Faith is being used
as weapon in politics
Is it just me or do the political campaigns this year leave you with the feeling that you just got out of a Sunday School class? Should they?
Taking the Lord's name in vain is clearly forbidden by the Third Commandment. This sin goes far beyond utterances of the "gd" word. Implied claims of moral and spiritual superiority, advertising of faith positions within a political context, endorsement of political candidates or agendas by religious leaders, claiming Divine intervention in political matters, or otherwise using faith in God to promote political causes…all push the boundaries of this commandment.
A closer study of the words "vain" and "vanity" should give one pause to interject matters of faith while promoting political causes. Thinly veiled references are no more innocent than blatant statements.
Our country was founded on the concept of religious liberty. History has served several examples of what happened when we strayed from that concept. The early Mormons faced religious persecution and fled from New York to Illinois. Further persecution led them to settle in Utah. Then the slaughter of an entire wagon train of men, women and children settlers headed west through southern Utah at Mountain Meadows was alleged to have taken place on orders from Brigham Young. In this case, the persecuted became the persecutors.
Prior to the Civil War an evangelical Christian, John Brown of Kansas led an outlaw bard of abolitionists who caused bloodshed in Missouri and Kansas before going onto the infamous Battle of Harper's Ferry. Many historians believe this fanning of the flames of hatred precluded a political settlement on the issue of slavery.
Several conferences, conventions, synods and associations (subdivisions) of the major American Christian churches were founded in the Civil War era because of their support of or opposition to slavery. Then many of these same folks had their hands in establishing the Jim Crow laws that laid waste to African-American dreams for 100 years.
The Civil Rights movement itself was an outgrowth of the black churches. Even this example of history goes full-circle.
American blood is being shed today because of sectarian violence between the Sunnist and Shia in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
I find it incomprehensible that one's faith is being used as a weapon to commit acts it preaches against. My faith is a matter of conscience…not public policy. One of the first signs of decadence in the church is when it becomes political.
Jerry Higgs
Bonners Ferry