withallyourmind.net

It’s a precept of my Christian faith that my redemption comes through Christ. But I’m also a big believer in the Golden Rule, which I think is an essential pillar not only of my faith, but of my values and my ideals and my experience here on Earth. And I’m also a believer, as part of my faith, that I am a limited being, with limited understanding. And so I operate on the basis of, I operate knowing what I know for myself, but not presuming that I know everything, certainly not enough for me to condemn others, or to presume that their path is wrong.

These words were uttered by a presidential candidate in a recent Newsweek article about his religious faith. Melinda, over at Stand to Reason, has an excellent post in which she takes a closer look at this explanation of religious conviction. In her insightful commentary, she notes the following:

This, of course, isn’t an unusual sentiment these days - even among those who profess Christ, as the Senator does. But the only way a rational person can make such a statement is if they don’t believe religion is objectively true with any factual basis. This kind of statement can only be made if religion is a different kind of conviction than the rest of our beliefs that we live and function by. Religion is a personal preference with no objective, rational, truthful basis. The evidence that this is how Senator Obama views religion is how he treats other things he believes in, like politics. He is running for president because he thinks he knows the solutions for America and he’s comfortable saying that President Bush and Senator McCain are wrong in politics. Why else would you run for president and be interested in putting your ideas into public policy and law? So he’s comfortable presuming he knows true things that he wants to persuade others of in politics, but not religion because religion is somehow not truthful or factual in the same way.

She further notes:

Disagreeing with someone’s religion is not condemning them. Saying someone will go to Hell isn’t condemning them. It’s expressing a viewpoint. We don’t have control over whether someone goes to Heaven or Hell, and it’s possible we are wrong. But it’s God who condemns - or forgives. Not us. This common compulsion to compare disagreement with condemnation is false.

Here’s what I would love for a politician to say in reference to his religious beliefs (and moral beliefs for that matter). “I am firmly convinced that my religious faith (whatever that might be, Christian, Muslim, etc.) is true. That, of course, means I think other religious viewpoints are false in many of thier claims. Since we make contradictory claims, we cannot all be correct. I feel similarly about my political views. I believe I am right and the other candidate is wrong. This does not make one a bad person. I could be wrong about my beliefs and am always willing to reexamine them and rationally discuss them with those who disagree. I believe people should be free to embrace whatever religious beliefs which they feel are correct.”

Wouldn’t that be refreshing? (Of course, perhaps the person is a pluralist, in which case he should simply state that he is. He should then drop the line about his own faith and admit that all belief is equally true and valid and he chooses his own faith for reasons other than the truth value of it.)