Religion as a transformative tool

I want to pull together several news items and see what pattern emerges.

A 14 year-old Pakistani girl is shot by men who call themselves religious leaders because she has the temerity to say out loud that girls should be allowed to go to school.

A Georgia Congressman says everything he needs to know when it comes to how he casts his votes in Washington is found in the Bible.

An Arkansas man running for a seat in his state legislature authored a book that includes calling for disobedient children to be threatened by a court with the death penalty if they don't behave properly. He cites Deuteronomy 21.

A leader of Muslim extremists in Libya is sending fighters to Syria to help the insurgents there. When asked if his goal is to establish an Islamic state based on Muslim religious law, he answers, "Of course" as if it's a silly question.

Fifteen hundred Christian pastors declare on "Freedom Sunday" that it is the responsibility of religious leaders to inform their congregants about political issues including how to vote. They hope to force a court case over the IRS rule against non-profit organizations, including religious groups, from participating in partisan politics.

The pastor of a small church in Missouri, who also happens to be the leader of the local tea party, invites a state senator and county commissioner to host a fundraiser for a candidate for the U.S. Senate inside the church.

A man hoping to be the next vice president of the United States says life begins at conception and he will do everything he can to enforce laws that uphold his belief.

I think I see a pattern here. Do you?

We hear about religious wars in countries far from us and condemn them. But we don't see the symptoms of a spreading infection in our own democracy. History shows that the "enemy within" is always more dangerous than something we can identify as "other." It's not a bad thing to be watching for foreign terrorists among us, but the real dismantling of our political system is happening right under our noses. In fact, we may be unwitting co-conspirators.

The good news is that younger Americans see what's happening and refuse to participate. A survey of the under-30 crowd conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released recently shows that more and more young people are not affiliated with any kind of institutional religious group. This is not to say they don't think of themselves as religious or spiritual. What it does say is that they are really turned off by the use of religion in politics, especially when religion is divisive and used as a cudgel to enforce obedience.

For more opinions on what is happening slowly but surely in our country, read Tim Townsend's article on page one of the October 14th issue of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. We are living in one of those periods that historians call "transformative." What we will be transformed into is the question.

Susan Cunningham
October 15, 2012