My prediction was wrong, in part

©Bill Gnade/2005

OK. So I am not prescient. A week has passed and I did not receive, at least in this weekly news cycle, a single rebuttal regarding my claims that the religious left is bent on creating its own theocracy in America (see The Religious Left Is No Less Threatening posted below). Particularly, my expectation that Unitarian Universalists (UUs) and its association (UUA) would assault me in defense of their unarguable intrusion into politics has not come to pass. But I am bold to say: the silence is deafening.

Before the reader concludes that I am claiming an undue influence on local affairs, perhaps an explanation is in order. The regional Unitarian society in southern NH is large, vociferous, reactionary, and aggressive. There is no want of political activism in the hearts of this bunch, nor is there any lack of stridency. Thus, when I suggest that this group's silence is deafening, I do so believing that its silence is politically deliberate. There is no doubt the Unitarians saw and read my commentary. They hardly miss a trick. Besides, the editor of the paper which printed my letter is a Unitarian, as is her family.

What do we know about the separation of Church and State? I, at least, know that it is not possible. Religion and politics are inextricably entwined. There will never be, nor can there ever be, a secular state.

But let us assume that there is a possibility of secularism. Let us further stipulate that the religious right is jamming Christian theocratic polity down America's throat. And let us stipulate, for sheer fun, that the Democrats are here to protect us from theocracy, as they so unflinchingly claim.

Hear what the head of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, had to say about the wonderful secular tent under which he presides:

"We need to talk about Christian values and how they're Democratic values. Jesus taught to help the least among us. He spent his life reaching out to the disenfranchised. The Democratic Party is the party of that value, not the Republican Party."

OK. So here we have the head of the DNC not only quoting Jesus, but telling us that it is the DNC, the alleged protectors of secularism, who are the true followers of Christ; and that Jesus' values are identical to the DNC's.

I implore anyone, anywhere, to find an analogous leader in the Republican National Committee that has spoken so theocratically.

Right after the 2004 General Election, members of the Democratic Party were citing New Testament passages in radio and TV appearances. Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Al Sharpton, John Kerry, Jesse Jackson - each of them quoted scripture, and how that sacred writ was most obediently followed by their holy party.

Unitarians, interestingly enough, almost called for a national day of mourning after Bush won the election. In fact, the UUA president William Sinkford insisted that his fellow UUs allow themselves only eight days to mourn before getting on with life.

Locally, the Peterborough (NH) Unitarian Society posted on its wayside pulpit (the sign in front of a church) for its traditional Election Day sermon: "Post-Election Healing." That this sort of sackcloth and ashes mentality swept through the entire UUA community is indisputable, thus proving that the grief in that community was one of discovering that the UUs' hope for a liberal religious state had once again been thwarted.

Why the silence to my charges? Simple. It is politically expedient to the UUs not to draw attention to their hypocrisy. And, again, what is that hypocrisy? It is this: That the Unitarian Universalist Association and its member congregations are a Church committed to the religious ideal that religion should be separate from politics. That this irrationality is not highlighted more frequently in the media is startling and telling. It is the one of the most intellectually self-cancelling beliefs imaginable, and yet it is touted as sophisticated, nuanced and progressive.

In short, it is just plain dumb.

Contratimes

The religious left is no less threatening (A letter to the editor)

[This essay is a letter sent to the editor of the Peterborough Transcript, a small NH weekly. It is in response to comments made retired Franklin Pierce College professor, author and political activist Taylor Morris, who lives nearby. It is related to my "God Bless You Please, Mr. Robinson."]

Criticisms of the religious right, expressed in sundry letters to local papers and the audacious remarks of Bishop Gene Robinson of the NH diocese of the Episcopal Church, strike me as wildly hypocritical at worst and misinformed at best.

Taylor Morris, for instance, in his letter, How to define freedom? (Transcript, 4/14), fails to even consider that there might be a religious left equally bent on establishing a theocracy in America. Imposing religious ideals and principles in the public square is hardly a right-wing activity. The religious left has been doing it for decades.

One need only glance at Unitarian Universalism to rightly conclude that there is hardly a more strident and politically active religious institution in America. Its involvement in shaping society and politics in its own religious image is not only part of its foundation; it is its pride. If the religious right is against gay marriage, for example, the Unitarians are all for it. In other words, the legalization of gay marriage by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts was a decision that promoted and affirmed the religious ideals of Unitarians everywhere. In fact, the two ministers who performed the first 'marriages' in New Paltz, NY, marriages now deemed illegal, were Unitarian ministers. Does anyone think that those two ministers performed those ceremonies because their church opposes gay marriage?

Moreover, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is nearly monochromatic in its political views. Find a Unitarian Universalist who is a conservative Republican, and I say you've found a miracle. (In contrast, the Roman Catholic Church, at least politically, is infinitely more diverse than nearly any Unitarian society on the planet.) The UUA in America endorses almost every political position held by the Democratic Party; and it rarely, if ever, supports one ideal that could be found to the right of that party.

Remember that the "religious right" is not a church. Unitarian Universalism, however, is very much a church.

Mr. Robinson's recent remarks at Franklin Pierce College, germane to this discussion in their hypocrisy, no doubt received applause by his liberal peers. But is there a more troubling irony than a man using his religious office politically in order to censure religion in politics?

And is it not hypocritical that Mr. Robinson would sow fears of theocracy by claiming that 'God is horrified' (Robinson's words) by the things being done in God's name by the religious right? For Robinson claims to know God's mind, a claim that should sound alarms in liberals the world over: Robinson assumes he not only knows what horrifies God politically; he knows what doesn’t horrify God. And what doesn't horrify God? Apparently the political views of Mr. Robinson, whose views are unsurprisingly identical to the Democratic Party platform.

Lastly, one wonders how Mr. Robinson can use his religion in politics to beat back religion in politics when the Book of Common Prayer, without flinching, expects fervent prayers in which weekly, if not daily, Episcopalians petition their Lord Jesus Christ to guide the 'President, Congress and Judiciary' so that they will perform, not some secular act, but God's very will. Perhaps Mr. Robinson would have me skip over that part of my Prayer Book.

The theocratic ambition of the left is also a real threat to the separation of church and state. Messrs. Robinson and Morris apparently hope to protect that separation. I pray they will.

©Bill Gnade 2005/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved

Technorati tags: Religious Left, Religious Right, Gene Robinson, Episcopal Church, Episcopalianism,ECUSA, Unitarianism, Unitarian-Universalism

God bless you please, Mr. Robinson

Rindge, NH (3/28/05) - In a speech at Franklin Pierce College entitled 'What in God's name is going on in America?', Gene Robinson, the feted bishop of the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire, takes umbrage with that bogeyman of American politics, the 'religious right.' (www.mledger.com/2005/archives/1-news-033105.shtml)

Perhaps Mr. Robinson is referring to the audacious declaration found at this well-known religion's website:

'BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the UUA urges its member congregations and individual Unitarian Universalists to proclaim and promote our principles by becoming active participants in public institutions such as schools, libraries, political parties, and governmental bodies.' [General Assembly, 1996]

Of course, Mr. Robinson could not be referring to that kind of activism.

That the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) baldly calls its members to express their religiosity by directly and unabashedly promoting UUA principles in all aspects of American political life hardly raises Robinson's eyebrows. Why is he so indifferent? Because the UUA is a supporter of Mr. Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in Christendom; and he shares with the religious left the hope of creating a liberal, tolerant theocracy, where an 'all-loving God (read 'permissive') is going to be victorious.'

The UUA as a self-described beacon of the religious left is gratuitously political in its agenda, and is, in all ways, a promoter of ideals unsurprisingly similar to the Democratic Party (particularly the left wing of that party). Find a Unitarian-Universalist who is a conservative Republican, and I say you’ve found a miracle.

Is it not a grotesque picture, or a macabre irony, that a religious official would use his religion in politics to censure religion in politics? Mr. Robinson himself is clearly fixated on reproaching the Bush Administration’s policies on everything, and this in the name of his church and his God. Is everyone OK with that?

Moreover, Mr. Robinson claims that God is 'horrified' by the things being done in God's name, ostensibly by the Republicans, and that he, Robinson, not only knows what God is thinking, he knows what God would not be horrified by: namely the political ideas of Mr. Robinson, which, again unsurprisingly, are identical with the Democratic Party platform. What a prophetic voice! (Just think that Mr. Robinson believes conservatives are arrogant.)

Sadly, lost on Mr. Robinson, is that he is guilty of promoting a theocracy that pleases the religious left.

©Bill Gnade 2005/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.

-'It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been motivated by the fear of not looking sufficiently progressive.' Charles Peguy