[Dialogue] repeat Spong on the New Religious Mode- and a comment on the very old RM

[KroegerD@aol.com]

March 08, 2006
The Rise of New Religious Voices to Counter the Religious  Right 
 
When religious leaders are heard speaking in the public arena in the United  
States today, the overwhelming probability is that they will be conservative  
evangelical or conservative Roman Catholic leaders. No other effective or  
visible religious voices are heard today. That, however, was not the case some  
forty to fifty years ago. In the 1960’s, the liberal Protestant voice was so  
effective that conservative politicians frequently attacked the National 
Council  of Churches of Christ in America as a ‘communist front’ organization. In 
the  field of civil rights and the quest for justice for black Americans, the  
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led clergy of all persuasions through the 
 streets of our cities that changed the face of America. In response to these 
 activities, laws were passed by the Congress and signed by the president to 
open  schools, public accommodations and the voting booths to all of our 
citizens. The  protest against the war in Vietnam was led by people like Catholic 
priests  Philip and Daniel Berrigan, who put together an ecumenical coalition, 
making it  no longer viable for politicians to support that war. Today those 
religious  voices from the left are silent. 
What caused their abdication into silence?  Perhaps one explanation is that 
the national life of America has been buffeted  by a series of events beginning 
with the urban riots in the late 1960’s, but  including the Vietnam War with 
its inner turmoil, the disillusionment of the  Watergate scandal and finally 
culminating in the events of 9/11, all of which  created massive public 
anxiety. Rising anxiety almost always drives people into  a search for security. 
Traditionally, one of the primary functions of religion  is to provide the 
certainty that banks the fires of anxiety. On an emotional  level religion is far 
more often a search for security than it is a search for  truth. Only when we 
recognize this will we ever understand the irrational claims  that religious 
systems always make that they possess the ultimate truth of God;  sometimes in an 
inerrant Bible, sometimes in an infallible pope, sometimes in  the claim to 
provide the only doorway to God. The claim that you alone speak for  God also 
justifies the violence that has marked the history of religion.  Religious 
persecution, religious wars and inquisitions mark all authoritarian  religious 
systems. When we understand the place religion plays in people’s quest  for 
security, this kind of religious activity becomes not excusable, but at  least 
understandable. 
Today the popular evangelical voices are generally  supportive of the Iraqi 
war, significantly silent on the evidence of abuse and  torture in the cause of 
prosecuting that war, opposed to any issues revolving  around either the 
origins of life, from stem cell research to abortion, or the  end of life, such as 
the withdrawal of life support systems or  physician-assisted suicide. They 
also appear to be both deeply prejudiced and  significantly uninformed about 
the reality of homosexuality, as well as  exhibiting a robust xenophobia. I 
think of people like Jerry Falwell, Pat  Robertson, James Dobson and their host of 
acolytes on local levels who are  scaring politicians, mostly in the south 
but also across the nation. 
On the  international scene, the new Pontiff has uttered, or caused to be 
uttered by  some of his underlings, statements that reflect incredibly dated 
ideas on birth  control, religious imperialism, evolution and the necessity for 
Catholics in  public life to subvert their consciences to Vatican teachings, 
that are  reminiscent of the Dark Ages. In addition to this their utterances 
about both  women and homosexuals are not only dated but are also breathtakingly 
ignorant.  All this only serves to assure people that religion is an 
alternative to an  anxious reality. 
I am encouraged to think that we are beginning to see a  shift in this kind 
of thinking and that this fierce religious mentality is  finally coming to an 
end. The changes are being brought about by a series of  events in which 
religion has overstepped its authority and is beginning to  embarrass our citizens. 
The failure of the Iraqi war to come to an end after  four years of conflict 
is one of them, the Terri Schiavo case was another, the  attempt on the part of 
the religious leaders to tell Americans how to vote was  still another. Pat 
Robertson’s bizarre statement about murdering a head of state  and his remarks 
about why Prime Minister Sharon had a stroke did not help his  cause. There is 
one other sign that gives me hope. Suddenly counter voices are  emerging in 
rapid succession in best-selling books that indicate that they are  hitting a 
nerve in the American psyche. Three recently published books are  certainly in 
that category and a fourth one will be released in mid May. All  four are 
worthy of the wide readership that they are receiving. 
First, there  was Jim Wallis’ book “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It 
Wrong and the Left  Doesn’t Get It.” Jim, a theologically conservative old-line 
evangelical of great  integrity, has risen to offer a powerful counterpoint 
to the popular but  pandering evangelical voices of today. His book was on the 
New York Times  best-seller list for months and all the television talk shows 
clamored to have  him on their ratings driven programs. 
Second, was a book written by our  former “born again” president, Jimmy 
Carter, entitled “Our Endangered Values:  America’s Moral Crises.” It too has 
been at the top of the Times list almost  since the day it hit the bookstores. No 
one can doubt the depth of President  Carter’s religious commitment. He 
served in his pre-presidential days as a lay  missionary for his Baptist church 
doing house-to-house evangelism. In his post  presidential days, he has been 
identified with building houses for the poor  through Habitat for Humanity and 
serving the cause of world peace from Haiti to  Croatia and Bosnia. In this book 
President Carter lays out clearly those arenas  in which religious 
fundamentalism is being used today to distort the public  values on which this nation was 
founded as well as to bend American foreign  policy to an evangelical agenda 
that tampers with American security. 
The  other two are blockbuster books that I have read in prepublication 
manuscripts  that I believe will make a similar impact. One has just been released 
and is now  in the bookstores and the other will be released in mid May. I was 
privileged to  endorse both of them. 
The first of these is a brilliant book written by  Rabbi Michael Lerner 
entitled, “The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country  from the Religious Right,”
 published by Harper Collins (San Francisco). Michael  Lerner is the Rabbi of 
Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in San Francisco, but he is best  known as the power 
behind an organization known as Tikkun, an online journal  that strives to “
mend, repair and transform the world.” He has deliberately  sought to bring 
together Jews, Christians and people of good will who are not  religiously 
identified into a coalition, that will work together to confront  what he believes is 
the destructive political agenda of the narrowly defined  ‘Religious Right.’ 
Michael puts his body where his mouth is, for he has worked  not only to build 
this coalition but he is also the one major Jewish voice in  America to work 
in the cause of justice for Palestinians, which gives him a rare  authenticity 
in today’s world. His goal is to form a rescuing majority of  religious 
progressives in all traditions in combination with secular humanists  who share the 
religious goal of building a more humane world. He does not shrink  from 
daunting tasks and has the power by the sheer force of his personality and  
organizing genius to make a significant impact on our national life. 
In  endorsing Michael’s book, I said this: “A brilliant and penetrating 
analysis of  the way religion is now used politically to justify military 
conflict, the  degradation of the environment, the violation of religious liberty, the 
rights  of women and homosexuals and the accumulation of vast wealth in the 
hands of  fewer and fewer people. Michael Lerner comes through these pages like 
a modern  day Amos. The religious world needs to heed his message.” 
Michael’s book is  that and much more. It is a passionate readable call to 
restore both America’s  values and America’s religious integrity. He even 
offers a specific plan to  build “spiritual politics,” in which all people of good 
will, secular and  religious, Christian, Jew and Muslim, can work together. 
His is a stirring  vision to which I am deeply attracted. 
The last book that addresses similar  themes is written by Robin Meyers, a 
United Church of Christ pastor serving in  the heart of the ‘Bible Belt’ in 
Oklahoma City. His book, “Why the Religious  Right is Wrong: A Minister’s 
Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag and  Your Future,” will be published 
by Jossey/Bass in mid May. For a voice like  Robin’s to emerge from the 
heartland of America, where he has lived for more  than 20 years, certainly breaks 
our stereotypes of Oklahoma’s preachers. He has  witnessed first hand the rise 
of the ‘Religious Right.’ It is all around him,  controlling politics in 
Oklahoma. He has also seen its dark side. He knows what  it means to be 
threatened, hated and character assassinated by “born again,”  control oriented 
Christians. He sees lives broken by religious hostility and the  crippling guilt 
that is religion’s instrument of domination. Robin stands  publicly against this 
mentality and has endured the consequences of hostile  mail, threatening phone 
calls and the abuse of members of his family by  “Bible-quoting true 
believers.” Bill Moyers said of Robin’s book, “This is not a  book for narrow 
sectarian minds; read it and you will want to change the world.”  My words on its 
cover are these: “In this book a powerful and authentic voice  from America’s 
heartland holds up a mirror to the Bush Administration and its  religious 
allies. The result is a vision of Orwellian proportions in which  values are 
inverted so that violence, hatred, bigotry and war become the gifts  of “the Prince 
of Peace.’ If you treasure this country and tremble at its  present direction, 
this book is a ‘must read.” I sense in these four books a new  religious 
voice rising in America. I hope that is so. I commend each of them to  you. 
John Shelby Spong 
 
Question and Answer
With John Shelby Spong
Phyllis M. Baker via the  Internet writes: 
Why aren’t the historical persons and events in the  additional Mormon books 
of the Bible recognized by scholars? They talk about how  we were all spirit 
children in a spirit world before we were born, how our  families must be “
sealed” in the temple, so that they can stay together when we  die and hopefully 
go to heaven. Have biblical scholars the world over researched  these and other 
Mormon issues and, obviously, not accepted them? There are some  brilliant 
men presiding over the Mormons at this time and it bothers me that  they accept 
all the Mormon doctrines. I am constantly involved with Latter Day  Saints 
persons and find them to be wonderful people and devoted friends but I  just can’
t accept all of the history and teachings of Joseph Smith. Maybe you  could 
direct me to some reading material to clarify this problem. 
Dear  Phyllis, 
I think you have answered your own question. There is no debate  going on in 
academic circles about the validity or truthfulness of the  narratives in the 
Book of Mormon because the consensus is universal that these  books are not 
history and they are certainly not part of the original biblical  tradition. 
That does not mean they are not edifying to Mormons and treasured by  Mormons. 
They are simply not recognized as authoritative for the larger  Christian 
community. This puts them in the same status as many other Christian  writings. 
I might add that scholars during the last 200 years of biblical  scholarship 
have taken away much of the aura that once hung over the Bible and I  regard 
that as good. It is the God pointed to by the Bible that we worship not  the 
Bible. That is a lesson that many who call themselves members of the  religious 
right, or fundamentalists of both a Catholic and Protestant variety  need to 
understand and accept. No sacred writings whether they are by Joseph  Smith or 
in the Bible itself are either inerrant or absolutely authoritative.  One can 
be idolatrous about both the Book of Mormon and the Bible. The time has  come 
to stop such idolatry. 
John Shelby Spong 
 
 
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