Freedom of Religion speech at Four Freedoms Dinner June 2007
Freedom of Religion speech to Stonewall Democrats
First of all I wish to thank-you all for this Honor and especially on behalf of Historic Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento.
Westminster has as one of its core values the following words: “We value leadership opportunities being open to all members without regard to race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, education, income, health, or any enabling or disabling condition.” And we mean it!
The year was 1941 and in the early days of January, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was writing one of the great speeches to Congress that has become foundational in the American Democracy. This farsighted and idealistic man was facing enormous challenges at home with the Great depression and with an ever growing European war darkening daily the prospects for the survival of democracy in the world.
In this speech now known as the Four Freedoms Speech the second freedom is “freedom of every person to worship God in his own way…everywhere in the world.”
Roosevelt saw that America was facing threats from without.
It is interesting to me that today America faces threats from within and without and these threats circle around religion.
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “The modern legal concept of religious freedom, as the union of freedom of belief and freedom of worship, with the absence of any state- sponsored religion originated in the United States of America.” This truth is written in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution where it says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The last great commercial passenger airliner manufactured by Lockheed, the L1011, was manufactured here in California. A collaboration between the best of US and British technology, I remember boarding one and sitting where I could see the reassuring Rolls Royce emblem on the engine cover. The Tristar was powered by three engines: One on the left wing, one on the right wing and a third engine placed on the rear of the aircraft below the vertical stabilizer. This was the first wide bodied aircraft to receive certification for completely blind landings in zero visibility. This plane with its three engines could land with only one in an emergency. Two engines in a three engine plane still functioning was a lot easier to handle in an emergency and considered much better odds than having a two engine plane with one engine out.
To me the L1011 or any similarly designed three engine plane is a metaphor for the American Democracy. To fly well, America needs to have a well positioned engine on the left, currently the Democrats, a well positioned engine on the right, formerly the Republicans, and an engine on the rear to give added thrust, the Constitution of the United States.
Twenty five years ago, hard right theocratic Christians in America targeted the Republican Party to advance their agenda. Pat Robertson created the Christian Coalition for that specific purpose.
Bill Moyers has said that “what is unique today is that the radical religious right has succeeded in taking over one of Americas great political parties. The country is not yet a theocracy but the Republican party is and they are driving American politics, using God as a battering ram on almost every issue…”
What is the goal?
Dr. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge ministries says it well: “Our job is to reclaim America for Christ whatever the cost… we are to exercise Godly dominion over our neighborhoods, our schools, our governments, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our scientific endeavors, in short over every aspect and institution of society.”
That the Republican Party has been taken over by the hard religious right is a fundamental violation of the separation of Church and state and the theocrats realize this. So they have a war on the separation of church and state.
What is at stake here? America has been the leader across the world for freedom of religion. That has only been possible because freedom of belief and freedom of worship have been protected by the separation of church and state. One of the best explanations of how this separation of church and state actually works in practice has been the Clinton Presidential Guidelines on the separation of church and state for use in our schools. What is clearly wrong is not the free expression of religion, but the state endorsing one religion over another.
The agenda of the hard Christian right is to undo that, to achieve the objective of Hard right Christians running everything. According to their ideology only when theocratic Christians, are running everything then Christ will return to govern the earth. They have forgotten E Pluribus Unum, out of many one. and have turned that on its head saying one to rule the many.
The successful cooption of the Republican Party should be of enormous concern to the Democratic Party. In 2004 48 out of 51 Republican senators voted with Christian coalition supported bills, 100% of the time. This is precisely what the Constitution deplores. This is a union of church and state and it is unconstitutional.
What has happened here? The right wing engine has been repositioned further down the right wing of the aircraft. Systematically attempts are being made to cut the power of the constitutional engine located below the stabilizer. If these attempts are successful the plane will veer ever more sharply to the right and head toward the twin Towers of Liberty: the separation of church and state and the freedom to believe and worship freely.
What do we do about this?
1) Shine a light on it. Educate the American people as to what is happening.
2) Protect the constitution. Time and time again the constitution has protected America. We must help it to do so again.
3) Wake up what remains of the Republican Party, the G.O.P. the Party of Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves at the cost of his own life.
At the moment the theocratic Republicans are at the controls of the American democracy plane. The time will come when the Democrats will be at the controls. The Democrats can fly the American plane on two engines to safety, their own and that of the constitution. But the American plane will fly best when all engines pull together. For the American Eagle to fly we must stay together; United we fly, divided we fall.
Roosevelt repeated a phrase in his speech of the four Freedoms. He said “By an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship…”. Three times he repeated this. Public will without regard to partisanship, has been the key to any success that we have had in the past and will continue to be the key to any success we have in the future. This is what happens when the American Tristar engines pull together.
The future looks dark at the present. Challenges without number obscure America’s way. But for those of us who trust in God, the great Creator God of all human beings, the One of whom the Hebrew scriptures say “The Earth is the Lord’s and the Fullness thereof and all they that dwell therein.”; The great merciful God of Peaceful Islam, The God of the Sikhs, Christians of every kind, Jews, indeed all people of faith in the huge Interfaith community of our pluralist country; The God of the Deists and the God of those who claim no God; is the God of whom Roosevelt said these words: “This nation has placed its destiny in the hands, heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere…
To that high concept there can be no end save victory.”
When the God of the whole earth is sought to guide us, when there is an impressive expression of the public will without regard to partisanship; even although the future may look dark and challenges without number obscure our way; the American Tristar will make perfectly safe landings in situations of zero visibility…all three engines running perfectly!
“Then this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
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