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Jim's PERSPECTIVESeptember 23, 2013Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27 In 1952, President Dwight D. Eisenhower made the following comment to Soviet Marshal Grigori Zhukov (a World War II contemporary of then-General Eisenhower): "Our government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don't care what it is." This often quoted line has been misinterpreted as the President’s sanctioning of a superficial civil religion. Actually, that’s not what he meant. He apparently intended to make a distinction between the Soviets’ atheistic world view and the understanding on which America is based. At least this is what David Eisenhower suggests in his recent book about his grandfather, Going on to Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961-1969. I also have heard that line misquoted by professors and teachers as, “The American people need a religion, and I don’t care what it is.” For the longest time I had taken the word of those who would have had me believe that Eisenhower’s comment is illustrative of the typical sentiment of some in authority who want a peaceful and stable society and culture, and will settle on the least common denominator that will get them that stability and peace. Eisenhower’s faith evidently was much deeper than what some critics have thought. When I began this article, I had hoped to use that statement in the same misinterpreted way—one that would allow me to talk about the minimum standard that we “religious” people have agreed upon in order to live together in some semblance of harmony. OK, so Eisenhower did not mean it that sense. But it doesn’t really matter. I can still talk about that nonetheless. To do so I have invented some new words: “religerate,” “religeration,” “religify,” and “religification.” These words can be added to Bill Maher’s “Religulous,” from the movie of the same name. You may or may not have seen him some time ago on ABC as the host of the show, “Politically Incorrect,” or HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” While he is pretty smart and often a very funny guy, he is an unapologetic, self-avowed atheist. He does not like religion. In fact, this is one of his quotes from the movie: The irony of religion is that because of its power to divert man to destructive courses, the world could actually come to an end. The plain fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having in key decisions made by religious people. Maher evidently believes that many of the problems of our society are due to “religious” people being in authoritative positions. He’s not alone, and he’s not the first to say so. Frederick Neitzsche (the German philosopher who made famous the phrase, “God is dead.”), believed pretty much the same thing, in addition to feeling that Christianity’s values and understanding of good and evil (and an afterlife) are impediments to the development of the human spirit. Lots of people are calling for the end of religion. I, too, dislike religion in the sense that it (religion misunderstood) serves for many people as the previously mentioned “least common denominator” for stability and peace—not real peace, mind you, just the absence of hostility—in order for people who cannot agree on what is “good” to live together. Religion is construed by some as a set of rules enforced by those in authority to prevent the encroachment of others’ versions of “good” on yours and mine. I do think many people have been “religerated” and “religified.” That is, I believe that some would be satisfied if we maintained a modicum of goodness and fairness with a reasonable amount of freedom and peace (with some American nationalistic sentimentality thrown in), and if all that could be achieved without God, it would be fine with them. Hence the Eisenhower misquote: “A religion...and I don’t care what it is.” The thing is, I really do believe in God, and that what that means is vitally important for an accurate understanding of human existence. Furthermore, I believe that God cares about what that means for all humanity, not just Americans or American-style. Authentic human existence is only known and comprehended in the context of who Jesus is. I am of the opinion that Jesus is God’s best, clearest, and ultimate expression of himself and his best, clearest, and ultimate expression of all of life: And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; And having made peace through the blood of his cross, but him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven (Colossians 1:18-20). Unlike Frederick Neitzsche, Bill Maher, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and a whole host of others like them, I think Christianity is the best of life and is about what it means to be truly and authentically human. In the tenth chapter of John, Jesus refers to himself as “the gate,” or “the door,” and says he has “...come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” In the fourteenth chapter of John, Jesus says he is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and also goes on say that “no man comes unto the Father, but by me.” The seeming exclusivity of that last verse is very unsettling to a lot of people. However, that verse is meant to include rather than to exclude. Jesus is trying to make clear where real life, real truth, the real path, are found. They are all found in him—not in religion.
- Jim Radford |
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©2013 Jim Radford. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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