{"id":2365,"date":"2010-07-18T13:29:23","date_gmt":"2010-07-18T20:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegatheringcincinnati.org\/?p=516"},"modified":"2010-07-18T13:29:23","modified_gmt":"2010-07-18T20:29:23","slug":"is-god-american-july-18-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/2010\/07\/18\/is-god-american-july-18-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"July 18, 2010, Is God American?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Message 27, \u201cIs God American?\u201d, July 18, 2010\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

download program: Service-Program-8-01-10<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Doug Slagle, Pastor, The Gathering UCC, all rights reserved<\/p>\n\n

In our series this month entitled \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d, I am reminded of the words from that song which states \u201cAmerica, America.\u00a0 God shed his grace on thee.\u201d\u00a0 In another popular anthem made famous by the late singer Kate Smith, the Divine One is actually asked to bless our nation.\u00a0 The song \u201cGod Bless America\u201d is both a statement and a plea.\u00a0 These songs assert that the United States is special.\u00a0 Please bestow favor upon this land and this nation of people.<\/p>\n

My appeal this month, however, is in direct contrast to those sentiments.\u00a0 I hope that these July messages will cause us to think about how we honor our nation, engage in political discourse and assert a spiritual viewpoint. \u00a0\u00a0The overarching ideal throughout each of the three messages is one of humility \u2013 how we apply it for our nation as a culture and how we might apply it individually.\u00a0 Two weeks ago, we considered the fourth of July holiday in the light of national humility \u2013 celebrating our heritage and the great ideals upon which we were founded while also acknowledging how far we have to go before we fully practice what we say we believe.\u00a0 And last week, I urged us to consider humility in our political discussions with others.\u00a0 We are entitled to our political beliefs but we are not entitled to abuse or disparage others.\u00a0 In all of our conduct, we are to live the Golden Rule treating others the same way we too wish to be treated.<\/p>\n

And today, I ask us to consider another form of humility which applies not only to our nation but to each of us as well.\u00a0 Religious humility is a rare commodity these days and, as much as we say we support it, we often do not practice it \u2013 at least in this nation.\u00a0 Too many people speak as if god truly is American.\u00a0 \u00a0He or she is one of us.\u00a0 Americans are special and we are the ones who truly understand the Divine.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not unique to the United States.\u00a0 The Bible says that the Jewish people used to consider themselves the chosen people.\u00a0 Other nations and cultures today claim unique status with the Divine One.\u00a0 The implication is that if you do not belong to a particular belief system or religion, you are not in god\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

An Baptist old joke, speaking of religious arrogance, goes something like this: A Pastor was walking across a bridge one day, and he saw someone standing on the edge, about to jump off. So he ran over and said \u201cStop! Don\u2019t do it!\u201d \u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t I?\u201d the suicidal person asked. \u201cWell, there\u2019s so much to live for!\u201d \u201cLike what?\u201d \u201cWell\u2026 are you religious?\u201d The person said\u201d yes\u201d. \u00a0\u201cMe too!\u201d the Pastor said. \u00a0\u201cAre you Christian or Buddhist?\u201d \u201cChristian.\u201d \u00a0\u201cMe too! \u00a0Are you Catholic or Protestant ?\u201d \u00a0\u201cProtestant.\u201d \u00a0\u201cMe too! \u00a0Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?\u201d \u00a0\u201cBaptist\u201d \u00a0\u201cWow! I\u2019m a Baptist Pastor! \u00a0Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?\u201d \u00a0\u201cBaptist Church of God!\u201d \u00a0\u201cMe too! \u00a0Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?\u201d \u00a0\u201cReformed Baptist Church of God!\u201d \u00a0\u201cMe too! \u00a0Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?\u201d<\/em><\/strong> The <\/strong>suicidal person replied, \u201cReformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!\u201d \u00a0The pastor said \u201cDie, heretic scum!\u201d, and pushed him off.<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

My humor is not intended to make fun of Baptists.\u00a0 But it IS<\/span><\/strong> intended to make a subtle point and perhaps make fun of all of us who profess to fully understand what is true in religion.\u00a0 People often assume only their way of belief is correct and all others are not just wrong but, as the Pastor in our story says, heretical.<\/p>\n

And while the title of this message asks if god is American, my intent is to provide more than a simple answer of \u201cno she or he is not\u201d.\u00a0 Most of here us would agree that the Mother and Father of all creation, is not a mere American.\u00a0 The moral force at work all around us is universal and is not defined or owned by anyone.\u00a0 Ironically, this understanding of god first found explicit expression by a nation in our own U.S. constitution.<\/p>\n

Indeed, far from endorsing any particular religion or belief, the founding fathers pointedly allowed the freedom of belief – or even no belief.\u00a0\u00a0 It further forbade government from ever supporting any specific religion.\u00a0 The First Amendment states very simply, and I believe very humbly<\/span><\/strong> about religion, \u201cCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.\u201d <\/strong>It was Thomas Jefferson who later coined the term \u201cwall of separation between church and state\u201d<\/strong> to describe the intent of the writers.\u00a0 This came after James Madison wrote, a man closely involved in the framing of the constitution and who co-authored the Federalist Papers \u2013 a book about the constitutional convention \u2013 \u00a0\u201cStrongly guarded. . . is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States.” <\/strong><\/p>\n

Our constitution nowhere mentions any deity much less the Judeo-Christian god.\u00a0 Our government, it plainly asserts, derives its powers from the consent of the governed.\u00a0 This contrasts with the apostle Paul\u2019s claim in the Bible that rulers of nations derive their right to rule solely from God.\u00a0 Our constitution explicitly refutes that premise.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>While Jefferson and Madison spoke to the ideal of a nation and government independent from religious endorsement, the idea that we are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles was also rejected by numerous founding fathers.\u00a0 In one of our first agreements with another nation, in the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, which was ratified by the US Senate, we assert \u2013 \u201cthe Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.\u201d<\/strong> Even further, John Adams, our second President and one of the more personally religious of the founders, said in 1788, \u201cAlthough the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven\u2026it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>As much as some contemporary commentators seek to portray our founders as pious Christians in the modern evangelical mode, this was not the case.\u00a0 Most of the founders were men of faith but a majority believed in a religious expression that was often Unitarian in approach.\u00a0 Such was the faith of Adams and Jefferson.\u00a0 George Washington attended an Episcopal church but refused to take Holy Communion there and is also generally considered to have been Unitarian in his outlook.\u00a0 Such a belief system acknowledges the existence of god and the Divine work of providence. \u00a0Most historians agree our founders believed in a more generic god, the god of creation and the god of nature.\u00a0 For most of the founders, this was not the god of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Alone among the founders, only John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, is acknowledged as someone who would fit our modern version of an evangelical, conservative Christian.<\/p>\n

I believe most contemporary claims that our nation was founded on Christian values are motivated by religious arrogance.\u00a0 We as a nation, as a congregation and as individuals must never assume that one specific brand of thinking is absolutely correct and all others are invalid.\u00a0 Our constitution refused to enter that debate and it forbids any future Congress or President from doing the same.<\/p>\n

Just as I advocated last week, however, \u00a0\u2013 that we hold onto our sincere political beliefs \u2013 I encourage the same for our religious views.\u00a0 We have a right to our personal beliefs about the great questions of the universe \u2013 what is the meaning of life, what purpose do we serve and how can we better love and serve others?\u00a0 More importantly, we must respect the beliefs of people with whom we disagree.\u00a0 Even further, I believe our work here at the Gathering is not to accept or reject any particular faith but to search among them, to learn from the many great prophets of history and to explore the realms of where we can find universal truths.<\/p>\n

In my message back in April when I posed the question \u201cWhat is Truth?\u201d, we concluded that a conclusive answer is difficult to find.\u00a0 What force, what god or what spiritual being holds within itself the source of all wisdom, perfection and power?\u00a0 As much as we might seek to find truth solely through reason, when we do so, we neglect the mysterious and transcendent.\u00a0 And, as much as we might try to find universal applications in how we should morally act, the call to us by all world religions is to love others as we too wish to be loved.\u00a0 This is one truth we agreed is universal. \u00a0Even so, the point of that message was that we must remain on a journey of continually seeking who and what is Truth.<\/p>\n

And, religious humility, I believe, encourages us to search many pathways to truth.\u00a0 While the Bible quotes Jesus Christ as saying that he is the way, the truth and the life and the only<\/span><\/strong> way to god, the historic Jesus would not have made such a statement.\u00a0 The historic Jesus taught, I believe, about an accommodating god, open and loving to everyone.\u00a0 She or he was not and is not an exclusive god.\u00a0 \u00a0The ethic of this god, as Jesus taught, is to love our neighbors AND<\/span><\/strong> to love our enemies. \u00a0\u00a0God has a concern for the weak and is infinitely loving to all creation.\u00a0 Jesus taught that god is the unconditionally loving parent in the parable of the Prodigal Son, the woman<\/span><\/strong> who anoints others with her oil soaked hair, the host at a banquet to which everyone is invited and the Samaritan \u2013 a religious and political outcast – who offers mercy and respect to enemies.\u00a0 Jesus taught about a god of grace and mercy to all.\u00a0 This god, as ironic as it seems, is a humble god.<\/p>\n

And, if this is so, then we must also check our religious and spiritual egos at the door.\u00a0 We must abandon them.\u00a0 This does not mean to let go of an honest claim to who we are and what we believe.\u00a0 It implies, instead, that our spiritual beliefs are formed in the intimate connection between whatever we perceive god to be and our innermost conscience.\u00a0 When we lie awake at night and ponder the great mysteries of existence, we are invited into a uniquely personal relationship with the Divine.\u00a0 And what we personally come to believe about universal Truth is ours alone.\u00a0 It is not American or Christian or Islamic or Atheist or even the uniquely open variant we practice here at the Gathering.\u00a0 It is your spirituality.\u00a0 It is of you and by you.\u00a0 And, if it is genuine in its humility, this personal spirituality will continue to search and remain open to new insights and new ways to understand our universe.\u00a0 It will be open to the ways of Jesus and the teachings of Mohammad.\u00a0 It will understand letting go of self through Buddhism and it will respect the ways of Hinduism and our continuing quest for perfect rebirth.<\/p>\n

The mystic rabbi named Maimonides \u2013 the father of Kabalah Judaism, argued that humans cannot and should not try and define the Divine.\u00a0 She or he or whatever force we call it must remain mysterious, ineffable and without definition.\u00a0 To describe the Divine is to reduce it to our terms and our finite understanding.\u00a0 This negative theology of Maimonides says that we must remain silent when it comes to defining who or what god is.\u00a0 As much as I have tried to speak in my messages about a Divine moral force at work in the universe, my words fall short.\u00a0 This power that lies in the common heart and soul of every creature compels them to seek cooperation, love and justice.\u00a0 To repeat once again the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. \u2013 another great prophet \u2013 the arc of history is very long but it bends toward equality, justice and universal cooperation.\u00a0 And, as I have said, this is the moral imagination I choose to call the Divine.\u00a0 Maimonides taught that this mystical force has no boundaries and defies understanding, logic or description.\u00a0 A god force like this cannot help but be open and humble.<\/p>\n

Is god American?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0 Is god Jewish?\u00a0 Is god Islamic?\u00a0 Is god Christian?\u00a0 Is god dead?\u00a0 Is god black or white, male or female?\u00a0 Dear friends, my message to you is to join me in a search for those answers.\u00a0 And it is in the process of exploration that I believe we truly honor and respect the Divine.\u00a0 This is a humble religion just like I appealed for a humble nationalism and a humble approach to political discourse in my last two messages.\u00a0 It is not falsely modest, denying its beauties and strengths.\u00a0 Instead, it is free and open \u2013 as our American constitution promotes.\u00a0 It does not claim absolute answers but instead asserts its mystery and Divine transcendence.\u00a0 We see glimpses of it in our fellow creatures, in the beauty of a sunset, in the love we share, in compassion, in sacrifice and in forgiveness.\u00a0 We see and feel this moral imagination we might call god but she is elusive and infinite and calling us to never give up our quest for her\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Message 27, \u201cIs God American?\u201d, July 18, 2010 download program: Service-Program-8-01-10 \u00a9 Doug Slagle, Pastor, The Gathering UCC, all rights reserved In our series this month entitled \u201cAmerica the Beautiful\u201d, I am reminded of the words from that song which states \u201cAmerica, America.\u00a0 God shed his grace on thee.\u201d\u00a0 In another popular anthem made famous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gnhuu.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}