We are to conclude, then, that after prayers for the Hindus next door, the Muslims who live around the corner, for the success of our congregation’s every member canvas, and for Aunt Mary who has cancer, we should then pray for those who govern us. We should ask that they govern with justice and keep good order in the neighborhood so that when the majority of one religion wants to make things difficult for the minority of another, the rulers powerful enough to do so will prevent it.
This may seem obvious in a nation that guarantees freedom of religion and religious expression, and that is philosophically, at least in part, engaged in a war against terrorism on the notion that religion used for the purposes of oppression, conquest, and retaliation is wrong. Yet at the same time factions within the church catholic are trying to capture U. S. government for religious purposes: restoring prayer in the schools, posting the Ten Commandments in public places; outlawing all abortion, and permitting or restricting gay and lesbian civil unions or ‘marriage.’
During the Cold War, I enjoyed challenging evangelical friends when they rejoiced in the smuggling of Bibles into Communist countries, in part because that would be one more way to help overthrow a ‘godless government.’ Read Romans 13, I would counsel, and then ask what Paul would have said to such clear subversion of the authority of government, which he claimed was one of the gifts of God for humankind. It was pagan Rome about which he was writing when he instructed his readers to give honor to whom honor is due, and faithfully to pay taxes.
The overthrow of any government is dangerous and risky business. Many people, and I am one, would connect the dots from the dissolution of the Soviet Union (widely hailed in the West as a victory for political liberty and the freedom of worship) to the hostage-taking, tormenting, and killing of children, even shooting them in the back as they ran for safety, in Beslan, Russia.
Pray indeed for those who are in power, that they will keep the peace, protect the weak, and not stir up one minority against another. Christians held no power in the ancient world (90 to 120 AD). They desired to lead peaceable lives, and get on with the real business of the church: prayer, listening to the memories of the apostles in the light of scripture (still for them only the Hebrew Scriptures), and baptism, holding all things in common, almsgiving, and the breaking of the bread.
In the United States we are fortunate to have it both ways. We use our religious beliefs to hold government and politicians to high moral standards, and to demand that government be just – according to biblical standards. We are also protected by that government in the lawful expression of religious practice, even when we oppose the government. But we may not use our religion to cause harm. Such is the deeply Calvinistic, Reformed understanding of government written into our nation’s founding documents.
So perhaps the most pressing matter in this pitiful, mendacious campaign for president is whether candidates understand that function of American government under the constitution: the protection of religious minorities, which does not spring from the good will of good people, but from the power of the sword.
Conversation and negotiation, even in the church of Jesus Christ, will not work (and has proven ineffective in most of human history) unless opponents are held in check by a ‘higher power’ with the hardware to require that we treat each other justly, avoiding violent provocation or persecution. [This even applies to Sessions in their governance of factions within a congregation.]
I was part of a religiously plural meeting last week with a Methodist, a Hindu, and a Sikh. We were to discuss how our faith communities might help in educating the larger constituency about the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, which is predecessor to the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clause. What became clear in a discussion about our different faith traditions is that only something that is not religion (a government) can keep religious people from harming each other. Most religions, including Christianity (though not Sikhs) harbor intolerant, angry factions hell bent on oppressing and killing on behalf of their god/gods. The truth of Paul’s admonition in Romans was brought home. And my gratitude for this nation was renewed.
The first duty of Christian citizenship is prayer: prayer for all persons; prayer for kings and rulers to keep peace; prayer that the church catholic be kept humble before God, who made all humankind, and who desires that all humankind be saved.
— O Benjamin Sparks
For a “Letter to the Editor” related to this editorial, please see the “Letters” web page on this site.
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