July 2006, the dog days of summer are here! 99 degrees forecast for Tuesday, traffic tie-ups, water getting into basements from summer storms, high gas prices (and going higher). The Middle East has exploded again. The U.S. has a midterm election in less than four months (charges and countercharges!). Back in the snowy days of winter, I preached a sermon on faith and science; this one, as a sequel, is on faith and politics. July is a good month for relating faith to politics, as we come past July 4th, celebrating our Declaration of Independence and congratulating ourselves for the good life in these United States.

55 years ago this spring, as a new Navy midshipman, I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. 10 years later I was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and I accepted the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith as embodying the system of doctrine taught in Holy Scripture. Three founding documents, the U.S. Constitution, the Bible, and the Westminster Confession, all written down hundreds of years earlier, all open to study, debate and interpretation.

So we live in a nation under a Constitution, as professing Christians under the Bible, the Westminster Confession (and other confessions in our Book of Confessions.) So we need to examine how we relate to, and interpret these documents. Civics 101: The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of the U.S. Constitution, and the Congress can propose and the States can adopt amendments to the Constitution. In like manner, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America is the final arbiter of our churchly documents, subject to ratification by the Presbyteries. Incidently, I encourage all of you to remain for our Mid-Morning Matters this morning, to hear a report from our most recent General Assembly.

We have recently seen the Supreme Court of the United States overrule the President of the United States on the issue of how to try those people captured in Afghanistan and Iraq, and being held in our military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And we have seen the U.S. Senate, by a single vote margin, fail to adopt a constitutional amendment outlawing the burning of the U.S. flag. I exercised my constitutional right to communicate to both my Senators my profound disgust with the Senate wasting valuable debate time on this issue, with so many other pressing issues facing us. Standing on my dignity, I said that I was a senior citizen, a military veteran and a Presbyterian minister, and I thought that it was silly to be advocating such an amendment. Both my Senators ignored my opinion and voted for the amendment! Please understand me: I dont like flag-burning, but I view it as a protected part of free speech; I wouldnt go that far myself, but I have been tempted to express my distress with my government by flying my flag upside down, recognized in the Navy as a symbol of a ship in distress.

So here we stand, Bible in one hand, Constitution in the other, debating how to proceed, asking what guidelines we possess to guide our actions as individual Christian citizens, and our corporate actions in our lives.

The scriptures for today encompass the heart of the Old Testament code of conduct, the Ten Commandments, and Jesus summary of the law and the prophets, his twin commandments to love God and love your neighbor. And we face a troublesome situation in our body politic, with one group proposing to impose their interpretation of Judeo-Christian doctrine and law on all citizens of these United States. I get very nervous when I hear Pat Robertson and his Christian Reconstructionists propose remaking U.S. law in the image of Biblical law. The Reconstructionists believe, wrongly in my opinion, that the United States was a Christian nation in its early days and needs to get back to those good old days. We are of course in the middle of a many-pronged conflict over when and where to put up posters of the Ten Commandments, in courtrooms, in or on public buildings. I do not claim to be a constitutional lawyer or a political scientist, but I make some claim to be a theologian and a student of the history of church-state relations. (750)

I am doubly alarmed to see the apparent takeover of one of our political parties by the Religious Right. This is a first in American political history; previously we have not gone the way of European politics and had a Christian Democratic (or Republican) Party. So what do we do, and what do we say, those of us who do not count ourselves among the Religious Right?

One of the first steps is to acquaint ourselves with what is happening in our political life. An old saying about Christians is that we should go through life with the New York Times in one hand and the Bible in the other. Down here we amend that saying to substitute the Washington Post, remembering also that one blond, female spokesman (spokesperson?) for the Religious Right recently expressed a wish that Timothy MacVeigh had targeted the Times building rather than the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. So much for freedom of the press! She feels free to freely express her opinions, but threatens the freedom of any press that does not agree with hers. (933)

Another theological issue that bothers me greatly is called, in technical, theological terms, eschatology, a long word which covers our doctrines about the end times, the last judgement, the second coming of Jesus. You are no doubt aware of the tremendous sales of the Left Behind series of books by Tim La Haye. In them, much is made about the rapture, when true believers will be caught up into heaven, while the rest of humanity, probably, by their definition, including most of us, will be left behind to face apocalyptic scenarios and the culminating Battle of Armageddon between the forces of good and evil, taking place, supposedly, on the plain of Megiddo, in Northern Israel.

These same folks have created a fanciful time line of events which will take place in proper order before Jesus comes again. One particular aspect of this thinking involves the building of the third temple in Jerusalem, and here this group of Christians end up allied with far right, fundamentalist forces in Judaism who are also preparing to build the third temple, to force God to produce the promised Messiah. Want more details? Use Google to search for temple mount faithful or Jewish fundamentalism. I dont need to remind you that any building of the third temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem would require, first, the demolition of the present buildings on the Temple Mount, those buildings comprising the third most sacred shrines in Islam. Want to start World War III? Blow up the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem!

Now I must affirm freedom of religion in these United States, just as I affirm freedom of speech, but there are some limits to both. As I see it, such groups are free to believe whatever they wish, but I must protest strongly if they seek to incorporate some of these beliefs into programs of action, or political platforms. We have seen the tragedies resulting from groups holding passionately to misguided beliefs, such as the Peoples Temple In Guyana, the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and the Heavens Gate mass suicide in California. We have also been made painfully aware of the phenomenon of suicide bombings and airplane highjackings by fundamentalists convinced they were doing the will of God. Dear Lord, deliver us from fanatics of all stripes!

So here we are, in July 2006, on Sunday morning, having heard our Scripture readings. The Ten Commandments? Hang them on the walls of every courtroom in America? Religious? Or political? Sacred or secular? A few thoughts: I would be happy if every professing Christian in our government would sign a statement affirming his or her strong belief in following the Ten Commandments. I would especially put in bold face type the commandment against bearing false witness, and the one about killing. You notice I said professing Christian. Because 4 of the 10 are part of the Judeo-Christian tradition concerning worship and Sabbath keeping, I cannot in good conscience impose these commandments upon non-Christians. The last six commandments are well embedded in the common legal codes of cultures and nations around the world and are not too controversial.

Jesus goes a step further. He sums up all the law and the prophets in the two great commandments, Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. As guidance for Christians, no problem. As rules to impose upon those of other faiths, I have concerns. And let us, Republicans and Democrats, debate the implications of both Old and New Testament Commandments for our common life in this nation and in the world. Our President has said Jesus is his favorite philosopher; Im not sure he is thinking about the same Jesus I am!

Kevin Phillips, a Republican strategist from Nixon and Reagan days, has come out with a potent book entitled, American Theocracy. I commend it to you, although it is scary. In it he points to three grave concerns. The first is the takeover of the Republican Party by the Religious Right; the second is our addiction to oil, most of it coming from the Middle East; and the third is the mountain of debt we are building up due to federal government spending coupled with massive tax cuts, with much of that debt being held by China and other relatively unfriendly nations.

Jim Wallis in his book, Gods Politics, and in his other writings and speeches, keeps reminding us that a budget is a moral document. I agree wholeheartedly. As families, as church communities, as a nation, we declare our priorities by where we spend our money. And I am not at all happy about the budget priorities of our state and nation. We have not listened to the Old Testament prophets or to Jesus regarding the treatment of the weak and the powerless. We have skewed our tax cuts to benefit the wealthy, and failed to provide needed items such as medical insurance for the uninsured. We have allowed corruption to exist in corporate board rooms and in the halls of Congress. If you are powerful and/or have money, you can gain access, you can influence legislation. But who speaks for the powerless, or the poor?

This may be the grumpiness of an old man, but I must say it! I do not trust this government, either its words or its competence. The Gulf Coast is still a disaster area, and other disasters could occur elsewhere. And who will help us? I have seen too much evidence of placing ideology above the advice of military leaders and distorting scientific findings to support ones political viewpoint.

So what can we do? To the Republicans among us, please take back the party of Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower from the Radical Religious Right. Support Republicans like the three who broke ranks to oppose the flag amendment. Support those moderate Republican Senators from the Northeast who have stood up against some of the wilder schemes. To the Democrats among us, please ensure that the religious debate takes place throughout the country. Stand for moderation. Read books such as Jack Rodgers Claiming the Center, a marvelous effort to spell out a centrist position on various hot button issues in the Presbyterian Church.

The literalist, fundamentalist interpretation of Scripture is alive and well in 21st-century America. It rightly challenges us to take Scripture seriously; it wrongly assumes that ancient documents can be read uncritically, and used out of context to bolster foregone conclusions and ideologies. Our two largest Christian bodies in this country, the Southern Baptists and the Roman Catholic Church, reflected in the teachings of its hierarchy, have both succumbed to the lure of infallible pronouncements and misinterpretation of Scripture. These are truly dangerous times for those who would seek truth in both church and state.

But there is hope. The god of Bethel, the God of our fathers and mothers, the one eternal God truly is our hope for years to come. He has been our help in ages past, He is, and will be our hope for years to come. Hallelujah. Amen.