Politics D19

Page D19

Politics The Town Voice Balanced

In God We Trust

By Arlon Staywell RICHMOND — A rather unusual issue developing these days is whether the name "Jesus" should be used in "prayers" before various assemblies of "government" and other meetings for the general public.
What is so unusual about it is that real "Christians" who study the Bible thoroughly, and likely understand it better thereby, find the word "God" a better rendering of the name of the deity. Even a cursory reading of the Bible should make clear to people with even a modicum of intelligence that God is a mystical trinity. Even without the New Testament, the Old Testament by itself professes to need completion through "prophets" whether you count "Jesus" as fulfillment of that need or not. Research "history," "law" and "prophets." And the New Testament by itself professes to be a fulfillment of, not an alternative to, the Old Testament.
So who, in the name of all that's holy, are those people who want to use the name "Jesus" in place of a name more suitable to a mystical trinity? They are people whose familiarity with, and understanding of, religion is quite short.
It seems bizarre. Politicians not so long ago never felt a particular need to use the name "Jesus" as though it were synonymous with the mystical trinity in its entirety. Jimmy Carter was among the first major politicians to raise the use of the name "Jesus" to the new heights. There is little doubt that Carter was and is a thoroughly admirable and decent human being. That is an important part of being a good president, but there is more. For all he may have learned in the Navy about nuclear power, some would say without being able to pronounce that well either, he was not foremost among engineers, politicians or theologians. That is excepting of course while he was president. Time has not ranked his presidency as highly as others' before him though.
Consider organized "Christian" religions. Okay, so you might not want to do that, but at least for the purposes of the discussion here, please do. It's the "Catholic" church, and then there's the "Trinity" broadcasting network, various "Baptist" and "Assemblies of God." Have we found the name "Jesus" in the name of a major organized religious organization yet? The "Christ" in "Christianity" is about as close as we'll see till quite far along the road. And when the name "Jesus" does appear in the name of an organization it is usually not alone.
What happened to America's understanding of deity? These United States have indeed had their troubles, but well into the fifties we were a religious people. We see now, or are likely to see soon, troubles like never before.
The holy commandments of our God resonate with humanity across the world, even if our leaders and policies have at times been quite mistaken. It's probably not the best way to measure things, but whose religion has more Facebook friends? Or whose would have if there was a Facebook in the fifties? Islam has a history, even when they were conquering large parts of the world, of treating godly people well and allowing them to practice their own religions and keep their traditions.
A possible explanation for our recent failing is that our lives of ease and plenty, in the fifties like never before, allowed many to drift away from, to forget, God. Don't think that never happened before, just read the Bible. But it isn't true, or it shouldn't be, that we necessarily forget God in times of ease and plenty. With better memories and being better students of history we might live lives of considerable ease and plenty while holding God near and dear.
Of course there has been confusion about who is God and what God should mean to us down through the ages. And there has been bitter and bloody strife. And no doubt some of the very worst of it was caused by people who called themselves, however mistakenly, "Christians." So there would appear at least some wisdom in "separating" church and state. But it is not really "church" and "state" that need separating. Church and state are both institutions intended to provide our lives with such order as seems most efficacious. They have in that respect the exact same function. What really needs separating are the informed and yet to be informed views of these traditions. They can get complicated and take time to appreciate. And there are similar misunderstandings about the proper role of churches and states alike.
A common mistake these days is to assume that "church" and "state" need to be separated because the "state" has the better grasp of modern science, all the better to run our lives. This website is intended to reveal, and thorough study of it should reveal, that quite the opposite is true. For the more efficacious ordering of our lives we should turn to religion. This does not mean "religion" as it is currently cast by the buffoons doing that casting. This means the religion whose commandments have centuries of success solving bitter and bloody strife. An essential element of the success has been the acknowledgement of a higher power. It happens when people fail to do that, when they assume they are the highest power, when they assume a license, that they oppress others. And that oppression is the cause of war.
In their wisdom the founding fathers of this country acknowledged a higher power. The motto still on our currency "In God We Trust" is important, not because it selects from the assortment of schools of thought on the nature of the higher power, or the misunderstandings of the novices in those schools, but simply because it acknowledges some higher power.
Our "religion" is really more an ethical system. It has resonated with "religions" and ethical systems all over the world for centuries. There is something very human and universally human in it. The real problem is not our traditions, or those of Confucianists, Daoists Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians or any other successful religious or ethical system. The problem is that the truths these all embrace are trampled under the feet of modern "science."

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