Lenten Reflection on Religious Freedom

Lent begins again with ashes as a reminder that we have all been created from the dust of the earth, and everyone will face death in this life.  Sunday’s reading from Genesis describes how sin entered the world when Satan deceived Eve into believing that if she disobeyed God and ate from the tree of life, she and her husband would become like God, knowing themselves what is good and what is evil.  The great truth of this Genesis story is that sin entered the world when men and women disobeyed God and began to determine for themselves what was good and what was evil.  

In preparation for the commemoration of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we acknowledge that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness and salvation that only Jesus can offer.  This is our Christian belief: that temptation and sin exist and we are in need of salvation if we are to enter into eternal life in the presence of God.  For more than a millennium, this was the commonly held belief of the Western world, and the Church served as the defender of God’s truth, as revealed in scripture and in Jesus’ words and actions.  Although the leaders of the Church were, like all men, subject to temptation and sin, the Church has been guided by the Holy Spirit and provides spiritual guidance.  It was commonly understood that worldly kings governed civil affairs, and they were expected to follow the moral guidance of the Church whose authority was limited to the spiritual domain.  However, in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, all this changed when Kings began proclaiming themselves to be absolute rulers of both worldly and spiritual affairs.  Thomas Hobbes, considered to be the father of modern liberal political philosophy, argued that the church undermined the authority of the king.  Hobbes was a materialist who believed that all existence was corporeal and therefore there were no immaterial objects, no soul, and no spiritual realm.  He believed that all matter was neither good nor evil, and all actions were merely mechanical reactions to physical stimuli, and therefore there were no moral absolutes.  He denied the existence of sin and natural law, and in its place asserted “the right of nature,” in which every person is at liberty to do as he pleases.   Of course this would lead to chaos and confusion, and therefore civilization needed a sovereign government to establish rules and rights for everyone, so that civil society can flourish.  In The Leviathan, Hobbes posited that nothing was illegal unless outlawed by the government, and nothing was sinful, unless it violated the government’s laws.

Hobbes’ philosophy influenced Western civilization significantly and led to many kings taking control of churches as a means of holding sway over the populace, changing moral standards and religious practice to suit their political agenda.  A century later, Baruch Spinoza laid out a rationalist philosophy proclaiming that God never became flesh, but rather that all flesh and all matter was and is God.  His pantheism was the basis for encouraging humans to worship their own actions and efforts as divine.  Since the political state is the most powerful expression of human effort, Spinoza claimed that the state itself is a manifestation of the divine.  Spinoza’s Ethics influenced Descartes, Hegel and others who would usher in the so-called Age of Enlightenment in which rational thought was considered supreme, and those who continued to believe in the spiritual realm were regarded as ignorant, misguided and intolerant.  Never the less, Spinoza saw the value of using the church to manipulate and control the unenlightened people who clung to their superstitious beliefs.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because this is the origin of our liberal state.  Christianity has been under attack for 500 years as one government after another claimed control over its local church.  The United States has been a notable exception, until recently.   Over time we’ve gradually adopted the liberal view that evil doesn’t really exist and that relatively few things are truly sinful.  We’ve become conditioned to believing that the state knows what’s best for everyone.  Rather than recognize and observe God’s universal Truth, the state has gradually redefined moral and religious belief to suit its political agenda, and in the process convinced many that there is no such thing as sin, and no need for salvation.  In many instances, Christianity has been watered down to the point of believing that the most important thing we can do is respect everyone’s right to believe whatever they choose.  Why else would so many self-proclaimed Christians come to believe that abortion and gay marriage are both acceptable?  As recently as last month, the United Nations chastised the Catholic Church for its failure to modernize its teaching on birth control, abortion, and gay marriage, as if God’s truth is subject to human approval. 

Our president and his administration have changed their views on marriage, intentionally ignored, then repealed the Defense of Marriage Act, and despite settled law to the contrary, spent hundreds of millions on taxpayer-funded abortion services.   They have also sued religious organizations for adhering to their beliefs by refusing to fund birth control, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization.  At the same time, the administration seems to have no compunction about using the IRS to harass their political adversaries, whether they be Tea Party or Pro-Life organizations, both of whom were repeatedly denied non-profit status, while liberal organizations’ applications sailed through.

It seems that our government has set itself up as its own god, accountable to no one but itself, even as they disregard the constitution and violate the separation of powers.  This Lent is an excellent time to pray for our country.  Let’s hope and pray that Christians will come to their senses and vote for candidates who will respect the Constitution and protect rather than violate religious freedom.  The State cannot and must not tell us what to believe and how to practice our faith on a daily basis.  As Jesus  said in Sunday’s gospel, “The Lord you God shall you worship, and Him alone shall you serve.”