The Center for Religious Services hosted a "Religion and Politics Roundtable" last night. The idea was to get a representative panel together, have them give different perspectives on the role of religion in political life or vice versa, then have Q&A time. We had a good crowd. The University Chaplain opened it up by explaining a bit about the contemporary American religio-political scene.
The first speaker was an organizer with the Navigators, an interdenominational Christian ministry. He started out with Matthew 22 and Leviticus 19 which state, respectively, "love the Lord your God with all your heart," and "love thy neighbor." His view was that Christians who held these passages close to them ought to care deeply about our election process, since the elections will affect the lives of all people. He mentioned how the Bible doesn't explicitly talk about every political issue, but it can help to provide us with a normative moral framework to figure it out. He also spoke to the dangerous ways in which politicians claim God to be on their side during elections, something that seems against the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven not being on earth.
The next speaker was a representative of FOCUS (Fellowship Of Catholic University Students), and he began with the distinction between himself and his parents, who he referred to as an "older generation" of Catholics. This older generation was still concerned, as it always had been, with things like civil liberties and worker's movements. In his mind, younger Catholics have become concerned more with issues of LIFE, and the sanctity thereof. In one sly turn of phrase, he was stating that workers have a voice, while the unborn lack that luxury. It was very curious and clever.
Next up was a member of our faculty who happened to be a Turkish Muslim. He spoke about Turkey's secular nature and the mandatory nature of their elections, i.e. you
have to vote. Turkey's ruling party is the AK (Justice and Development), a slightly Islamic party. He noted that the President and the Prime Minister are both "practicing" Muslims. But he was also quick to note that the Quran deals overwhelmingly not with political life, but with the life of the
individual, and about how to be a good person. This was what he saw Islam meaning for political life - making decisions, even in elections, that help us be good people.
Our rabbi from Chabad rounded out the panel by explaining a large part of Jewish history - the Chaplain had to eventually cut him off. But the gist was that for the fifteen centuries after Moses had been given the LAW, Jews had ruled themselves by Divine Governance, although there had been kings who slipped. But then the Babylonian Captivity began, and the Jews found themselves under the control of someone who did not share their faith. The question became - How do we keep the faith when our system of law and our truth are not running the show? He explained that since then it has been a waiting game. The Messiah will eventually come back and restore the original plan. But he was very clear in pointing out that the quietist version of Judaism has been in effect since the destruction of the Second Temple. Jews were faced with a bit of a "Hobbes' Dilemma." It was better to have a repressive government than complete anarchy. This was, however, beginning to change as Jews came into their own in the political life of America.
After that we went to Q&A. People asked about the tide of secularism in Europe and America and what it meant for us. The Catholic fellow pointed out that Catholics were called by Scripture to spread the Gospel, and that no matter how secular the world got, they would always have that responsibility. The rabbi pointed out that European Jews used to have to wait until a major Christian holiday to get beaten up (har har), but that both Jews and Muslims were being discriminated in Europe nowadays by "religious bigots without faith." It was a very keen reading of what's been going on on the Continent since the end of World War II.
The Catholic fellow mentioned seeing New Jersey Governor John Corzine (who he referred to as pro-abortion) in the office of a local bishop. He confronted the man of the cloth and asked him what on earth the two men could have possibly been talking about. The bishop replied, "Oh you know, the things we have in common - our common concerns, like the poor and civil liberties." He admitted that as people of faith, we can pick and choose when the times demand it.
With the exception of a few more forays into the "abortion issue," the whole thing went quite well. And it ended with a very prescient observation on behalf of the Muslim professor, who said, "Of course, you don't have to vote the same way each time. Every four years you vote again, so if something isn't working, you can change it."
