This last Friday I attended a conference on "Ministry to the Military," focusing primarily on PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). I vacillated between admiration for the care and courage required for that difficult journey and anger at the fact that this brokenness occurs at all. Why do we humans do this to one another—this drama of war—this spending of life—this attachment to devastation and harm's way? This is not a judgment on the military, but dismay—disgust—at this place that we are all still in, in our evolution, even with the powerful witness of broken lives and wounded souls. There is something in us that feeds on this way of being.
At the opening service we sang My Country Tis of Thee.
Sweet land of liberty… of thee I sing… land where my fathers died… land of the pilgrim's pride… from every mountain side… Let freedom ring.
We haven't yet found a way out of war, but the underpinning of our loyalties to preserve this nation and the well being of those in it, come from a love of freedom and a faith in this enterprise of being. This love of freedom, though not always examined, and often tragically manipulated and misapplied, is a love that claims the dignity of the individual and the majesty of equal being in its natural diversity. The faith in this enterprise of being is the claiming that each person has the ability, the inborn knowledge to thrive in harmony when given the foundation of well being, equity and a sense of justice for all. This meant, to our founders and philosophers of liberty, tapping into the wisdom of nature and the original Source from which it generates. This original source was named in the Declaration of Independence, "Creator."
"I stand firmly behind the separation of church and state," a colleague commented recently, "but I do not believe in separating faith from politics."
While considering that affirmation, I was reminded of a time last year during an open discussion about gay marriage in the student center at Harford community college. One of the students argued that legalizing gay marriage would be forcing him to abandon his faith. He was following the assumption, that a stance counter to his church's theology meant that faith, in general, was being abandoned in the political process. This sense of persecution is brought up regularly, when the challenges of a democratic republic, aspiring to be inclusive of all its citizens, rubs against deep seated religious beliefs. The fear is that the nation may fall into the hands of the faithless and become slave to the temptations and vulgarities of a godless world.
"You cannot ask me not to vote as my faith tells me to." A common statement of dismissal and misunderstanding of the vibrant dialogue needed for a rich, healthy, life affirming, sacred union of peoples that was and is the American Dream.
"America is essentially a dream," Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1961, "a dream as yet unfulfilled. It is a dream of a land where men of all races, of all nationalities and of all creeds can live together as brothers…." "One of the first things we notice in this dream," he went on to say, "is an amazing universalism…. Very seldom if ever in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profoundly eloquent and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality. The American dream reminds us that every man is heir to the legacy of worthiness."
"I do not expect you to abandon your faith in your choices as a citizen," I replied to the student. "I would hope you would make your choices from your heart and the integrity of your life, as long as you do not mandate that I believe the same thing. I am no less worthy of rights as an American citizen because I have a different faith than yours."
This distinction is hard to understand, especially when there is passion and misleading rhetoric that invites one to a narrow reading of the faith that makes us free.
Loud voices proclaim in the media and from pulpits that this is a "Christian nation," one with God on our side—the God, one would then presume, that loves Christians best—and that any divergence from this belief contributes to the crumbling of society. It then becomes a lack of religious faith that weakens the nation.
The founders of this nation did believe that a faith in a larger presence and wisdom supported moral authority, but our communal faith, our covenant of being together was about responsible freedom, claiming ourselves and our fellow citizens as worthy of justice.
A popular ballad sung throughout the country in 1776, as researched by Forrest Church:
Great nature's law inspires,
All freeborn souls unite,
While common interest fires
Us to defend our rights.
The founders of this nation presented the theory of its political expression to the world. They promoted a system to support of a universal worthiness in its citizenry, capable of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We know that at the time of drafting the Declaration of Independence the self evident truth that all people are created equal remained a dream. White, educated men who owned property were the ones establishing this vision for a nation. Some were slaveholders, most were unable to realize the equality of the women in their lives, and few cherished the contribution of Native Americans and their wisdom of equal dwelling in civic matters through their circles of elders.
However, the mold was cast and the dream was proclaimed, and we have stayed true enough to the original faith of equal being to learn, through cultural revolutions and evolution of jurisprudence, (the making of laws to expand our consciousness of equality) to keep the vision alive.
This vision calls for faith. The truth of equal being is a truth that calls for belief beyond experience, sight beyond judgment, acceptance beyond assumption, welcome beyond the need for power. It is a truth that cannot be proved unless there is willingness to believe it. It is a seed of faith that dwells in the mystic heart of all faiths. It is the vision of Creation which surpasses any one faith system. It is a vision that can withhold covenantal belief, that is, a belief whose foundation is relational, a belief that answers to the well being of all, the common wealth.
One of the pervasive and dangerous myths rummaging through public dialogue these days and more destructively behind closed doors or within chosen communities is that the founders were establishing a Christian nation. One can merely see that the phrase "Christian nation" is not in any of the founding documents of this nation, that, in fact, the framers left it out on purpose. It does not follow that because the vast majority of our forebears were Christian, of various degrees and persuasions, that they were mandating a Christian state. Our forebears, through much debate, reflection and life experience of religious persecution and intolerance, became clear on this very issue, that no one religion would be in charge of government. Nor could government be in charge of religion.
The fact that people now are trying to change that history is troubling. It is not only troubling because it would dissolve the fundamental threads of this ingenious experiment called the United States, but it would unravel democracy. Then tyrannies of many forms would find room to grow and, with our technological abilities, could bring about the end of the world as we know it. Add on a small minority of believers who look forward to this ending as a sign of righteous Armegeddon and you have a serious situation that will get worse if we don't wake up—and soon.
The prophet, Dr. King, in 1961:
"All of us must develop a world perspective if we are to survive. Through our scientific genius we have made of this world a neighborhood; now through our moral and spiritual development we must make of it a brotherhood. In a real sense, we must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools."
Dr. King was a prophet of the faith that frames America. He guided the nation, or those who were willing to experience the living tension of equality for all—of expanding one's personal needs out into mutual needs—of seeing beyond the learned of prejudice and need for power over into the covenantal celebration of power with. We grew in consciousness during the time of his guidance and that of countless others. The continuing advocacy for civil rights for all peoples, still not a reality, is the continued expansion of our nation's soul, it is the claiming of that precious birthing of a national faith, that inspiration of freedom and equal worth. And so we can shed our religious attachments for the good of the whole, not to live counter to our religious being, but enter into the mix of things with an understanding that an all encompassing truth of being supports us.
"From the beginning a basic philosophy guided the movement," King wrote in 1958, "The phrase most often heard was "Christian love." As the days unfolded, however, the inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi began to exert its influence. I had come to see early that the Christian doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence was one of the most potent weapons available."
Both King and Gandhi were heavily influenced by the 19th century Unitarian Henry David Thoreau, especially through the teaching of his book Civil Disobedience. It all centered around a belief in the divine calling within, and it was pursued, encouraged, and acted upon it could transform the world into a peaceable realm.
This is why the statement of my colleague about church and state stuck with me. I, too, stand by the separation of church and state, knowing that both organizations vie for power and influence in ways that can corrupt the other. I also believe that faith can uphold and redeem our citizenry and that it must be encouraged in those of us who despair, are lost or afraid and have forgotten how to claim our worthiness in community. It is faith that keeps one centered on the goodness yet to manifest. The trick is that my faith cannot insist on your faith, in fact, it must find room, it must lift itself out of a sense of scarcity into abundance, it must transcend fear and open to possibility, it must defy oppression, defensiveness and prejudice. My faith must move me to let go of obstructing ideas that block the freedom of another and challenge me to release the ways of behaving that contribute to disharmony. And this cannot be done alone.
"The role of the church," Dr. King preached in 1966, "is to free people, people who are slaves to prejudices, slaves to fear. The church is called to free those that are captive…. "You see, the church is not a social club," he continues, "The church is not an entertainment center. The church has a purpose. The church is dealing with ultimate concern."
The founders agreed that finding a religious faith that one could abide by helps one stay on track within the lofty ideals of liberty and justice.
We need each other to check out our own righteousness, our own fundamentalism. How vehemently do we support our right to be angry or hate another person. How often do we fall into the perspective of "us" and "them," or the need to be number one, or insistence to have things our way? How often do we ask, when we hear the phrase, "for our nation's interest" whether that has anything to do with our vision of freedom and justice for all?
Faith in a larger purpose of praising Creation helps us out of petty, damaging and toxic ways of being.
Sometimes dramatic confrontation and refusal to comply with unjust laws is what is asked of us, but more often than not, it is the daily affirmation of our faith in a better world that brings the possibility to life.
This is what most soldiers join the military to do. And that is why my heart aches when we choose to practice devastation as a species rather than celebration, when we use up lives, so ready to proclaim the worth of freedom as did our founders, and civil rights workers, and mothers and fathers wanting so for their children to be feely themselves. It is all one, and all ours to manifest.
What is it that you hope the world can be? What do you have faith in, deep within? If you do not know, let this place serve your queries. If you don't know where to start, get rid of the need for the perfect answer, release the load of the entire world and look at what loving action you can do right before you.
Your heart knows what to do. Your wisdom is waiting for you. The vision ddep in this nation offers encouragement and is waiting for your reply. It's time to bring yourselves to this aching world. Let your faith guide you.
So may it be. Amen.
Copyright © 2009 Lisa Ward. All Rights Reserved.