My Faith Isn't In Dogma, Politics, or People

During 2020, the world went through a horrendous year.

Politics. Climate change. Social justice. Covid-19.

On all these fronts, citizens of the Earth were being stretched into the realization that we are in this together. 

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish together as fools."

This is not a time to dissect dogma and fine-tune doctrine into dictating what virtue looks like.

Keeping this in mind, I was shocked to watch a recent video of a prayer service headed by (white) evangelicals that promoted the idea that our former (45th) president had been picked by God. The duo went on to equate the 45th with Henry VIII. Mentioning that Henry actually was a good leader.

Perhaps the most well-known fact about Henry VIII is that he had six wives. Because he was unsuccessful at having his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled, he split from the Catholic Church and set up the Church of England. 

He went on to appoint himself the supreme leader of the Church of England. Establishing a divine right of rule.

He also drove his country into the ground financially because of his extravagant spending habits. In modern terms, he could have been considered a good candidate for bankruptcy.

Henry VIII had many foes executed without formal trials by use of bills of attainer.  

In short, Henry VIII's actions were directly opposed to the Magna Carta (signed by the King of England in 1215).

The parallels between Henry VIII and the 45th president of the U.S. are many and eerie in their blatant show of totalitarianism. 

In sum, these particular evangelical ministers, in seeking to justify the 45th's behavior, pointed to a nefarious example of ineptitude, immorality, and narcissism. Interestingly, although he was popular with his contemporaries initially, as Henry VIII grew older, his dreadful habits of behavior grew worse.

A main point made by one of the preachers was that we shouldn't try "straining a gnat"  but rather stay focused on the "big picture."

So, according to the logic of this sermon, behavior like continual lying, serially cheating on multiple wives, misogyny, racism, deliberately stoking fear and division to the point of encouraging insurrection, and implementing horrendous immigration policies - including separating children from their parents as they crossed the border and putting them in cages - doesn't matter.

What is perplexing is that none of these behaviors are pro-life. 

None of these behaviors are Christian or would find support within the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu faiths.

What's particularly ironic is that this sermon was preached on November 1, 2020. Two days before the presidential election. 

It was preached before the 45th president initiated and fed a two-month-long campaign to erroneously lead his followers to believe that the election had been stolen. Despite the fact that President Biden won the general election by over seven million votes, garnering 306 electoral college votes.

One of these preachers made the statement, like many (white) evangelicals, that they had a prophetic dream that the 45th president would win re-election, implying that the 45th president was deemed by God to win. 

Of course, this sermon was preached two months before the 45th president encouraged a group of his followers to storm the Capitol building - resulting in five deaths and putting the entire Congress at risk.

The 45th president will go down in history as the only president who was impeached twice. He also left office with one of the lowest approval ratings in modern history.

I mention these points of fact as counter-points to (mostly white) evangelicals continuing to believe the lies that the former president perpetrated, aimed at his base, which includes most of the (mostly white) evangelicals in the U.S.

Mahatma Gandhi

Finally, to address the preachers' insistence on not straining gnats, but keeping the big picture in mind: 

My faith isn't in a particular political party.

My faith isn't grounded in dogma. That means I don't worship dogma; but I absolutely have faith in the teachings of Jesus (and other similar teachings, like those of Gandi, Muhammad and Budda).

My faith isn't grounded in a particular human being (i.e. a former president, or any other human). One person can't "save" an entire nation. As a side note: It's a good idea to steer clear from any individual who makes this claim (as the 45th repeatedly did.)

One person cannot possibly contain all truth. That's God's (the Supreme Being's) realm.

Time and time again, history has shown us that we humans get into trouble when we insist that our view is the only legitimate one. Extremism, on any side, is polarizing and counter-productive to working together towards equitable solutions.

All the things that made 2020 such a challenging year (dysfunctional political polarization, climate change, Covid-19, lack of social justice, etc.) cannot be solved without the help of all humans on Earth working together. 

In light of the enormity of the big picture facing the human family, focusing on doctrinal minutiae, while playing the "my faith is more valid than your faith" card seems futile.