James M. Redwine

religion

Believe It Or Not

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How does a new religion get started? Islam fourteen hundred years ago? Christianity two thousand years ago? Judaism twenty-four hundred years ago? The Romans and Jupiter twenty-five hundred years ago? The Greeks and Zeus three thousand years ago? The Egyptians and thousands of gods four thousand years ago? Gentle Reader, these are just my guesses; you are, of course, free to make your own estimates or consult Google as you see fit.

However, my actual concern is the religion of presidential politics as practiced currently on cable TV in America. And I know when these new beliefs began. With FOX News, the new Defender of the Conservative Faith arrived when Donald Trump came down that golden escalator in 2015. As for CNN and MSNBC, their faith in a Liberal Deliverance was restored only a couple of months ago when Kamala Harris arose like the mythical Phoenix from the ashes of Old Joe.

As best I can tell, the liturgy of these conflicted beliefs relies heavily on denigrating whichever candidate a particular TV network does not like. Portentous warnings from talking heads claim that the election of the “wrong” candidate will cause crops to fail and Taylor Swift to become the new Pied Piper of American youth.

These dire warnings from CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and even occasionally, PBS, have become as ubiquitous as commercials and as vociferous as a Pentecostal sermon. CNN convenes numerous panels of “Never Trumpers” who have heard directly from on high that a Trump election will immediately boot America from our Promised Land. And FOX asserts that a Harris win will reign fire and brimstone all over our democratic Garden of Eden, or at least, everywhere but New York and California.

But, just as one religion after another from the dawn of recorded history has appeared and disappeared, we can all pray that this election will end before Armageddon begins. I foresee hope for salvation from this endless cacophony of vapidity, FOOTBALL! As we Americans have done since the first football game was aired on TV, we clutch at the hope our team will rise above the fray. We can seize onto the faith in our champions on the gridiron and set aside the ennui brought on by the gaggle of gloom bearers on TV. Unfortunately, football season only lasts through the Super Bowl in February of 2025. Of course, the networks are doing their best to force us to buy every game and the new Transfer Portal and Name, Image and Likeness rules are sorely testing our faith.

And, of course, whoever wins the election will be subject to four years of damnation from some of the disappointed anchors. Those sore losers will likely begin endless recriminations for venal sins they assert just over half of the electorate will have committed by worshipping a false idol. As for us in the captive viewership, maybe the INSP network will have enough Gunsmoke reruns to sustain us until the next two graven images are nominated four years from now.

Thanks, Robert

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Last week my friend and fellow member of the Fourth Estate, Robert Smith, published a commentary on the appropriateness of mixing religion and government; it isn’t.

In adopting the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the 1776ers relied on the wisdom gained from thousands of years of bad experiences of religion being misused by those in power. It is no accident that Freedom of and from Religion and Freedom of Expression and the Press are joined:

“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.”

I realize those few of you who read this column already are aware of this bedrock of our democracy. Robert understands that also. He concluded his commentary with this thought:

“It just surprises me that something as basic as creating respectfully neutral spaces in public around intensely personal matters even needs to be explained.”

Of course, Robert has a right to be surprised that in America that was born by the midwifery of Freedom from Governmental interference with Freedom of Choice, anyone who is public-spirited enough to accept the responsibility of serving in any governmental function would violate his or her sacred oath by interjecting their personal religion into public, governmental matters. Most American adults have been weaned on years of formal and incidental realization that the surest way to harm Religious Liberty is by governmental force of any particular Faith.

So, because just as Robert, I am amazed and concerned such issues still require mention in a newspaper, I will just say, Thank you, Robert!

Say What?

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Photo by Peg Redwine

Joseph Campbell says humans, homo sapiens, have created myths since there were humans, about 250,000 years. We create myths out of our hopes and fears but also our necessity to carry on the species. What Campbell notes is how similar human myths are regardless of who creates them or when. Campbell (1904-1987), who was reared a Catholic, was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College where he concentrated on comparative myths and religions. He is best known to most of us as the guru to movie producer George Lucas during the Star Wars saga where the audience easily accepted the myths of good and evil because they resonated with every culture.

In 1972 a few years before his work on Star Wars, Campbell wrote his book Myths to Live By that I have recently enjoyed but struggled with; it sounds benign but is not for casual diversion. However, the ordeal of the mental expedition is worth the exertion.

One can take hints from Campbell’s long-time employer, Sarah Lawrence College that is a small liberal arts institution whose motto is “Wisdom with understanding” and whose mascot is the mythical gryphon. Campbell, the recognized authority on mythology, and Sarah Lawrence formed a long-standing symbiotic relationship. Campbell’s central thesis is that myths are both universal and essential to civilization. He posits we should investigate and understand our culture’s myths and we fail to do so at our peril. Campbell cautions that when we falsely believe our myths are facts, we lose the benefits of the myths and can transform them into detriments.

Campbell examines the myths of numerous societies and concludes:

“Now the peoples of all the great civilizations everywhere have been prone to interpret their own symbolic figures literally, and so to regard themselves as favored in a special way, in direct contact with the Absolute.”

Campbell analyzes several of the world’s religions and states while they may be able to view other religions sympathetically, each thinks of their own as superior and often regard the gods of other religions as no gods at all but as devils and those who worship them as “godless”. On the other hand, for centuries adherents in Mecca, Rome and Jerusalem as well as Peking and India see themselves as “the chosen ones” directly connected with the Kingdom of Light or of God.

            Then Campbell puts things in modern, scientific and historical perspective:

“However, today such claims can no longer be taken seriously by anyone with even a kindergarten education.”

See p.10 of Myths to Live By.

Then Campbell does not dismiss myths or the religions based on them. Instead, he warns of the destabilizing forces in societies who do not understand their social orders are a product of their myths and that they lose contact with the morals engendered by their myths to the society’s detriment. As Campbell says:

“For since it has always been on myths that the moral orders of societies have been founded, the myths canonized as religion, and since the impact of science on myths results – apparently inevitably – in moral disequilibration, … (it is imperative that) we do not misrepresent and disqualify their necessity – …”

Well, Gentle Reader, I have already confessed the angst Campbell’s thoughts have caused me. The passing of Joseph Campbell reminds me of that marvelous description of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby:

“…[H]is mind would never again romp like the mind of God.”

Or, as Campbell might have said, “Any of the gods”.

As I struggle with Campbell’s encyclopedic knowledge of life and how myth is essential to it, I conclude as Campbell teaches, we need our myths and we need to recognize them as such.

On Her Own

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Our son, Jim on right, along with Canadian Platoon Leader & local Afghanis, 04/2002

Abraham Lincoln said he chose to not be a master because he would not choose to be a slave. Life is better if we get to make the choices for ourselves. We may choose unwisely but we would rather be wrong than be told what we can do. Independence of thought is usually within our control but independence of actions, for some, may depend on the largesse of others. Should we lose our independence when we have lived free for years it would be difficult to adjust. Afghanistan comes to mind. Afghanistan? Hey, folks, these columns do not need to be logical, they only need to be in writing. But it is not only the independence of women in Afghanistan that is my current concern but the independence of my older sister in Missouri.

Jane is currently in a hospital bed waiting the results of an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) test after her most recent fall. When we talked by phone this morning she spoke those dreaded words each of us may someday face, “This may be the end of my independent living.” Janie’s husband of more than fifty years passed away in 2012. She led a full life of public service before Bruce left her and has continued on her own until now. Janie has always been the go-to person for others to get things done. I fear an adjustment may now be required.

Janie grew up with three brothers. While our parents both worked outside our home, Janie used her good sense to keep our oldest brother on task and her two younger brothers from mayhem. Unfortunately, she moved out when she got married and left us to fend for ourselves. Now it may turn out she can no longer render assistance to others and may need help herself. I question whether such a paradigm shift will be a positive development. On the other hand, Janie has always done for herself as she did for others, or in her brothers’ cases, to others, so she may very well be back in charge of her life soon.

But let’s return to Afghanistan. When our soldier son spent a short portion of his Iraq war-time service in Afghanistan he became convinced the Afghan people held several loyalties higher than that to the country of Afghanistan. Jim concluded the Afghan men he met, he had no contact with women, were loyal first to their families, next to their particular tribe of which there are many, then to their religion and finally to what Americans call the nation of Afghanistan.

America has done for nation building in Afghanistan about what we did from 1492 until modern times “for” Native Americans. We must be slow learners. On the other hand, the Crusaders also sought to impose their religion on the Middle East. We may see ourselves in the faces of the male Taliban “infidels”.

I was raised by an independent mother and an independent sister. My wife, Peg, fits right in with them. When cable news shows Afghan females being returned to the times before our American invasion, I cannot but think of how I would feel if in their place. President Lincoln said it and I believe it. Of course, I also believe others should have the right to practice or not practice religion as they choose. So, I suppose I will continue to resent the TV images as I hope for Janie to be able to continue her independence and for Afghan females to find the same rights.

 

Ageless Wisdom

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When Jeanne and Nathan Maudlin as representatives of New Harmony, Indiana’s Working Men’s Institute that along with the University of Southern Indiana and the New Harmony Kiwanis Club is helping sponsor this year’s New Harmony Fourth of July celebration asked me to speak, my first thought was to research prior speeches. I am a judge after all and precedent is important to me. Jeanne graciously sent me a copy of the excellent book, New Harmony’s Fourth of July Tradition, by Donald Pitzer and Josephine Elliott.

The book includes verbatim Fourth of July speeches given by Robert Owen (1826), William Owen (1827) and Frances (Mad Fanny) Wright (1828). Each talk contains observations and advice that address issues that could have been found on the front pages of today’s newspapers or on T.V. news programs. War and peace, racial problems, women’s rights, religious discrimination and freedom of thought and action are exposited clearly.

Independence as declared on July 04, 1776 and our country’s often slow and incremental progress toward accomplishing the ideals encapsulated in our Constitution are referenced or implied in each address. As Frances Wright explained, the genius of our Founders was they gave us a government that we could change if we needed and wanted. Mad Fanny was called mad in 1828 because she called for freedom from religion, freedom for enslaved Negroes, equality for women and liberty from wars of aggression for the United States of America and all other countries. As not so mad Fanny might observe today, America has made substantial progress toward these ideals through incremental, democratic, constitutional change. Of course, we still have work to do.

In his address on July 04, 1827 William Owen, Robert’s twenty-five year old son, concentrated on the evils of superstition and bloody wars of aggression as egged on by various religions. And William Owen thanked the heroes of July 04, 1776 for fighting for our liberty and freedom of speech:

“Are we prepared to exercise the right, as we enjoy the power, secured to us by the heroes of the revolution, of expressing our thoughts openly and sincerely? Are we willing to run the risks they encountered? Are we ready like them to meet the prejudices of past times, to risk name and reputation in the cause of truth, – in defense of the honest expression of our opinions?”

William both recognized the sacrifices made by our Founders and cautioned of the repercussions should we fail to follow our own Constitution:

“Man had been slowly but gradually freeing himself from that thraldom in which he was so long enslaved, when our ancestors, on that day, the anniversary of which we this morning celebrate, by one bold step recovered that state of liberty and independence, which is the birthright of humanity, and gave a death blow, to the unnatural league between despotism and superstition, by the adoption of a Constitution, which forever precludes, so long as adhered to, the recurrence of such an unhappy connection.”

Robert Owen, whose vision of humanity and equality was the bedrock of the secular commune of New Harmony, 1825-1828 (c), on July 04, 1826 fearlessly stated his view as to the root cause of the world’s evils:

“Religion, or Superstition – for all religions have proved themselves to be Superstitions, – by destroying the judgment, irrationalized all the mental faculties of man, and made him the most abject slave, through the fear of non-entities created solely by his own disordered imagination.”

Owen was a wealthy industrialist who cared about his workers and their families. He put in place many of the better conditions of employment that eventually were adopted by the United States of America, and other countries. Owen fought for women’s equality, freedom from religion and the avoidance of wars of aggression. And along with numerous other idealists such as his own sons, William Maclure of the Working Men’s Institute fame and Frances Wright, Robert Owen established a legacy that all of us in Posey County should treasure.

Gentle Reader, if you wish to help carry on New Harmony’s Fourth of July traditions of celebrating our Independence, the festivities begin the morning of July 04, 2019 at the Atheneum in New Harmony. Peg and I plan to be there and look forward to the reading of the Declaration of Independence by our friend Chuck Minnette as well as a golf cart parade, hot dogs and patriotic music. Hope to see you there. Happy birthday!