Seven Years Later

Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of 9/11, a time for remembering the lives lost on that day and for reflecting on the course that our country has run since then.

This year’s 9/11 falls at a time of heightened political anxiety, with the presidential elections fast approaching. For many Americans, myself included, this election is a seemingly rare opportunity to pull our country out from the shadows of the past seven years.

In the past seven years, Americans have had cause to mourn not only those who died on 9/11, but also American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and innocent civilians murdered in both of those countries. We’ve had cause to mourn the torture by our fellow Americans of prisoners of war, to mourn the deprivation and endangerment of refugees fleeing their war-torn countries. And to mourn the impact of government policies on our country, as we consider the number of children without health insurance, immigrants without legal protections, and workers without fair compensation.

And as we have mourned, difficult moral and theological questions have been raised, and groups across the religious spectrum have attempted to address these questions. Americans have had a public dialogure over questions like: Is one religion inherently more peaceful than another? When — if ever — is war justified? What moral obligations do we as the instigating party have once we are engaged in such a war? What about torture, is that justified in some circumstances? Or do people have certain inalienable rights that should never be violated? Is the pursuit of safety worth sacrificing certain freedoms?

As we wrestle with these questions, it seems to me that the link between religion and politics has only become clearer.

To those who call for a complete separation of religion and politics, I say it’s never going to happen, nor should it. The results of politics are life-and-death, and we should never make life-or-death decisions for ourselves or others without considering carefully our moral and spiritual convictions (and for most religious people, those convictions are directly influenced by their religious community and/or tradition).

But there is something to be said for the desire to see our religious life not be overrun by politics. Religious and political conservative David Kuo aptly illustrated this in his Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction. A former high-level employee in the Bush administration’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, Kuo describes how the Religious Right became so entangled with Bush and his supporters that many conservative religious leaders were unable to advocate effectively for their values.

When a religious group becomes over-identified with a particular party or politician, the focus on the religious group’s values itself can be lost. There I think is the danger. Religious communities should always be first and foremost places where participants explore their values, over and above any candidate or party. And religious communities should be places where participants live out those values, in their treatment of one another and of the larger community. Religious communities where participants focus on the values of love and respect — and live out those values in every facet of their lives — are powerful and sustainable forces for change.