Scattered Work

The Importance of Being at the Inauguration

Steve Benen:

Nevertheless, even if it is symbolism, the Warren choice strikes me as Obama’s biggest mistake since the election. He’s elevating a conservative religious leader to new heights, giving him stature and credibility, and making his far-right message that much more meaningful when he challenges Obama administration policies in the future.

I’ve heard a lot of liberals make this argument against having Rick Warren deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration, but I just don’t buy it. Delivering this invocation is going to give him more credibility than authoring one of the most popular non-fiction books currently in print? Than hosting a high-profile election debate at his church? Than being on all those “most influential leaders” lists published by Time, Newsweek, et al? And of course, you could always make this argument from the other side: by having Warren involved in the innauguration, Obama will carry more influence with evangelicals because it shows he respects their leaders, even though he may disagree with them.

One other factor that is not getting nearly as much attention as it should is that there will be another religious leader at the inauguration (performing the benediction): Rev Dr Joseph Lowery. You can read more about him here, but suffice it to say that he’s no homophobe.

Tags: Barack Obama, evangelicals, religion, Rick Warren

Religious Party

During the election, Obama worked hard to win religious (even evangelical) voters over to the Democratic ticket, and made significant strides, especially among younger evangelicals. Not surprisingly, Obama did this largely by emphasizing his personal relationship with faith, rather than softening his positions on major social issues, such as abortion. As a result, his gains among this demographic came largely from those evangelicals who were already social moderates. Still, the gains were significant, despite controversies swirling around his church and rumors that he is a “secret Muslim.”

Now I hear (via Democracy in America) that some influential conservative commentators have launched a new blog called Secular Right. This trend, it seems to me, is pretty important. To the extent that we can decouple a single political party from its monopoly on the devout Christian vote, we can have a richer discussion of the relationship between faith and public policy in America. For one thing, it opens up space for organizations such as this.

Tags: Barack Obama, election, environment, evangelicals, religion

Articles of Faith

Altar, Divine Temple of God Spiritual Church, Chicago (by Dave Jordano)

Amidst all the discussions about religion spurred by the “new atheists” (see here for an example), what I’m not seeing are plausible alternatives being proposed. Religions play a number of important psychological roles, from rites of passage to community cohesion to providing a support for individual identity formation. Think about the importance of holy ground (from A Pattern Language):

In all cultures it seems that whatever it is that is holy will only be felt as holy, if it is hard to reach, if it requires layers of access, waiting, levels of approach, a gradual unpeeling, gradual revalation, passage through a series of gates…. This layering, or nesting of precincts, seems to correspond to a fundamental aspect of human psychology. We believe that every community, regardless of particular faith, regardless of whether it even has a faith in any organized sense, needs some place where this feeling of slow, progressive access through gates to a holy center may be experienced.

Arguments about the logical or moral incoherence of theism are fine, but atheism won’t take hold in our society without some physical, ceremonial acknowledgment of the sense of mystery that goes hand in hand with human development. As Matthew Yglesias points out, these new atheists seem to be trying to build a cohesive atheistic movement; something that will be very hard to do without a positive belief system. The kind of people who want to join a movement that simply declares other movements stupid are not very fun to hang out with.

Take a look at these photos by Dave Jordano, who has been documenting storefront churches in Chicago. Think about the care and love that goes into these spaces. Then consider whether something like Religulous could actually play a nourishing role in anyone’s life. These atheists would be better off espousing a form of Buddhism than trying to build a movement around negation.

Tags: atheism, holy ground, Photography, psychology, religion