Religious intervention a tricky thing
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One day I was walking along a street in Woodstock with a fellow teacher on our way to an event at the head office of Oxford County Board of Education. Our conversation turned to religion. I was in a phase change, questioning the kind of gospel message that Billy Graham and his brother-in-law were dishing out. I sang in a choir when their crusade came to Tillsonburg for a week. We performed in churches and in the old Capitol theatre on Broadway.
Our Senior Centre Singers are rehearsing some of the very music we belted out in the middle of the last century for the World Day of Prayer service coming to North Broadway Baptist Church on March 1st.
I questioned the existence of God. I could find no way to test for a deity. My friend Merlyn Boyce explained that it isn't a matter of science, it's a matter of faith.
Just the other day a commentator wrote about the numbers of people who choose to get money in compensation for some social disadvantage or physical handicap rather than by finding a job. "So much for the work ethic," he said.
This remark revealed a gap in the writer's knowledge. Tycoons in the industrial revolution asked the same question I asked Merlyn. They called on God for a sign that they were on the right track. They decided that if their enterprise made money it was God's affirmation, but there was a catch. If they used the wealth for their own enjoyment it wouldn't jibe with Godliness. They felt they must re-invest the money in the business. This they called the work ethic.
Over time people forgot about the origin of the term and it became a sort of commandment. Thou shalt have a work ethic. St. Paul in second Thessalonians
said, "... if any would not work, neither should he eat." That Biblical admonition was centuries old when the industrialists coined their phrase, but they fit so well as to result in confusion.
Probably St. Paul was talking about the work of spreading the gospel rather than physical work. That was his theme, but it's easy to take him literally.
Last week Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the creation of the Office of Religious Freedom. It is headed by ambassador Andrew Bennett. The title defines the levers he will use to encourage the protection of religious minorities around the world. Bennett will have no power to hale those who attack minorities into court as the head of The World Court can do. He must try to persuade God's bullies to lay off.
This is a good thing. Imagine the rivers of blood that would flow if some cleric were arrested for trial.
Harper praised Dr. Bennett as a man of principle and deep convictions. He will need the wisdom of Solomon to determine whether a sect deserves to be free to practice its faith or not. Fringes like James Jones' Jonestown certainly do not qualify nor the madness that erupted in Waco under David Koresh.
Adolph Hitler's Aryanism infected millions and set the stage for the cancer in the Middle East that threatens world peace today. Hitler planned to kill the Russians to make room for his soldier farmers. Winston Churchill carried the torch of freedom for all, and not with moral suasion, in spite of his hatred of communism.
The British had their own biased attitude about other cultures, as revealed in Kipling's Recessional phrase, "Or lesser breeds without the law."
Farzana Hassan in the London Free Press expects more from the new office. She writes of research, policy statements and initiatives in expanding current hate laws, all going beyond moral suasion.
Dr. Bennett will not lead the new office forever. A new head may push for policies with more bite. Bullies are sure to bite back if this happens.