Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition?

"people should fight against tyranny for their God-given rights."
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, CPAC

(Conservative Political Action Convention)
The title of this post is from a piece of music dating back to the attack on Pearl Harbor and our last formal declaration of war. The music is from a song by Frank Loesser back in 1942, based on a perhaps apocryphal saying by chaplain Howell Forgy, on the U.S.S. New Orleans during the attack. The song describes a 'sky pilot', a fond slang term for clergy, putting down his Bible and manning a gun turret. I selected this title because it was a popular combination of religion and politics, and history.

This post is not about any one of those, exactly, but like the title, it intertwines religion, politics and government, and history together. Sometime back my most-of-the-time friend and frequent critic, KR, sadly banned from Penigma for failing to follow our rules (including not trying to post while banned) accused me of being an atheist, for not stipulating to the concept that our rights as citizens derive from God, a statement I have heard often from the more extremely religious factions on the political right.


Anyone who disagrees with that political assumption is ridiculed, accused of not believing in god, which is in my opinion something to be treated with respect, not ridicule, as a very personal choice, every bit as much as my religious beliefs or any other person's beliefs and philosophy are deeply personal. In this connection, being called an atheist appears to be an accusation, not simply an acknowledgement of personal choice guaranteed under our Constitution. It is considered a failing, a terrible fault, something to be opposed and countered.

My personal religious background derives from what are widely regarded as the two most extremely conservative branches of Lutheranism in the United States, the Missouri and Wisconsin synods. One of the greatest possible ironies - if anything could prove that God has a sense of humor - is that Michele Bachmann also professes to be a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran; she just doesn't seem to know very much about her own professed religion, on a number of counts. How conservative are they? Mention either one to most mainstream Lutherans, who understand these distinctions in the 'flavors' of Lutheran, and you will receive a knowing look, often accompanied by "Ooooooooh", usually a very sympathetic "Oh". As conservative religious thought, in my experience it was most often accompanied by conservative political thought.

I am not an atheist; I was brought up to believe emphatically in the New Testament bible verse relating to the most important source for Christian religious belief, Matthew 5:18, "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." I am fond of the King James translation - although we were encouraged to attend bible classes that addressed the original language, not just translations, as a way of not allowing human efforts, however well intentioned, to get between each believer and scripture. A central part of the religious philosophy was that the Bible was not to be changed by mankind, to better conform to our lives, but rather that our lives were to conform to the beliefs contained in the Bible.

A corollary of that belief was that we were to strive to establish the closest and most deeply personal relationship with God that was possible for us, and that the proper role of the clergy in performing sacraments was somewhat minimized from the heavily ritualized variations of other forms of practicing Christianity. At all times, the emphasis was on the most direct relationship to God, Scripture, and even Sacraments, with the least intrusion of anything or anyone else, including clergy.

Our confirmation into our church, as a completion of the pledge made on our behalf as infants in our baptism, required us to have a full understanding and agreement with this approach to our faith. It would be fair to say that a very real aspect of faith was that we all still lived at home, attended church with our families, and many of my fellow confirmands did not know much about comparative religion at that age; in practice, we did what we were told, and believed more or less what our parents believed.

I was lucky to have the nephew of our senior pastor, who was himself in seminary at the time, decided to expand our educations in our Sunday School classes. He threw out the frankly stupid and cartoonish, babyish materials we were provided, and either gave us a recap of whatever his most interesting classes were that week at the seminary, or he packed us up and took us to other churches - wonderful other churches, Roman Catholic - the cathedral; Greek Orthodox; every variant of protestantism; even Synagogues (orthodox AND reformed). We didn't get the whole comparative religion experience, but it was an exciting 'tour' of sorts of Christianity, with. After each adventure in religion, we discussed the origins of that branch of Christianity, the traditions, the liturgies, the clerical clothing, even the art and architecture of Christianity some Judaism included to appreciate our Judeo-Christian origins of faith.

Nowhere in the Bible can I find any passages which state that we have ANY kind of political rights directed from God, other than possibly the admonition for separation of politics and religion, in the passage Matthew 22:20-22, (again King James):

"20And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that as come from God.
22When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way."

Or, Romans 13: 1-10 (New American Bible translation, this time):

"1 Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. 2 Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it, 4 for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to be subject not only because of the wrath but also because of conscience. 6 This is why you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.
7 Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. 8 Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this saying, (namely) "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law."

All of which reads, to me, like a lot of information about what God directs we owe to Government as our duty, and absolutely NOTHING, WHATSOEVER, about what rights under Government are owed or innate to US -We the People - as political rights from God. It sure doesn't much sound like God wants us to oppose our lawful government either; none of this 'armed and dangerous' HERESY.

While I am perfectly aware of the contents of the Declaration of Independence, I would point out that however important a document it is, it is not a part of religious belief; NOR is it a part of the United States Constitution which actually forms and defines our government - including the separation of Church and State. While signed by many of the individuals we have come to regard as our Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence was not ratified by anyone and is not binding on our government. Only the Constitution and Bill of Rights holds that distinction.

I would argue that the philosophy of John Locke and others who shared his belief in the consent of the governed is more central and more seminal to our country. I would direct our readers to the second sentence of the Declaration, which reads in part "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed", NOT GOD. To intrude a required belief in God or positing the existence of God for the existence of our rights is to intrude one person's religion into the practice of religion by others. It is to force one person's belief onto another in the form of political theory.

Religion, including Christianity, has been USED, and I mean "used" in the most exploitative and manipulative sense of the possible meanings, to justify everything from the supposed "Divine Right of Kings", to Empires, ancient and modern, and now to prop up their notions about Democratic, representative, elected government on the political right.

It is not in the Bible, and the attempt to invoke and involve religion in this way - any religion, not just Christianity - is false. It is a bastardizing of religion and the relationship between each of us and God (or the lack of such a relationship, for those who may be atheist or agnostic). It is a bastardizing, a polluting, a terrible mischaracterization of our beloved Constitution. It is intrusive, it is ignorant, it is exploitative, it is self-aggrandizing, it is wrong.

Second ONLY to a reverence for Holy Scripture, I was brought up to love and to believe in our form of Government, and in those documents that are the foundation of this country. Although adopted, my adoptive family goes back in this country to around 1803. A special thank you to my two favorite cousins on my father's side of the family for their research, especially my cousin the Missouri Synod minister, who learned genealogy in the seminary by practicing on the family tree for an assignment, for that information. So far as I can tell, we have had a member of the family in the armed forces defending this country during every single conflict, putting their lives to the point, not merely offering lip service to that belief. An awareness of that personal familial history, especially on the occasion of our annual celebration of its origin, makes writing this appropriate, and fuels my devotion to these United States. I believe with all my heart and mind in government with the consent of the governed, in government of the people, by the people, for the people. God given political rights? Not unless you can show them to me in the Bible --- or any other religion's primary scripture you would care to claim as an authority for our government that will pass muster with SCOTUS and not unless it is added into our Constitution specifically.

These United States are not a godless country or a gods-less country, but we are a country without adherence to ANY single religion. Religion is a personal, private, and very free matter. I cannot express my anger and opposition adequately to those who would enslave us to any religion under the pretext of being devout or patriotic, as it is an offense to both our form of government and to Christianity, to insist we are a Christian Nation.

To those of you on the Religious Right, I say BUTT OUT of personal religious faith, BUTT the HELL OUT, with your bastardized form of Christian belief and cease trying to force it into our government.

To Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, an open call - Madame, you need to be speaking less trash on this subject, and to reacquaint yourself with your Bible and with the precepts of the religion in which you claim to worship before making these false statements. As importantly, you have demonstrated a profound need to learn the most fundamental precepts of the Constitution you have sworn to uphold as a member of Congress. You are a discredit madam Congresswoman, to your faith and to your office. This country is a DEMOCRACY, from the word 'Demos", people, a representative government; not a Theocracy, not a religious-based government.

God Bless America. Please.

May all of our readers and authors have a safe, joyously patriotic Independence Day celebration. Please stop back on the 4th, for a fun quiz on U.S. history.