But By Their Fruits

Yesterday, the Religious Liberty Commission was established. You’ll have to forgive me for being distrusting of such a commission. While the current administration is demolishing programs that care for the poor and the environment, that make our food and bridges safer, that keep the country running, they somehow are ok spending money on this.

The stated purpose the commission is to provide a report on “the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations.”

These are the same people who tried to block Muslims from entering the country, the same people who had pastors arrested just last week for praying in the Capitol rotunda. They follow a man who said he has never asked for forgiveness. I don’t believe they actually care about God, much less religious liberty, the freedom to practice one’s faith. They only care about using religious language to sugar-coat their political goals. They only want a performative faith that can sway the masses. They want to establish a state religion that is Christian in name and adornments only. Those pesky things like forgiveness, loving thy neighbor, and the beatitudes not needed. 

“They say separation between church and state … I said, ‘All right, let’s forget about that for one time,’” he said yesterday. Their motives are clear. They have made it known that the Constitution does not matter to them; free speech and due process and voting rights just get in the way. To them freedom of religion means private Christian schools should get federal funding, megachurches should endorse candidates, and history should be rewritten to make us think it’s always been that way.

Jesus warned against such people: “All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi’ (Matthew 23:5-6).

It was particularly disappointing seeing two Catholic bishops cozying up to the political power. I’m sure they want to ensure that Catholics have a voice in whatever is decided by White House Faith Office. But collaboration with those who taut that Catholics aren’t Christian and defund Catholic Charities is not a good look. I don’t think their involvement will draw anyone to Christ or the Church.

Canon Law 285 §1-3 states, “Clerics are to refrain completely from all those things which are unbecoming to their state, according to the prescripts of particular law. Clerics are to avoid those things which, although not unbecoming, are nevertheless foreign to the clerical state. Clerics are forbidden to assume public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power.” Further, Canon Law 287 §1-2 states, “Most especially, clerics are always to foster the peace and harmony based on justice which are to be observed among people. They are not to have an active part in political parties and in governing labor unions unless, in the judgment of competent ecclesiastical authority, the protection of the rights of the Church or the promotion of the common good requires it.”

While I don’t know if participating in this commission truly breaks canon law, it does bring to mind why separation of church and state is so important; it protects the freedom of religion, to practice one’s faith without state interference and to ensure one’s religious leaders are not politicians in disguise. In a few years, will it even be legal for me to criticize? How much longer does the First Amendment protect my pithy little blog of free speech and freedom of religion?

This commission, along with the White House Faith Office and the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias recently established at the Department of Justice, shows how Christian nationalism is growing stronger and bolder. Theirs is a faith of power and wealth and vengeance; everything true Christianity is not. I’m fearful of what this administration is doing to the country, but I’m also fearful of what it is doing to Christianity. It is tarnishing the faith and turning people away from the love of Christ. It’s embarrassing and infuriating that all Christians have to get lumped in to this perverted pantomime of the faith. I understand why people would want to stay away. I just hope that they encounter true Christians and the true love and mercy of Christ in their lives.