Religion and Politics

Good day everyone, I am Patrick Frost, the FPA blogger for Central Asia, and Karin has been kind enough to let me do a post on this site from time to time. Please feel free to send me comments, critiques, and questions at patfrost1@gmail.com or just post them on this site.

Today, I would like to talk about a book I read about six months ago that challenged the way I saw the West’s political society based on secularization, other societies, civilizations, and political systems throughout the world, especially in Muslim dominated lands, and the current ‘war on terror.’ It is Mark Lilla’s, professor of the Humanities at Columbia University, The Stillborn God; Religion, Politics, and the Modern West. At its most basic, it is a philosophical history of Europe/US advancement from a society ruled by political theology to one ruled by secularization. But the book is about much more, in fact it is a warning against complacency of this type of political/societal system in the West.

Here is Lilla’s dramatic message;
‘Intellectual complacency, nursed by implicit faith in the inevitability of secularization, has blinded us to the persistence of political theology and its manifest power to shape human life at any moment.’

Lilla warns us in the West to not feel so safe and cozy with our secular system, for he argues that we are the ‘exception’, not the rest of the world, and that we are in fact still living in an ‘experiment.’ These are strong words and statements, but they are important for all to ponder. This is a pertinent book because it is based on a question not often asked; ‘Why don’t we understand the ‘enduring attraction of political theology?’ Instead of ‘why don’t they understand our (and copy) our political system and way of life?’

Lilla strongly believes that the argument over politics and religion will not end, and in fact ‘could not end,’ because it concerns the enduring question that all societies must answer and face, whether ‘to order their political affairs in light of a divine revelation, or to make their way alone.’

There have been two interesting news stories related to China’s ‘religion policies’ in the weeks leading up the Olympics. One development concerns Sino-French relations, and the Chinese Ambassador to France’s warning that “there would be serious consequences” for their relations if President Sarkozy meets the Dalai Lama. Apparently, just meeting the Dalai Lama is an act of interfering in China’s internal affairs. The Dalai Lama will visit France for a conference on Buddhism – after the start of the Olympics. Specifically, from August 16 to August 20, the Dalai Lama will be teaching in Nantes. As the New York Times summarizes the situation, “China has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama and his subordinates of instigating anti-Chinese riots in Tibet three months ago and encouraging a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, which the Dalai Lama has denied.” On Thursday, though, Sarkozy said that would take no heed of China’s concerns, and that it was not China’s decision to make whether he meets the Dalai Lama. Despite this harsh response, Sarkozy still confirmed that he will go to the opening ceremony of the Games. A second news story concerns whether and how China will permit Bibles during the Olympics. China Daily has reported that tens of thousands of Bibles and New Testaments have been printed to be available at the Games. However, if you did a websearch on the issue, all you would find are news reports from Christian groups exclaiming the atrocity that China plans to deny athletes and visitors their rights to bring Bibles. The fascinating part of the China Daily news report concerns the fact that the Bibles will have the logo of the Beijing Olympics printed on their covers.

(picture from China Daily)

On June 23, this blog discussed the Anglican divide over homosexuality. Now, this week has seen another contentious issue resurface in the Church of England. The General Synod met this year from July 4 to July 8 and voted on Monday, July 7 to approve the appointment of women bishops in Britain. The BBC News website has excellent coverage of the issue, and published on Wednesday, “Q&A: Anglican Church Divisions.” The first question is, “Could recent developments mean the end of the Anglican Church as we know it?” There is also a more topical Q&A on the “Vote over Women Bishops.” The New York Times article, “Church of England Endorses Women as Bishops,” points out that the background to this news is a “deep division between liberals and traditionalists…mainly over the issue of homosexuality.” Despite these two major points of contention, the answer to the BBC question above is rather grim - “About 1,300 clergy say they may leave the Church of England because they cannot accept women bishops.” How that would not “split the church” is beyond comprehension. The BBC website also directs readers to an organization of women, called Women and the Church (or Watch), which is capaigning for women to be bishops. On the other side is the question of the Church of England’s connection to the Vatican. According to the Catholic News Agency’s article, “Unity Impossible if Anglican Church Ordains Women Bishops,” the consecreation of women as bishops should only be done with the “support from the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches.” If not, “the tone of ecumenical dialogue would change and future talks would no longer have unity as their goal.” This dialogue between the churches is in the context of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, which has in the past suffered over the issue of homosexuality and its growing acceptance in the Anglican Communion.

The Lambeth Conference for bishops of the Anglican Communion (held once a decade) will take place from July 20 to August 2. This year, however, a real divide has emerged, and according to an article in the New York Times, “a quarter of the bishops are expected to boycott the conference and attend a rival meeting for conservative Anglicans in Jerusalem.” The schism centers on the debate over homosexuality. Two bishops have not been invited to Lambeth, one Gene Robinson, an openly gay bishop from New Hampshire and Bishop Martyn Minns, who ministers to conservatives in the Church of Nigeria, “who want to leave the Episcopal Church.” The rival meeting will not coincide with the Lambeth conference and takes place from June 22 to June 29 – the Holy Land 2008 meeting began on Sunday. According to the NYT article, about 10% of the bishops at the Jerusalem conference (the Global Anglican Future Conference or GAFCON) will also attend Lambeth. 1,200 delegates are in attendance at the Jerusalem gathering, and at the opening session, Rev. Akinola said that GAFCON was not going to break away from the Anglican Communion, but they “had no other place to go.” Also, for obvious reasons, you won’t find much information about GAFCON from the Lambeth conference website.