One of the foundations of American understanding of the place of Religion in our national life is that a Wall of Separation is to be maintained between the State and the Church – the latter term now meaning Religion in General. Anglicans, Protestants, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Jews, atheists, and assorted others, live amicably cheek by jowl on these shores. This currently includes American followers of Mohammed.
Both Christianity and Islam are “evangelical”, in the sense of having a message for the whole inhabited world. Jesus, for instance, is reported to have told his inner circle to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Islam understands itself to have a similar mission – and it might be remembered that in the 8th Century AD Islamic warriors got to within a dozen miles of Paris – and it wasn’t until 1492 that the Muslim Moors were driven out of Spain. Islam, by its nature, is expansionist.
Contemporary Christianity, on the other hand, is not particularly expansion-minded, except perhaps in Africa. Europe is heavily secularized and the United States appears to be “at ease in Sion”. But the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention the 9/11/2001 episode, have shocked us into realizing that it might be wise to re-think some of our assumptions about the place of Religion in American life.
While the majority of Islamists may not be particularly bellicose, not a few are fanatically committed to the destruction of “The West”. And it is significant that the so-called “moderates” don’t seem able to lash out against their co-religionists. Is there something inherently pitiless in the Koran’s inner spirit which enables murderous “martyrs” to think that they will spend eternity in Paradise by killing people who do not agree with them? Religion, like everyting else, can be, and often is perverted. The Christian Gospels are replete with instances of Jesus casting out “unclean spirits”, and can it not be said that the “martyrs” are indwelt by a spirit that is more than a little warped? If there is a Devil, he must be enjoying himself – but of course sophisticated moderns don’t believe in such a being, which means that we live in a society which finds itself unable to cope with the Big Questions about Right and Wrong. While the so-called Enlightenment freed us from some forms of Superstition, did it not usher in a new era of Skepticism and Confusion? Belief in the existence of the Devil, of course, provides us with a way of trying to understand the existence of Embodied, Incarnated Evil. The Devil is not a comical figure with horns; he is a Spirit, a “fallen angel”.
There is a certain common-sensical wisdom behind the idea that the State and the Church must not be conjoined, for in a less than a perfect world Religion will be misused, as is everything else. Perhaps present-day Christians must accept the semi-Christianization of American life as adequate for our times – which means that although we “see through a glass darkly”, as St. Paul puts it, we at least see through it – we are astigmatic, not blind.
American multi-denominational Christianity should not be “established”, but the Church’s abiding presence informs our fundamental attitudes about everything. It acts as a kind of amorphous conscience for the populace, which means that we are aware that we are more than mere assemblages of DNA, bi-pedal animals.
