Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Religious Freedom

We got a late start to our radio show on Monday, but those who waited patiently enough heard our discussion about commitment to religious freedom. The question I posed went something like "Should we (whatever 'we' means) care about religious freedom in other countries, even when it's not our religion?"

To sum up, for me the answer is a resounding yes. Not only do I think such a commitment falls under Jesus and Paul's reminder to love our neighbors as ourselves, but I went so far as to claim that to care only about persecution of one's own religion is hypocrisy.

If you tuned in this week, you may have heard the flurry of phone calls we received in the last few minutes. All the calls were quality, but one particular caller really piqued my interest in having another discussion. To paraphrase, this caller said that religion--and I think he meant all religion--breeds intolerance.

I lightly remarked that I thought intolerance by religious institutions was certainly a widespread phenomenon, but, naturally, I was reluctant to admit that the original teachings of religious figures (Jesus, for example) spurred intolerance. But as with all things on the show and on this blog, disagreement is welcome.

The truth is that religion--like any other institution--can be used for good or for ill. Any serious glance at history shows how religious institutions, including Christianity, fosters intolerance. It's easy to see how much popular religion, especially fundamentalism, leads to intolerance. But a more in-depth look may also bring the other side to light: for many years, the church was the center of learning; in the American experience, many Northern churches were at the center of the abolition movement (I would be remiss not to mention the Congregationalists' wide participation in that movement); and during the civil rights struggles of the 1950's and '60's, black churches were often the base of operations for assaults on Jim Crow, discrimination, and inequality. To make the claim that religion always breeds intolerance, one has to explain the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

All in all, I think this week's topic really brought out some good discussion; I'd love to keep it up!

Next week will be our season finale, and I think the caller's comments about religion begs the question for our topic on 5-19: what is the point of Christianity?

Always looking forward to some spirited conversation, this is Pastor Chris signing off.