Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour. This is an open thread where we can share our thoughts and comments about the day. To get us started today, I thought I’d bring up the topic of religious respect.
In 1990, the United States Supreme Court, in its infinite wisdom, ruled in Smith v Oregon that it was okay to fire someone because of their participation in a church service. Justice Scalia argued that in a pluralistic society, religious diversity is a “luxury” which the United States cannot afford. In response to this ruling, Congress in 1993 passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments (Public Law 103-344). In signing the Act, President Bill Clinton said:
“Let us respect one another’s faiths, fight to the death to preserve the right of every American to practice whatever convictions he or she has, but bring our values back to the table of American discourse to heal our troubled land.”
As religious continues to divide this nation today, with most of the conservative politicians advocating the creation of an American theocracy, it is good for us to reflect on Clinton’s words.
COEXIST
There is, as you many be aware, an interesting bumper sticker that says COEXIST which is made up of the symbols for several religions. The symbolism of this bumper sticker is meant to suggest that people, meaning religious people, can find a way to coexist. Richard Wackrow, in his book A Beginner’s Guide to Blasphemy, notes that missing in this symbolism is anything indicating atheism or disbelief. He writes:
“Clearly, religious people have to be encouraged to tolerate each other.”
He suggests, facetiously, that perhaps atheists don’t need to be included in the symbolism because they lack a dogma telling them who they should hate.
He concludes his chapter on COEXIST:
“Simple-minded Coexist bumper stickers expressing a belief in belief, aren’t going to rid the world of religiously motivated intolerance, hate, genocide, murder and war—nor every other evil that springs from the dogma peddled by the earthly emissaries of non-existent deities.”
Religious Violence
Violence seems to be closely associated with some religions, particularly those which are monotheistic and desire to spread their belief system to other people. Robert Eisen, in an article in Moment, says:
“Religion has always been related to violence. Some religions believe that violence is one of the means needed to achieve that final era of messianic peace.”
In another article in Moment, Nicholas Gier says:
“All over the world, Christian missionaries preached the idea that one religion was true and pure, and all others were false.”
In his book The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, Sam Harris writes:
“Religious moderates are, in large part, responsible for the religious conflict in our world, because their beliefs provide the context in which scriptural literalism and religious violence can never be adequately opposed.”
Open Thread
The critical question is: How do we respect someone else’s spirituality/religion/belief system, if they do not respect ours? Any suggestions?
In the meantime, this is an open thread. Feel free to change the topic. As usual, the other important question is—What’s for dinner?