This American Life‘s “Godless America” examines the tension between the idea of America as Christian country and the idea of America as a place where one’s religion plays no role in governance. It examines the rise in influence of the Christian Right and their contention that the Founding Father’s intended America. This group complains that their rights as Christians are being abrogated by an intrusive political correctness that prevents them from public expressions and professions of their faith. Personally, I believe that everyone’s right to religious practice and expression should be aggressively protected by the law. This means all religious expression, not only Christian expression. But, this right to religious expression should end at the point at which it infringes on the rights of another citizen to practice his or her religion (or not) or to receive goods and services.
The second segment chronicles the spiritual journey of one woman away from God. Julia Sweeney, author and playwright, tells how she read the Bible and lost her faith in God. I felt empathy with her, having struggled with the meaning of many of the same biblical passages. But the idea that the existence of God or the Creative Principle (or whatever term one uses to express that which is causal and sustaining) hinges on one’s uncritical acceptance of this or that text or religious organization does not ring true to me. It seems to me that a Supreme or Foundational Being is necessarily greater than the human mind’s ability to understand and talk about it. So while I recognize that mankind has spent many centuries trying to penetrate this mystery, I have never been one to mistake our clumsy & groping attempts to identify and define this being for The Being itself. I also understand that historically religion has been used to justify the behavior of some and control the behavior of others. A little critical thinking and evaluation of the historical, economic and cultural underpinnings of organized religions is in order. Like Sportin’ Life in Porgy & Bess, “I takes that gospel whenever it’s poss’ble, but with a grain of salt…It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
Listen to Aretha Franklin’s version of It Ain’t Necessarily So. Long Live the Queen of Soul!!
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