I'm probably crazy to try to write about this at the end of a workday, when I've got a stiff neck and TMJ and ongoing fatigue and still must commute home. But Facebook is abuzz today with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby. The upshot is that the corporation can refuse to pay for some healthcare services. Those who are angry about it generalize that Hobby Lobby will not allow its healthcare services to provide for contraception, period. Those in favor of the decision point out that a person doesn't have to buy healthcare through the employer and that Hobby Lobby's healthcare provider continues to pay for some birth control, just not the Plan-B (code word for some: abortion pill).
I haven't read the Supreme Court's decision, and because I'm not an attorney, I probably couldn't understand it even if I did; I rely on others for my information--people who can read that stuff and make sense of it and then translate it to me. So, honestly, I don't know what this decision means precisely. And I have been guilty of re-posting others' posts about the decision even though I don't know all the facts. And I certainly don't know which organizations know the facts--everybody speaks with such certainty that even the professional fact-checkers have a hard time keeping up and warning the rest of us. This is a temptation of Facebook: sometimes a person just wants to vent, and there are plenty of ready-made ventings ripe for the picking and re-posting.
But I do know that Christianity in this country has long had too much power, that large Christian groups have held hands with governmental ideologies too often, and that many Christians in general--and in particular those who feel threatened by "non-Christian" ideas, organizations, and vocabulary--have come to feel entitled to set moral standards for everyone who lives here.
How did we come to this? I guess it began when Christianity became state religion in Rome centuries ago. The power the church gained corrupted it so much that a whole new movement started whereby men and women fled to the desert to escape the church's sins and excesses and give themselves mainly to prayer and meditation. The monastic movement tried to correct the problems of Christians wielding political and financial power, but of course the whole world couldn't live in the desert. Not even the entire church could survive that way.
Christians are often the first to point out that the people who founded this country were trying to escape religious persecution. That's a generalization but true enough. What we don't seem to recognize is that so much feverish activity of religious people wedded to political parties creates whole new forms of religious persecution.
I need to severely truncate this post, sliding by long discussions about politics and religion, and just get to the point that always centers and stabilizes me when I begin to get crazy and bothered about other folks' bad behavior. That centering point is this: I try, not always successfully, to be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus never coerced people. He simply didn't. He didn't force himself on others, didn't force belief on them. Yes, with religious, powerful people he could get pretty direct and say things that would scorch their pious sensibilities. He did challenge people. He asked hard questions. He made demands of those who had committed to his cause.
But he never forced anyone to act a certain way. And I don't think he is pleased when any of his followers do. Whenever I try to manipulate the actions of others--through my judgments or conversations or the use of whatever power I have--I'm not being Jesus-like.
I believe Christians--along with everyone else--should participate in government and commerce. We must participate in society in helpful and reasonable ways. That means that we make room for others to act according to conscience. That also means we help protect others. Where freedom and protection meet is a tricky place of discernment and tension--I want you to be free to live your life and at the same time prevent you from harming other lives. So we'll always be debating and running back and forth and trying this solution and that. Of course it's complicated.
But this one idea--Jesus did not coerce others--this helps quite a bit when I'm in that place of discernment.
No comments:
Post a Comment