“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”
K, Men in Black

“Seek other people’s approval and you will always be their prisoner.”
Tao Te Ching

What has any of that to do with politics today, you ask? Each one of them has stuck with me since I read or heard them spoken over the years. They occur to me every time I read about what we’ve come to refer to as the “religious right,” evangelicals, and politicians who play to them.

“Among the inestimable of our blessings, also, is that …of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will.”
Thomas Jefferson

Extremes of Politics and Religion

Now, I’m sure those folks have only the best of intentions, and most likely believe truly in what they preach. Yet, I consider them dangerous and no friends of mine, and their rise to prominence in the Republican party is something I have found scary for quite some time.

Life is difficult, as M. Scott Peck noted in the first line of his book, the Road Less Traveled. By his estimation, he believed that only about 3% of us go through life “getting it.” By that he meant that most live their lives somewhat mindlessly, never truly wrapping their heads around its purpose or meaning, and simply let life happen to them.

Speaking of which, it was Joseph Campbell, author, college professor and great thinker on the subject of myths and mythology, who once told an audience that he believed life had no purpose; rather, that we give our lives purpose by the way in which we choose to live them. That, too, is a great line, the thought culled from his career studying cultural mythologies. His book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, should be required reading.

The religious right and bible belt extremists – strict constructionists when it comes to the Bible, if not necessarily the U.S. Constitution – wish to impose upon our country their view of life’s spiritual level purpose. The folks who celebrated the recent Maine vote on same sex marriage are squarely cut from that “holy” cloth, and cite scripture as the basis of their opposition thereto, as just one example.

These folks “know” His will better than the rest of us, and they leave no room for disagreement with that view. To them, there is one truth, and one truth alone, and the only “purposeful life” is the one they define for everyone. In that sense of certainty, they are as dogmatic as Muslim extremists, who also “know” His will better than the rest. I don’t think they want to fly planes into buildings to make their point, but there are many degrees of “dangerous” in this world, and the determination to impose their view on everyone is among them.

Whether it be to legislate school prayer back into practice or ban same sex marriage, or proselytize one’s beliefs by placards carried and pins worn to work, so many want to demonstrate their faith in everyone else’s face, proclaim their actions for all to see, and force-feed it everyone. Didn’t Matthew, at 6:3, tell us not to let the left hand know what the right hand was doing? Those who engage in self-flagellation of any sort, who give alms in very public ways, who practice their righteous condescension so stylishly, already have received their reward, as that caution was intended to mean, and it’s not necessarily His reward.

Those whose writings this country was founded on wrote something quite to the contrary from the notions espoused by the most fervent of these believers, though:

“As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith…”
Thomas Paine

One’s personal religious beliefs and spiritual practices are exactly that – personal. Jefferson was referring to the blessing bestowed upon us as Americans to choose the way which we, as individuals, believe most appropriate, and that in this regard, also, were we equal.

Yet we are faced every day with efforts by religious groups and politicians to accept their way as the only way, their beliefs as the only worthy ones, and urging government to nose into everyone’s life. Doesn’t each of us have the right to choose our own path, though, to direct the course of our own life, without the interference of government intrusion other than to keep the peace and maintain safety?

What’s the answer? How do we reconcile the various rights and entitlements when it comes to personal beliefs and spiritual practices? Paine says our government has an affirmative duty to protect us all, we conscientious professors of our own religious beliefs, but that it otherwise has no right to intrude on or to legislate those beliefs.

The conservative political base, including the religious right, will be a significant power in the 2010 elections, and politicians will be appealing to that base mightily. After all, they’re vocal, they work hard and they vote. Their legislative agenda will reflect their religious beliefs, if not espouse it, as they attempt to impose those beliefs on the country. It is their right to do so, of course, just as is the right to oppose those efforts and leave one’s spiritual practices a private, individual right.

Depending on your religious and political persuasion, one might suggest the most appropriate prayer under these circumstances be that He grant the most extreme of these zealots their heavenly reward sooner rather than later. That’s just a cute play on words, though, and does not resolve the issue. The competing rights and the competing viewpoints have been and shall always be a part of citizenship here.

So long as the solutions proposed are the extremes, there will be no resolution. However, by their very nature, the only answer for so many is the extreme. There should be no more compelling argument to keep religion and politics separate, of course, and never something discussed in mixed company.

Jefferson and Paine seem clearly to have understood that.