cannistershot wrote:Ok I wanted to let this one go, but I have got to know. How does religion hold us back as a people?
See,
here ya go again, not asking what you mean!
Unless you are including
all religions? I thought this thread was specifically about christians...? You do recognise other religions, right? Or are you saying here that there is only
one true religion?
From
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary,
Quote: Religion - n. 1a(1): the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2): commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance; 2: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices 3(archaic): scrupulous conformity, conscientiousness 4: a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor or faith
Religious - v. 1: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity 2: Of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances 3a: scrupulously and conscientiously faithful 3b: fervent, zealous, devout
I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but the root of the word is latin for "to bind." This would imply that it does hold one, but includes binding as in knotting 2 together becoming one strand... And this seems true in all religions, including those we now think of as mythology, binding man with the divine... The gap seems for the most part to be manmade, too, ever notice that? Or do you disagree with that? The divine, it appears, has remained constant while we wandered out into the brave new worlds of technology and secular humanism and "I am God" spirituality. Then, when we realize how far we have come, man eitherresponds by fleeing further away, or to seeks to rebind him(her)self back to the source. That is common to
all religions.
But what does this have to do with politics? You think that all who are religious share one set of beliefs? I think you already know that isn't true. What, then? Should one refuse to serve in goevernment and respect the prevailing social order when one disagrees on moral grounds? Wouldn't that leave only atheists to run things?
Here's a terrific essay on this:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~kenc/relandpo.htm
Quote:Emil Brunner, one of the great Christian ethicists of the 20th century, said that if we are to participate in politics, we have to do so in terms defined by current society for the role we play. We must operate with the standards of justice and law that prevail at that time and place. A Christian's duty is to introduce love into the interstices of the social network, to show mercy and compassion within the spaces of the institutional frameworks operating then and there.
The whole essay is fantastic, but that quote sums up my feelings regarding politics and religion.
Cannistershot, although you ask things in the darnedest cockeyed way, and omit
huge segments of the American population in your generalizations (like, blacks, mostly christian and democratic in the south, like people in the most southern of states- Hawaii, who are primarily democrats, and the majority of christians in churches across this state are democrats if political) your question has served a very good purpose: to make people reevaluate their take on religion and what it means within the constrains of public service. I beseech every one of us democrats who happen to be christian to
become more politically active and also, to
be unashamed of your faith. The 2 activities don't cancel each other out, and are both necessary to keep society running smoothly. Jmo, fwiw.
