Deliver Us from Those Who Believe

This week, I had the chance to sit down with some old friends, many of whom I’d known since the Eisenhower years. A goodly number of them would label themselves as orthodox or evangelical Christians.
The area of the country I was in leans Republicans, but boasts its share of Obama partisans. The woman I happened to be seated next to was, by nature, reasonable conservative and firmly Christian. She has spent her life teaching in private religious grade schools and colleges.
As we chatted, the subject of Nominee Palin eventually came up. “Her conservative religious beliefs scare me”, announced my friend.
Now, why would a conservative Christian be frightened by the conservative nature of Palin’s beliefs?
That set me thinking. They fear her – even fellow Christians – because she believes. That fact has interesting ramifications. We are now in an age in which believing what one professes (or says) is deemed a vice. One is only thought to be safe if he or she makes it obvious that whatever is professed is not taken seriously.
That has perfectly wonderful ramifications. Shall we hold politicians to a similar standard about whatever they profess to believe in politically? Sounds good, if it’s not taken too seriously. At what point does any form of integrity become vicious?
There was a time in this nation when Governor Palin might have been held in esteem for the firmness with which she seems to hold her political and religious beliefs. Now she inspires fear.
And, I suppose, there is some understandable reason for the fear. Recent news has been full of stories of one religious group violently attacking members of another. Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Christians have all contributed their quota of violence.
Understandably if Sarah Palin showed any tendency toward flying a hijacked plane into a building or tossing grenades into someone else’s church or mosque, we would do well to fear her. We certainly would not want her on a political slate.
But does concern over a fanatical fringe justify rejecting anyone who holds religious beliefs firmly? Are the only respectable Muslims secular? Are the only trustworthy Christians those who attend Church very casually – or, like Obama, show no signs of understanding any of the finer points of the faith?
Some prominent politicians have said in the past few years that “religion should be a private matter.” Why? Shall we believe that James Madison’s Calvinistic beliefs had no impact on the draft of a constitution he brought to Philadelphia in 1787?
How could we possibly trust a man like Franklin Roosevelt who said that he did not want a Day of Prayer for the war effort, but rather asked for a “continuum of prayer”. That’s not very private. How about a Lincoln who stated publicly that he didn’t care if “God is on our side,” but rather hoped “we are on God’s side.”
These same evangelical Christians – like my old friend – are so quick to say on one hand that they believe the Bible is infallible and inerrant. These are fancy words that mean that it is true and accurate. Sarah Palin would no doubt agree.
Where they part company with Palin – I’ve seen this in conversations with evangelicals over the past fifty years – is whether any particular verse is true. How quick the evangelical is to tell you that this isn’t literally true or that is merely a figure of speech.
That makes them more trustworthy and less fearsome than Palin? Maybe more lawyerlike, but not necessarily more reliable.
The reactions to Governor Palin’s nomination are more and more interesting.