OK, let’s talk religion.  Religion and politics.  I don’t know that I’ll come up with anything brand new here, but the fact that the subject isn’t new doesn’t mean it shouldn’t still bother me and a lot of other people.  As I sit watching the blind intransigence of the Republicans in Congress and conservatives in general, I can’t help but blame a good part of it on a poorly-integrated sense of religion.

I am not here to pass judgment on religion as a whole or on any one in particular.  I’ll write from a Christian standpoint because that’s the faith I was nominally raised in and that I know best.  More important, I recognize that in many cases religion has brought us to our best selves – charity, good works and art for starters.  At the same time, I know that it has been the justification for some of the worst atrocities ever visited upon man – the Inquisition, Nazism and 9/11 to name just a few.  

It’s the latter face of religion that I think we’re fighting against today.  A large part of the Republican base is made up of fundamentalist Christians who read the Bible literally and, in spite of all of its self-contradictions and vagaries, they believe.  Why?  Because.  Because God spoke to them.  Because Jesus came to them in a dream.  Because they saw the Virgin Mary in a piece of toast.

Fine.  In a person’s personal life, I see no problem with this.  We all have the right to find the things that make us happy and fulfilled.  In public life with a diversity of interests, it’s a big problem.  After all, how do you debate someone who osmoses his knowledge directly from the Almighty, who feels no need for evidence to support his case and who is in no way swayed by evidence you present to support yours?  How do you come to agreement with someone who just believes what he believes and believes it so strongly he can’t allow for an inch of compromise?  How does he evolve if he takes in no new information except signs from God that support his original position?

When I was growing up, I had a very sketchy grasp of Christianity – like a lot of people.  My mother was raised Catholic and my father had become a Mormon at ten because of a promise he’d made to his mother on her deathbed.  Because I didn’t have a church of my own, I tried a few.  I was a Baptist for a while, then I was a Catholic.  I dabbled in Presbyterianism, too.  It was all fun and interesting, but none of it stuck.

I figured out why a few years ago when I had a chance to play Peter in a local production of “Corpus Christi.” That was when I really started delving into the story of Jesus.  What I remember most was thinking, “That’s it?”  It isn’t really that much of a story.  I know faith by its very nature does not ask for proof or explanation, but that’s not me.  “Jesus wandered in the desert for years and years” does not do it for me.  I like history.  I like facts.  I like details.  All of them.  With pictures when possible.

I guess it’s obvious that if church-goin’ and Bible-readin’ are requirements to get into Heaven, I have no hope.  No problem.  I’ve had my handbasket for the trip to the other place at the ready for years.  But I’m an American just as much as Mike Huckabee and my world view has to be in the mix, too.  That’s what democracy is.  Give and take.  Disagreeing with everything someone says and defending to the death their right to say it.  Oh, and compromising, that dirtiest of all dirty words.

I don’t want to make America into a secular state.  I don’t want to vilify the faithful.  I also don’t want my Congress to be paralyzed by people who believe what they believe just because they believe it and will not be bothered by reason, logic or facts on either side..

If you have a strong and unshakable faith, I applaud you.  I’m happy that you’ve found that kind of certainty.  Use that to make your life as wonderful as you can.  But do not run for office to impose that on me.  I’m not going to become a more observant Christian.  I’m also not going to become a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu or anything else.  And you do not have the right to make your values the absolute requirement of all legislation that is passed in our government.  Come to the table ready to debate actual facts and to give a little.  Then you’ll be a true American.