When I was a kid, our family was members of a local Catholic church. When I was in my teens my parents and a new priest developed some sort of rift and when my parents stopped going to church, so did I.
Thirty years later when our children were old enough to have friends in a local Presbyterian church youth group I once again became a regular church goer. After a 20-year run, circumstances again dictated another personal departure from attending church regularly and as I write this, my situation remains that way.
These days, if anything, I seek personal clarity and enlightenment in lieu of being part of an organized church.
I could elaborate and make those two separate episodes and my current belief system into one column. Doing that though, would fly in the face of my point which is that my religious beliefs are no one else’s business. That I’ve come and gone a couple of times as a parishioner, and currently drift aimlessly, is not that uncommon and so let’s leave it at that. In fact, allow me to apologize for telling you that much.
Once upon a time the conventional wisdom was that both religion and politics were not to be spoken about in mixed company for pretty good reasons. Nowadays though it often seems as if that’s what many people either lead with or seek to know before heading onto deeper conversation.
A couple of weeks ago public discourse was interrupted when the president of our country posted a picture on his social media platform that was an AI generated image of himself dressed like Jesus Christ placing a healing hand upon another man. The President tried to interpret the picture as him being a healing doctor, others in his circle simply claimed that the picture had been “doctored,” but no matter which definition was correct, the broader religious community expressed widespread offense.
While that picture was circulating, the President was simultaneously involved in a social media criticism of the Pope and read a passage from 2 Chronicles, from the Oval Office during an “America Reads the Bible” event.
Since May of last year Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has conducted a weekly Christian prayer meeting during business hours at the Pentagon. At one such recent meeting he read a prayer that he referenced as CSAR 25:17 which was a modified version of a concocted prayer delivered by Samuel L. Jackson in the movie “Pulp Fiction.” Truth be told, that part of the story, while funny, doesn’t really bother me. What bothers me is the violation of the whole promise of separation of church and state. Suffice to say that I am not happy that our administration appears to be using religion for their own purposes.
This column is not meant to be political, it’s meant to be a reminder. A reminder that there are dozens of various religions in this great country but there is just one federal government. To pick any single religion to espouse from behind a podium that represents an entire country and its rich tapestry of 330 million citizens is a huge mistake, offensive, and wrong on multiple levels.
Like so many other issues in the world, beginning from a point of respecting others is so important. Sadly, as I wrote before about our governmental leaders and way too often our fellow American friends and neighbors, that respect is lacking.
Where one finds spiritual comfort is personal — always has and always will and I unequivocally respect whatever each of you choose to believe.
I expect the same.