1 Boring Old Man

40 years ago, it was the time of the Civil Rights Movement. Marching down the street, we were accompanied by Clergy from a number of Christian Denominations, and Rabbis, and Nuns. They were a visible cohort in most demonstrations. Not just the Black Clergy, who were usually up front. There were plenty of White Clergy represented too. They were also at the protest marches against the War in Viet Nam. They seemed to belong there. While the ravages of religious wars fill our history books, there are other stories in there about religious leaders representing what’s best about mankind.

Now, not so much – not so much at all. Somehow, all that has shifted badly out of focus. One would think that religion would be about The Care of the Soul [to borrow Thomas Moore’s book title]. Now it’s about something else. The forces of Christianity are focused on devaluing Homosexual Americans, interferring with medical research, and fighting against the Abortion Rights of unwed mothers – claiming to be the repository of morality in the world. The Jews of the world are focused on the State of Israel and its survival. And the Islamic world is dominated by a Holy War against Infidels, which is everyone else. One doesn’t hear much about "love thy neighbor as thyself" or "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." They are behaving more like Political Action Committees than people involved in anything about the Soul.

In my understanding of the teachings of all three of the Monotheistic Middle Eastern religions, the focus in on the self, on trying to be the best person one can be. But these days, the noise from each of them is about the "other." "They" aren’t doing right. "They" need to change. I suppose this is predictable. The history books are filled with stories of the perversion of religion for political gain, the misuse of religion for political control. I expect that’s why our Founding Fathers were so careful to found this country with the principle of Separation of Church and State, in spite of the fact that the majority of them were religious people. They’d lived in a world where religious differences and religious persecution were the order of the day.

So when you see people speaking out against the War, they’re not religious leaders. When you read about the human rights abuses in the world, ours included, the voices don’t come from the Clergy of any of these religions. And if there’s a demonstration, the religious signs are on the other side of the street – the "counter-demonstration." What we see now is Islamic Clerics with machine guns and Christian Televangelists supporting the war and its proponents.

It was better 40 years ago.