Brian’s Reflection: Tuesday, December 16, 2008


Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

- Article Three of the Bill of Rights, which took effect on Dec 15th,
1791, following ratification by the State of Virginia.


If I were to concede that the Holy Spirit of “God” was directly at work in the foundation of the American Experiment, I would say that Article Three of the Bill of Rights was/is a glorious example of that “working”.

What it anticipates, in my view, is the inherent bigotry of Religion. Perhaps they did not directly “see it coming”; even people like Jefferson seldom transcend their time and culture. But come it did. Pluralism. Multi-culturalism. An enormous diversity of peoples and Faiths and Religions. At a time when American Indian spiritual life had been almost ground out of existence, and a particularly virulent form of “Christianity” (which is not really, in my view, anything resembling Christianity) was taking hold as the foundation of American Christianity. What a curse this has been!

And what a time we are having of it in our own day! Every religion on Earth (practically) is now a part of American Life. And we now live in a time when “Christianity” is popularly represented in the culture by religiously zenophobic exclusivists who are limited enough to believe that “God” only works through them. God, of course, laughs.

Thank God for the Third Amendment. And let’s hope that the Supreme Court can be rescued from those who read it only through the eyes of Christianist limitations.

Again we have a chance to show that the founding concept of “America” is indeed great! No Religion has all the ”Truth”. Every authentic religion (and there are many that are not!) is seeking to understand the Mystery of what it means to be Human. No Religion can replace “God” with any idol ….. be it their sacred texts, their cultural prejudices, or whatever. Only scared religionists who fear the “loss” of their power in America today are fighting to exclude the insights and deny due respect of other faiths from our cultural life.

Despite the public radioactivity of many fringe religionists these days, it is time for the sensible among us, religious and non-religious, to press our position. To uphold the truth that all men and women are created equal. To deny bigots the right to co-opt the Third Amendment to their own narrow-minded advantage.

Allow no “establishment”. Allow no dominance. Value the role of Sense in Religion. Rejoice (what an Advent theme!, as well as a theme of Harvey Milk and of Barack Obama!) in searching together for Respect. The beauty of Humanity can rise again and make a better World. Brian+