On Religion

I woke up late this morning, around 9:00, and turned on the TV.

I got to sleep in because I went to church yesterday afternoon, fulfilling my Sunday obligation. After church I stopped at my house and, in between downpours, planted the cherry tree and blueberry bushes that were sent as replacements for the ones I planted last year that never leafed out. After that I came back here, took a shower, spent too much time on the Internet, and went to bed.

I woke and turned on TV. The usual Sunday morning crap was clogging up the cable. (Wait, I'm paying for this?) Megachurch preacher after megachurch preacher spouting their own variations of the gospel of zealous hate that has taken over for what used to be a religion of love. Cults of personality built around men in natty suits with slick hairstyles and headset microphones, all promising special intercession with God in exchange for your donation - checks and money orders accepted, credit cards preferred.

I got to thinking about all the people I know who are atheists. A new zealotry has gradually crept into atheism. Live-and-let-live is not an acceptable approach in the eyes of many modern atheists. Religiosity in any form, to any extent, must be stamped out, ridiculed, its practitioners treated with contempt and disgust. Even agnosticism, the expression of uncertainty about the existence of God or the supernatural, is inadequate and is seen as a form of collaboration, a lack of courage to take a stand and pick a side. And where religious extremists are considered bad, religious moderates are looked upon as even worse - because they put a face on religion that is acceptable to the general public.

I got out of bed, made my morning ablutions, started to think about breakfast. I checked our apple supply. Too many. If we were to buy apples this Tuesday, shopping day, there would be a lot of rotten apples by next Tuesday, but if we were not to buy apples there would not be enough to last the week. So my breakfast decision was made: apple fritters. That would take three apples out of the equation.

As I chopped the apples and mixed the batter, Meet the Press was on NBC. It was a special episode, a memorial for longtime host Tim Russert who died on Friday. As Tom Brokaw and James Carville and Mary Matalin and other friends and colleagues of Tim Russert told their stories, one theme kept presenting itself over and over: the pervasive influence that his Catholicism had had on his life. He was a product of a Catholic education, taught by nuns and Jesuits, and he carried his Catholic values with him in his daily life. And as the stories rolled on, I thought about how his religion - my religion - is not the same one as that of the TV preachers I had seen an hour earlier. None of the stories his friends told were about his zealotry, about how he rammed his religion down anyone else's throat.

This is what makes the difference to me. Let your beliefs inform your actions, because it is your actions that convey the content of your character. If this is unacceptable to those who see themselves as arguing from a position of absolute truth, a truth known only to themselves and those who share their worldview - well, that's just too damned bad. I won't reject you for your beliefs, though you may reject me for mine. Preach whatever you want, but what you do and how you treat others are more important in the end. I'd rather be in the company of those who act like Tim Russert, anyway.