Privileged Faith
With the recent statements by the President that our country will prioritize Christian immigrants, one once again finds renewed energy behind the idea that his is a Christian nation and always has been. It isn't and it hasn't. Though heavily influenced by Christianity, we are not a Christian nation in the same way we call other nations "Muslim."
That's not my point, though. My point is that whenever a country, state, or government prioritizes a particular religion, that comes with a number of perhaps not so obvious consequences.
To begin with, to prioritize means to rank and if one religion is ranked as a top priority, all others have to be relegated to secondary, tertiary, etc. or be dumped completely.
Second, when a religion becomes state sponsored it no longer has a voice that can run counter to that of the government. While the religion may have been favorable to a government (which usually lead to preferential treatment), it now has great difficulty offering a dissenting opinion.
Third, when a religion becomes a state religion, it can quickly become the only legal way to worship. That means the death knell for any and all other expressions of faith - perhaps even within that preferred religion itself. That also can enable the preferred faith to act without oversight.
For example, in 386, when Christianity was the only legal religion in Rome, a non-Christian named Libanius wrote to the emperor to reign in the Christians who now had the privilege of office as well as that of a justifying faith. These Christians, he wrote, "hasten to attack the temples with sticks and stones and bars of iron, and in some cases, disdaining these, with hands and feet. Then utter desolation follows, with the stripping of roofs, demolition of walls, the tearing down of statues and the overthrowing of altars, and the priests must either keep quiet or die." (as quoted in Jonathan Wright's book Heretics (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011) p. 55)
Whatever actions taken by such a privileged religion could be reprimanded or, on the other hand, they could be legitimated by the state. And whatever history a church, mosque, temple, or whatever else one held is lost - as has been the case with ISIS working so feverishly to erase any history of Islam that doesn't favor their way of thinking.
So while Christians might rejoice in this privileged spot, one might want to consider the ramifications - especially if the shoe is ever on another foot.
That's not my point, though. My point is that whenever a country, state, or government prioritizes a particular religion, that comes with a number of perhaps not so obvious consequences.
To begin with, to prioritize means to rank and if one religion is ranked as a top priority, all others have to be relegated to secondary, tertiary, etc. or be dumped completely.
Second, when a religion becomes state sponsored it no longer has a voice that can run counter to that of the government. While the religion may have been favorable to a government (which usually lead to preferential treatment), it now has great difficulty offering a dissenting opinion.
Third, when a religion becomes a state religion, it can quickly become the only legal way to worship. That means the death knell for any and all other expressions of faith - perhaps even within that preferred religion itself. That also can enable the preferred faith to act without oversight.
For example, in 386, when Christianity was the only legal religion in Rome, a non-Christian named Libanius wrote to the emperor to reign in the Christians who now had the privilege of office as well as that of a justifying faith. These Christians, he wrote, "hasten to attack the temples with sticks and stones and bars of iron, and in some cases, disdaining these, with hands and feet. Then utter desolation follows, with the stripping of roofs, demolition of walls, the tearing down of statues and the overthrowing of altars, and the priests must either keep quiet or die." (as quoted in Jonathan Wright's book Heretics (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011) p. 55)
Whatever actions taken by such a privileged religion could be reprimanded or, on the other hand, they could be legitimated by the state. And whatever history a church, mosque, temple, or whatever else one held is lost - as has been the case with ISIS working so feverishly to erase any history of Islam that doesn't favor their way of thinking.
So while Christians might rejoice in this privileged spot, one might want to consider the ramifications - especially if the shoe is ever on another foot.
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