Inauguration speeches almost always invoke the idea of God one way or another. They tell us how Presidents, and perhaps how much of the country, understands God and what they think God has to do with our lives. God was prominently featured at President Obama’s inauguration, both by him and by the two ministers who delivered prayers, Pastor Rick Warren and Reverend Joseph Lowery. All of them spoke of God as a powerful, omniscient being who can intervene in the world. Warren’s prayer was probably the most explicit in creating this image. His prayer began: “Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It also comes from you. It all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory.” Those phrases create a clear picture of a Divine Being who presides over the universe. Moreover, the purpose of our existence is to worship this Being. That is clearly suggested by the idea that the entire universe “exists for your glory.”
In The Uncertain Believer I argue that we need to rethink our conception of God in order to reconcile God with what scientists tell us about the nature of the universe. It means that we should move beyond the confines of religious traditions that were formed by our pre-scientific ancestors two thousand years ago. In my view, that means that we should begin to think of God differently from the Divine Being described by President Obama, Reverend Lowery and Pastor Warren. And even if we find it difficult to abandon the idea that God is a Being, we should think of God in a more inclusive way, one that does not insist on specific beliefs about how God has intervened in the world.
How inclusive were the three speakers when they referred to God? How much did each one advocate a particular view of God’s intervention in the world? The comparison is striking. President Obama said: “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.” We are a nation with “God’s grace upon us,” – that is, God’s grace is on all of us, not those with particular beliefs. Reverend Lowery encouraged us to take the power of fellowship and family “back to our homes, our workplace, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.” Again, the image is that God is a part of the lives of all of us. But, consider how Pastor Warren ended his prayer: “I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [with a Spanish pronunciation], Jesus…” A prayer to God does not become inclusive just because it refers to Jesus in different languages. Sadly, Warren’s prayer excluded many of us. In the coming weeks, I will suggest ways that we can think of God in a much more inclusive way.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
America's One God Tradition
Barrack Obama has announced that he will be sworn in to office as the 44th President using the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used at his first inauguration. No doubt there will be considerable press commentary about the use of this famous Christian Bible. At the same time, we will be reminded of the rumors during the campaign that Obama is a Muslim and that he was sworn in as a Senator using the Quran. The point of the rumors, of course, was that anyone who is a Muslim should be disqualified from being President. Sadly, I suspect many Americans share this view even if they never believed the rumors about Obama.
We need to rethink our instinctive view that Islam is somehow far outside the mainstream religious tradition of the west. Americans often refer to our “Judeo-Christian tradition.“ This formulation sweeps in the shared religious beliefs of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, but it excludes many others, including America’s third-largest and fastest-growing religious community – Muslims. It also conveys the historically false notion that the fundamental beliefs of Islam differ radically from those of Jews and Christians. In fact, there is a powerful commonality that unites Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
The core of that tradition is belief in one God. That core belief, first adopted by Jews in the face of ancient polytheism, carried on by Christians in a world dominated by Roman culture, and proclaimed by Mohammed in a polytheistic Arab society, unites these three great religious faiths and sets them apart from other religious beliefs. All three faiths look to Abraham as their great patriarch. All three pray to the God to whom Abraham prayed, whether they call God Jahwheh, Allah, or simply God.
In The Uncertain Believer, I discuss the long tradition of each army in a war claiming that God is on its side. I argue that we need to rethink our conception of God in many ways, including abandoning this ancient idea that God takes sides. In his second Inaugural Address in March 1865, Abraham Lincoln made of a point of saying that God was not on either side of the Civil War that had torn the nation apart. Almost a century and a half later, we should at least be able to acknowledge that both Americans and Muslims pray to the same God, although some corrupt the values for which this God stands.
One of the most constructive steps we can take to promote better relations with the Arab world is to begin to speak of this Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. If that is too poly-syllabic, perhaps the “Abrahamic” or simply “one God” tradition is easier to convey. The point is to recognize the common fundamental beliefs of these three faiths. In addition to a belief in one powerful and just God, all three faiths emphasize the obligation to take care of the disadvantaged and to live a just and loving life.
It is true that there are fundamental differences among these faiths about the nature and significance of Jesus, but that difference has not undercut the shared tradition of Jews and Christians in the religious life of America. There are also significant differences about the role of women, the relationship of religion and the state, and the possibility of accommodation with other religious faiths. Yet, the differences among mainstream Christianity, Judaism and Islam on these issues are probably less significant than the divisions within each faith.
Some interpretations of the Quran mandate second-class citizenship for women but others do not. (Compare the number of women Muslims who have been heads of state with the number of women who have been U.S. Presidents.) Some radical interpretations of the Quran seem to endorse terrorism, but mainstream interpretations mandate tolerance and condemn aggression. We do not speak of Catholic or Protestant terrorists when referring to violence in Northern Ireland, even if terrorists claim to act in the name of their faith. In fact, they have abandoned the principles of their faith. In the same way, we should stop confusing radicals who act in the name of Islam with Islam itself. A single speech by the President about the values that unite Jews, Christians and Muslims would do more to repair the breach with the Arab world than all the millions we have spent in the futile public relations campaign to prop up America’s image in the Middle East.
We need to rethink our instinctive view that Islam is somehow far outside the mainstream religious tradition of the west. Americans often refer to our “Judeo-Christian tradition.“ This formulation sweeps in the shared religious beliefs of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, but it excludes many others, including America’s third-largest and fastest-growing religious community – Muslims. It also conveys the historically false notion that the fundamental beliefs of Islam differ radically from those of Jews and Christians. In fact, there is a powerful commonality that unites Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
The core of that tradition is belief in one God. That core belief, first adopted by Jews in the face of ancient polytheism, carried on by Christians in a world dominated by Roman culture, and proclaimed by Mohammed in a polytheistic Arab society, unites these three great religious faiths and sets them apart from other religious beliefs. All three faiths look to Abraham as their great patriarch. All three pray to the God to whom Abraham prayed, whether they call God Jahwheh, Allah, or simply God.
In The Uncertain Believer, I discuss the long tradition of each army in a war claiming that God is on its side. I argue that we need to rethink our conception of God in many ways, including abandoning this ancient idea that God takes sides. In his second Inaugural Address in March 1865, Abraham Lincoln made of a point of saying that God was not on either side of the Civil War that had torn the nation apart. Almost a century and a half later, we should at least be able to acknowledge that both Americans and Muslims pray to the same God, although some corrupt the values for which this God stands.
One of the most constructive steps we can take to promote better relations with the Arab world is to begin to speak of this Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. If that is too poly-syllabic, perhaps the “Abrahamic” or simply “one God” tradition is easier to convey. The point is to recognize the common fundamental beliefs of these three faiths. In addition to a belief in one powerful and just God, all three faiths emphasize the obligation to take care of the disadvantaged and to live a just and loving life.
It is true that there are fundamental differences among these faiths about the nature and significance of Jesus, but that difference has not undercut the shared tradition of Jews and Christians in the religious life of America. There are also significant differences about the role of women, the relationship of religion and the state, and the possibility of accommodation with other religious faiths. Yet, the differences among mainstream Christianity, Judaism and Islam on these issues are probably less significant than the divisions within each faith.
Some interpretations of the Quran mandate second-class citizenship for women but others do not. (Compare the number of women Muslims who have been heads of state with the number of women who have been U.S. Presidents.) Some radical interpretations of the Quran seem to endorse terrorism, but mainstream interpretations mandate tolerance and condemn aggression. We do not speak of Catholic or Protestant terrorists when referring to violence in Northern Ireland, even if terrorists claim to act in the name of their faith. In fact, they have abandoned the principles of their faith. In the same way, we should stop confusing radicals who act in the name of Islam with Islam itself. A single speech by the President about the values that unite Jews, Christians and Muslims would do more to repair the breach with the Arab world than all the millions we have spent in the futile public relations campaign to prop up America’s image in the Middle East.
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