Religion and Politics

Two subjects that folks seem to shy away from or feel should never be discussed in polite company are religion and politics. Well, I’m going to break with tradition and talk about both because, you see, I think they are or can be pretty much one and the same.

First let me say I have a little insight on the subject. I was a preacher’s kid and my father was also involved in politics. Thus, I have had an inside look at both. Add to that a lot of years to refine my theories by observing both religion and politics in action.

Now I’m not saying that all religions or all politics are similar. Not at all. What I am saying is, I see amazing similarities between the two. I’m also not talking about government or the politics of government. I’m talking more about politicians, elections and political beliefs and preachers, sermons and religious beliefs. You see, preachers sell their view of religion and politicians sell their view of society. Let me explain.

Foot note – I’m going to make this easier to write by lumping all religions together and call their leaders preachers.

First, let’s talk about faith since it is the key to both religion and politics. Faith, of course, is something that can be incredibly strong. It enables people to do things that they may never do otherwise. For example, a person that is frightened of heights may have faith that a flimsy rope bridge will be strong enough to hold their weight as they cross a deep ravine. Another person may have faith that the pilot flying the plane they are in actually knows how to land the plane. These are simple examples of faith that probably won’t cause much controversy but what about one’s religious beliefs or faith? What about one’s political views, their societal faith? These can be the cause of controversy, arguments and even war.

In my view both politics and religion require faith and beliefs in something that may or may not be provable or even based on fact. These beliefs can be so strong that actual facts, that can contradict the beliefs, will be ignored and called lies, be labeled a conspiracy or be given some other negative connotation.

For example, a person my believe, have faith, that the world is flat. They can walk out their door and see it is flat. They can climb hills or go up in tall buildings and see the world is flat. They can look out across the ocean and see the world is flat. This could be both a belief and a fact for this person.

But, if we put this person in a rocket and send them into space what happens? Here, they can look back on earth and see it is a blue ball in the blackness of space. This person may say “I’m seeing a movie, this isn’t real!”. We could put them in a space suit and send them out on a space walk and they may say “This is just virtual reality and the weightlessness is being created with large fans or something”. As a final proof, the person could be put in an airlock and told to open the outer door and see that space and the Earth are both real. This of course, they are told, would kill them but it would offer undisputed proof that Earth is in fact a ball. If this person has a strong enough faith that the Earth is flat, they may open the door fully expecting to walk outside or into another room. They would rather die for their belief than accept the facts of reality that have been presented. Or, they may not open the door and still choose to not believe the Earth is a ball and continue to believe it is flat. Basically, in their heart of hearts they may really know it is a ball but cannot come to admit it. They apply “blinders” and continue on down the road.

What is interesting about us as people is we may have faith in one thing and be completely pragmatic with other things. In the example above, the person may believe the world is flat but in everything else be as cut and dried and as factual as can be. They may even take an around the world cruise and never really realize the irony in that. This may make no sense whatsoever but it is what faith is all about. The question is, why do we not apply pragmatism to things of faith? I wish I had an answer for that.

Ok, enough with the faith examples as you are probably still wondering what my real point is about the connection between religion and politics. Well, one of those connections is faith and the other connection is someone trying to successfully convince folks to believe in what they believe or at least believe in what they are “selling”. That may sound horrible but what are preachers and politicians both really doing? They are trying to convince folks to believe in what they believe or what they want folks to believe, and above all, they want folks to believe in them.

Now the best of these preachers and politicians truly believe in what they are saying and want you to believe too. At least on the political side they try their hardest to stick to the facts and try to be non-exclusionary. However, and maybe I’m not enough of an optimist here, but a lot of these politicians and preachers are really more interested in power or riches or influence or fame or whatever but it isn’t necessarily what they are selling because they may be really selling something other than what they are telling folks they are selling. The thing is, how can folks know that, how can they determine when they are being scammed?

Well, and this is the hard part, you have to set aside your faith, your desire to believe and bring that pragmatism to bear. Now I can hear many of you saying that that is horrible and how can you ask me to question my faith, question my religion, question my political beliefs? How can I, because I have to question, because we all have to question. We can’t become what our moms would always tell us not to become when she would ask us “If Jimmy jumped off the cliff, would you follow him?”

You see, religion and politics are both from man. Look no further than all the variations of all the religions in the world. Why are there variations? Man. Now I can’t say that somewhere along the line something spiritual or divine didn’t happen that started a specific religion. I am also separating the spiritual from the religious. Those are all subjects for another time. What I am saying is religion is influenced by man. Walk into any place of worship and see all the variations of the same faith. Why? Man. Politics, well it is all about being influenced by man.

We’ve established that both politics and religion are influenced by man. So what? Well, you see, that is the crux. When you have men that can sell their religion or political beliefs to people to the point where those people set aside their pragmatism and decide to believe anything this person says, no matter what, well that is faith and that can be dangerous. Look at any dictator that came to power that way or look at the cults where everyone committed suicide all because of a belief, a faith in that person and what they were selling. Very dangerous indeed.

But, what if the preachers and politicians are selling good things? Does that mean we should blindly trust them? Why? Why not? Because what is a good thing? That pragmatism thing again. What are the real facts? Are those folks that say the world is round, are they really stating the facts or is that just a belief? Are the world is flat folks really right? How can it be proved? Can folks believe that the rocket ride was real and was a fact or just some part of a show? Was the space walk and weightlessness real or just made up? If I open that airlock door will I die or catch all the folks that are behind this hoax of a round world?

It has always been said (by others) that you have to believe in something. I think that is right but you should never blindly believe in anything. You should never only listen to one side of a story because there is always more than one side to any story. If someone says only their story is true and everyone else’s story is false, why is that? Pragmatically, we know that to be wrong. Humans are never always right and no single view point is always right. Look at all the view points and if none can be proven than the truth is probably somewhere in the middle or maybe not there at all.

Finally, no matter what each one of us ends up believing in religion or politics, someone else will always think differently even if they are sitting next to us at our place of worship or standing next to us at a political rally. What we all need to do is respect the beliefs of others. Heck, more than respect them, maybe we should encourage them! Because if we start pushing our beliefs on other people, aren’t we becoming what we abhor most in others when they push their beliefs on us?