{"id":5622,"date":"2016-10-02T06:15:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T12:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=5622"},"modified":"2016-10-02T08:58:21","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T14:58:21","slug":"where-does-religion-end-and-politics-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/10\/where-does-religion-end-and-politics-begin.html","title":{"rendered":"Where Does Religion End and Politics Begin?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"First<\/a>
First Church in Salem, Unitarian Universalist<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It seems that hardly a week goes by without hearing about politicians promoting \u201creligious liberty\u201d when what they really mean is \u201clicense to discriminate.\u201d Current US law requires vendors and service providers to treat all customers equally. For example, a Muslim grocer is not required to sell pork, but he cannot refuse to sell his halal beef to a Jew or a polytheist. Racial discrimination is illegal, and real estate agents who \u201csteer\u201d people of color away from predominately white neighborhoods can lose their licenses.<\/p>\n

Yet some politicians want to make it legal to refuse service to gay people on the basis of \u201csincerely held religious beliefs.\u201d Churches and clergy are not required to participate in weddings they don\u2019t approve of, but secular service providers such as bakers and florists are not permitted to discriminate.<\/p>\n

We see the same thing in health care, with some employers refusing to cover birth control for \u201creligious reasons.\u201d Now, I think the idea of employers paying for health care is an incredibly stupid and inefficient idea, but until we can persuade Congress to create a single payer plan like most civilized<\/del> first world countries, this is the system we\u2019ve got. There are exceptions, and the specifics of the requirement are still making their way through the courts, but some politicians are trying to make it legal for employers to pick and choose what health care they\u2019ll pay for based on their own religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

Where does religion end and politics begin? In the legal sense I think the current law is mostly right. What you do on your own or along with others in a voluntary religious organization is your business, beyond the reach of government (but not beyond the reach of public opinion). But we live in a pluralist society, and when you do business with the public \u2013 whether you are buying, selling, or hiring \u2013 you do business with all the public, no exceptions.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t trust anything that comes out of the mouths of pandering politicians, but I see no reason not to take most of these bakers and florists\u00a0at their word: they genuinely believe their religion requires them to avoid all contact with homosexuality and homosexual persons. They insist it\u2019s part of their religion, and while I suspect there\u2019s more gut-level homophobia involved than careful scriptural exegesis, who am I to tell them it\u2019s not? Now, whether we honor that sincerely held religious belief any more than we honor the FLDS<\/a> insistence that their religion requires them to practice polygamy is another matter. Even in the United States, religion does not automatically supersede secular laws.<\/p>\n

We can and should insist that government remain strictly neutral on matters of religion. No religion should ever be favored over any other (that means our government is\u00a0pluralist, not that it\u2019s atheist). But given that religion motivates people to do things that aren\u2019t obviously\u00a0religious, can we ever keep religion out of politics? Do we even want to try?<\/p>\n

\"GCG<\/a><\/p>\n

And we still haven\u2019t answered the question of where religion ends and politics begins.<\/p>\n

Not that I don\u2019t try to answer it. In part because I\u2019m an engineer and in part because I\u2019m a contemporary Westerner, I like breaking things down into discrete categories. I want clarity in our conversations \u2013 defining terms as precisely as possible helps us communicate clearly and avoid misunderstandings.<\/p>\n

I when I say \u201creligion\u201d I generally mean theology and devotion\u2026 but what about Standing on the Side of Love<\/a>? When I say \u201cpolitics\u201d I generally mean laws and public policy\u2026 but what about the Rights of Mother Earth<\/a>?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just religion and politics. When I say \u201cculture\u201d I generally mean art, food, and clothing\u2026 but what about the hijab, or my own geas against eating one particular food (no, I won\u2019t tell you what it is, at least not online)? What about philosophy, ethics, and metaphysics? What about magic? You\u2019ll find Pagans and polytheists talking about all of them in our Pagan and polytheist spaces \u2013 are they religion? Are they part of religion? Are they part of a specific religion?<\/p>\n

If I can\u2019t clearly define the boundaries of religion in my own mind, what chance do we have to agree on what\u2019s religion and what\u2019s politics in our wider communities?<\/p>\n

Many tribal societies have no word for religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In all their diversity, people from different Native nations hasten to point out that their respective languages include no word for \u201creligion\u201d, and maintain an emphatic distinction between ways of life in which economy, politics, medicine, art, agriculture, etc., are ideally integrated into a spiritually-informed whole.<\/p>\n

As Native communities try to continue their traditions in the context of a modern American society that conceives of these as discrete segments of human thought and activity, it has not been easy for Native communities to accomplish this kind of integration. Nor has it been easy to to persuade others of, for example, the spiritual importance of what could be construed as an economic activity, such as fishing or whaling.<\/p>\n

The Pluralism Project<\/em> \u2013 Harvard University, 2005<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is something natural and pagan (lowercase \u201cp\u201d intentional) about this kind of integration of belief, practice, tradition, and identity. And given our difficulties in sorting our own beliefs and practices into neat little boxes labeled \u201creligion\u201d \u201cpolitics\u201d \u201cculture\u201d and such, it looks attractive to us. It\u2019s certainly a worthy goal to work toward.<\/p>\n

But without well-defined traditions and without strong, healthy communities to support us and to hold us accountable to those\u00a0traditions, we run the risk of our integration being less spiritually-informed and more mainstream-influenced<\/a>. And we run the very real risk of clinging so tightly to our identities we lose the willingness\u00a0to make the compromises necessary to form the communities we need for collective action and mutual support.<\/p>\n

Where does religion end and politics begin?<\/p>\n

This post is not intended to propose a definitive answer, much less an easy answer. It\u2019s intended to point out just how hard a question it is, and to emphasize \u2013 first and foremost to myself \u2013 the need for clear, precise language when discussing matters of religion and politics. It\u2019s intended to remind all of us \u2013 including me \u2013 that different people\u2019s religions lead them to take different political positions.<\/p>\n

Mind you, I\u2019m still not giving an inch on the so-called \u201creligious liberty\u201d bills. Discrimination in public accomodations is wrong, and I\u2019ll debate that on ethical grounds, political grounds, philosophical grounds, and cultural grounds.<\/p>\n

And on religious grounds, no matter how hard they may be to define.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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