NOT EXACTLY A RANT… but it’s close to being one and may develop in that direction as I think and write.  In my thinking and writing I have often tried to find reasons to separate politics and religion… to keep them in distinct cognitive files for later use and further consideration; but that is a mind game that I am no longer willing to play. In some corner of my consciousness there resides a wish for softness and kindness and at-least-allowing-slight-advantage in my critical evaluation of religion.  Over and over actions taken by individuals or groups claiming they are doing what they do for religious reasons, obeying divine imperative, confirm that religion and politics are inextricably woven together.  This week it is ISIS again holding for 200 million dollar ransom two Japanese hostages which they plan to kill on camera for the world to see if they don’t receive the money before the set time of the beheading… all done in the name of Allah.

So, maybe this is a RANT.  I guess I’ve crossed the line.  

History shows that religion as an isolated singular element in a community rarely exists separate from politics as motivator for human behavior in a culture. Fundamentalist Christian organizations can’t legally declare a fatwa against specific individuals with explicit calls to kill, for example, a doctor who performs abortions; but the message is clear enough to indoctrinated faithful that public or private execution must surely be the will of god. Hitler could not have initiated his plan to exterminate Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies and other people he considered racially impure if religious individuals and organizations had not been willing, even eager not merely to comply but to assist in his monstrous project. Religion and politics together form a convenient, easily applied blanket that can be conveniently laid over just about any private absurdity or madness that politicians and/or religious leaders want to promote. An American president or leader of either political party must never forget to add, “May God bless America,” at the end of a major speech. We expect our president to be ever mindful of and connected to God.

When devotion in politics or religion is elevated in individual or group thinking to a level of unrestrained zeal, a wide range of emotions and behaviors, from silliness to dangerous commitments to action, should be expected. TheTooth Fairy, Easter bunnies, and popular media stars don’t hold out promise of eternal life to those who worship them. Intense fascination bordering on devotion to hobbits, wizards or fairies can lead to adoption of costumes and inane behaviors, but such interest rarely changes the course of history.  Even stories about super heroes who supposedly came to Planet Earth from some other planet or a world out there in the universe are known to be fictions.  Devotion of a child to Santa Claus does not get complicated by assumptions that he comes from anywhere but a fictional North Pole. No one pretends to want a child to believe the very real man in red costume with white trim has come from heaven and that if the child becomes a believer he will be taken ultimately to a glorious existence in some other than earthly realm.  Children go along with the pretending game because it’s fun, but they know it’s not real.

Stories about the iconic historical figures in at least three of the major religions are thought to be literal truth. Stories in sacred texts based on short human life spans in sacred texts about Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad are generally assumed to be absolutely true by most of the subscribers to the religions. The stories about them are used to reinforce the idea that the historical character had a direct and very special, and divine connection with the singular ultimate supreme being. In the canonized stories the central figures are shrouded in holiness intended to make them worthy of absolute devotion. The promise of eternal life in heaven, an unimaginably wonderful place, is often the expected reason for devotion.  Some who say they are Christian, Muslim, or Jew may not put stock in a heaven out there somewhere, but they may consider themselves to belong culturally to a particular religion.  Even if they attend church or synagogue or mosque, they may limit their devotion to a central ethic that we refer to as “The Golden Rule,”  acting responsibly to all people and to community. These are not the people who become killers.   

Religious devotion to iconic historic figures believed to have been representatives or messengers from God has been a cause of many wars. Ridiculing Spider Man or the tooth fairy won’t trigger public beheadings, bombing of public places or mass shootings of school children.  A cartoon meant to be funny was used as basis for wholesale murder in Paris last week, but killing cartoonists and journalists and beheading hostages is easily recognized by reasonable people to be political action and not demonstrations of religious devotion. Kidnapping school children to use as sex slaves is not a project designed to demonstrate religious devotion but is a political action meant to terrify an enemy.  Murdering a civil rights activist or an abortion doctor or a man wearing a dress and high heels is not considered by reasonable people to be a demonstration of religious devotion. The killer’s motive is to make a political statement, and no reasonable person could honestly believe killing is an act of religious devotion.

This is clearly the time for reasonable people to examine what they have been doing in the name of their religion and to determine how much of what they do makes sense.  If it doesn’t make sense, stop doing it.