Clean Up After Your God

Last updated on: November 1, 2013 at 8:29 pm by Jim Burklo

2 Comments

Clean Up After Your God 2013-11-01T20:29:28+00:00 Jim Burklo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Religions, like puppy owners, often don’t do a good job of scooping up the messes they leave behind. But that’s not a compelling enough reason to give up on either your God or your dog. This is my conclusion after participating in some fascinating conversations in the past week.

Last Friday, our Office of Religious Life hosted a talk by Dr. Richard Dawkins here at the University of Southern California. A famous British evolutionary biologist, he’s one of the world’s most well-known “public atheists”. He packed the house at our big Bovard Auditorium with an overwhelmingly friendly crowd of students, professors, and people from the community. In person, he’s much more congenial and charming than in print. But he was steadfast in his categorical rejection of religion, repeatedly reminding the audience of its sins and omissions. He referred to the Episcopal Church of his boarding school upbringing as having “the mildest form of the affliction”, which suggested that we progressive Christians don’t get off his hook. I felt the urge to ask him this question: “I preach that God IS evolution – God is the process of creativity in the universe. I preach that the biblical miracle stories are mythological, to be read for deep meanings and metaphors, just as you do with the poetry you value so much. I’ve been a faith-based activist for social justice and peace for my entire career as a pastor. So doctor, what’s wrong with me?” Uncharacteristically, I held back, wanting to know what students might ask when the Q and A time came up. All the questions suggested that the questioners were atheists.

The most current Pew Research Religious Landscape survey of the US population shows that “among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.” The enthusiasm of the young people who gave up their Friday night to hear Dawkins is one manifestation of this statistical trend away from religious identity.

It’s a shift not nearly so evident at the Air Force Academy, where I spent this past Monday at the annual national meeting of college religious affairs staffers. On a stunning, clear fall day, with fresh snow gleaming on Pike’s Peak, we drove from Colorado Springs up to the spectacular campus of the Academy, in a forest at the base of the mountains. We got there in time to watch 4,000 cadets (mostly white people, moreso than the other military services) in blue uniforms form up into squadrons to march – with the band playing a rousing martial tune – to lunch.

Several years ago, the Academy came under public scrutiny because cadets were subjected to pressure to profess and practice evangelical Christianity on campus. Teachers and officers had become insensitive to the effects of untrammeled evangelizing. Some cadets worried that their career mobility might be in jeopardy if they didn’t “accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior”. The Pentagon ordered an investigation, and this led to a concerted effort to make the campus more friendly to diversity of belief or unbelief. The chaplain corps adopted a “religious respect” training program for faculty and staff. A new “earth-based” outdoor rock circle was created to allow Pagan, Wiccan, and Native American cadets to conduct ceremonies. We toured the Muslim prayer space and Buddhist meditation room that had been added in the basement of the famous Air Force Academy Chapel. The top floor is the big Protestant chapel, and the basement already included a sizable Catholic chapel and an unusually beautiful Jewish space.

Our group of college chaplains engaged in a fascinating discussion about the US Constitution as it applies to the exercise of religion in the military. Much of the conversation applied to public university campuses, as well. And it also informed religious life on private university campuses, which find it just as necessary as public ones to avoid showing preference to any particular religion. Otherwise, things get messy – just as they did at the Air Force Academy. And perhaps more importantly, the blessing of the state (or the university) on a particular religion is often a kiss of death. Dawkins mused, in his talk at USC, that the reason religion is lively in the US and not nearly as much in Europe is that the US separated the state from the church, allowing for a flourishing free market for faith. He suggested also that in northern Europe, religion has a weak hold on people because they are economically secure: they are supported by much more substantial “safety nets” than exist in the United States. He said that people hold onto religion for emotional support in the absence of adequate material support.

Dawkins’ prescription for cleaning up the very real messes left by religion is to reject it altogether. The chaplains at the Air Force Academy say they are beleaguered by activists of this persuasion who mount legal challenges against religious practice on the campus at what the chaplains consider the slightest provocation. (This is a trumped-up claim, according to a recent article highlighted by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.) Getting rid of religion, especially in the fertile cultural soil of America, is very hard to imagine. Even as fewer and fewer young Americans identify with any particular faith, there’s still intense interest in matters spiritual and even religious. Old faith institutions may wither, but new ones will take form. Hopefully, the old ones will do a better job of cleaning up after themselves – ridding their religions of homophobia, misogyny, and anti-scientific doctrines. And hopefully, the new ones will avoid making these messes altogether.

The US military has a long way to go in creating a climate that is truly friendly to religious and non-religious diversity. Even if it cleans up its policies in conformance to the Constitution, a climate of pressure on soldiers to subscribe to evangelical Christian dogma may continue at least for a while. The real threat to the practice of religion in the military – and everywhere else – is not militant atheism. Rather, it’s high-pressure evangelism – with or without the blessing of the state.

I’ve been involved in campus ministry or religious life on university campuses for most of my career, in one way or another. There is no way for any student at any university to avoid getting the pitch to become an evangelical Christian. What’s been the net effect of this well-financed, extraordinarily organized, long-term campaign? More students have been de-evangelized by evangelists than have been evangelized. Certainly among American-born young people, there is an increasingly widespread perception that due to its messiness, religion isn’t worth any good it might deliver.

Getting rid of religion isn’t the answer. Getting rid of atheists isn’t the answer, either. The answer is for religion to clean up its act and become a force for spiritual enlightenment and progressive social change.

JIM BURKLO
Website: JIMBURKLO.COM Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
See a video interview about my new novel, SOULJOURN
See the GUIDE to my articles and books
Associate Dean of Religious Life , University of Southern California

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 24, 2013

Loosely Christian: An Interview with Bruce Epperly

Next Post

October 28, 2013 Hellbound? on Halloween: A Live Chat with Director Kevin Miller about Mimetic Theory and Hell

Recent Comments

2 Comments | Leave a Comment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Author Interviews Battle Over the Body and Blood of Christ Bearing Beauty Book Reviews Christian Education christian spirituallity christianity Christmas Church Church Leadership Contemplation Creation Care Death and Dying Death Penalty Disruptive Change Disruptors Series Easter Education Evolution and Faith Future of Progressive Christianity Gun Violence Health & Wellness Holy Week Interfaith Israel-Palestine Leading Differently Lent LGBTQ Living with Cancer Meditations on the Cross Mental Illness millennials Mimetic Mondays Monday Meditations Movie Reviews New Monasticism Pando Populus Parenting Patheos 10+1 Q&A Series PC(USA) Politics Pop Culture Practical Theology Series Prayer progressive christian Race Relations Reformation religion Religion and Politics Religion in America Rethink Church Social Justice Spirituality Spirituality of the Body Stump a Scholar Technology and Faith Thanksgiving Theodicy Trust Me Church Uncategorized Why I'm Still Christian Youth Ministry

Select a Month December 2025 April 2025 January 2025 September 2023 September 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 November 2021 October 2021 May 2021 February 2021 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 June 2020 May 2020 March 2020 June 2019 March 2019 January 2019 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Solomon Peter Jesus Paul