflection for this Lenten season?
Those right wing "god-fearing" good "Christians" are incredibly happy with trump's "god-fearing" good "Christian" supreme court justices.
They want 4 more "god-fearing" good "Christians" to complete the supreme court.
They want to eliminate abortion rights; they want to eliminate gay marriages; they want to eliminate other religious expressions.
They will NEVER vote for a Democrat. This amoral president is giving them what they want which is a higher objective than faith.
Probably the first time they heard Matthew 25 was when I think Warren declared it in the debate last night. "When you did it for the least of me, you did it for me." That whole chapter goes right over their heads. It's often called the "judgement gospel".
Liberation? Progress? What do these hackneyed slogans even mean in Corporate Owned Amerika? I have no idea what this article is about and neither does the author. No, bronze aged religion is not about hope or progress, its about opiates. What we need in the Days of Trump is feverish activism to protect democracy, and indeed human life on earth, from the depradations of Hedge funds and investors and the 1% that are helping us destroy the world. What we dont need is pablum, Christian, New Age, or otherwise.
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Truly the abiding arrogance of the United States is this notion that it is somehow unique among nations and in God's favor. God made the world; men drew the boundaries on its surface -- in pencil, to accommodate their ambition. This proposition that religion in the public square is what draws us together is not only nonsensical, it is dangerous. Ask the Muslims in India how massing Hindus in the public square is to their benefit. I suspect that Mr. Meachum would say that we are not India, but the KKK burned crosses to invoke a specific spirit. Jesus reminds us numerous times on how and when to pray, most specifically: "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you, " and further instructs us, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." Fundmentalists wear their faith like a godly raiment in the public square to imply that they are God's chosen ones and represent his kingdom, even to the point of signifying his preferred political party. As Jesus tells us, there are some things better done in private.
The thrice married, wife cheating misogynist Donald Trump is not in the least bit religious. This article suggests it is better for the masses to be religious to reject our amoral leader, rather than to become educated to reject his fantasies. To become religiously astute, you have to read just one book in life - be it the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud or the like. With education, you must read so many books - on cosmology, genetics, anthropology, philosophy and history, to name but a few. The educated would never hypocritically vote for a con man Donald Trump. And, at the end of life, with an education achieved, the feeling of accomplishment is so much more rewarding than having relied on religion and folklore.
1
I have come to believe that religion is the worst attribute we humans have, followed closely by our adulation of autocracy.
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If only they truly followed Jesus. Try the Gospels.
Trump is a terrible argument for religion. Surely a decent god would do some smiting! But I'm hoping, since it's basic human nature to want a friend on high, that people will take a harder look at their model.
1
People don’t understand how disordered evangelicals really are. Their entire moral code is skewed, but they don’t and won’t realize it.
“But the American past unmistakably tells us that one way to a more perfect union...”
The problem with evangelicals subscribing to this notion of a more perfect union is that the largest evangelical denomination, Southern Baptist, is essentially an extension of the Old Confederacy. I will say this until I am blue in the face, but if you look at a map of the Southern Baptist Convention’s reach, it looks the same as the Confederacy. They are not interested in teaching people about the loving compassionate Jesus. They are interested in maintaining the social order of the Old South, where white men ruled. They aren’t interested in a more perfect union. They are interested in a social hierarchy where women keep quiet at the table and minorities have no seat at the table at all.
I grew up in this kind of church. I’ve heard my own father, a Southern Baptist deacon, call mixed race children “fudgecicles” by by golly he’s gonna be standing up to lead the closing prayer. Women aren’t allowed to lead the closing prayer in a Southern Baptist church, by the way. One of the many reasons I refuse to attend one as an adult.
When I stepped away from the authoritarianism of my upbringing, I realized that faith in Jesus has very little to do with where you sit on Sunday morning. Also that Jesus probably secretly can’t stand Southern Baptists.
2
Donald Trump is not just amoral but he is immoral as well. He is an active participant in his vileness. Don't cut him any slack.
1
At this point in Trump’s dystopian presidency, I will believe Christian repair when I see it. Thus far, the enabling and hypocrisy have been disheartening and shocking to one whose Christian grandparents are doubtlessly spinning in their graves. Faith fell on its face with this president.
1
dtm,
In response to your comment to me:
No woman has been executed for having an abortion in America and will not be. I do not know how abortion feels to the baby in the womb but I can only guess it must be torture. If these little ones could speak (of course now that is not possible) they would probably say it was like an execution.
Evangelical faith in the primacy of their beliefs is matched equally by my faith in the abject corruption of organized religion.
1
Raised as Catholic, I sympathize with the wish to find hope in religion. And for me, I remain inspired by the Catholic Worker movement. But the religion we see in our real world is full of hatred and hypocrisy. So I won't hold my breath waiting for a religious awakening to end the current madness in the White House.
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@Terry McKenna, I can empathise with feeling disheartened and impatient. Think, though: God is all powerful and all loving. Do you truly believe that hypocrisy and lies will ultimately stand against Him? Certainly, God works everything in its appropriate season but please do not doubt His working of all things, ultimately, for our good and His glory and don't lose hope that He will bring about that redemption soon.
If nothing else, hold true to your own religious awakening. If God then wishes to use you to redeem this sin we live in, let Him do so. In all things, hold fast to faith that nothing is beyond His power.
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@Terry McKenna
" But the religion we see in our real world is full of hatred and hypocrisy."
That's partly because the media focuses on denominations that get in scandals, such as evangelicals and Catholics, When is the last time you read in an article in the Times about a mainline Protestant denomination?
2
@Terry McKenna
That's largely due to theological errors about original sin & hell. Have you ever been with a newborn? Can you honestly say in that moment that this baby being is inherently sinful? From a neuroscience perspective, teaching kids that they are sinful (they'd better be good, they'd better repent, there is something fundamentally wrong with them that has to change) is a direct line to a troubled psyche. It means there is always bad/good, someone is always wrong/right. It makes for black and white thinking and a very judgmental psychology. And it's painful to feel the judgement of a God-fueled superego, so it's often projected out - "those people are sinful because [fill in the blank]".
From a neuroscience perspective, it's also very misguided to teach children the fear of hell. To believe that you are damned unless you follow Christ is not a reliable path to a healthy mind or openness towards those who don't. Sin and damnation loom large for Evangelicals; hence why they are so rigid and intolerant.
Christ taught radical openness, transparency and the fundamental unity of all things. Many Christian theologies completely miss those fundamental points.
8
This piece sensibly claims that principled Christians would reject the Age of Trump in favor of a kinder, gentler world. But the same can be said for all decent human beings who reject hatred and bigotry. The idea that religion or religious figures might have some special power to combat Trumpism is akin to relying on magic or superheroes. Yes, King and Lewis are the antithesis of Trumpism. So are secular analogues who fervently embrace respect and our shared humanity. Leaning on religion as some savior is wishful thinking, benign as a wish, but misguided as anything remotely like a plan.
As approximately half of my extended family are Evangelicals, I have a few thoughts on this.
First is that the mainline Christian churches are in steady decline, both in attendance and daily practice. Meanwhile, Evangelical churches remain comparatively strong with a high level of enthusiasm.
Second, this isn't your great-grandparents Christianity. This is the Christianity of Jerry Falwell, Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, Pat Robertson and others. In my experience, it could be aptly described as an apocalyptic cult that views the world in terms of a spiritual struggle that will culminate in the horrific "end times" described in the Book of Revelation, and anything they can do to help usher in the second coming of Christ is simply doing God's work. They harbor a deep distrust of the media, education and science. God himself, it is said, picked Trump to be president both as the protector of Israel and to deliver us from the evils of Roe v. Wade.
If religion is the best hope against Trump, then there is no hope.
5
Meacham says secularist desire to “banish religion from the public square?” I am a Christian but also a secularist who wants to keep prayer out of public education and out of other governmental institutions. I do not believe religion should be banished from the public square.
Does Meacham not understand that separation of church and state and freedom for people to believe in any religion can coexist? Conservative Christians, with Trump’s help, seem intent upon taking the first away from us while confusing us about the latter.
1
this fine article is a good example of cultural appropriation at it's best, and shows that adopting a shared cultural heritage works both ways.
Since religion depends on faith, an intellectual decision to transcend (well, ignore really) reality, I fail to see how it can be of any help in politics, a field where candidates routinely distort reality but that still depends on it, since it’s results do impact reality. As for miracles, those events beyond the laws of Nature, I can’t remember ever witnessing one. Please!!
Religious-inspired activism has helped to deliver Trump, to sustain his power, and to do everything in its power to see Trump serve at least another four years. Religious devotion, as expressed in the public arena, has been unfailingly retrograde, and has done much to diminish the humanity of those it chooses to speak for, like the poor, the homeless, and many others in need. Please spare me the homily about speaking in Jesus' name and about how people of faith are called--we're neck-deep in autocracy now, thanks in no small measure to the piety of the faithful.
Jon is an excellent historian and writer, but he too falls into a common trap, when he says that removing religious faith from the public square is a mistake. The problem isn't the idea, it is the implementation, and that is key. It is one thing to allow ones beliefs to inspire action, the underground railroad and abolition were driven by faith to a large extent (and in a direct mirror to our times, in the slaveholding states the Baptist church and the Catholic churches there perverted their faith to support slavery and rail against abolition as 'against God's law'; it isn't a big surprise the same religious groups support Trump).
The big problem is when religious moral laws are used directly to create law, when the public square means laws are written and enforced based on a specific religious view, it is basically the public square ensconcing one view as 'right'. Evangelical Christians don't represent most Christians, they are about 30%, and they combined with other right wing Christians are about 40% of the country, yet we have government trying to implement their vision of things, the same with LGBT rights. Religion in the public square does not mean religion as law or the basis for law, it means values inspiring action. Black churches were key in the civil rights era, yet that didn't mean that black church teachings became law with other things (among other things, many black churches are anti LGBT).
2
"The will to power" and "faith in the metaphysical".
What a wonderful treat this morning for any curious mind.
Thank you Me Meacham!
1
I was raised in the Christian church, baptized, the whole 9 yards. So I feel I can justifiably say this having experienced it. The same naivety is in play with evangelical Christians' support for Trump ("God sent him") as their word for word belief in biblical scripture as the word of God (actually taken from stories handed down from generation to generation by human beings).
We must keep religion out of our politics. They don't belong together.
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@ernie We must keep religion out of our politics. They don't belong together.
And yet-- My Christian beliefs shape my political beliefs and every other aspect of my life. Like Mr. Meacham, I too am a very imperfect Christian, but a follower of Jesus Christ none the less. I don't stop being a Christian when I vote. So when I vote for Elizabeth Warren (or whoever the Democratic nominee is because I have no plans to stay home on Election Day) it will absolutely be because of my Christian beliefs. This next comment will draw some criticism but I don't care. On election day, I will be asked to choose between the philosophy of Jesus Christ or the philosophy of Donald Trump. I'm voting for Jesus.
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@Bob Swygert I wish all Christians were as thoughtful as you appear to be. I myself however will be voting for the person running and it will have nothing to do with my religion or lack thereof.
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@Bob Swygert
It is too bad that many of Christians do not think like you. Most I know in this area vote trump not Jesus and this is a very religious area.
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I will be forever hesitant to believe anything Mr. Meacham has to write or say. In the fall of 2016 I attended a luncheon in Nashville which was sponsored by a local financial institution. At that moment John could have rung the bell and told the many Republicans in the crowd how dangerous a Trump Presidency would be. He made no such statement. That day he earned some bucks and was a coward. I don’t know how much this piece redeems any of that.
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Desperation breeds religion - the kind that sells its soul to get legislation, or the kind Meacham demonstrates: bring love to a war.
The view from the foot of the cross doesn't look so good right now.
1
I am sorry, but the authors words would not ring as hollow if there were some sign of action behind them. As it is, the lack of any opposition from the evangelicals against Trump makes the article seem pretty self-serving.
Today's republicans have abandoned conservative principles for the sake of power, including fiscal responsibility, family values, and Christian values.
3
Jesus said “judge not lest ye be judged.” Who is to say who is a good Christian and who is not. Only Jesus can make that call. There are people who go to Church every week and gossip the rest of the week. There are Christians who go to Church every week and do good works. There are all types of Christians in the world and God will decide who is worthy of entering heaven. He asks us to do our best but knows we are all sinners. He always forgives but we must ask.
2
Religion is far too powerful a force to be left to the narrow minded, the haters, and the fearful. It belongs by right to the loving, the hopeful, and the brave. The black church has always been a church of liberation and joy - providing all Americans with a homegrown example of what religion looks like done right. Obviously, if you simply do not believe, not relevant. But for those who do believe, there is no substitute for a good religious community that helps you see G-d in yourself, in others, and in the arc of moral universe bending towards justice.
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@SDK I can empathize with your frustration, but I feel you should be careful. I think it is better to remember that religion is too powerful a force to be left to anybody but God.
I know that I am not loving, hopeful or brave enough to be able to dictate religion. By all means, you and I should do our best to follow our conscience and what we understand to be God's will. However, at the same time, be sure to pray continuously for God to guide us and open our minds, knowing that our own sin is misdirecting us just as strongly as those we think are too narrow minded, hateful and fearful.
3
@SDK
I would be careful about that, a lot of black churches are just as bigoted and narrow minded when it comes to issues of sexuality and human being, more than a few of the church leaders who in the 60's were behind the civil rights movement were outspoken in deny LGBT people rights, claiming that their civil rights were not the same as that of the struggle for black rights, quoting the same tired bible quotes, etc. Despite the outright racism of Trump, a not small number of black church members support Trump because of his anti gay, anti immigrant, anti abortion policy, the same as their white brethren. Martin Luther King and many of the rights leaders were not bigots, for sure, they understood civil rights were human rights , but it is a stretch to say that black churches were all about liberation and joy, they weren't/aren't.
9
"Religious inspired activism" creates cohesive social networks. It's the social network that has the power; not the religion behind it.
Nowadays there is Facebook; though it has terrible drawbacks, it has created very powerful and passionate social networks based on a wider range of ideas and identities, only one of which is religion.
The Founders of our country's government has it right. Church. State. Separate.
2
Religious fantasy is exactly what we don't need right now. An out of control president bent on destroying anyone who disagrees him won't be stopped by thoughts and prayers.
6
Religion has poisoned the political process to the point that it's entirely irrelevant to 50% of Americans.
In my opinion this 50% is the smartest half of Americans.
Any suggestion that Christianity in any form will defeat Trump is simply fairy tales on steroids.
People need to think with their heads in the upcoming election, not their hearts, and certainly not with religion.
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@Ken Solin Note that Sanders, of Jewish background, uses morality language (like a Hebrew Bible prophet) when speaking of wealth inequality, climate impacts, etc. What does this smartest 50% base its political convictions on? Ultimately, politics is a matter of power and values, and everyone is using a moral compass of one form or another. To call upon those who identify as Christians and those who don't, but who share "sermon on the mount" values, to bring a galvanizing righteous morality to this election process is pretty smart.
10
@Ken Solin If they were truly thinking with their heads, hearts and religions, he would not have been elected in the first place.
11
@Elizabeth MacLean
No one is arguing that you can look at moral teachings in the bible, in Hebrew Scripture, in the Qran and have it inform you even if you aren't religious, this idea that morality only comes from religion is a lie propagated time and again as justification for a 'religious state'. For example, you don't need religious teaching on stealing to make you think it is wrong, simple human empathy should tell you you are hurting another person; if you kill them, or steal their spouse, you are depriving them of something special to them (I use spouse here, so it doesn't come out to be a wife is owned property).
The key here is religious belief informing action, not religious belief as law. The nice part about that is it means people can come together about something, for example climate change, that they see as an injustice and act without it becoming about enforcing the beliefs of their faith on others. The problem is when religion in the public sphere, as with abortion or gay rights, becomes about enforcing religious morality as law directly. What happens is exactly what we see, the religious right allying themselves with the GOP to get their religion made law and in the process selling out their other beliefs. Evangelical Christians are leaders in climate change denying, for example, they are leaders in promoting the idea the poor are poor because they are lazy and Jesus favors the rich, it is what Madison predicted, oppressive government and corrupt faith
5
I have been dismayed by the way liberal Christians have let conservative Christians define the faith. Where are your voices calling the Prosperity Gospel a heresy? When will you call Christians who would throw children in cages and deny health care CINOs (Christians in name only)? That epithet is already being used you who do not oppose abortion. Young people are leaving the church in droves because Christianity is becoming the religious arm of the Republican Party.
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@Russ Radicans
Well put.
It is fair to say that words matter, but after all the words, it is decisions and actions that define what something is. When decisions and actions defy the words, the words lose their meaning.
Calling something Christian does not make it Christian. Calling something a democracy does not make it a democracy.
The Prosperity Gospel and children in cages reflect decisions and actions that show how a comfortably self-satisfying vanity and privileged, entitled mindset have gained popularity and allowed once cherished but now hollow words to fall into the dust.
I have heard it said that vanity is the devil's favorite sin. Today we have the sad opportunity to see first hand if this might be the case.
21
@Russ Radicans If you haven't heard/seen evidence of the faithful countering the blather of the 'evangelicals,' you haven't been paying attention. We are out there, doing the work of Jesus, faithful to the gospel... but instead of seeking publicity, we're in the streets, the hospitals, yes, even at the border offering hope and compassion. Sadly, the media loves the outrageous, and the 'evangelical' crowd loves to showboat their heresies. Take a look at the real world being Jesus to those in need.. look away from 'rapture fantasies..'
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@Donna Deal
Sorry, that isn't enough, Russ is right. I belonged to a very progressive church, one big on liberation theology and the like, pro human rights, pro LGBT people, etc, all good. But in the end they refused to lend their voices to criticizing the Catholic Church for turning Christianity into being about abortion and gay rights/same sex marriage, or the evanngelical church pushing their beliefs as law. Simply living as 'good christians' is not enough, Edmund Burke hit the nail on the head when he said that evil triumphs when good people do nothing, and Martin Niemuller said much the same thing as did Bonhoffer and others of the confessing church in Nazi Germany. History shows what happens when "good" religious people don't speak out, the Holocaust in large part happened on the scale it did because of that.
12
Many evangelicals and other people of faith have unabashedly supported this president.
Although one can always hope for a change of heart, it seems inconceivable to me that such people are of any use in fixing this problem. I recommend they go back to their beliefs and have a good long think. Hypocrisy is not a pretty thing, and they are guilty of hypocrisy that rivals that of the president and congressional Republicans. That is hypocrisy that is beyond anything in living, or probably historical, memory.
I’ll stick to atheism and a real concern for people. Also self examination. Try it, you won’t like it, but it might be the making of you.
5
One good definition of religion is, "An organized system of mis-information."
We don't need more of that, and religion will not be a cure for Trump.
4
Christ died on the cross in the ultimate expression of unconditional love. What a profound example. And yet I struggle to find within myself a morsel of compassion and forgiveness, to say nothing of love, for those who so obviously harbor resentment and downright hatred for our fellow beings, especially those who do so in the name of religion. But, so help me God, I will continue to try. Love is the answer, the only answer.
4
Most days, I choose one article to read from the plethora of pertinent messages and images in the NY Times. This unlikely one caught my attention and did deliver but I also feel I have to mention an important oversight. Mainly, that Trump is capitalizing on the implacability of the Pro-Choice movement to avoid being baited into discussing the sad realties of abortion in minute detail at the expense of explaining the compassionate benefits of family planning, thereby facilitating the far-Right Christians to extoll the unscientific virtues of the rhythm method that the Pope and other religious leaders endorse. This is what turned the election in 2016, stacked the Supreme Court and will win in 2020. I suggest to Jon Meacham, that all churches must support family planning that is scientifically founded and religiously sanctified. Losing your own flesh and blood, literally, not spilling the holy sacrament on the ground, must be infinitely harder than enforcing the death penalty or even going to war. If we love humanity, then we must give love and respect and support for every woman’s decision.
Jon Meacham is correct, faith can help heal our divided society, but only when acknowledging that there are no right religions or infallible spiritual or political leaders. Ours is a robust moral pluralism, not an untethered moral relativism where hate festers and Trump excels. Ultimately, that’s what the election of 2020 is all about.
2
The problem is that people confuse Religion with Morality. Two different things. Religion are beliefs (in many different forms) with out proof; Morality are actions that are demonstrated.
5
I greatly enjoy Jon Meacham's analysis of history and it's current relevance . I respect his ideas because I trust that he studied history and double and triple checked the factual basis for his conclusions. He would never base his conclusions on faith. What is his historical evidence that god sent his son to earth to be tortured and killed. Are all the other religions and their gods false . Historians have an obligation to provide evidence.
Christianity too often places responsibility on God when it belongs with us. It is not God destroying our planet--it's us. It is not God that gave humans the arrogance to believe that we are masters of the Earth and Nature is to be beaten into submission and serve us as a slave - it is us. It is not God that gave people the belief that they are superior to -- you name it -- women, people of color, people who are poor, people who are different, people who lack power, people who believe spirituality is a private matter. It is not God who tells us to make war on each other, our planet, our environment -- it is us. We do all these things. And it is not God who tells us we have a soul, as if we possess it and control it - rather we belong to our Souls. We are responsible for our thoughts, our actions, our feelings. When humans learn to take full responsibility for themselves instead of off putting that responsibility onto God's will, we will all be better off.
Is it so hard to believe that God or Consciousness is within EVERY LIVING THING - God is in plants, trees, animals, and all people. If religions truly believed this, they would teach that all LIFE is sacred and should be treated with care, respect and love. I don't need to go to church or listen to a minister tell me about God - I can go within, I can touch a tree - God is all around us, within us, and within all Life. That is what the pagans believed, and that is what we have lost.
5
You don't need Jesus to know right from wrong.You don't need Jesus to point you to the honorable path of action. It is far more likely that you need good parents, teachers and friends.
7
"Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
One can only hope, but in the meantime please honor such bravery by showing up to vote.
3
I doubt that religion as practiced in America will work against Trump. Think of the old anecdote:"How can such a religious person be so dishonest?" Answer: "If he is such a crook , he is not religious."
What one does in practice is more significant than what one says. I cannot believe that a religious person would support Trump. People like Pence who cover themselves with a religious facade or persona. which hides their true inner self, are pursuing personal ambition but care little for others. In my opinion, they use religion to gain support but are not at all religious.
2
The critical thing is to establish Christianity as the state religion. All else is unimportant. We must prevail.
@Matthew That's odd! Our Founding Fathers clearly thought otherwise.
3
@Glenn Thomas
I agree - that was snark.
1
Scratching at the bottom of the barrel when religion is the best hope against Trump. Indentity politics did not matter and now it is religion?
1
Science, Reason & Humanism are the Best Hopes Against Trump and a Trumplican World! Either that or Space Tourism.
4
I was raised Catholic and loved the beautiful pictures and statues of Jesus and Mary with their arms spread wide to accept all peoples. Today i see them looking down upon caged children and the millions of comfortable Christians who support Trump and his cruelty. Are Jesus and Mary reliving his death on the cross and wondering why so many of his followers have forsaken him to worship at the alter of the False God, Donald Trump?
3
"If it weren't for Christians, I would be a Christian."
Gandhi
I'm not sure I would be. My urge has long been assaulted out of existence.
When did Christianity become so reprehensible?
8
@ted
When did Christianity become so reprehensible?
When it was used to justify white supremacy, the persecution of the LBGT community, deny proven scientific facts, suppress intellectual discourse, and to suppress the empowerment of women,.
1
Sorry, but the religious impulse will propel Trump to a second and possibly third or fourth term. Humans naturally cling to fantasies that offer comfort from the darkness. To Trump’s followers, he is the embodiment of God’s grace and his election nearly on par with the second coming of Christ. Their faith renders reason-based criticism of Trump useless.
2
@Harvey "... faith renders reason-based criticism of Trump useless." Only for the ignorant. Reason still has value for the rest of us. Thank you.
The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed.
Sure, by now everyone must be fed up with seeing all the secular types out in the street protesting religious expression. Happy Lent!
2
@Leigh Banishing religion from the public square is *exactly* what our Founding Fathers had in mind. Have you never read the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence or sundry other papers produced by our nation's Founding Fathers?
3
dtm of Alaska,
I have not heard of women who have had abortions being imprisoned or executed in America. Are you confusing this with another country? We would never do this in America. I would be interested to know where you read or heard this.
In 2016 tRump suggested jailing women who get abortions before realizing it was a blunder and walking it back.
“In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind, old men as guides.” —Heinrich Heine
3
The problem is that most people in this country don't actually behave in (and perhaps don't even believe in) the things that Christianity professes.
I think that it's a fool's errand to call upon America's most outspoken "Christians" to behave in a more Christian-like manner.
It's more realistic (and perhaps more useful) to call upon them to stop being such incredible hypocrites, and at least own up to what they truly believe and how they truly behave (instead of attempting to hide behind a fake veneer of religiosity).
4
In 1861, on the way to his inauguration in Washington just a few months prior to the outbreak of our Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said in a speech to the New Jersey State Senate:
"I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle."
(“Almost chosen” people. He actually said that.)
And he closed by calling attention to the fact that most of the men in his audience were Democrats who had not voted for him but “nevertheless, that they came forward here to greet me as the constitutional President of the United States -- as citizens of the United States, to meet the man who, for the time being, is the representative man of the nation, united by a purpose to perpetuate the Union and liberties of the people. As such, I accept this reception more gratefully than I could do did I believe it was tendered to me as an individual.
He’s thanking the New Jersey Senate for greeting and accepting him as the President of a country torn apart by the slavery issue, but “united by a purpose to perpetuate the Union and liberties of the people.”
There couldn’t be a wider gap between what we had then and what we have now.
4
I believe the evangelical "christians" have shown their true colors and proven their allegiance to the lies and false promises of their golden calf president. I'm glad this is so obvious for anyone with a true spiritual practice. It's always been true, but their current level of hypocrisy is unfathomable by any biblical standard other than Haman.
5
Religiosity aside, the core social tenants of Christianity and many other durable religions are comity and compassion. Echos of the best virtues of the Roman republic: Fortitude, Piety, Comity, and Justice. It's difficult to keep all that in mind in a complex society. We must if we are to endure on the same time scale.
2
Professor Meacham: I've enjoyed your many appearances on Morning Joe. I pay particular attention to scholars and academics. I teach college as a lowly adjunct. As for a secular desire to remove religion, that may exist in some quarters. As an atheist, for moral lessons the teachings of Christ are always useful. What I worry about is the fallacy of the "religious freedom" argument. I do not begrudge the faithful, their rituals, their beliefs. I just do not want them imposed on me. Case in point: They can say Merry Christmas all they want. Just don't make me say it or when I don't say it, don't condemn me.
5
When an American, including Mr. Meacham, talks about religion, they invariably are talking about Christianity. There are thousands of versions of religion in the world. If a person is basing their view of life on religion, they should broaden their horizons to include other religions. Personally, I have some problems with Christianity like all that weird stuff in the Old Testament never really happened. It's also a mystery why a true follower of Jesus would support somebody like Donald Trump. None of it makes much sense to me. The Framers wisely tried to keep it out of politics.
4
@Clark Landrum Do you mean that burning bush that could talk? I'll never understand how anyone can believe that. In either case, I'll take Mr. Ed the talking horse any day!
1
I started reading Mr. Meacham's books after I heard his eulogy at George HW Bush's funeral. It was deeply moving and occasionally funny. I was amazed and started reading every Meacham book I could get my hands on. Thus far, I have read The Soul of America which covers key events in American history and the Songs of America which Meacham wrote with Tim McGraw. This man is a national treasure and a man with great soul. He restores my faith in a very bruised and tempest-tossed America. My copy of The Hope of Glory arrived last week--just in time for Easter reflection. I feel so much better about the miserable state of our country just by reading Meacham's words.
1
"The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed; one might as well try to eliminate economic, geographic or partisan concerns."
I don't think the "wish" is doomed at all, on the contrary it is one of this country's founding principles: separation of church and state. Slowly, agonizingly slow for many of us the principle informs more of our political discourse, keeping the experiment of forming a "more perfect union" true to its nature.
This principle in no way precludes a religious and/or spiritual life. As history suggests it is the only form of governing that guarantees we can worship god(s) in our own way.
4
@RC
BTW:
What on earth is the meaning of the expression "public square"?
Does that mean the "control of government"?
Or does it simply mean a "soapbox on public property"?
Or, is it "a usefully resonant rhetorical catchphrase with no real meaning"?
Since my adolescence, when asking for my favorite bible
verse during Sunday school, I always quoted John,
"and Jesus wept."
But if he were alive today, an absurd notion no doubt,
he would be weeping still, an ocean of bitter tears.
3
Thank you Mr. Meacham. A Lent-appropriate call to hear anew and heed.
2
Misguided religious organizations are what helped create the conditions for the emergence of trump. They enable him and are part of the problem and most certainly not the solution. The GOP will trot out their tried and true religious based campaign proposals regarding abortion, sexual orientation and even school prayer if they feel threatened enough in the next election as they are sorely deficient in addressing the things that really matter like climate change, health care and infrastructure.
10
That the majority of Evangelicals support this administration transcends to absurdity-- like a novel by Albert Camus
As Friederich Nietszche pointed out, one of the great problems of Christianity is its focus on this life; for them, the only life we know for sure and first hand, is a mere preparation for some vague, distant future where we will find some kind harmony that we cannot see nor comprehend here and now.
Why do they forsake the here and now? Why can't they work toward creating that harmony here and now? It's a sad case.
7
The glaring problem with the piece, without even addressing all the problems with its content, is that it's written for New York Times readers.
You need to convince Evangelicals Mr. Meacham. However, tell them all day about what Jesus taught and you'll accomplish nothing.
Putting aside the glaring problem of you pretending America is filled only with Christians, no Republican can oppose Trump. If they do, they face the wrath of 40 million Evangelicals who back Trump no matter what he says and does and destroy any who break with him.
Just a month before the 2018 midterm elections, over a thousand theaters throughout the U.S. screened "The Trump Prophecy".
The film tells the story of one Mark Taylor, who claims that God told him in 2011 that Donald Trump would be elected president to save the Christian world.
In the central scene of the film, the actor representing Mr. Taylor collapses in the flashing light of an epiphany that Donald Trump is to be Christianity's savior and then picks up a Bible which opens to the description of the anointment of the pagan King Cyrus by God.
The Trump administration is now filled with Evangelicals like Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence, who like other Christian Nationalists believe Trump has been chosen by God to save Christianity from destruction and is engaging in a war, on their behalf, against heathens.
In case you missed the point Mr. Meacham, those of us who read the Times, even if we regularly practice religion, are those heathens.
16
As foragers, the ancients had grateful religion, thanking the shadow beings for the bounty that sustained them. Once we got to big in numbers, we invented punitive religion to keep everybody in line. Indeed, the word religion means "to bind". And, to make it stick, it's claims had to be ever more preposterous to make it hard to go back once a person made the leap to believe. This created in and out groups that made war possible. We do not need more religion. We need to learn and live by the morality of our oldest ancestors who were committed to equality, autonomy, sharing and cooperation.
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers:
"Nomadic foragers have lived in relatively small groups, without centralized authority, standing armies or bureaucratic systems. The evidence indicates that they have lived together surprisingly well, solving their problems among themselves largely without recourse to authority figures and without a particular propensity toward violence. It was not the situation that Thomas Hobbes, the great seventeenth century philosopher, described in a famous phrase as 'the war of all against all.' "
2
Mr. Meacham's column is in my opinion something that gives me hope. He reminds us of how influential and pure the non-violence movement initiated by Dr. King was, but the day we are living in now is a conundrum.
When I think of Christianity in the United States I think of Matthew 21:12-13. As Jesus entered the Jewish temple courts he noticed something disturbing. Men who claimed to worship God were actually leveraging and capitalizing off the said God they were claiming to worship. From my view and experience suburban protestant churches are doing just that. They are setting up shop in a neighborhood near you and it is all driven by #1. You would think that #1 would be Jesus who they are singing to during their 1 hour concert every Sunday, but if you went behind the scenes their #1 is yep you guessed it money.
We are capitalists in this country and that extends through every class from the top down. It extends from the 1% to the bottom of the 99%. That is why so many so called evangelicals are supporting a man like this. The Democratic Socialist movement is threatening their bottom line and their conscience though.
It is repellent to see that many Trumpians who claim to be evangelicals are nothing of the such. They don't want to proclaim the good news for others, but they simply only want good news for themselves. Yes, Mr. Meacham it is going to take an extraordinary type of Christian to stand up and go against the grain and my hope in that is running low.
6
Mr. Meacham's column is in my opinion something that gives me hope. He reminds us of how influential and pure the non-violence movement initiated by Dr. King was, but the day we are living in now is a conundrum.
When I think of Christianity in the United States I think of Matthew 21:12-13. As Jesus entered the Jewish temple courts he noticed something disturbing. Men who claimed to worship God were actually leveraging and capitalizing off the said God they were claiming to worship. From my view and experience suburban protestant churches are doing just that. They are setting up shop in a neighborhood near you and it is all driven by #1. You would think that #1 would be Jesus who they are singing to during their 1 hour concert every Sunday, but if you went behind the scenes their #1 is yep you guessed it money.
We are capitalists in this country and that extends through every class from the top down. It extends from the 1% to the bottom of the 99%. That is why so many so called evangelicals are supporting a man like this. The Democratic Socialist movement is threatening their bottom line and their conscience though.
It is repellent to see that many Trumpians who claim to be evangelicals are nothing of the such. They don't want to proclaim the good news for others, but they simply only want good news for themselves. Yes, Mr. Meacham it is going to take an extraordinary type of Christian to stand up and go against the grain and my hope in that is running low.
1
From the Puritans to today’s evangelicals ,America Christians have not done well with diversity or opposing points of view. The Bible is more than a book of faith,it is their constitution and is set in stone. It is the word of God that must be conservatively followed. They turn to the Bible to fight changing social norms or advancing scientific knowledge. As one radio evangelical preacher said “ there is no global warming because the Bible states that the four seasons shall always be with us.” Unfortunately for many the message of Christ has been tuned into a political party and for too many evangelical leaders a money making machine.
6
The history of "religion in the public sphere" is dismal, at best. As intended by the U.S. Constitution it is best left as a private concern as far as politics and governance are concerned.
11
@T.E.Duggan Freedom of religion includes and implies freedom from religion. Let's never forget that!
I used to feel the way that Mr. Meacham points out in this article and felt that true Christianity would only lead to a better society. I've come to realize that is not true. The religious right's interpretation of Christianity is that anti-abortion is foremost in their choice of a candidate and homosexuality is a sin. Until these issues no longer are the prime motive for electing a public official we will never have a society that offers liberation and progress for all.
Religion must be taken out of government, just like the Founders of this nation intended.
33
Thank you for your insights Jon. Holding mystery and remaining humble but steadfast in my understanding of faith in Christ's message/example has given me solise in these times.
In your book The Art of Power, you described Jefferson's dilemma negotiating with Sally Hemming, his slave and half sister to his deceased wife, to leave France while she was pregnant with his child. I can't help but think that there is a metaphor there for the current state of our democracy.
Thank you for your disciplined yet raw approach to sharing our story.
2
"Christian" is a word with deep and broad meaning. Much broader than that of the Conservative Evangelicals of culture war conversation. Along with the other great religious traditions, it reflects as the author describes a faith driven commitment (however flawed at times) to living a virtuous life, rich with meaning and devoted to service. Contrast that with the Libertarian, consumeristic, and individualistic bent of our larger culture. Not necessarily bankrupt, but lacking overt notions of meaning beyond acquisition, common good, and virtuous service for its own sake.
8
The problem is that conservative evangelicals also believe they are practising their faith in the right way, and the oppostition is wrong. There is no objectively right way to be a Christian, because religion in itself is personal and subjective. The Bible is so vague and inconsistent that anyone can pick quotes they like to justify their prejudice. The difference between progressive and conservative CHristians is not the essence of their faith, but the content of their character.
Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis didn't fight for civil rights because their faith made them good, they did so because they were good people who happened to believe in God. There are good people who are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Spiritualists, atheists, agnostics, believers of any faith or none. You don't make people good by telling them about Jesus, you do so by teaching them empathy, compassion and kindness.
31
The problem here is that Christianity, as Mr. Meacham points out, is a double edged sword. Over the eons it has been used for both good and evil, as have all religions. So we need to look beyond the dogma and doctrine built around each particular faith to the "beatitudinal" values found not just in Christianity but also in Islam, in Buddhism, in Taoism and all major religions. Then one might reasonably conclude that no religion can rightly lay claim to exclusive truth and that it is faith in the values themselves - values that clearly evolved empirically from the shared experience of being human and not from any specific branch of theology - in which hope lies. In this day and age, with its retrenchment and insularity, its fascination with prophesy and signs, its abnegation of fact, its Dominionism and politicization of faith, its excessive individualism, its entitlement to obscene wealth accumulation, and its dismissal of responsibility for the havoc we are wreaking on our world - all encouraged at the highest political levels - the trends do not augur well. I fear Mr. Meacham's faith is misguided.
7
"And yet history suggests that religiously inspired activism may hold the best hope for those in resistance to the prevailing Trumpian order."
And yet most conventional norms that should have prevented Trump seemingly vanished or were obliterated by both him and his Republican colleagues.
Every single day this President makes some sort of outlandish and false claim and every single day almost every single person of influence in his party, particularly the Republican leadership in Congress, remains 100% silent.
Too many in the Republican Party are no longer conservative as has been defined historically. The only thing they care to conserve is power. And if they continue to support this President on this path, American decline in the world will escalate.
10
John, great piece! Thanks for reminding us of the reasons to be hopeful and the possibilities when we turn to our faith.
2
Time for an all women ticket. Moms will decided this election. Moms will not support Trump, it is pretty clear whether they are religious or not, they are ethical and honest.
2
Organized religion of any type advocates for its own ends, not the best interests of it's members, much less nonbelievers
or the country where it exists.
Our country, supposedly under God, was founded with slavery and disenfranchisement of women written into our constitution.
What followed was a continent wide genocide of so called
heathens by Christians. The most religious region in the country still celebrates the "noble cause" of slavery with statues and a flag.
Today, women are denied birth control as legitimate health care coverage and control of their bodies, by Christian legislatures - even women aren't believers in that religion.
And let's not forget gay rights.
Not a good track record, for advocating religion influencing politics.
13
The problem, as I see it, is that Christians other than those in the Evangelical group who support Trump, have no aggressive leaders. This is probably because most Christians who are anti-Trump are also ones who honor the tradition of separation of Church and State and are reluctant to mix religion and politics. But we've never experienced such an unholy alliance as that between Evangelicals and Trump. Perhaps it is time for other Christians to speak up.
14
I think you are right. To that end, I believe Christians who fall into this category need to take action without thumping the Bible. Let our actions of love, acceptance, and giving preach louder than the hatred of the pseudo-Christian evangelical Trumpists. We do not have to audibly trumpet our religious affiliation to make the statement that we believe in the motivations and actions demonstrated by Jesus. We simply need to emulate His actions.
I think that we already have a Supreme Court case that has threatened the much needed barrier between church and state in schools. I think the best way to deal with trump and his supporters is to let him downplay things like the coronera virus, as the cdc has already warned that it’s more or less inevitable that it comes to the U.S this point. As long as intelligent people are keeping informed and taking efforts to protect themselves from this epidemic, which hospitals are already doing I’m sure, then many of these supporters will also end up contracting this highly contagious illness.
In other words religion while good for some isn’t a solution for ethical or government problems. That’s a slippery slope as is. Maybe researching the number of supporters who catch it vs the same number of people who aren’t advocates of trump and making the numbers public, referencing his recent statements that contradict professional epidemiologists and organizations such as the CDC.
Anything where his ignorance has a a proven negative impact on the people who believe him is a little harder to dismiss. It’s important that connections are made and publicly stated in ways he can’t twist or blame on someone else.
Sick people who support him just need to know he ignored the common opinion held by M.D’s and that listening to him is dangerous. Doubt they’ll be very supportive after this happens.
Make sure you cary hand sanitizer if you work and live in a densely populated area.
4
Sanders might do well by picking a religious progressive as a running mate. In previous eras this might have been Daniel Berrigan or even Martin Sheen.
3
The most important lesson I learned from the 2016 election and the years following:
"Christian values voters" don't have any. Values, that is. At least none that would have been recognizable as Christ-like based on my Christian upbringing. As far as I can tell, their two overriding motivational factors (I can't call them values) are greed and a sense of entitlement.
Expecting these people to save us from Trump is not just a dream, it's delusional.
23
It is stunning to find that so bright a man and so accomplished an historian as Mr. Meacham could possess so flawed an epistemology when it comes to "the last saying of Jesus on the cross" or how religion might rescue the nation from its current precarious situation. If Mr. Meacham thinks that it's terrifying to "return to the foot of the cross," I invite him to contemplate what his words sound like to those of us who do not accept the bible as anything but fiction, or who do not share his views that religion--any religion--is the most reliable pathway toward a more just and equitable society.
21
Oy, another opportunity to bash our man Trump and his followers as if the Democrats candidate efforts were not enough.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the Christian tradition, when we are asked to do a little soul searching and make improvements accordingly. We are not asked to meditate on how others might mend their ways.
4
As I understand it, some anthropologists posit that religion arose as a useful, and ultimately dominant, social construct because it enabled the exercise of hegemonic power over an ever larger domain of humans. Certainly Constantine had this in mind when he solidified Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire by tasking his bishops to tighten up the creed at the Council of Nicaea In AD 325. It isn’t necessary to subscribe to a “state religion” to seek and attain some measure of deep meaning about existence and to try live your life in a way that promotes harmony and understanding.
6
"The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed"
Most of us do not have a wish to banish religion from the public square. Instead we have a wish for all Christians to follow the gospel - "love thy neighbor as thyself" and show tolerance, compassion, empathy for those who have different opinions.
As an aside, honesty and refusals to accept lying would be enormously helpful.
21
@Laurel Hedges. Tell that to the media that’s 95% anti-Trump.
1
Many commentators seemed to have missed the the argument that writer was making.The author of this opinion piece is not an evangelical. Nor does he hold them in high regard. He is a respected historian who, on occasion, writes about the place of religion in American life His sense of Christianity is demonstrated by the people he quotes, Dr. King and congressman Lewis. His idea of Christianity is animated by the same beliefs that gave rise, and sustenance, to the civil rights movement. Bash evangelicals all you want but please do not think that all Christians act and think as they do. To do so is, in itself, a Trumpian move. The electorate is so polarized that people can't even see who's on their side. People, with reason, worry about foreign electoral interference. If people can read, and comment, on a fairly straight forward article and miss the point entirely then the game is already lost. Trump wins.
14
@Kurt Traverse City
It’s still about racism. Many Evangelicals are plain out racist and wish for those glory days pre Civil War and their denomination of Protestantism and control of women and society.
@kurt Just food for thought: Meacham (and wife) is a millionaire and leans conservative. He is in my view largely out of touch with most people's reality. This opinion seems like another example of the wealthy (corporate news billionaires) paying the wealthy (millionaires) to tell the middle class (most people) middle-class that they -- not the wealthy-- are responsible for paying all of the taxes, living an obedient religious life, and helping the poor...
In the last part of tonight's Dem debate, the candidates were asked what quote or idea guides them. Most of them referred to something spiritual, Biblical or inspirational. I thought their answers were refreshing.
As a Buddhist let me say - keep the faith.
3
"For many Americans, especially non-Christians, the thought that Christian morality is a useful guide to much of anything these days is risible.."
This is the one statement here I agree with. Christian morality, for what it is, is on full display inside the Trump adminstration, the fanatical attacks on abortion rights, the cruelty shown towards immigrants, and the deep felt animosity towards anyone poor or vulnerable on health care. Indeed, it's a travesty of Jesus's original message. "Suffer the little children" did not mean making children suffer.
20
Thank you for your comment. Adults, as well as children, should not be made to suffer either. Open up any newspaper, and see the suffering all over the world. Meanwhile, America turns away. The feelings of despair and hopelessness are unavoidable...
2
I’m a great admirer of Mr. Meacham so I was disappointed to read this column attributing the civil rights struggles championed by Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis to their Christian beliefs. It seems to me that Meacham’s argument falls into the camp of Christians who assert that without the guiding precepts found in the Bible, we would be immoral brutes.
While there’s no doubt that King and Lewis found inspiration in their Christian beliefs, I question whether their lives and accomplishments would have been significantly different if they’d been raised in a Jewish, Muslim or atheist home.
The blatant inequality and searing injustices that blacks endured for generations prior was plain for every person to see, regardless of religious affiliation, or lack thereof. I have to believe that those two brave men and all those who participated in the civil rights struggle would have done so regardless of their specific religious beliefs.
19
@gsteve
Those participating in the Civil Rights movement prayed - a lot......
1
OK .. you had my interest there for a moment. I was curious to see how you'd back up your novel proposition that 'religion was the best hope against Trump'.
I expected some sort of contorted logic but we didn't even get that. The entire column in fact was an incoherent, nauseating case of switch and bait. Look, let me cut through the ... well let's call it mumbo jumbo to be polite ... that permeates this awful piece of writing.
I don't at all condemn religion. I know and respect many honest, devout adherents of different creeds. My problem is less with the spiritual commitment to something bigger than ourselves than it is with those who seek to exploit those beliefs for power and profit. No better example of this can be found than in the innumerable evangelical sects of the mainstream orthodoxies.
Over the past five years we have watched a disturbing number of these self-anointed defenders of the faith embrace as their second saviour a man who might more fittingly be described as a poster boy for the beast down under (no I don't mean Australia). They may feel buoyed by it in the short term - filling their pews and their coffers. But when the full extent of the damage left in his wake becomes clear, their headlong rush to legitimize his reign will leave them much to answer for - here and now as well as in the hereafter assuming there is one.
17
Mr Meacham,
As a retiree from Stanford who also worked at CDSP for 10 years and as someone who has followed your writings, I seriously doubt hardly anyone reading this column understands or relates to what you've written.
Nonetheless, thank you for reminding me to return and return and arrive at the beginning (of the cross) as TS Elliot wrote in Four Quartets.
8
I have known a good handful of people whose Christian faith - as best as I, a secular Jew can understand it - seem to have driven them to act with love and in pursuit of justice.
But I am 33, born in 1986. It is unfortunately almost entirely untrue that in my "living memory" Christianity "has also been deployed as a means of liberation and progress." You get a few counter-cultural types, here and there. I remember being shocked by a car during my college years with a bumper sticker reading "Thou Shalt Not Kill - NO EXCEPTIONS" next to a peace sign and a "Coexist" sticker, instead of next to a piece of anti-abortion propaganda.
From my perspective the bargain American Christianity made with conservative politics during the Reagan era is almost total and unseverable. I am secular, even atheistic, but that saddens me. I know faith, despite the horrors that can be committed in it's name, can and has and does inspire great works of politics and art and justice. But culturally, in my country and in my lifetime, it has chosen to side with oppression, hate, fear, and temporal power. The prosperity gospel rules this land. Good works has become synonymous with brute strength.
It is a loss, for sure, and I don't begrudge your decision to speak out and live in opposition to it. But, maybe because I am not a man of faith, I don't think it's a loss that can be reversed - although of course that doesn't make the hopeless struggle any less worthwhile.
23
Appealing to Religion to strengthen Reason is tortured at best. We approve of the religion of Martin Luther King but disapprove of the religion of Pat Robertson because we see the first as supportive of social justice and love and the second as promoting intolerance and hate. However one can find support for either in the Bible. And that's just Christianity... Looking for enlightenment through faith is a fraught exercise.
22
Considering how conservative religious have been trying to take over the country, I disagree. We don't need god, we need decent people to be part of the government.
Atheists like myself have long tried to fix the ills of a religious right trying to take power only for themselves.
And I don't see the religious tryin to protect the country. There was a reason why the founders didn't want religion in our government. They saw the disaster of the the religious in europe. The religious tend to be intolerant of anyone different from themselves. And we can see how the religious right is trying to impose their beliefs upon the rest of us.
No thanks. Keep your religion to yourselves.
34
We all know what we want the true religion (ours) to say, but we should not confuse this with a fair account of what current religions say. The root and history of the evangelical faith that supports Trump is the evangelical faith that supported segregation. John Lewis is not an inspiration for most of these people.
12
It appears that many commenters did not bother to read the essay but jumped straight to the comments in order to rage against the very idea of defending the authoritarian right-wing evangelicals who vote in such numbers for Donald Trump. Go back and read the article and you will see that Meacham is doing no such thing.
"Religion" -- even Christianity, even American Christianity -- is not a monolith. It is complex and varied. At least two of the Democratic candidates who debated this evening are practicing Christians who turned to the Gospels when asked for their guiding mottos at the close of the debate. They rightly see in the teaching and example of Jesus of Nazareth a model for compassion, inclusion, humility, and, above all, the absolute repudiation of the idea that human society is a zero-sum game -- that for one to prosper, others must be deprived.
6
Trump is not strong on religious faith of the Jon Meacham variety of faith. But in a larger more profound sense most scientists would say science is not based upon faith but rather science is based on evidence. From a scientific point of view scientific knowledge is not based on faith, whether it be religious faith or any other type of faith. For example the concern over global warming is based on the scientific evidence and not upon faith.
People "of faith" may or not believe in the threat of global warming, which is based on scientific evidence and not on faith.
In a very real sense faith and science are opposing world views
with the supporters of Trump's being people of faith. Promotion of a world view based on faith rather than scientific evidence is the heart of the problem with Trump, so it is not clear that the evangelical promotion of faith rather than science is the hope against Trump.
8
I'm assuming this "Jon Meacham" is not the same individual who has written several well-received presidential biographies and has contributed on occasion to the New York Review of Books, as well as other credible and respected periodicals. It would be difficult to reconcile the views stated or implied in those writings with those we find in this opinion piece.
Perhaps the one-sentence "bio" provided by the Times here should be extended so as to disambiguate this confusion.
8
This is indeed the same historian, Jon Meacham. This is his latest book.
1
@Laura : I suppose he's suddenly "got religion" or been "born again". What a pity. I didn't slways agree with him before, but he was a good writer.
As one who is proud and grateful to have been raised Roman Catholic, and also proudly pro Trump, I have often recalled two Biblical quotes during the last three years. "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" and "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".
2
@Dan Lorey
Many of us are not Christian and don't support Trump.
7
@Dan Lorey Just to clarify, you're a very proud person? Pride is the only attribute you have that is worth sharing?
I was raised Catholic, and I don't remember hearing Jesus' admonitions to go out and be proud. Quite the opposite.
17
@Dan Lorey
Jesus threw the religious hypocrites out of the Temple.
He said "Father forgive them" from the cross.
Context matters.
If one cannot tell the difference between Christ and Trump, there's nothing to be done for it.
160
I greatly admire John Meacham as a historian, and I admire his courage in writing this column .
To those who point out that there are religions other than Christianity, they miss the point that Meacham is addressing his message to Christians or ersatz Christians . To those who mention the many sects comprising the Christian community, they miss the point that all these sects have the Gospels as their common reference point .
As Meacham points out, his selections from the Gospel address key elements - perhaps the fundamental elements - of Christianity : forbearance, duty, love end mercy . These are not political statements . Jesus did not condemns the Pharisees or the Publicans . He did not chase the money changers from Jerusalem, but from the Temple, which they desecrated .
To politicize religion, whether Christianity or any other, is to deny that Government is for all the people, people of any religion or no religion at all . Unfortunately, many in the so-called Evangelical community have done precisely that . Their message bears little if any relationship with the values expressed in the last words of Jesus on the cross .
Perhaps they should be well advised to remember some of Jesus' other words : "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's ".
9
And who decides which is Caesar’s and that which is Gods? This statement is overly simplistic, without scope and basically irrelevant. Nice try though.
Christian history dating back to Constantine, sainted by the early church for his embrace of Christianity but personally morally suspect, is replete with unsavory leaders but who sometimes accomplished great goods.
The idea that it is always hypocritical for a Christian to vote for a morally flawed individual, even an unrepentant one, as our current president appears, is a quite simplistic argument, and one inconsistent with the entirety of Christian history. A Christian voter for sure has to weigh the personal virtue of every candidate, but, I would argue, more importantly has to consider the sort of world that candidate seeks to support.
Whatever is in Trump's heart, we can all only guess, but he is unabashedly supportive of the right to the free exercise of religion, something all serious Christians and people of faith put at the center of their lives and how they vote. The Democratic party's decision to treat religious freedom as a secondary right, subordinate to others, has created a conflict that is irreconcilable for millions of faithful who want the freedom to actively live their faith.
2
@Jason
It seems that Democrats err on the side of separation of church and state. If you are referring to the denial of services and rights to such groups as homosexuals in the name of religion -- effectively excluding them from constitutional protections afforded everyone else -- then I suggest "the millions of faithful" read the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights and get with the program.
5
One could very successfully argue that Muslims are excluded from Trump’s ( in your opinion) free speech protections that you assert.
I would love to agree to this. But I can never forget that during Bush 43's presidency the only American social demographic that approved of torture by more than 50 percent was Christians. Having been raised a devout Christian, I was horrified and ashamed. It will take a long time and many new actions for the church to restore my trust.
40
Thank you. I am more Jew than Christian and more atheist than Jew in a cold school of reason. But I can love mercy and hope to be worthy of the grace exemplified by John Lewis, whom I already miss terribly, and of the exquisite beatitudes that indeed seems lost to the Fox News Christians of today.
Before your essay I thought of Ghandi and Thoreau in MLK's actions more than Jesus. But what a wonderful notion: the ”creative weapon of love." Your idea of the Passion: forbearance, duty, love and mercy sets a goal worthy of the best in us.
“We cannot attain to so great a mystery by one way” is a condition that could give rise to our constitution that recognizes the inherent dignity and codifies the respect and equal value due all men that requires an equal vote for all.
This dignity, this grace is our inheritance come of thousands of years of struggle and suffering to create our more perfect union. May it not be trampled by the casual hate of Trump and his minions.
8
No, it's not religion. It's the principles that emanate from the experience and practice of Love and Compassion that the real prophets, which religion exploits constantly, have spoken of since the beginning. Man created religion. God created Love and in the wise that Love finds expression through action among not only humans but all species possessing emotional awareness and intelligence.
Religion is not something Jesus or Mohamed or Krishna or Budha ever wanted. Religious was invented by men to divide people, justify slavery, make women subservient.
The teachings of wise people and prophets some who have been the object of great hypocrisy and exploitation points to the fundamental ethical and moral understanding of the nature of Love, the unified field of connection between all Being and that finds expression in the ideas of the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount and throughout the teachings of compassion from all greater teachers of Love.
What ends the nightmare in this world is the end of fear as the result of each of practicing and voting for that which represents actual love, actual public service, and care for one another.
Everyone on the Democratic debate stage has a 1000 fold more of this than Trump. But people who are brainwashed by the fear-mongering religious zealots, many who's actions contradict their faith.
Truth is the language that God speaks and which finds its greatest expression.
The language, teachings, and actions of Love will work.
8
@Tom Paine Thank you, one of the best counters I have read.
Rather than preach to us about how evangelicals will save us from trump, you should instead preach to the evangelicals to save themselves from trump. Like the proverbial snake’s tale, they led us into fire. You can understand why i lack faith in them.
23
The most powerful engine of ignorance, cruelty, hypocrisy, privilege and suffering throughout human history is the abdication of individual responsibility and moral conscience through religious faith.
It's a profound and pernicious teleological suspension of disbelief that allows Evangelicals to wholeheartedly embrace Trump. Faith requires them to believe that bad things are part of god's design -- which only it/he/she (god's trans-gender, right?) can know and followers must trust.
It's magical thinking at its worst: Trump is sin incarnate who gives Lucifer a good run for his money in terms of narcissism, hubris and looking out for #1 (imagine Trump's umbrage at being #2 to god).
For Christians Trump is the personification of god working in mysterious ways and thus an easy test of faith as Christians for Trump like tax breaks, punishing the evil poor, promoting white supremacy (in god's image) and venerating god's chosen 1% (as wealth signals preordination and a luxury condo reserved in heaven's best 'hood).
Maybe Meacham sees some countervailing good in religious faith that makes the attendant bad a good deal. But I doubt if the victims of Christian barbarism share his view.
I think the author confuses religion with prozac or some other sedative; something that's calming and reassuring when savagery is served as a daily special with a 15% suggested tip.
Religion is more than just never having to say you're sorry: it's never having to say you're sorry for Trump.
28
Wearing religion on our sleeves is what got us to this mess in the first place. Now you want us to wear it over our chest, face and back? No thank you. We need less of it, not more of it.
Religious people are more likely to be pro-guns, more meat loving, more prejudiced against people of color and Muslims, less inclined to approve of science spending, more archaic in their notion of women's liberty and health, more inclined to take aggressive foreign policy stances etc.
Exactly what redeeming features do you propose besides all the sermonizing ?
31
So, the best hope against Trump is to submit to a different kind of authoritarianism where you surrender reason and evidence for 'faith', and critical thinking is once again absent?
Mr. Meacham, I humbly ask you why you continue to profess a belief in the supernatural. Morality and ethics have nothing to do with religion, other than the latter so often corrupts the former. Don't you see the parallels in the lack of critical thinking that leads people to believe without evidence and the spread of disinformation and propaganda that the GOP has been using to maintain outrage?
You say the secular wish to banish religion is a perennial failure, and it will be as long as we as a society don't provide access to affordable education and teach critical thinking skills to the next generations. Which, of course, is very valuable for the elements of society who wish to keep the masses ignorant.
17
Mr. Meacham,
Just as Christianity has been used in the past as a cudgel, it is returning, today, in the form of a loud, righteous minority for the same purpose.
Jesus, speaking to a little child, I'm sure would say "my children, be good and do good".
He certainly wouldn't have told less than perfect men to write thousands of pages, to interpret or misinterpret his words, for people who didn't read, then, and still don't, and call it religion.
Jesus would have said an "index card" will do. Religion has just left blood in the streets, oppressed women through the centuries, and persecuted people not in power.
I truly weary of religion I see here in the South. Like the pastor I heard telling his young people that, though we had slavery, we treated them "good".
If religion can't bear scrutiny, then it is wrong. If it uses its power to install and prop up a thug, then, definitely, it should be purged from public life.
26
Wonderful. Thank you Jon Meachem.
I keep wrestling with the "why?" Why are we here now...in this nation that was founded on profound spiritual concepts? How did we get here? Where do we go from here?
As Jesus shared with us, there are only two places to stand in any given moment...in love. Or in fear.
I see...we are standing in fear. We are standing in fear, rather than love. Not airy-fairy, "woo-woo" or say-and-do-as-you-please love...the love embodied by Jesus and exemplified by his life and teachings.
It is a love borne of whole-hearted acceptance...without judgement, expectation, manipulation; love absent conditions. It is a vast love we humans have only begun to explore.
I know it sounds like the lyrics to a Huey Lewis song, but the question I often ask myself is...
Am I pursuing the power of love? Or the love of power? The love of power...is rooted in fear.
The inundation of media, marketing, advertising, and technology in our lives has us too often pursuing the love of power...out of fear; fear of not enough; fear of not being enough.
Jesus, Dr. King, John Lewis, Gandhi...pursued the power of love.
As I endeavor to be that love - not just to love, but to love well - in my daily life, I am well aware I am but a drop in the ocean of the love Jesus embodied...
...but what an extraordinary, meaningful, illuminating adventure it is navigating that ocean!
I know it sounds like the lyrics to a Huey Lewis song, but
2
Religion has been used as justification for some of the worst aspects of American history such as the elimination of the Native Americans, slavery, Jim Crow, and the subjugation of women. It sure won't save us now.
20
lets see: Trump had at least two affairs, denied them. Paid off the two women, but claimed not knowledge. Trump never admitted to anything or asked for forgiveness. The Evangelical response is the he is the Chosen One. My response: Loosing my religion
14
An interesting study in Science last November suggests that the growth of individualism, the turning away from family/tribalism, came about when the Christian Church before the year 600 came out with new rules that essentially banned marriage to those too closely related.
"In September 506 C.E., the fathers of what would later become the Roman Catholic Church gathered in southern France to draw up dozens of new laws. Some forbade clergy from visiting unrelated women. Others forbade Christians from marrying anyone more closely related than their third cousin. The authors of a sweeping new study say that last, seemingly trivial prohibition may have given birth to Western civilization as we know it.
“If the authors are right, or even in the vicinity of being right, it couldn’t be bigger,” says Stephen Stich, a philosopher and cognitive scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, who wasn’t involved in the work. “What they are offering to explain is the emergence of democratic institutions, of individualism in the West.”
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/11/how-early-christian-church-gave-birth-today-s-weird-europeans
And an NPR article about same:
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/11/07/777276474/western-individualism-may-have-roots-in-the-medieval-churchs-obsession-with-ince
1
I wish I could agree, but I can't. Religion and Republicanism seem to be the same half of the same whole. They talk the same talk and walk the same walk. Both give hypocrites a bad name and have some rabid fixation against paying taxes - a requirement enumerated in this nations founding document. They both deem woman third class citizens and plot against them whenever possible, but appallingly with a cheap disingenuous smile on their faces. If ever religion wishes to carryout their mandate to do the works of Jesus, I'm sure they'll repent en masse and vote against hate, racism and demagoguery, but that time is NOT now.
4
Jesus had no problem with slavery; he never put ‘pen to scripture’ thereby explaining his thoughts and deeds to anyone; he claimed that ‘the only way to god is through me’ and founded a faith that asserted a penalty of eternal suffering for as little as an unrepentant dietary violation on a sabbath. All love was therefor conditional and far from comprehensive; how is this an answer to hate, division and injustice?
4
'"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
U.S. Constitution, Article. VI
“And when thou prayest , thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. …But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret…” (Matthew 6:5-6)
3
Best hope for what? Defeating Trump in November? I doubt it.
4
Trump is impeached by the Gospels. Nearly every page of the Christian Bible admonishes either for behavior he does not practice or against behavior he does. The same Bible warns that they will create teachers after their own liking and that he will deceive even some of the elect and divide families. Those who have ears must rise up to oppose him.
When Trump said (among many other things) that he could murder someone on Madison ave and his followers will still follow him... It was an unmistakable message to those followers... follow me and turn your back on the Divine Law of Love and on He who revealed it you at the maximum cost.
4
I don't doubt that author's noble intentions. But considering that, demographically, there is a strong correlation between Christian views and support for Trumpism - racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and hatred for "the others" in general - whereas there is a strong correlation between secular views and liberalism - racial equality, ethnic plurality, and compassion for others - religion seems an unlikely candidate for resolving the difficulties our country is facing.
My doubts find support in the overwhelmingly secular nature of Western European countries that are home to the happiest, healthiest, and also wealthiest people on Earth - Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Studies clearly show that the more religious a country is, the more discord and violence, the lower the standard of living, and the less happiness there is. That's one major reason why countries like Afghanistan have an uphill battle.
In my mind, the difference between evangelic fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists is, at best, a matter of degree. At the core, they are one and the same thing.
10
This opinion is religious idealism; it does not take into account the fundamental realities of the human condition - that we are primates and, in our man-made world, anxiety is our primary sensibility (especially in relation to religion). True altruism, compassion and selflessness are never tied to a fantastic reward or a subservient position. Real honesty, reason and maturity demand each of us embrace humility and sacrifice if we intend our children and grandchildren have a world worth living in. Religion no longer offers that possibility as it is representative of a human being’s most base, self-deluding and destructive characteristics, as seen with the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts.
4
The Dalai Llama when asked if he wanted everyone should profess Buddhism said 'No, people should find their own path to a compassionate life and if that means practicing your traditional religion so be it' or words to that affect.
But he would declare that all men must seek within to find their own path that is consistent with the best part of themselves. In our humanity we can find unity of purpose and a clarity that leads to being the best we can be. In this scenario blaming others, lying to oneself or others or vindictiveness has no place and eventually destroys the person who chooses that path. the middle way of compassion and understanding is the path that every valuable practice seeks.
3
"And yet history suggests that religiously inspired activism may hold the best hope for those in resistance to the prevailing Trumpian order."
The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Salem Witch Trials, all fine examples of 'religiously inspired activism'.
If the author is correct, then we are certainly hopeless.
Through world history, there has been no more destructive and divisive force than religion.
24
Being a Christian is difficult but being a Catholic is even more so. There are many tenets in the Catholic Church that we are asked to follow and it can be a sacrifice at times but very rewarding. The Church is rich in tradition and practice. We have the rosary, the novenas and the devotions which are still practiced by many. We are the largest Christian denomination in the world with over 1.3 billion members. We can be proud of the fact that so many practice this wonderful faith. The Church is not perfect and is made up of some imperfect people but this is true of all institutions. I feel blessed to be part of this wonderful religion as do many others. It is a gift.
1
The hard thing about virtue through faith is in distinguishing the virtuous paths from those faithful people tread and preach. The same bible that animates this author animates the prosperity gospel and Trump supporters denying basic human rights. The Good Book is also full of evil.
There’s plenty of room for debate, and resolution is hard, because the principles are so flexible. Take the story of Job. God punishes a fortunate man, and then restores him. We can attribute noble or ignoble intentions to God, but ruining someone is objectively an evil act. Restoring one that you have wronged is good, but not as good as preventing that ruin. But, God is good.
Look to the border crisis. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision says a border agent that unlawfully shoots a Mexican kid on Mexican soil has no obligation to compensate the dead kid’s family. The Lord, and our laws, just taketh away. The 5-4 majority were GOP appointed, Christian conservatives.
What of the drug war and the gangs that we variously fought and helped, that have caused the ruination of Central American refugees? Our Christians want a wall to keep them out. Our Christian leaders have even stolen their children.
How do the faithful purge the poison of hate in their faith? Gandhi and King got civil disobedience from Thoreau. Maybe American philosophy can rehabilitate American Christianity: remind leaders what virtue looks like in unjust times. Their judges are not up for that, but Christian voters may be.
2
The author conveniently forgets that it was the Christian religion that formed an alliance with the Republican Party which has driven our country to state it is in today. And he posits that more religion would cure all this. Absolutely no thanks.
11
It is not the Christian religion that forged an alliance with Trump and his minions. It is fundamentalist white evangelicals who have tied themselves to the Republican Party. Most of the Christian churches in this country have been extremely critical of administration policy. The question isn’t whether or not we need more religion. The question is what kind of religion people of faith will embrace.
7
@Craig Reges A faction of Christianity. One that I happen to find repugnant because its practitioners have sold their principles for pennies on the dollar. I call them CINO. Christians In Name Only.
1
@Conrad Noeli So here comes your One True Scotsman fallacy in full flower. It wasn’t real Christians who did this. It’s those fake ones over there. No true Christian would do that.
You know, those fundamentalist white evangelicals think that you, Conrad, and people who believe as you do are the real non-Christians. That you’ve got it wrong. That the truth and the Lord are on their side.
Which of them is right? I say a pox on both your houses. Keep religion out of government. All religion. As the founders wisely intended.
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is loving and humanitarian and Reverend William Barber’s Poor People’s Campaign is motivated by the Christian belief the meek will inherit the earth and resistance against Caesar. Trump’s Evangelical supporters excuse his immorality by calling him Cyrus, the Persian king who ended the Babylonian exile and freed the Hebrews. The white Christian nationalism of Falwell and Trump dominates Christian politics—that isn’t going to change anytime soon. Liberal Christianity is an important but minor voice in the American polity.
The First Amendment does not call for separation of church and state—it forbids establishing an official state religion or suppressing any religion. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” For decades the Supreme Court interpreted that to mean government cannot support any religion. From the Rehnquist to Roberts Courts, they have allowed government economic support for religious schools and right-wing Christian ethics, such as discrimination against homosexuals by businesses. If before a football game, high schools didn’t just have Christian prayers but Muslim, Buddhist, and secular, atheist, and Marxist precepts, that would be in accord with the First Amendment. Not going to happen. Separation of church and state and holding all religion, including progressives, at a distance from government is our best bet.
2
The most curious aspect of this essay is that such a large proportion of Trumps support comes from churches. There is nothing in what Mr. Meacham writes that really explains this.
Could it be that religion promotes blind faith? If that is the case that blindness could serve to explain why that need to be blind would attach itself to a monster just as easily or even more easily than a saint?
Might that need to be blind have originated from serious disfunction in ones early childhood experiences?
2
@Bunbury I have often thought lately that the evangelical support of trump is enabled in part by their training to be blind to facts like evolution and the geological age of the earth.
So they are able to cling to trump and deny the obvious fact of his lying, just as they must for their literal interpretation of the Bible.
I know there are many Christians with broader views, perhaps the majority, but for some it is a religion of hatred, fear and judgement, and their messiah is trump.
I can’t really go for your childhood dysfunction theory though, I think it is just mistaking ignorance for truth and fighting tooth and nail to defend it, even if it means fighting dirty.
I don't know if "religion" is the best hope against Trump since so many high profile and everyday Christians, protestant and Catholic, support him. And the Catholic Church has lost its moral authority due to the pedophile priest scandal and cover up. (And to this day has not done anything truly redemptive. Pay outs to victims may be a form of restitution, but it isn't healing, loving, or transforming the Church. An international day of prayer for victims of clerical abuse would do a lot to help victims feel cared for.)
But what could give us hope is if Christians read the New Testament again, particularly the Gospels, and put Jesus' teaching into practice. Give to the poor. Heal the sick. Take care of children, and widows. Love your neighbor as yourself.
It thus makes sense to support candidates and parties that align with those commands. Universal healthcare. Raise taxes on the rich. Make quality education available to everyone. Save the planet for our children, grandchildren.
Christ's values could save us. Unfortunately, too many Christians don't follow those values anymore.
7
I was with a group of Catholics last evening and they were all Trump supporters. I felt very comfortable speaking about politics which does not occur to often in Manhattan. These people are all good Christians who live kind and generous lives. They behave in a way that makes me proud to call myself a Christian. We need more of these types of people in the world today.
4
Somehow I don’t think Christ would approve of separating children from their parents and locking them in cages. If you support Trump, you support his policies. Don’t kid yourself into thinking your acquaintances are good people — Christian, or otherwise. I know plenty of atheists and agnostics who follow Christ’s dictates more than anyone who supports Trump and calls themselves a good Christian.
1
Good and kind Christians do not vote for Trump
1
Mr. Meacham's comments are at odds with the views of the Founders, who expressed grave reservations about the aims and history of religion with regard to politics. Some examples:
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes." - Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813.
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814
"What influence in fact have ecclesiastical establishments had on Civil Society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the Civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny: in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not." - James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments (1785).
10
The founders were speaking of ecclesiastical establishments, not religion.
At present I am inspired by the expressed faith, perseverance and patience of a young mother of 5 who has received the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. I heard of this at the same time that Koby Bryant and his teenage daughter died in a fiery helicopter crash. I am once again turning to prayer, mysterious as it may be. Like Meacham I have been schooled in Christianity throughout my three score and ten years. The Trump administration and the following it has among most Evangelicals has caused a liberating sea change in me, allowing me to think outside of that box, to critique the narrow and indeed often racist views expressed. The process continues, there are no human gurus. Christ's words remain food for the spirit.
2
Right on Jon Meacham, I particularly like that the very last paragraph of this article is a clarion call. I hope many, many, many will heed. Go Bless America! (said the little Canadian from the sidelines).
1
Literally preaching to the choir. But maybe Sanders, who evokes the Old Testament prophets and the sermonizing on the Mount, will persuade the Evangelicals to vote for him.
1
President Trump supports religious people with conservative values and has appointed them to his administration. Other presidents were pro life but he is the first who supported pro life people. He has chosen pro life judges and justices to the bench. He was the first president to speak at the Washington March for Life. This is important to people who cherish life. It is something we value.
2
@KMW Slight correction to your post: He supports people who wish to express their support for life by imprisoning women who've had abortions. Or executing them, as the Ohio legislature has been debating lately. It certainly has nothing to do with supporting mothers.
7
@KMW It doesn't look like Trump or anti-abortion people cherish all life to me - certainly not the life of the mother, certainly not the life of the child once it is born, certainly not life on this planet since the 7 billion of us are rapidly killing as many other forms of life as can - animals, plants, the Earth itself. If you cherish life, are you an environmentalist? Do you support Trump administration ensuring more toxins and poisons get in our water supply? Do you support kicking kids off Medicaid so they don't get health care? Demonizing poor people?
Abortion is complicated, women's lives are complicated, and these issues are complicated. It might be more accurate to say you support life in the womb, and the collateral damage to other living beings, including the already born, is the price you are willing to pay.
2
I agree with your message and would add this: many politicians are more focused on evoking reactions from their constituents than in delivering an inspiring message. Jesus suffered and was executed but he still stood for love and human dignity. His tormentors like those around us these days, acted out of fear, greed, and a quest for power. In fact, our current president appeals to people’s anxiety that without him their world will be destroyed. This is the message behind his slogan MAGA. It is a message of exclusivity and fear. It is a message of cultural and moral division. Jesus did not preach fear and loathing.
2
“The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed; one might as well try to eliminate economic, geographic or partisan concerns.”
I’ve been around for 50-some years now. 30 years ago I would have recoiled against such a sentiment. Today I accept it as self-evident truth. Mr. Meacham’s point, which I agree with, boils down to “let’s make the best of it.”
2
I could not disagree more. The essential argument is religion, again, used as a tool of manipulation. It happens, in this proposed iteration, to be used for good, but even still it is responding to nominally the same religion used to justify immorality.
There are few rails to contain deranged versions of Christianity. Charismatic charlatans are great at starting Christian churches. They live the privileged life of the financial elite. In Jesus's name. Through history we have seen what is proposed here, religion as manipulation. Most often in bad ways, occasionally in good ways. Abolitionists and many 19th and 20th century civil rights leaders and followers relied on the social sanctity of religion to bolster their power. One of the best associations for Christianity.
But morality does not require religion. It is less likely to be twisted without distorted "interpretations" of the Bible. It is far stronger without the arbitrary personal choice of religion preference as its basis. I'm certain MLK would have fervently understood Justice had Christianity never happened. I believe most people can understand decency and have guiding moral principles without religion. Indeed far better and more solid ones than those that have lead so called Christians, but apparently just lemmings, to support a near antichrist.
If only Jesus could heal people's crippled reliance on the crutch of religion to figure out what is good and right and just...
16
And who decides which form of Christianity is true? There’s as much support in the Bible for MLK Christianity as there is for Falwell or Robertson Christianity. As the Treaty of Tripoli said “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion”. Secularism is the only way to ensure freedom of and from religion.
15
If it weren't for so many "religious" people in this country, Donald Trump would not be the most powerful person in the world.
56
There are so many commenters wondering how Christians could support Trump. The same commenters then proceed to vilify, belittle, degrade, and mock Christians. Is it any wonder why Democrats are having trouble getting Christian votes?
8
@JV Christians should not be vilified, belittled, degraded, or mocked for being Christian. But they should be vilified, belittled, degraded, and mocked for supporting Trump whether they are Christian or not.
@JV I know many good Christians. I don't mock them. I mock the ones who point to the Bible to justify particularly ugly beliefs. They pretend they have no choice but to believe the way they do, when in fact they're drawn to passages that support their beliefs, and they ignore all the inconvenient bits.
I'm particularly repelled by the ones who compare Trump to David and say that Trump is, like David was, a flawed person but a great leader, God's chosen one.
That logic allows them to ignore any cruelty, any lies, any canoodling with enemies of the U.S. It is a logic that allows them to stand by him regardless of anything he's ever done or ever might do. Anything whatsoever.
I have little reason to believe my own siblings' support for Trump would diminish if he shot me right in front of them.
Only those Christians that just talk the talk
Seriously....according to polls...most devout white Christians support Republicans and therefore Trump. I have very little faith in white Christian saving us from the perils of the policies they so devoutly support.
16
If religion meant anything, we'd see it in the religious refusing to support Trump. Statistically, on the whole, we do not. Christians embrace a serial adulterer who has compared himself to God and who puts children in jail cells.
23
How about instead of appealing to faith, we appeal to reason? There is a sizeable portion of the evangelical community that literally believes that Trump has been sent by God to save America from the godless left, Islam, homosexuality, etc etc. You are never going to argue those people out of their support for Trump through more faith.
Thankfully, the US has the First Amendment. I suggest we start defending it.
18
A brilliant piece, Mr. M. And Evangelicals still won't care.
5
Wishful thinking.
So long as the people in the pews are told that "abortion is preeminent" we're all going to be stuck with Trump and his ilk no matter what they do.
7
I agree with your sentiments but not the convictions on which they are based. MLK Jr. and John Lewis were great men and I would be thrilled to have either as my President. But the idea that man is created in God's image, and therefor somehow elevated above the rest of creation, is typical of the vanity and arrogance of western culture. The meek and the persecuted of which you speak are not primarily other humans--they are the other life forms that we humans have treated far worse than we have ever treated those of our own species. We humans have birthed a new extinction event, thanks to climate change, that will be ranked right up there with the others.
Is Trump Christ-like? Absolutely not. Are other politicians? Certainly more so than Trump. Should our conversation be limited to humans? I don't think so. Can the Bible's message be extended beyond the ridiculous idea that we humans have dominion over "every living thing that moveth on the Earth"? I hope so. You tell me.
3
12 years of Catholic school here and have done all the sacraments except priesthood. Christianity as a positive force? They have shown their face. I say give it a rest.
9
Religion! The oldest hypocrisy masterminded to control and solidify the power and exploits of the top 1%.
We do no need religion to care, help, protect and grow as a civilization. We need education and justice.
37
As Seneca noted almost 2000 years ago:
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”
33
When a country has to turn to religion for anything, they are ruined already. The whole Middle East, including Israel, demonstrates this.
24
You must know better than to invoke patriarchal platitudes in an age of complete hypocrisy? No...just no.
14
If religion is really your best hope, you may just as well surrender now. And that goes for pretty much everything. God help you.
11
Trump is the most sinful man ever to inhabit such a lofty place in our political system. He is worse than slave holding presidents and womanizing politicians. Support for him among “Christians” is the rankest hypocrisy.
45
If the Republican Party has taught us nothing else, it is that in a rational world we would ban all forms of organised religion.
.
Yet freedom of conscience and freedom of and from religion are guaranteed constitutional rights.
.
The Republicans have abused religion to destroy democracy in the United States.
24
White Evangelicalism and the faith of King and Lewis are two different religions, even though both go by the name "Christianity." Only one of them really is faithful to the man from Nazareth.
7
Oh Really? See this mess we are in? It is because the separation of church and state has been eroded The dogs of dogma have been let lose. Religion cannot even save its own people.
11
America will heal once everyone understands that religion is mythology. It's not that there aren't elements of symbolic truths, but these are not history books!
10
Religious supremacists, Christian that is, in action. America, especially Dems, preach to rest of the world how secular they are and why and others should emulate them. First they should give up talking about religion publicly, espousing religious Christian thought, as it is irrelevant and not useful.
1
Well said Jon Meacham. Perhaps what’s is missing so much in this divided country is the lack of brotherly love which Jesus desired most from us: to love and serve our fellows. That is what makes a nation great.
6
White Evangelical Republicans have rejected the teachings of Christ. I'm not even a Christian, but I was raised Catholic and spent a lot of time as a child and young adult reading the Bible, both Old and New Testament. Republicans can pretend they accept Jesus, but it's clear they've completely and utterly rejected his teachings. A pox on all of them.
16
The pharisees asked Jesus to explain God's his greatest commandment. Love your God, he said, and love your neighbors. The two are the same thing. All other commandments are secondary. That's it.
Join a church that offers love and support, that welcomes all kinds of people. It won't be perfect. None are. The effort is what matters.
Church people who want you to pass some sort of test on your political beliefs?
They aren't practicing Christianity.
5
So sorry. There is no way that evangelicals would change their minds. There are a few in my family, and they are 100% convinced Trump is the best . And some in my family are Hispanic. These people always embrace me with prayers and let us hold hands , and thank the lord Jesus our savior. I can't fight them .. They are true believers. They really believe trump is the answer. Civil war. Sister against sister. Mother against daughter, We , as a nation, never ever owned up to our awful actions.
5
I think the author is mistaken about the "goal" of atheists. We do not have a goal to convert people to our belief system. Our goal is that other religions leave us alone and not try to force your beliefs on others -- e.g., the Republican party of the US promotes fake christianity.
16
Which religions? The Christian Right has thrown away all of their principles and morals to back someone that not too many years ago they would have denounced as 'Trafficking With The Devil', the Catholic Church as always been available to the highest bidder, the religious response to the Trump era has been muted at best.
It has been the secular people who have responded to Trump's deprivations the loudest and longest. Religion has done what is always has done in the face of power - Retreat to a corner and mumble.
8
I am a practicing Catholic who takes my faith very seriously. It is my rock. It is my strength and help when I am in need. I abhor abortion and believe marriage is between one man and one woman. I am a conservative and follow the teachings of the Church. I am in no way perfect but I do the best I can. I have faults and flaws like the rest of creation.
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and I will be receiving my ashes. When I was younger, I would wipe them off because I was afraid of ridicule. No more. I wear them with pride and conviction. God has been very good to me and I have been blessed. I feel I have been luckier than most and must give back to the needy and less fortunate. That is what God expects of us.
I am currently participating in the pro life movement, 40 Days for Life, with thousands of others around the world. I plan on not stopping at pro life vigils but also to assist the mothers and babies in their time of need. The Sisters of Life do wonderful charitable work and as a lay person I would like to help these fine nuns. They devote their entire lives to these women and babies. They are always there to help them. There are also many young men and women and older adults who aid these women and babies. We cannot turn our backs on these people who often have no one to turn to. We are there and these are creatures of a God. In his eyes they are beautiful and they are.
4
@KMW
What is your organization doing for the children on the border.
There was a post the other day about Trump's separation of a 4 month old child who is now 2 years old. He cannot speak and cannot walk. It has been said of Trump's policies, "the cruelty IS the point". He is indeed a cruel man.
2
@KMW Which women and babies? And do you really help single women and their children? Do you really help the poor and needy? How?
> Evangelicals may support an amoral president. But faith can still offer hope for liberation and progress.
For starters, the facts. It's not a matter of "Evangelicals may support Trump". Evangelicals do support Trump, in vast, large numbers. In spite of all their proclaimed purity and piousness. And those who dare disapprove of the amorality are quickly admonished.
And now I get to the semantics of this byline. I don't know how to characterize it. It's either a mind-boggling, monumental self-contradiction, or it's a monumental display of hypocrisy. Take your pick.
We are told that a particular religious group, that has been consistently supporting an amoral president, can help our society at large find redemption through progress and liberation.
Progress through what? By promoting Intelligent Design as a valid scientific alternative to Evolution? By trying to impose a narrow set of personal beliefs onto society at large?
Liberation from what? Religious absolutism is the farthest thing from liberty that I can think of.
Does Wahhabism inspire liberty? The only reason we dislike Wahhabism is because of its specific flavor: they aren't Christians.
The mind boggles. Jesus would not approve. And I'm not even a believer.
5
Well said, Mr. Meacham
I credit this nasty, mean, and greedy president and his administration and supporters for making this clear: you either are caring/decent towards others or you’re not. And if you truly wish to follow the teachings of a Judeo-Christian God you’re going to have to keep practicing works of compassion and decency. Every day and in every way. At home, at work and on the street (and yes, in your car). Forget about those power prayer breakfasts and bible studies. They only get in the way/take time away from performing good works. I loved it when Speaker Pelosi said she prays for the president. It was like hearing my sainted mom encouraging me to do the same. So yes, pray it up. And if you don’t believe in a God: keep on practicing acts of caring, decency and encouragement. We sure can use that.
7
Religion brought us Trump, much as it brings most trouble in this world.
“What we call religion is merely organized belief, with its dogmas, rituals, mysteries and superstitions. Each religion has its own sacred book, its mediator, its priests and its ways of threatening and holding people.
Most of us have been conditioned to all this, which is considered religious education; but this conditioning sets man against man, it creates antagonism, not only among the believers, but also against those of other beliefs.
Though all religions assert that they worship God and say that we must love one another, they instill fear through their doctrines of reward and punishment, and through their competitive dogmas they perpetuate suspicion and antagonism.”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life
7
I sadly believe many Americans would today find this column’s claim to be true: “For Americans, especially non-Christians, the thought that Christian morality is a useful guide to much of anything these days is risible, particularly since so many evangelicals have thrown in their lot with a relentlessly solipsistic American president who bullies, boasts and sneers.”
I also agree that the biblical “story Christians profess begins [as] a story about love, not loathing; generosity, not greed.”
2
Today we have Christian Churches that profess that the poor are poor because of their own frailty or because it is God's will (the poor are always with us).
There are Christian Churches who profess that their members pray for war between Israel and the Arab world because that will bring about the second coming, where billions will burn.
I was raised to believe that a Christian can not be afraid because in Christ there is no fear. Then 9/11 happened and people that I thought were Christians were afraid, in fact they claimed to be "terrified".
Then in the 2016 election I saw a President tell Americans to be afraid.
Then over the last three years the primary theme of the Republicans is "be selfish", America First". Selfishness is a complete anethama to Christian belief, right?
Then I took the bias survey on the site "Allsides" where our political bias is revealed. The more selfless your choice the more liberal you were rated. I was shocked. I thought, as a Christian, where my choices are those which will bring me closer to God, were conservative, Amish like conservative. But nope, turns out, according to "Allsides" I am not a conservative, I am a far-right liberal.
When did the Christian faith become a home for the self-serving, a haven for the fearful? The new arena churches don't require anything from their parishioners except money. And all this time I thought I had to strive to be Christ like. Thanks "Allsides" for setting me straight. Guess I'll go vote for Bernie.
5
Religious social teachings can be very beneficial. Much of the "social" in the European "Social Market Economy" (as opposed to the "Free" (or unrestrained) Market Economy of the US) derives from the social teachings of the dominant religions in Europe. But religion, especially organized religion, which is dominated by "dogma", in the public sphere, in politics, is mostly pernicious.
3
Jesus taught to care for others, the poor, the sick, and the misfortunate, unlike religion which act self-righteously to divide and persecute others who do not hold the same religious beliefs. Organized religion is the antithesis of Jesus’ life. Religion builds walls, Jesus opened the gates of humanity and equality.
6
The biggest movements for liberation and progress today are not religious, but secular and based on shared injustice. That's what is driving the progressive movement right now, happening right under your nose, all nostalgia aside. Those who have no upward mobility, those stopped and frisked, can't get a loan, no credit, no lawyers and accountants, no book deals, and no media contacts on speed dial. They're not waiting for religion to offer hope or to catch up with them.
7
I'm afraid I don't agree with Mr. Meacham that Trump is likely to be defeated in his re-election bid due to increased Christian charity among the American electorate. In fact, it is quite obvious that large numbers of evangelical supporters of Trump already consider themselves to be "good" Christians and yet have no problem with his racism, xenophobia, misogyny, mendacity, self-dealing, vindictiveness and, above all, narcissism. They share a profound self-deception with the object of their adoration. They support Trump for two reasons: fear and greed. They are afraid of the inevitable demographic change occurring in their country that will displace them and they want to hold on to all the benefits that have accrued to them and refuse to share with those less fortunate. The only circumstance under which they will abandon Trump is if they feel they are personally negatively affected, principally by a downturn in the economy or if, for example, by a major crisis, like a coronavirus pandemic. Then, Trump would suddenly appear less appealing. Hardly Christian charity.
7
So according to Mr Meacham, "Christianity" is apparently the only religion in this country (or in his view, the only one worth mentioning).
Also, from what I have seen, these "Christians" he references have largely been supporters of the racist bully Trump, and of far-right Republican politicians who are still waging their "War on Women."
The religionists have shown themselves to be amoral and unethical. Here's a suggestion: how about they stay out of politics, and keep their agendas off of women's bodies – or else start paying their fair share and stop expecting a tax-free ride.
6
and your references are all to those long gone, regrettably. modern christians have traded their soul for power. they have revealed themselves as no different than any other special interest group...willing to do anything, oppress anyone, destroy any ideal, to get what they want.
4
I am Jewish, and this article is horrifying on several levels. I am a person of faith who does not stand ”at the foot of the cross” nor anywhere near it. The United States has far too much Christianity (and religion) as it is. This article makes no sense to me.
13
I was not born here but have lived here for the last 46 years. What attracted me to the USA was "Separation between Church and State".
So now that divide has gone now what, "Handmaids Tail"?
8
Thank you for reminding us that there still is a Christianity that harks back to the First Century. These teachings of Liberation Theology Christianity can be a guide for Americans. I loved Senator Warren’s quoting from Matthew at the end of the debate tonight, What you do to the least of these, you do unto me!”
4
I respect what Jesus stood for: essentially for us to love one another.
However, facing this climate crisis, I don't think the answer is a belief in a savior who will return and make the earth anew.
Instead of faith in a god coming back, I'd rather us (the human species) honor the earth, stop polluting, stop desecrating, and stop consuming ourselves into oblivion.
"There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places." - Wendell Berry
5
God has always used deeply flawed people to accomplish His purposes. Donald Trump is deeply flawed. But he is pursuing the purposes of God in a way the Democrats—who are prisoners of the far left and their spectacularly unChristian views. Are not.
2
@ehillesum And there we have the cultism that stains what this article actually tries to call for. Trump is not even remotely pursuing an agenda that fits with the values talked about here, but he sure is making some of the more gullible among us very angry at all the "others" that think a bit differently than themselves.
6
@ehillesum - You don't get to hijack all of christianity and claim to speak for all christians.
1
Hi Jon,
I’ve seen you speak over the years, and have respect for your opinion. But, from my perspective, I have little respect for word of organized religion. They have repeatedly demonstrated their hypocrisy for what they represent. There is a difference between being a desciple of the golden rule, and being a member of organized religion.
12
Yes, much good can come from religion but it's hard to be objective when some use "religious freedom" to justify their "right" to discriminate against others.
5
I intend no disrespect to Christianity or any other religion, but experience tells us that fear, resentment, and hatred win elections. Republicans understand this, and this in large part accounts for their success.
5
Faith1 can mean trust--for good or bad reasons--depending on evidence and logic.
Faith2 can also mean dogmatic unshakable belief regardless of any evidence--as though infallible. Paul ranked it a virtue above hope (for afterlife) and charity (toward humans). He was selling it (belief and submission) as a ticket to heaven. But really like all dogmatism it is irrational belief--because error is always possible; no human is infallible. They are mythical beings.
Religion1 can mean a godstory or collection; there are thousands. They cannot possibly be all true and are probably all false. Many good stories nevertheless, myths.
Religion2 can also be an agency for marketing the godstorries. Like all marketers they like faith2--blind brand loyalty--dogmatic belief--permitting product change with market share assured.
Trump loves the free (from law and logic) market so he can sell lies. That is exactly what religions like--thus Trump likes religions--especially evangelicals and they like him.
The next step for Trump is to sell himself as ruling by divine right--chosen by god--according to some godstory/religion or other.
After that--like old Roman rulers--he will claim to be god or at least one of them. The party faithful will believe him.
6
Felon Jim Bakker, is he still a preacher? Anyway he said you cant even be a Christian without supporting a man who lies daily to the American people. Trump's top preacher-lady is a pentecostal who believes that you know that you are blessed by the Almighty because he gives you cash on the barrelhead.
Those would have been called heresies back in the day.
5
You're describing liberation theology.
1
The notion that the religious will come to the defense of our Democracy is absurd. Religions have always been willing to persecute those who were different and support tyrants even as they murdered their priests. What has happened is exactly the opposite: thinking people who were once neutral on religion now realize it is just a sham glued together with lies.
7
“The Gospel at its best deals with the whole man, not only his soul but his body, not only his spiritual well-being, but his material well-being,” King wrote in a Rauschenbusch-inspired passage.
The above is a Buddhist belief or tenet. The west has literally misinterpreted or mistranslated the word "right" in the "eight-fold path" (which was essentially a starter manual for persons pursuing enlightenment). The word right translates from Sanga, which means, whole, or complete.
So to Buddhists, the best spiritual practice or only spiritual practice is one which incorporates COMPLETION, and must have a RIGHT livelihood, which really means COMPLETE livelihood, or a livelihood which permits spiritual beliefs or practices, tenets.
Religion has been the root of unreasonable passion and acts of aggression across the ages. Without question the militancy of religious fixation with quotes and scriptures has produced the encouragement of devotees for extreme righteousness as seen in Trumpites as well as progressives. Spirituality and love and understanding are wonderful things but it has not been my observation to see and sense this is a result of dogmas taken too seriously without reasonable thinking. Rather than bring all together they fall unto the abyss of not seeking a middle ground and feel 'safe' entrenched in an all or nothing interpretation of morality or in politics which you naively suggest can role model itself after religions. Furthermore, if great spiritual leaders are relevant, consider The Bhudda who suggested the middle way is always best and that even balance must be balanced. I suggest Trump and his sycophants and the progressives like Sanders and more recently actors like Susan Sarandon be simply viewed as extremists and off balance.
2
In reviewing the many negative comments at the top of the reader picks list, I cannot help but think that so many readers here have completely missed the point of Meacham's essay: The Christianity being practiced today is NOT what was taught by Christ. It's only in returning to the author and creator of our faith, both his words and his deeds, that we can return to the essence of the faith.
10
Christ taught nothing and never actually existed. His story has been told throughout human history. So, your point would be well taken if it were based on factual substance instead a yarn.
“The secular wish to banish religion from the public square is perennial but doomed; one might as well try to eliminate economic, geographic or partisan concerns.”
The statistics say otherwise. Religion has been on the decline for decades, thankfully. The “secular” are winning this battle through education and information. Morality does not require religion and is in fact perverted by it. As the great Professor Christopher Hitches said, “religion ruins everything.” A historian like Meacham should know this. Our modern culture sees religion for what it is—unnecessary nonsense.
6
It was refreshing to read something from a Christian that seems to indicate that he and I - an atheist who believes only in science - could find common ground on many issues and work together move society forward. Unfortunately it seems like the people of faith who hold all of the political power and have no desire whatsoever to all work together as Americans.
8
They want a theocracy. I can see why— because it works so well in Iran.
2
I agree that it's very difficult to keep faith out of the public square. But personally I've always felt it's best to inscribe one's spiritual beliefs on the heart, then carry them quietly and unobtrusively into the public square. Reading spiritually nourishing literature, thinking quietly about what it means, and pausing when in doubt to ask "what do my beliefs and values tell me to do here?" are all helpful guides to action, in the public and private spheres. (No need to quote any holy books, except maybe to yourself.) Another basic rule: if there are TV cameras, and powerful people in suits, and very public posturing, it's probably not a spiritual activity. National Prayer Breakfast? How about: get up early, munch on a snack, and watch the sunrise in peace and awe. Now that's my idea of a prayer breakfast.
9
Beyond all this, there is God and you know that the only reason why we haven’t destroyed ourselves is ‘His grace is sufficient’. We have been blessed in this world and our country to have God’s grace shown so purposely in so many. Many are praying for another leader to get us out of this wilderness of division and hatred. We do want the kingdom to come, but it begins within each of us building communities of faith and allowing God to work in us to love our neighbors like we have been loved. If there is an avenue to hope, that’s where it can be found.
6
Two things stand out and seem very odd when it comes to religion, faith and evangelicals. I was always told that evangelicals were the strongest believers and lived a more Christian existence than any other group or denomination.
Obviously, it ain't the case if these people overwhelmingly support this president.
The other thing that stands out is the idea that faith will solve our problems if only more of us would become "more" faithful.
This obviously isn't the case. There have been extremely faithful religious groups all over the planet since the beginning of organized or unorganized religion. None of these have ever solved human kinds problems.
I don't believe faith is the answer at all, and I am reminded of a quote from Robert Ingersoll.
"Hands that help are far better than lips that pray."
Praying never solved anything other than making someone feel a little better for a while. But when it comes to the big problems of humanity it will be hands helping and not someone praying that will get things done.
23
@Magan Thanks for the Ingersoll quote. Reading Ingersoll
many decades ago helped me launch my meager craft away from the confusing shore of agnosticism into the
calmer waters of atheism and humanism. Again, thanks.
Totally agree with the central thesis. Notwithstanding what and how millennials say and sound, just below the veneer of apparent detachment is a strong spiritual moral core that will blossom. As sure as we breathe, it will comeback. Though the media has tried to separate us from our theological beliefs, through vulgarity masquerading as entertainment The result has been the car crash that’s dividing the country.
4
I live in a small town in Georgia in which the largest Presbyterian church is an evangelical one. My friends, recent defectors from this church, report that for decades, church elders have passed out forms each year to parishioners, which they must sign. This piece of paper promises the signer will support a full Republican ticket when voting day comes 'round. This is a reality which is hard to stomach in the Bible belt.
18
@Elizabeth Ard
Ms. Ard, I would suggest these former parishioners report this open support of a political candidate or party to the IRS for revocation of the church's tax free status. These churches are political operations, not places of worship.
7
“Evangelicals may support an amoral president. But faith can still offer hope for liberation and progress.“
Hope springs eternal. As a card carrying agnostic I am now hoping that old time religion comes riding in to the rescue. Desperation breeds creative solutions. Maybe our last hope resides in faith.
9
Religion is fine when practiced in private and in moderation. Unfortunately, religion in America has become a political tool, and an odd one at that. It seems to be on the wrong side of most issues. The Republicans got their hook on the issue of abortion. While the death penalty poses no problem, ending an unwanted pregnancy is. The issue rankled Republicans solely because they didn't want Medicaid to pay for indigent women's abortions . Christians partnered with Republicans to save fetuses, gain political power, protect their tax status and their perceived persecution in an increasingly agnostic America.
Republicans who traditionally argued to reduce government intervention in their private lives, found in the issue of abortion, a soulmate.
At present, there are only a few main sources of bloodshed in the world; drugs and religion. Countries war over land, and trade, but looking at Europe in the past thousand years, and in the Middle East recently and in Asia with India and Pakistan, religion was and is at the core of most killing.
It seems that drugs and to a larger extent sectarian bloodshed will continue. Why Evangelicals haven't had their 'woke' moment with our current president is a mystery, and as much as I would love for John Meacham to be correct, I feel he is looking for manna in the wrong desert.
11
Respectfully Mr. Meacham, allowing “religion” into the “public square” has, tragically throughout our history, also allowed too many demagogic religious opportunists into that square where they and their zealous intolerant followers have created societal division, hostility, and civil harm. Religion, inherently, is a private and deeply personal matter where it certainly should remain, regardless if it informs one’s public actions.
15
This reader--one who also professes to be a Christian without a lot of evidence to persuade anyone that he is one--essentially agrees with what Jon Meacham says about faith providing hope for "liberation and progress," but that message is not only present in the message proclaimed by Jesus and his life; it is also very evident in the Hebrew Scriptures, which is also an essential part of our Christian Bible.
Dr. King's was evidently influenced the message of Exodus, a message making clear that God is at work in human history liberating oppressed people, lifting their burdens, and leading them forward to a life making their flourishing possible. The story of the Exile and return from exile of the Jewish people also provided a context for Dr. King's message of liberation. Those stories--I think we can reasonably believe--obviously influenced Jesus, a good Jew, and his response to the evils he confronted and endured humbly and gracefully.
But, I think the most important message in all this is that the Jewish-Christian tradition assures us that the evil we see in the oppression and cruelty in our time will not have the last word. Dr. King and John Lewis, by their lives and preaching, make it clear that the Spirit present in the abused and crucified Jesus continues to be alive in our day, and it continues to be at work inspiring at least some people of faith to devote themselves to working for the liberation needed to set free those oppressed and open a path into the future.
9
Outstanding —
Hopefully for any readers that still have some intellectual curiosity and attention span.
This article provided some valuable insight.
10
Nice academic piece for a dwindling target audience. This piece assumes sincerity in the public discourse among the faith class who have weaponized the gospel for political advantage. This piece assumes that actors especially those that proclaim fealty to the gospel of Jesus are not blinded by racial animus and are immunized against prejudice. I am sorry Jon Meacham but I am not hopeful in the short term because the arc of history always has a long trajectory. I am not hopeful in the immediate because we have allowed our better angels die at the altar of political power. I am not hopeful for as long as we substitute swing state calculus for the sermon on the mount. As long as the cause of Christ is weaponized and has electoral rewards. I see nothing but dark clouds with thunderous sounds for as long as the church will allow the light of truth grow dim and the lonely voice in the wilderness go frail.
But I am hopeful in the message that resurrection will succeed death , that truth will ultimately prevail and that this long winter of hopelessness can be followed by the summer of joy when truth triumphs over political expediency. But not in the short term.
7
I was pleased to read Mr. Mecham's reference to "Christianity and the Social Crisis" and its effect on Dr. King. I purchased an updated version (by the author's grandson) when I learned that, in addition to Dr. King, it had powerful impact on George McGovern as well.
Moreover, I would argue, and as Mr. Mecham suggests, Rauschebusch's teachings are just as relevant now as they were when first written and in the era of Dr. King and Senator McGovern.
3
"Faith can still offer hope for liberation and progress."
I see no indication that people of faith are interested in stepping up and living by and voting by the tenets of their faith.
What I do see is that people of faith are more interested in power and control than in "liberation and progress."
41
@Bob Bunsen
I am so sorry that you have not encountered those who are led by faith to practice love.
2
@Lee,
Where would we find these people you refer to?
1
@Listening to Others
I have encountered them everywhere, from the store clerks to the ordinary workers to the members of my church and the synagogues and mosques I have visited. They are fallible, of course, as are you and I.
Like Mr. Meacham, I am a practicing Episcopalian. My faith is everything to me. But it or any other faith does not belong in the public square. The genius our founders, all of them Enlightenment thinkers, was to keep religion and the state separate. That approach has served us well.
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Using the poetic verses of inspiration and truth of any religion is a means to anchoring our best values. But these values come from us as humans; they are merely voiced by many religions. They are only religion if we add believing in things that can't possibly be true (also know as "faith"). As it happens, seeing belief in things against evidence as a laudable quality is what gives us the thinking that allows many to be OK with The Senate acquitting Trump in contradiction to the facts. No, tenets expounded in religions may be the best hope against Trump; but religion itself, the belief in things against all evidence, is quite the opposite.
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There's already way too much sectarian advocacy in the current U.S. political climate, especially on the part of Trump backers who believe what they call traditional values are under attack.
Many of them mistakenly claim this country was founded as a Christian society, rather than by people fleeing state-sponsored religion -- most notably from the Anglicanism Mr. Meacham cites Although several colonies were founded to be refuges for specific groups of believers -- Massachusetts for Puritans, Maryland for Catholics, Pennsylvania for Friends (Quakers) -- freedom of conscience propelled Roger Williams into Rhode Island. Eventually it was enshrined by the Constitution.
The answer to the political problems created by sectarian Trump backers couldn't possibly be to inject a different faith version on the other side. We can't even the scales by adding more religion on one side to balance too much religion on the other.
Upping the religious ante in this election, particularly if one of the two Democratic Jewish candidates becomes the nominee, could destroy our country to save it.
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A lot of talk about faith and hope in this article.
Well, yes, that’s what religion offers. It tells you to have faith and keep hoping. And very occasionally things will go your way. Statisticians have a term for that: coincidence. Instead of sitting around praying and hoping, be like King and Lewis. Get out there in the streets. Action, not faith, was what bent the moral arc of the universe. God helps those who help themselves.
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@Steve I think what the article says is that faith demands and requires action. If it is not faith in a deity, then faith in our system of government or in the rule of law, or whatever motivates you calls you to raise your voice.
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The Earth is 4.5 billion years old and there is no evidence of a single supernatural event.
Here in Quebec we survived centuries of abuse in a hierarchical ultra conservative society where who you were was far more important than what you were. I understood what Harvey Weinstein meant when he said his arrest, trial and conviction were an outrage, last week the son of of a Governor General was accused of abusing the women who served under him but he had died in 2019 and he was a Catholic leader and philanthropist and the women under him were nuns and other non-entities who were there to service him.
Here in Quebec we have adopted the humanist principles of the Enlightenment banned certain public servants from outward displays of superstition and we are in the process of passing bills that can be translated into English as Freedom from Religion. The absolute commandment in our social contract is a separation of church and state.
We are very much committed to our humanist ethics and values and we are optimistic because it is we the people who will decide our destiny. We have hope because we are in control. We have known false hope derived from faith will accomplish nothing. God helps those that help themselves.
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The banning of religious attire is a mean spirited method of trying to denounce those who are religiously visible, particularly Muslim women. It has little to do with the separation of church and state.
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@Parker
At 71 I am living in a place that has debates that one could enjoy arguing either side. There are people of honour on both sides.
You are arguing who can beat Donald Trump.
There is only one argument worth having and that is; Is there any reason to support maintaining a country that elected a Nihilist like Donald Trump.
I have lived in Red America and they know a Nihilist when they see one.
I am back in Quebec and I can still feel the pain.
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@Parker
Did you live in Catholic Quebec? I wish everything was as easy as this is what I believe so it must be true. We are secular humanist because evolution is basic to all science not just biology. We are militantly secular humanist because of centuries of needless pain inflicted on all of us.
This issue has good people on both sides and Quebec entered the Enlightenment in about 1965 not the 18th century. The French revolution was considered an abomination until middle of the 20th century.
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Instead of Homer (a mythical poet), for these purposes I prefer Seneca and Gibbon (who were definitely not mythical): "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful."
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Thank you for a beautiful essay on the good deeds that faith may inspire.
Unlike many of my fellow commenters, however, I understand this piece to include any/all Christian faiths and not just the conservative right wing Evangelical base.
Certainly, many people of faith that I know do not fit the neoconservative description. However, what makes it so difficult for Christians to fall on the left side of the modern political spectrum is the almost rabid hate against religion by many proponents of progressive policies. In many progressive circles Christianity is at best spoken about with disdain, and at worst unwaveringly insulted and belittled.
This lack of respect has driven the faithful from the left (at least optically). Until the left can embrace the faithful (and their strongly held positions on certain hot button topics), it will be rare to see faith enter the progressive dialogue.
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Thank you @RGB. You nailed it. I am a Latter Day Saint who tries to live my faith. We know who we voted for in 2016. When he comes on tv the remote is immediately muted. But Trump recognizes the importance of faith in our daily lives. Still waiting for a dem to sincerely reach out to us. They need to consult with Daval Patrick before they hit the battleground states. He gets it. He does not treat christian voters with disdain.
@RGB Not true for this church goer who belongs to a church with progressive values that feeds the homeless on a daily basis. There are plenty of people “on the left side of the political spectrum” who are people of faith.
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@RGB - There are plenty of faithful religious people on the left who think the right's warped, twisted version of religion is heretical. The left has tried to negotiate with the religious right on many occasions, but when people think they're speaking and acting for god, as the evangelicals seem to believe, they Do Not Compromise.
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