Religion’s Role in U.S.? Look in the Middle of the Road

Once again, a “religion” story makes the front page of America’s newspapers, and, once again, church leaders come across as being out of touch with mainstream American thought. In this case--with Southern Baptist Church leaders urging a boycott of the Disney empire--the church even seems out of touch with many of its own members.

The Baptist-Disney controversy, fueled by Disney’s embracing of its gay employees, follows a similar action last year by the Assemblies of God’s national leadership and previous protests by other religious groups.

And we wonder why the secularists have such a field day with the religionists. Or why so many others throw up their hands when contemplating the role of religion in American life.

The flap comes just as I’m finishing “Hallowed Ground” by Stephen Burgard, a friend of mine and the editorial page editor for The Times Orange County Edition. Burgard’s book will disappoint many people who believe all newspaper types are secular humanists who abhor the idea of religion in public places. I knew him to be religious about the Boston Red Sox, but it turns out that his beliefs run deeper than even baseball.

He writes that the most strident voices on the religious (or nonreligious) spectrum dominate public discourse, sending the mainstream running for cover. Disturbed by that, Burgard argues that religion and discussion of “values” does indeed belong in the public square and is, in fact, a vital component in a democracy.

“It is easy for moderates in the current national atmosphere to fall behind or be shouted down,” Burgard writes. “It is safer for many of those who are churchgoers or are religiously inclined [and] who believe in putting their shoulders to the wheel to do their work out of the line of fire at the local level.”

And while he applauds various local efforts around the country, including an ambitious effort in Anaheim, Burgard argues for a national discussion to reinfuse religion into our public life. He sees a burgeoning “middle ground” of religious adherents in America, composed of a multiethnic, multifaith nucleus that could re-energize our democracy.

That middle ground, he says, “has the potential in modern times to be what the 19th century observer Alexis de Tocqueville saw of America in his day, a place where religion operated as a positive force, practiced freely and keeping the government on its toes.”

Nowadays, of course, many people shudder when they contemplate the church-state relationship. That’s because, Burgard says, we’re conditioned to a debate framed by televangelist Pat Robertson on one hand and the American Civil Liberties Union on the other.

While chiding the religious right for its inflexibility, Burgard also notes that “the left also has tended to be unwilling to acknowledge the potential for a comfortable accommodation of faith activism in modern democracy. The people in the middle are the ones who appear most open to real change through the application of moral and spiritual perspectives to modern society’s problems.”

Why, you might ask, does it matter if there’s such a thing as “public religion”? Isn’t it sufficient that people go to church and pray and worship privately? Burgard takes a more aggressive tack and has, I think, tapped a vein that is rife with possibilities.

Sure, religious pursuit could be passive and private, he says. But the payoffs to society would be greater if religion were unharnessed in a way that involved the millions who now don’t want to fight over it. “How do we come up with something better than Pat Robertson versus the ACLU as the defining image of religion on the state of a nation’s life?” he asks.

We can start, he says, with a national declaration, of sorts, that religion is important in American life.

He talks about marrying religious impulses and democracy “at some deep level.” Such an effort is worth it, he says, because “it seeks to replace an existential view that nothing matters beyond the immediate moment, because there is nothing more purposeful to live for, with the idea that a democratic society is worth investing in for the good of its individuals and for the collective welfare of all its members.”

It would take a book to explain how he wants to go about it, but an unavoidable requirement is that the country become more knowledgeable and receptive to the myriad beliefs that now make up the American religious scene.

Noting that there are now about 1,600 denominations in the United States, half of them non-Christian, Burgard writes, “What seems obvious is that there is no turning back to an earlier time. Those who are preaching a return to exclusively Christian traditions are swimming against the tide and arguing a very limited version of what the moral mainstream really is.”

In one of mankind’s great ironies, religion has been a source of contention and strife since its inception. It isn’t supposed to be that way, and in the laboratory that will be 21st century America, it shouldn’t be, Burgard says.

America historically has prided itself on merely tolerating religious differences, he says. “However, it is now clear that we will be a better society, and better human beings, if we can manage to go a bit further. Now we must look beyond mere toleration to seek and promote all that is good and true that religions have in common.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.