Dana Blankenhorn writes a long piece on secular humanism that touches on many topics of interest in America right now.  Intelligent design, the separation of church and state, science vs. belief, etc. As usual I don’t agree with some of what he says, do agree with much of it, and think alot because of it.

A couple of paragraphs really grabbed me.  Here’s the first:

Faith is meaningless if it is compelled. If a soup kitchen feeds you,
then demands you pray to its God in order to take that soup, is your
prayer really worth anything? If a school demands your child recite a
specific prayer, to a specific God, at a specific time, in a specific
way, where is the God in that? Where is the faith in that child?

This paragraph provoked a tangential thought process that helped me articulate my problem with evangelism. It is this:

If you need to tell me, repeatedly, why your religion (notice I said religion, not God) is so great then my first instinct is to look for its weakness.  On the other hand if while having lunch together I hear you talk about the wonderful experiences you’ve had while volunteering at your church’s soup kitchen, see your eyes light up when you talk about the great people you’ve met while building homeless shelters, sense the community you feel whenever you chaperone your church’s youth group trips, I see you as a representative of all that is good with your religion.  I may not join (do I really need to for you to have fulfilled your evangelistic mission?) but I will come to believe that your church is a true community of good, of doing what God put you, us, on Earth to do.

The next part of Dana’s post that grabbed me was this:

America is also a nation of 10,000 faiths, all actively practiced, all loudly proclaimed.

We have Bahai and Buddhist temples, Shiite, Sunni and Black Muslims.

We have Maronite and Roman Catholics, Russian and Greek Orthodox. We
have Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish temples. We have a
wealth of faiths invented right here – Mormons and Southern Baptists –
as well as churches that get by merely on their ministers’ brand name…

America is the most religious nation in the history of the planet.
We’re a Christian nation, but we are also a Buddhist one, and a Muslim
one, and a Hindu one. When God hears the prayers of America, he or she
hears dozens of languages, a great cacophony. And then there are the
atheists and agnostics who either don’t know God or don’t care.

All this is worth cherishing. All this is worth savoring. All this
is worth protecting. This is our legacy, it’s what makes us special.

My thought tangent here diverted to the damage that the exclusionary aspect of many religions is doing to our society.  If you’re not with us then you’re against us.

Those same people who stand there and proclaim the greatness of their religion also preach that their’s is the only way.  If I, or you, do not join them we will not be saved.  I will be excluded.  I am an outsider.

This kind of thinking is human in that almost all people surround themselves with people like themselves.  We fear people who are different. Unfortunately many leaders understand how to take advantage of this fear. They use this fear to manipulate us for their own ends, whether it be the furthering of their particular ideology or the gain of power and influence in the secular world.

As Dana points out, the true power of America is that we accept all faiths under our umbrella.  We recognize each individual’s right to believe in their own religion, or to not have a religion.  We are inclusive, not exclusive.   We have overcome our natural fear of "others", although it has never happened quickly (ask the Irish and Italian immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th century).

America is definitely a nation of economic haves and have nots, but it is also a nation that has led the way in offering personal liberty.  It is by nature an inclusive society.

My fear right now is of those leaders that would claim America for their particular faith.  America is NOT a Christian nation, nor a Muslim nation, nor a Hindu nation.  It is a nation that accepts all of these faiths and more.  It is a scaffold that supports all religions and none.

To close the loop let me say this:  I do not want to evangelize for America, for the same reason that I don’t want someone to evangelize their religion to me.  I want to lead my life so that I can be a representative of what is good about America.  I want my actions to speak for my belief.