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Religious Freedom Crusader or Ignorant Religious Bigot? 

The big twitter-fight story of this week in America was of course Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to provide a marriage license to a same-sex couple. Her refusal to, as a county official, obey the law has landed her in jail for contempt of court.

People on Facebook and Twitter are spouting off either supporting her or denouncing her for either her obstinacy, rebellion, or courage.

How people view her is of course a function of how they view other issues.

• Should she resign her post if her job forces her to violate her conscience?
• Does she have a right to impose her Christian belief on the state of Kentucky?

Others note that such temporary lawlessness is not uncommon in American history even on this subject. In 2004 then San Francisco mayor violated California law by offering marriage licenses to same sex couples. He didn’t wind up in jail but the license were invalidated for a time.

The issues this incident raises go back to the reasons the United States was founded as a secular nation. If people can’t agree on what God thinks about things, or even if there is a God, then the government can’t be used to impose anyone else’s “god stuff” on others. This entire system was designed to allow religious authority but keep it separate from governmental authority.

After hundreds of years of inter-Christian bloodshed in Europe the great compromise was to allow the government “use of the sword” while Christians mostly submitted to it but were allowed freedom of speech. This was the American solution to Europe’s holy war problem. One author suggests in fact that World War I was actually Europe’s last religious war.

The Most Tenacious People in History

Paul Johnson in his book A History of the Jews sees this tension as going all the way back to Abraham and Moses. Once Yhwh declares to his people “you shall have no other god before me” religious authority and political authority are set on an inevitable collision course. For most of world history differences over god or gods were resolved either by addition (having multiple gods) or conquest (killing those who hold different ideas about God or gods). Kings and nations fought for a god or a group of gods and conquered in their names. Conquered populations usually simply added the new conquering god to their list of family gods and the gods of past conquerors. When Yhwh declares exclusive allegiance, however, tensions get raised.

Johnson calls the Jews “the most tenacious people in history” because the Jews both embodied these tensions and have survived them for thousands of years, a feat which is unique and perhaps even miraculous in all of human history. These tensions have run throughout their history. How can they stay distinct and engage productively with their neighbors around them who are often stronger than they are. Through most of their history they were at the weak end of engagement with neighbors and had to figure out how to survive from below. When they weren’t, however, they often looked back to the book of Joshua for inspiration and affirmation.

Greek Domination of Judah Continue reading →