Sacred Insanity

Here is my latest Metropulse column.  This is the version as submitted and lacks the editing touch they so thoughtfully add.

People. People. People. Sigh.

One of my favorite biker t-shirts in my collection has for years been the one that says “If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand”.   Please don't let that be true here.

Many things in life are personal.  Not personal in that you don't want anyone else to know about them but personal in that it can be hugely meaningful to you but pretty much meaningless to others.  Pain is one of those things and the less physical the pain, the more personal it is.  You may well find an empath or two who can actually understand your physical pain but once you move into the realm of emotional and/or psychological pain, you are pretty much on your on.  Others may feel sorry for you but they pretty much have no clue what is really happening inside your head.

Joy is personal.  There are things that can and will make you happy that mean diddly squat to me.  I have seen birders gush over what looked to me like an ordinary bird (if in fact anything in all of creation/evolution can be considered ordinary).  I have been ecstatic over a motorcycle or some other machine that others found mundane if they noticed it at all.

Love is personal.  While great poets may have you convinced that they have conveyed to you some aspect of their love for someone or something, the hows and whys of the loves of individuals who are not us will forever remain hidden to us. There are many other things that are personal but, I shall not attempt to describe them all, I haven't the space or inclination. One thing though, one thing it seems to me you would understand is personal without me telling you.  For many, me for instance, it would seem to be the most personal of things so it's obviousness should eliminate the necessity of it's telling.  Yet here I am.

Religion is really, seriously, intensely personal.  It can't help but be.  Religion is the relationship between an individual and Gawd, however (s)he chooses to perceive Her.  As a matter of fact, we can expand this conceptually and say that which one finds sacred, is an aspect of the personal nature of religion because it is the religion which determines what is sacred.  In the case of certain organized and formalized religions, those who subscribe to those religions may agree to hold a given object or concept sacred.  In example, most any self-professed Christian you asked would likely claim that the bible is a sacred book.  However, it turns out that those who do not profess Christianity MAY not hold the bible to be sacred.  In turn, many of those self-professed Christians will not find the religious works of other organized religions sacred.

This would all be mildly interesting and unworthy of note were it not for the discussion that is apparently actually taking place around America.  People are actually discussing whether or not an adherent of one religion should be allowed to use the book that is sacred in his sect or whether he should be forced to use a book that is sacred to others when eliciting a promise to fulfill an office.  I am completely, totally, and thoroughly amazed.  (I would be speechless but that just ain't my thang.) 

People, this is personal.  You might as well threaten him with causing me pain if he doesn't do what he says as to have him swear an oath on somebody else's sacred object. Surely you see that?  If this was only about the ceremony, if no one expected the words to be heeded, if all you were concerned with was how it would look and sound on television, it might sorta kinda make sense to force an object on him that others found sacred.  But isn't what happens here, at least, I hope it isn't.

When the first congressperson of the Muslim faith is sworn into the office, I want it to be a revelatory moment.  I want him to see his choice of sacred tomes and to feel the weight of that which he is vowing.  I want him to feel a responsibility to his office and to people of faith throughout the nation.  I want him to feel the eyes of a billion plus members of his chosen religion on him and I want him to be loathe to violate his oath that they saw him swear on their chosen sacred text.  It has to be the object that is sacred to him that they use or that moment might well mean nothing.

The bible is not sacred to all Americans.  Many of us are of some other religion, some other culture.  Many of us claim no religion at all.  This is how our nation was designed.  Our Constitution grants us freedom of religion and, yes David, freedom from religion.  That document and it's companion in the founding of our nation, the Declaration of Independence, those are the documents that should be sacred to all Americans.   I can assure you that they are sacred to me but I won't try to tell you why.

It's personal.

CAFKIA

Comments

[Rachel De Nys]

I couldn't agree more. The thing that puzzles the hell out of me is that some religious groups are prohibited from making oaths at all (Quakers are one such group, I think) and therefore aren't required to swear on a bible or anything else...they do something else, altho I'm not certain what exactly.

The thing is that even if this guy was made to swear on a bible, it would basically render his oath meaningless, as the bible isn't the text he finds the most sacred. So ridiculous.

[CAFKIA]

Yup. If those elected do not have reverent respect for the Constitution, it matters not what tome they swear on. The church and the nation are not and cannot be the same thing so it is the regard in which they hold the Constitution that will eventually matter. Delay, Ney, Cunningham et al, are examples of what we get when legislators either don't have or lose respect and regard for the Constitution.

[raffaella]

These beliefs are very personal it's true, but personal things are what people notice more, especially when you don't want them to. whatever your background and wherever you're from. I don't mind particularly talking either of my religious credo (I was born and raised as a Catholic and I am confirmed as of 2003) or indeed of revealing my political convictions: I am and will always be a leftist from along tradition of leftists. The gist of my post is that people who are really interested in knowing who you are will find these things out so you might as well say them without being too secretive. And if people try to threathen you about them remember you've got: a lawsuit, the police and, in the end, remember that God is there and he will help you.