"Don't you know, you're not supposed to talk about Religion or Politics?" said someone who should have known better. Think about it. When a culture STOPS talking about the very things that shape our thoughts, and consequently our behaviors, what happens is CHAOS and ANARCHY. And both of those concepts come straight from the pit of hell.
For example, look at the path of television in the last 60 years. Yes, it has been that long. I remember when we got our first color television set in the 1970's. I remember watching "Leave it to Beaver" in black and white mode. I also remember pleading with my parents to buy cable television so we could watch "Green Acres." The only way we got any traction with the Decision Makers in the household was highlighting more Sports availability and Religious programming on cable tv. Little did we know that now more than 50 years later every kind of smut and debauchery would be more regular fare.
It used to be that the advertisements for adult health and personal products would occur after 9pm programming because it was presumed that good little American children would be in bed sleeping by then, especially on school nights. More than once, my mother called the television station to complain that the commercials were unsuitable for viewing with her husband and children in the room. That was back in the day when writing your Television Station produced a modicum of results. The perception was that you are a consumer and they wanted you to "consume" their station and not that of the competition. It was tied to both longevity and continued stream-of-advertising dollars. And then somewhere around the era of MTV, producers stopped caring, listening, or being aware that they were pushing limits of decency. Our culture became a "live and let live" consumer society. If you don't like the programming, flip the channel because there's someone else out there who will take your place in viewing smut. Nowadays, do our kids even know what that word means? Probably not, because they have been poured a steady dose of "don't judge."
Let me address my personal beef with "Don't Judge." In my mind it is a misnomer. We don't want people to "feel bad" that we disagree with their ideas or behavior, so we "don't judge." When in fact, Jesus Himself said, "By their fruits you will know them..." (Matthew 7:16) In other words, it is up to us to have a Standard by which to measure "right vs. wrong," and at its deeper root, "life giving vs. death dealing" behavior and "culture enhancing vs. degenerative" philosophies. Don't get me wrong, you have your Rights and you are entitled to whatever whacky ideas you want to embrace ... but so do I. And there's the rub. The same people who whine, "Don't Judge," are in fact judging ME and taking away MY right to opinion, thought, and free speech .... not on MY watch, kiddo.
As far as the other more quoted (and typically utilized in wrong context) injunction of Jesus, "Judge not, lest ye be judged," (Matthew 7:1) He is not talking about behaviors or opinions. He is talking about Eternal Destiny. The implication is that because all people are sinners, we are not in a position to condemn anyone. (Romans 3:23) BUT. But, we most certainly should be discerning and wise about the things that put anyone - me, you, or the guy down the street - on a bad path. What one person does, matters. If someone takes their vehicle and runs down a child in the street, we can say without hesitation that the behavior is Wrong. We can draw some conclusions about the mental health of the driver only if we know them or the circumstances. But details matter because if it was someone behind the wheel who was impaired, challenged, or unable to control the vehicle, our thoughts about the underlying source of the tragedy changes. It can be a crime or it can be a tragedy, based on any of those factors. And we can still say the behavior was Wrong. That's how we judge. Without rules and ascertainments that come from our deepest sense of the dignity of humanity, (and perhaps the influence of the Ten Commandments) our world will swirl into senseless, egotistical chaos. A society like that cannot survive. Ancient Rome is proof of that fact.
And this is where we come to -albeit a short cut - the intersection of cultural formation: Religion & Politics. When you think of Politics, perhaps immediately your mind goes to the polemics and the outliers, ie.) Republicans vs. Democrats, with the outliers being Green Party or whatever. I would like to propose that we take a step back for the purpose of philosophical conversation.
If we ask the question what is the highest possible purpose or intent or function of Politics? I think we could make a case that the Purpose of Politics "should" be: to serve the people of its country. I think the Intent of Politics "should" be: to assist in the creation of a just and peaceful society. I think the Function of Politics "should" be: to adjust the systems of the country so that there is law and order, that we might live in that ever-elusive peace most of us want. I believe in Respect. I believe in mind-your-own-business. I believe there are things about you I don't want or need to know. And in the spirit of privacy and freedom I think there are things about me that are not your business either. I want a political system that protects THAT, as opposed to a political system that is pushing a myriad of agendas at us. Respect. Privacy. Freedom. And again, Respect. Any political arm that is doing anything more than that, or anything Other Than protecting the most vulnerable members of our society from womb-to-tomb, is not functioning the way it should be.
If we can take that and agree upon it, then there should theoretically be not Red or Blue, but Purple. But there is not. And "partisan politics" really has become "Agenda Politics." Clearly that system is not going anywhere any time soon because some of the agendas have the intent of eroding order in society. So we need at least to have a sense for who might be wearing a proverbial white hat or black hat, and partisan politics can sometimes provide that.
While Faith is not a social structure, it is something that is interior to the individual and has great power to impact both Religion and Politics. If how I live flows out of who I am, instead of the lowest common denominator where "Law and Rules" make me live a certain way (out of fear or obligation), then we are on perhaps a better road. What I mean, spelled-out, is that a person who does not murder or condone murder because it is a Rule or a Law is at one level; while another person does not murder or condone murder because they see Life as having inherent dignity from womb-to-tomb is at a different moral level. Once the Dignity of Life becomes The Standard, you move from refraining from violence to reverencing Life and preserving it and learning ways to think outside of the box to solve problems in other ways than violence. THAT is the value of Faith. Values that flow from the center of a person are different in character and commitment than behavior that is impinged upon a person.
In taking these thoughts to the pulpit for a common airing, the preacher is probably thinking two things: 1) how do I talk about this and not lose our 501(c)3 tax exempt status; and 2) how do I not split my congregation along political lines? #One is simple: don't talk about names and parties. Talk about values, because everyone sitting in front of you has at least some interest in the values of The Almighty, otherwise they would be home in bed watching cartoons. #Two the values you speak of do not come from the culture. They need to come from the Gospel and the Ten Commandments. So you are not pulling politics INTO religion. You are attempting to put Values INTO POLITICS.
While I could stop at this last paragraph I want to add one more pet peeve: Homilies on Social Justice. Remember what I have written previously, that you should KNOW your audience before you speak? My beef with discussions of Social Justice in Church in the last 40 years is that it is not inclusive. By that, I mean that the presumption of the preacher has, in my experience, been that those in front of him are privileged and somehow "owe" an undetermined amount of "justice" (do they mean money? material support? emotional sympathy? service hours? our own jobs?). Do not make me feel guilty for having a job. Do not make me feel guilty for whatever privilege you think I was born into. Do not make me feel like I have to pay forever for the sins of the earliest settlers in America. You don't know me or my history or my hardships. The next time I hear a Social Justice Homily, so help me God, I am going to WALK OUT of church. I sat in the bench one fine morning and listened to a preacher who was waxing pointedly about justice and what we owe... yeah, start at home, buddy - When I worked as a Catholic School Teacher, with a Master's Degree and monthly loan payments for same, and lived in a shanty apartment with no hope of getting out, I was being paid $21,000/year. It was a hair above the poverty level which I believe was $16-18,000/year at the time. Unless I STOPPED doing what I did well and loved much, I would have NO home of my own, decent vehicle to drive, and any of the things that the Social Justicer's think that "everybody should have." At the time, a friend who taught in the public school (making twice what I made) complained to me that the School District cut her classroom budget. I facetiously asked her, "What's a classroom budget? In the Catholic school, you are handed a box of chalk, a ream of paper, and a roll of duct tape at the start of the year and told: Make it work. I actually got spoken-to for using more paper! At that time I believe a ream of paper was three dollars. Come on, now." Then, when I left teaching, the H.R. lied to me that the money I put into pension could not come back to me since I was leaving teaching. I had to fight them for four thousand dollars. Are you kidding me? So, um, yeah, no, don't talk to me about what I owe.
Perhaps I could round all these ideas up into one word:
Ms. Aretha Franklin said it best: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
If we move back to the values of Respect and Responsibility, we will be on safe ground, but Silence on spiritual and moral values is NOT an option.
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For those of you who got a headache reading all this trying to put it together, I want you to know it took me three weeks and a lot of editing to get it even to This Point. To approximately quote Martin Luther, "This much I said and can say no other, so help me God."
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