A sermon for Religious Liberty Sunday
July 4, 2004
Lanny Peters
Pastor, Oakhurst Baptist Church
My younger brother Jerry and I do not see each other that often. He manages two furniture stores in Charlotte, North Carolina. As he once told a mutual friend, “I don’t get to see my brother all that much. Religion and retail- they both keep you busy on the weekends.” When I lived in Washington, D.C. Jerry came to visit once but could only stay a couple of days. We went on a whirlwind tour of the major sites. When we passed by the National Archives, I explained that inside on display were the original Constitution and the original signed copy of the Declaration of Independence. “Wow, brother, I‘ve got to see that,” he responded, and in we went.
Inside, we discovered a long line and were told the wait might be as long as two hours. Jerry headed up toward the front of the line. “Where are you going?” I asked, but he just motioned for me to follow. As we approached, a very stern looking African-American woman in a security uniform eyed us suspiciously. “How are you today Ms. Johnson?” Jerry spoke warmly, reading the name on her badge. She did not speak but slightly nodded her head toward him without making any expression. Jerry then proceeded to introduce himself and before long, they were engaged in lively conversation. Soon he was calling her by her first name.
Finally he said, “Lucille, I have sure enjoyed our conversation but I need to get going. I am here visiting my big brother standing right here behind me. He is a minister, by the way. I’ll be leaving tomorrow and we have several more things we want to do, but I really would like to see that original Declaration of Independence. I am wondering if you might do me a little favor and let me take a peek at it.”
She gave him a look that was somewhere between amazed and amused, and without saying a word, she turned and unclipped the rope from the bar behind her. She put her hand up to the person who was now first in line and motioned very official like for Jerry to step up. She invited me to join him, but I declined. I have always had this pet peeve about others jumping lines. Jerry went and took a long look at the famous documents. I could hear the people in line talking and realized that they assumed it must be someone important. Several began taking snapshots of him just in case. As he returned and thanked Lucille Johnson, and wished her well, he noticed folks taking his picture. He went down the line shaking hands! When we got outside, he said, “Ain’t this a great country, brother! Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
One of the things I miss most about living in Washington is the Fourth of July celebration: Going to the Folk Life festival on the mall, and then having a picnic on blankets on the Capitol lawn while the National Symphony plays. Just after dark, they head into “Stars and Stripes Forever” and everyone “ooohs and ahhs” at the fireworks going off around the Washington Monument. There is nothing quite like it.
This is a day when we can join with all Americans to celebrate all the freedoms we have. When I was in Morocco, I was reminded of how special some of them are. Morocco grants its citizens a lot of freedom. But they had best not speak badly or question too harshly three things: the country, the king or Islam. That’s freedom with some pretty big asterisks.
On this day, we can especially celebrate religious freedom. In the formation of our country, this was an area in which Baptists played a crucial role. John Leland, a Virginia Baptist, led the way. He declared “Let every (person) speak freely without fear, maintain the principles that he believes, worship according to his own faith, either one God, three Gods, no God, or twenty Gods; and let government protect him in doing so.” In the Declaration of Independence, for Baptists like Leland, the word liberty meant first and foremost religious liberty.
Baptists have historically been vigilant about keeping a strong boundary between church and state, though in the last decades many Baptists seem to have abandoned that position.
One of the thorniest and high stake issues we face is the relation of faith and politics, which will become more and more central in this election year. Faith based initiatives seem to be here to stay and churches like ours need to understand what this will mean and if there are ways we can participate with integrity. The Oakhurst Recovery Program is an example of a ministry that we helped begin but which now receives money from the government. Still, this issue is laden with danger. As the late Dean Kelley pointed out, “With the King’s shilling, comes the King.”
The National Association of Evangelicals recently put out a draft of a statement called For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility supports “ thoughtful and sustained evangelical engagement in political life…We want to encourage evangelical citizens to be involved in political parties and activities, including an unabashed advocacy of biblical principles and positions…Evangelical Christians have a duty to affect society "because Jesus is Lord over every area of life." At the same time, the statement warns; evangelicals "must be careful not to equate Christian faith with partisan politics." An earlier version said, “evangelicals must guard against over-identifying Christian social goals with a single political party."
This might well be aimed towards certain conservative denominations, which are beginning to look like a wing of the Republican Party. At the same time, those of us in more progressive churches need to heed the same advice, exercising our Christian duty to affect society and yet not over-identifying Christian social goals with a single political party.
One of the people I see doing this well is Jim Wallis, a radical evangelical and editor of the magazine Sojourners. He recently was invited to appear before the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee who wanted testimony from some faith-based organizations, especially those working on poverty.
Wallis wrote of this: “Democrats haven't always asked for religious input, and by not doing so have too often conceded the issue of religion to the Republicans. And the Republicans, in turn, have been able to define "religious issues" only in terms of issues like gay marriage or abortion, ignoring the deeply biblical issues of economic justice, the environment, or war and peace. I decided to accept the committee's invitation to testify, on behalf of Call to Renewal and Sojourners, because it was a good opportunity to link the issues of faith and justice. Our partner, Bread for the World, was also among those testifying. Over the past several years, I have met with President George W. Bush and the White House policy staff to discuss the ‘faith-based initiative’ and how ‘compassionate conservatism’ ought to produce a domestic policy that effectively assists low-income families in escaping poverty. So I was happy to also speak to the Democrats. I would have willingly testified before the Republican Platform Committee as well, if they had asked.
I quoted Isaiah to the Democrats, and urged them not to avoid moral and religious language in expressing their concern for economic justice. One member of the committee responded to my testimony by saying that Democrats did have ‘moral issues’ at the heart of their agenda when they stood up for poor people. I said I thought that was true, but suggested that they have often hesitated to use moral and religious language when they spoke to those questions, and it was time to do so. Heads were nodding all around.
The committee was made up of elected officials, civil rights and labor leaders, academic experts, and grassroots organizers. I could tell that some were clearly religious people, and a few were struggling not to keep saying ‘Amen’ as I went along. Clearly the Democrats are trying to take religion seriously, more than they have in recent years. Some Democrats remember when the party was allied with the civil rights movement in the 1960s - which, of course, was led by black churches. And no one in American history ever linked religion and politics better (or more prophetically, democratically, and inclusively) than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
All these are encouraging signs. Religion should not be the exclusive possession of the Republican or Democratic Party, the right or the left, but must be able to critique and challenge both. And clearly, in this election, Christians will be voting both ways, because of their faith.” (From Sojourners Online June 2004 Issue)
Interestingly enough, one of the places I recently heard about the creative tension between faith and politics was during my trip to Morocco. Oakhurst members Kevin and Karen Thomas Smith are living an amazing life in Morocco. They are incredible witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ and yet they are also completely dedicated to respecting the people of Morocco, of which over 99% are of the Muslim faith. Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane has in its mission statement, a commitment to being a place of encounter and dialogue between Muslims, Christians, and Jews.”
Our groups benefited from the trust Karen and Kevin have helped build over eight years. We met with a number of faculty members and found the conversations open and frank and quite fascinating. The first conversation we had was with Dr. Mustapha Hogga. He teaches Intro to Islamic Civilization, Arabic History, and Western philosophy.
He began by talking about tolerance as the beginning of interfaith dialogue, saying: “If our religious concept of tolerance is less than the secular concept of tolerance, it is a farce. It should be wider, have more insight and depth, and respond to the suffering of humans. If the secular concept is more inspired, then religion is useless.”
He then made some statements that could well have gone on our bulletin cover for Religious Liberty Sunday today: “There is no religion without freedom of conscience. Freedom of conscience is divine. We must reread all sacred texts from that viewpoint….
He shared with us his hope for interfaith dialogue. “Someone can contradict you and disagree but you do not have to discredit the other. We have to try our best to come without ideological prejudice or insult. We also need to do more than this. We need to get to the core of what religion is. We have the burden of a terrible history. It cannot be removed or reinterpreted. It is there, a tradition of violence and cruelty. We need to acknowledge what man is and of what he is capable. He can do more than he can pay for-and that is hell. We need approaches to deal with this. We need to move from our present framework. One person can do harm to a lot of people. So we need to pay attention to every human being. We need to develop intellectual tools to be safely optimistic.”
The first good step is to separate politics from religion. The worst of hatred is theological hatred. (And the most convenient.) We have to see in any human the image of God. Everyone is entitled to limitless respect. Do not suspect the other’s motives. Interpret your neighbor’s intentions in the most favorable way.”
Another professor, Dr. Abdelhamid Lotfi, said, “The value of interfaith is to see (each faith’s) uniqueness. If I believe strongly in my faith, and you do the same, that is the best. It’s considered a great thing to sit down together. It’s good but not good enough. It takes a great deal of imagination to determine what is crucial and what is not. What is cultural and what is religious.”
We had an afternoon with Jack Kalpakian, an Orthodox Armenian Christian teaching at the university and worshiping in the church where Karen serves as pastor. He said, “I am proof that you can live with this religion.”
Jack was clear that interfaith dialogue is not giving up your faith. He emphasized the real differences between Christianity and Islam. He noted that the Jesus portrayed in the Koran is not one we would know, though there are similarities. The crucial difference is that in the Koran Jesus is a prophet of God but not the Son of God. The Koran says that he was not crucified and resurrected.
Another intriguing session was with Dr. Carlos Jacques who is from Portugal and teaching the first Comparative Religion class ever in Morocco. It is the most sensitive course taught at the university. He said that the biggest misperception among Westerners of Islam is that it is a violent religion. He observed that the biggest danger to Islam is the same that is threatening Christianity, the religion of consumerism.
He too cautioned, “Once you turn religion into a political ideology, religion becomes extremely dangerous. The other becomes evil and there is no restraint upon killing them.
“That is why it is important for people to experience the diversity of Muslims and for Muslims to see the pluralism of Christians and Americans and that they do not all think alike.”
I came away from these conversations realizing that we do share many of the same challenges. We each live in cultures where the lines between faith and nationalism are blurred. When that happens, faith is greatly compromised and maybe even rendered irrelevant. Whether Muslim or Christian, it is vital for us to separate the life of spiritual discipleship from the cultural trappings.
Our experience at the World Sacred Music Festival in Fez reinforced this in a powerful way. We listened to sacred music from England, Russia, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Iran, South Africa, and Harlem (New York). Each represented a very different approach to the sacred and yet they were deeply connected. I shall never forget the last night when the Harlem choir was singing and the audience was standing and clapping along, including a large group of teenagers standing in the back. In my mind remains this wonderful image: Women covered completely in traditional dress and young people in Western dress, hundreds of Muslims singing, “Oh happy day, (O happy day) when Jesus walked (when Jesus walked.) ”
In his examination of the world’s religions, Dr. Carlos observed, “The religious life is a life of journey. It is not something you acquire once and for all, but a lifetime of self-examination and growth.” I return more than ever committed to international and particularly interfaith relations. And more hopeful than ever that people of faith can play a vital role in God’s reconciling and healing work in the world.