Church And State

Issue 21 Spring/Summer 2008

Faiths and Nations I

n May the World Pantheist Movement’s board of directors voted 12:0 (with one abstention) that the WPM should become associated with Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU - www.au.org). We have already been involved with AU before, over the Supreme Court case in which Michael Newdow objected to schoolchildren being asked to recite the US pledge including the words “one nation under God.” In that case we submitted a friend of court brief. Our association with AU does not imply any degree of subordination. It’s basically an expression of solidarity and shared goals - it means that we are aligned and allied as far as our commitment to church-state separation goes. We can draw upon their resources and speakers, and in return we will circulate (via the WPM Action list) their materials, and encourage awareness of this issue as it exists in the US and also in other countries. The level of church-state separation that’s feasible is sometimes exaggerated. For example, it’s probably unrealistic to expect people to keep their religious beliefs completely out of politics. Religion relates to and inspires people’s deepest values, and these values are going to influence what policies they favor, and what politicians they will vote for. Pantheists would be very likely to favor policies to protect nature, just as strongly as some Christians favor policies to ban gay marriage or to severely restrict abortions. However, a critical threshold is crossed when people use the state to impose their beliefs on others, or to restrict the rights of people who disagree with them. Freedom of religion and separation of church and state have been important for the World Pantheist Movement from the beginning – as our belief statement says: We uphold the separation of religion and state, and the universal human right of freedom of religion. The promotion of this value is important to our love of nature and our respect for science. The theory of evolution is

central to our naturalistic view of the Universe and Nature, not only because it fits the scientific facts best, but also because it describes how living things have come to harmonize with the environment of living and non-living things that surrounds them. When people who believe the literal creation accounts in the Bible use political power to try to suppress teaching of evolution or to introduce teaching of intelligent design “theory,” they are using the state to spread the beliefs of their church and putting obstacles in the way of science teaching. That goes counter not only to the rights of Pantheists and other non-Bible-based groups – it also infringes all children’s rights to modern education (see Pan issue 14). These issues are also closely linked to our commitment to wider human rights. The right to religious freedom and to non-discrimination on the basis of religion is enshrined in key United Nations legal documents. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) states that: §18. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Church-state links create problems for these religious rights. They are most commonly suppressed in countries with an official state religion. This is the case in some Islamic countries with very restricted freedom for religious minorities – and was the case in many communist countries where the official ideology was atheist, and all religions faced some degree of restriction or harassment. In theory, religious freedoms can be protected for minority beliefs even where there is no clear separation of church and state – in countries with an established state church, like Norway or England, people from other religions are free to teach, practice, worship and observe. However, established official religions usually enjoy powers and privileges that are not shared by minority beliefs. Such discrimination in favour of one particular religion

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is in direct conflict with the spirit of some other provisions of the UN human rights instruments, which promote the principle of non-discrimination. Most of these provisions are modelled on this clause of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: §2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Other rights relate, for example, to the right to stand for political office regardless of religious beliefs. The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights (1966) states: §25. Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any . . . distinctions . . . and without unreasonable restrictions: (a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives; (b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors; (c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country. The UN Declaration On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Intolerance And Of Discrimination Based On Religion Or Belief (1981) proclaims that: §2.1 No one shall be subject to discrimination by any State, institution, group of persons, or person on grounds of religion or other beliefs. §2.2. . . . The expression “intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief” means any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on religion or belief and having as its purpose or as its effect nullification or impairment of the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms on an equal basis. Religious restrictions on public office in the UK and in Norway are clearly in conflict with the UN instruments: some offices, such as the monarchy, are not available on an “equal basis.” Even where there are legal guarantees to prevent church interference in the state, religions can infiltrate public institutions in many different ways. In the USA, for example, the First Amendment to the constitution decrees that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” And yet the currency carries the slogan “In God we trust,” and the Pledge of Allegiance contains the words “One Nation under God.” These measures have escaped being banned by the Supreme Court because they it has been ruled that they don’t establish any one particular religion or sect – however, they do establish monotheism as the belief system of the USA, thereby favoring Abrahamic religions over polytheistic, 2

non-theistic or atheistic beliefs such as Buddhism, Pantheism or Humanism. The effect is to make non-theists feel as if in some way we do not “belong” or are excluded. Some public services are available preferentially to people of faith. Some of the most blatant examples of this are the military chaplain services. US Air Force chaplains work under the slogan “Glorifying God, Honoring Airmen, Serving All.” US Army chaplains have the official mission “to bring God to Soldiers and Soldiers to God” and they “serve both God and country by bringing their unique gifts with which they are endowed by God, to the Soldiers of our nation.” These precepts lead to an ethos where it seems permissible for Christian pastors to try to convert soldiers, or to criticize Pantheist, Humanist, or Pagan beliefs. In some institutions there have been instances of officers putting overt pressure on soldiers to convert or to join in public Christian worship. All these abuses demonstrate the continued determination of powerful religious groups to use the state to advance the cause of their own religion, to impose their religion on others, or to deny the full range of equal rights to minority religions. That is why we need organizations like the AU in America, or the National Secular Society in the UK, that maintain vigilance to look out for abuses and to combat them where they exist. That is why the WPM strongly backs these organizations in their essential work.

Faithful to God, we’re serving on the battlefield today. Embracing the cause of righteousness, we’re marching on our way! Soldiers of God! We serve Him faithfully! And march, in His Name, through thunder and flame, wherever the call may be. Trusting in God, His Strength we lean upon! As into the fight, the Legions of Light, the Soldiers of God march on! We are there as the chaplains of the Nation Everywhere with our fighting congregation! Serving the LORD, and serving the cause of humanity! Onward we go, ‘til victory is won! For justice and right, the Legions of Light, the Soldiers of God...Soldiers of God... Soldiers of God...March on! [Official emblem and song of the US Army Chaplaincy]

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The AU outlines its major issues Church Politicking As tax-exempt entities, houses of worship may address political and social issues, but federal tax law bars most non-profit groups from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office. Pulpitbased electioneering not only violates federal law, many believe it corrupts the true mission of our faith communities. It is not the job of religious leaders to tell people which candidates to vote for or not vote for.

Defending the courts Majority vote determines the course of most of our public affairs, but some fundamental freedoms, like religious liberty and the rights to speak freely and to vote, are never subject to majority vote because political majorities can deny minorities’ equal rights. Courts are especially important in protecting religious minorities from politically powerful religious majorities. In order to protect this sacred liberty, however, judges and justices must respect church-state separation. AU works to make sure judicial nominees will uphold this principle before they are appointed to the bench. Lawmakers who disagree with some church-state decisions have tried to pass laws barring cases on the Pledge of Allegiance and government-sponsored religion from going to federal court. AU works to protect a citizen’s right to stop government transgressions in court if necessary.

Faith based initiatives. The so-called “faith-based” initiative is a euphemism for taxpayersupported religion. The initiative funnels taxpayer dollars to religious social service providers without adequate safeguards to prevent proselytism. Americans in need of social services, such as welfare support, job training, emergency shelter and food/clothing supplies, should be able to get the help they need without being pressured to take part in religious activities. In addition, these groups try to discriminate in hiring based on religion even though their programs are publicly funded. In those cases where religious groups want to take tax aid to provide relief, they should first agree to run secular programs and drop all forms of religiously based discrimination from their hiring policies. In 2006, Americans United challenged the Iowa Corrections Department’s support for Charles Colson’s Inner Change, a prison program that trains inmates in evangelical Christianity.

to be married in a house of worship, marriage itself is ultimately a civil institution; access to it should not be defined or limited because of religious strictures.

Religion In Public School Because public schools serve children from different religious and philosophical backgrounds, the classroom is an inappropriate place for school-sponsored worship. School officials should not prescribe prayers or teach religious doctrines, such as creationism, in the classroom. Parents are the proper agents to determine what religion, if any, their children are exposed to. Public schools have no right to usurp parental authority by imposing religion on schoolchildren. Mandatory prayer, Bible reading or other religious activities sponsored by public schools are fundamental violations of the right of conscience. Public school students have the right to pray on their own in a non-disruptive fashion, and schools may teach about religion as a part of objective instruction, but public schools must not sponsor religious worship. That job belongs to America’s houses of worship. Aggressive religious pressure groups are pushing school boards nationwide to change the curriculum to conform to their doctrines. Backed by national Religious Right organizations, proponents of “intelligent design” seek to drive evolution from the science classroom and replace it with their interpretation of the Bible. If they succeed, church-state separation and sound science education may be irreparably harmed.

Religious School Vouchers Americans have the right to support only the religious groups of their choosing. Vouchers and other forms of government aid to religious schools usurp this privilege by forcing all taxpayers to subsidize indoctrination. Often, religious schools promote sectarian dogma and take controversial stands on issues such as gay rights, the role of women in society and reproductive freedom. Taxpayers should not be required to subsidize the spread of religious/moral opinions they may strongly disagree with. Religious organizations are free to sponsor schools, but they should pay for their upkeep. Americans must be free to contribute only to the religious groups of their choosing. From the AU website: www.au.orgs

Marriage And Sexuality Opponents of church-state separation, led by the Religious Right, extol the “traditional” family of a married couple with children. While many American families fit this mold, others do not. All loving families, regardless of their composition, deserve support from government and society. The government should respect American diversity by not imposing one tradition’s narrow view of marriage and sexuality on the entire country. The government must not deny adoption, child custody and other fundamental rights to families labeled “non-traditional” because of religious bias or narrow interpretations of holy books held by certain religious believers. The government must also recognize that while many couples choose

US views on church-state relations Should political leaders rely on religion when making decisions? Yes No Republicans 62 35 Democrats 27 65 Should religious leaders try to influence politicians? Yes No Republicans 48 50 Democrats 28 71 2004-05 data. Source: American Theocracy, Kevin Phillips 3

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Models of church-state relations range from state religions and state churches, to concordats and secular states. It has proved

difficult to find a balance between human rights, non-discrimination and full religious freedoms.

Under Islam, religion and state

are closely linked. Since the time of Mohammed the Islamic community and the state were considered one and the same – the political ruler was also the prime spiritual leader. Islam was relatively tolerant - at least when compared to Christendom in the Middle Ages. Jews and Christians - “People of the Book” - were permitted to observe their religions as long as they paid a special tax, although they were not allowed to proselytize. Followers of other beliefs – pagans and polytheists – were required to convert to Islam. Muslims were not allowed to convert away from Islam, and the punishment for conversion was death. Today, 27 countries have Islam as their official state religion. Five of these call themselves Islamic states, in which all laws must conform with Islamic beliefs. A few countries such as Saudi Arabia – and the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan - still have religious police or vigilantes who enforce Islamic dress and behavior codes. In a number of Islamic countries today, observance of non-Islamic religions is permitted in private, but not in public, so churches, synagogues and other temples are not tolerated. In Saudi Arabia, Islam is the official religion, and all citizens must be Muslims. Religious freedom is not recognized or protected, and basic religious freedoms are denied to all but the statesanctioned version of Sunni Islam. Citizens are denied the freedom to choose or change their religion, and many non-citizens, including Muslims, practice their beliefs under severe restrictions. The Government limits the practice of all but the officially sanctioned version of Islam and prohibits the public practice of other religions. In Iran, members of religious minorities, excluding Sunni Muslims, are prevented from serving in the judiciary and security services, from being elected to representative bodies (except for 5 of the 290 seats in Parliament) or from holding hold senior government or military positions. Adherents of religious groups not recognized by the Constitution, such as the Bahá’ís, do not have freedom to practice their beliefs.

Britain is a post-religious society

where most people have their own idiosyncratic spiritual beliefs, outside the sphere of organized religion. Only 4 percent of people attend church on a weekly basis, compared to over 40 percent in the USA. The right to religious freedoms is guaranteed in the European Convention of Human Rights, which has the force of law O Lord our God arise, in the UK. Scatter her enemies It is a surprising anomAnd make them fall; aly that England has an ofConfound their politics, ficially established church, Frustrate their knavish tricks, the Church of England On Thee our hopes we fix, (Anglican – the US branch God save us all! is known as Episcopalian). The C of E is quite a [From the British small minority sect – only around one million people National Anthem] take communion in a C of 4

E church at Easter or Christmas. Since 1532-34, when Henry VIII broke off relations with the Vatican and established the Church of England, the British monarch has been titular head of the church and must be a member of the church. No-one can succeed to the throne if they have ever been a Roman Catholic, or have ever been married to one. Church-state connections remain extensive in the UK. Coins still carry the motto “Fid. Def.” - defender of the faith. Prince Charles stirred some controversy when he declared his goal, as future monarch, to be “defender of faiths” not just of one faith. The Prime Minister still has the power to appoint Church of England bishops. Some 26 of the principal bishops have seats in the legislature as “Lords Spiritual” – making up about 3 per cent of the 750 lords but probably a higher share of the average attendance and votes. Faith schools are allowed, and are generously subsidized by the State. In fact religious schools make up about one third of all schools and account for one quarter of all school places. Perhaps the most invasive example of church-state interference in England and Wales is the obligation (introduced in 1988) for a “daily act of collective worship” in schools. This must be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character.” Heads who feel this is inappropriate for their mix of pupils – for example if they have a high proportion of Muslims - have to apply for an exemption. In practice many heads ignore the “broadly Christian” requirement and hold multifaith or generically spiritual or ethics-related assemblies. Apart from the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association, there is very little public protest about the churchstate situation. It’s puzzling why this situation has persisted in

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the UK. Certainly, official traditions have a peculiar hold on the British psyche, long after they have lost their original meaning. Also, the bodies that want to keep the status quo are better organized and better funded to put political pressure on government. It may also be that politicians consider Anglicans as a clear interest group of voters, who would be much more deeply offended if church privileges were removed, than the irreligious majority would be pleased. Paul Harrison

In Italy, the Bishop of Rome

, the Pope, is the head of the Catholic Church, and also the head of state of the Vatican City, located in the heart of Rome. For many centuries, the Pope was the temporal ruler of Rome and the Papal States, which were absorbed into Italy in 1870. In 1929, under Mussolini, the Lateran treaties regularized relations between Italy and the Holy See. They remain in force today. They estabBrothers of Italy, lished the Vatican State, Italy has awoken . . financial compensation Where is Victory? for the loss of the Papal Let her bow down, States, and a Concordat For God has made her which confirmed CatholiRome’s slave. cism as the state-supported religion of Italy. A struggle began in [From the Italian 1948 between the CathoNational Anthem] lic Church and the Communist Party of Italy, with

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blatant political interference by Pius XII, who appealed to Italians not to vote Communist, and excommunicated all Italian Catholics who were Communist candidates. From 1948 to 1992, as Italy became increasingly secular, the Catholic Church was unable to prevent the introduction of divorce in 1970 and of abortion in 1978, both of which were confirmed by popular referenda. The Concordat was revised in 1984. The Catholic Church was disestablished as the only religion of the state. In 1989, the Constitutional Court pronounced that the state is secular (laico). Taxpayers pay 0.8 percent of their income tax deductions to the Catholic Church or other religious or charitable bodies. There are seven choices including the Lutheran Church and the Jewish Community, but the Catholic church gets 87 percent of the approximately Euro 1 billion assessed each year. Half of this pays the salaries of 39,000 priests, while the rest supports building maintenance, charitable work, etc. The new Concordat provides for optional religious instruction in public primary and secondary schools. The salaries of 22,000 teachers of religion are paid by the Italian state and amount to about Euro 650 million annually. An additional Euro 750 million per annum are spent on support to Church-run schools and hospitals. It is estimated that the Catholic Church costs Italian taxpayers some Euro 4 billion annually. The Catholic Church is also very prominent in broadcasting, with religious affairs being reported in the news on the state-owned television channels on a scale second only to politics. TV broadcasts of Papal masses enjoy immense audiences, and television plays based on the lives of religious personalities are frequently shown. There is little criticism of the Catholic Church on the part of Italian politicians, who bend over backwards to accommodate the Church’s views on social issues, including same-sex marriage, euthanasia and stem-cell research. Catholic symbols such as crucifixes and images of the Virgin Mary are omnipresent in schools, hospitals, law courts and other public places. The majority of national public holidays are religious holidays, not to mention local celebrations of the patron saints of every town and village. Few Italians believe that the State is truly secular when the Catholic Church exercises such influence over politics, education, the media and the everyday lives of citizens. Tor Myrvang

France and Turkey are both secular

republics and have constitutions which state this explicitly. Both countries have enforced bans on the wearing of religious symbols or apparel in public institutions (including schools and universities.) In France a law of 2004 bans the wearing of Islamic hijabs, Sikh turbans, conspicuous Christian crosses and Jewish Stars of David in public schools. In Turkey headscarves may not be worn in schools and universities. These policies are controversial since they go beyond the state refraining from endorsing any particular religion – some people regard them as infringing the individual right to public expression of religious beliefs. P.H. 5

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Exclusion and inclusion

Members discuss their experiences and views of church-state interaction

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y daughter played basketball for public high school, and one of the parents (who was a Baptist minister) would say the Lord’s Prayer with the team in the huddle before each game in the high school gym. Although I wasn’t a pantheist back then, and wasn’t really anything in terms of a religious label, that whole thing bothered me and made me uncomfortable. I knew it wasn’t right, that he didn’t speak for everyone in that gym, that it was a sporting event not a religious one, but I let it slide, never said anything. I would have been in the definite minority in my small southern town in thinking that way. To be honest, I was a coward. I didn’t want to face the masses and take an unpopular stand. I am a different person now, with a different focus and perspective. Defining myself as a pantheist and finding other pantheists to share with has fired more passion in me about all of the inhabitants of this planet, made me more aware. Being part of the WPM has given me personally more strength and courage to stand up for issues - even when I’m the lone ranger within my community or family. I’m so glad the WPM has affiliated with the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and am proud to be part of a group that will take a stand and lend its name to causes that not only support the environment but also give people choices. I have to decide which issues to put my time and energy into but I feel now that my decision comes from a place of knowledge and strength and not fear. Even seemingly small issues in a gym in Sylva, NC, can be important. After seeing what has been done in the name of religion, both globally and in my own backyard, the idea of a state-mandated religion, any state-mandated religion (even my own), really scares me. Sharon Wells

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have been where Sharon was at the ball games many times. It is a very difficult place to find oneself in. In the USA most of the time a Pantheist will find they are the minority, and the majority usually dictates the religious overtones during many non-religious events. I have on occasion voiced my opinion, but this usually resulted in a fight which there was no way of winning. The resulting argument from their stand is that they have the freedom of speech, the right to express their faith, and the freedom from suppression. I have argued that I have the same rights, but you do not see me forcing others to be subjected to my beliefs. But that is where the real, underlying core of the issue comes out. Mandating the separation of church and state really will not solve anything. In a semi-heated debate with a devoted Baptist minister a few years back it was explained to me that not only was it his god-given call to force his faith on others, it was the calling of the ‘whole body of Christ’ to take control of government by either their vote or by their physical presence. 6

This viewpoint is not limited to just the Baptists – it is imbedded in most of Christendom and some other religions too. What is the real purpose here? When the final layers are stripped from most of the religions the final intent is control. The desire for control is what drives them to enforce their beliefs and dogmas on the collective bodies they are a part of. We are not dealing with a group of people who want to just live beside others peacefully. They seriously want to change others around them by any means necessary, either by pressuring them to believe their doctrines or by forcing mandates by which others have no choice. This reminds me of a small exchange between myself and another devoted man of faith sometime back regarding the presence of other places of worship near their church. They did not like the thought of another church moving in down the street. I stated that, in the USA, a satanic church had the right to move in down the street. He stated that if such a church were to attempt to open down the street they would find it hard to keep their doors open for their evil services. I was truly taken back by the harshness of the comment, but I was not surprised. I live in the Bible belt. I have dealt with many situations where the Christian faith dictates things in my place of work. I work for the local city government. We have a small city of 24,000 people, but there are over 65 active churches (that is one church for every 370 people). The majority of people around me are devoted, hard core Christians. I have been out to lunch with colleagues from work to discuss work matters and have had to sit through bowing of heads and giving thanks for the meal. Not a simple dropping of the head for a moment of silence to themselves, no we are talking the holding of hands, standing about the table, openly and loudly giving thanks so everyone can hear it. I am constantly questioned on my church of choice or my faith of convictions, by people who are my higher ups. The government positions are filled with people who feel that it is their calling to be there and make this city a godly place where people want to live and work. I recently heard this a recently hired director state this: “I am here because god has a purpose for me here. I feel his calling on my heart to make this a great place where people want to work for god.” This individual makes decisions that affect the growth and direction of the city. How do you solve this? The only way I can see to approach this level of infestation is to educate the masses that there are other forms of non-aggressive religion which are not controlling. Show them that they do not have to subscribe to the faith of their parents just because they feel trapped in traditions. As sad as it is, I do not see it possible to bring positive change otherwise. T. Staggs

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his was not “state”, but a related situation for me. One Thanksgiving. I volunteered to say a Grace, and the one I chose was DELIBERATELY non-denominational, and introduced

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as such. When I finished, a gentleman next to me added a loud “In Jesus’ name, Amen!!” I need to see this as being “inclusive” rather than “having his religion forced upon me and everyone in the room.” It’s a struggle. Linda Kerby

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‘m very glad to live in a nation where the founders, at least, had a clear idea of how to provide religious freedom. So I wonder why this aspect of the US constitution has not been more widely emulated? France and Turkey seem to be the closest to our constitution at present. Tom Moore

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lived in Canada when my oldest daughter was in primary grades, in the 1970s. Her first grade teacher - in a non-sectarian public school - began the day with a group prayer, which was quite legal. I objected to that, so the teacher said that there was only one way that she would allow Liz to be exempt from the

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prayer - she had to go out into the hall during the prayer. The teacher said that she simply couldn’t have children disobeying her when she told them to pray. We tried that for a bit, but Liz said that the teacher would not call her back in when the prayer was finished and left her out there for maybe an hour. I reported that to the principle and it stopped. The teacher retired after that year. I was really relieved to find that things here had changed by the time I moved back a few years later. I remember when they added “under god” to the US Pledge of Allegiance. I was attending Sunday School and church enthusiastically at that point, but I thought it wasn’t right to put god into the Pledge. I never said it again; I’d stand, but wouldn’t say a word or even pretend to. Other people said that it was OK because we might all have different religions but we nearly all believed in god. But that wasn’t the point, even if it were true. Frankly, I’m dismayed by the prevalence of religiosity in politics these days. Religion ought to be private, as long as it doesn’t include anything illegal. J. M.

eparation of Church and State is an appealing political solution for a country whose population is not homogeneous in terms of religion, specifically one where compromise between different religious groups is required for a Federalist solution to work. In countries which do not have a sufficiently religiously heterogeneous population, the temptation of the dominant group is to enforce its beliefs and practices on less powerful religious (or non-religious) minorities. Why do they do it? Because they can get away with it. No political group or powerful religious group is likely to voluntarily relinquish the power to force others to act (or worship) as it feels the others should do. The problem of religious coercion is particularly severe in the case of proselytizing monotheistic religions (particularly many sects of Christianity and of Islam) which believe that others who believe differently are eternally damned. Such a belief is easily used in the service of the will to power with the rationale that “we have a sacred duty to persecute the heretics lest their pernicious beliefs will spread and damn many souls to hell.” Walt Mandell

hen I was in high school in SC in the mid 1940s, we began every morning in Home Room with a brief student-led “devotional.” When my turn came, I usually read from /The Prophet/ by Kahlil Gibran. This wasn’t a problem. Pete Tolleson

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Cultivating Reverence In her new book Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist (Basic Books, $25) WPM member Sharman Apt Russell offers a spiritual autobiography, an enlightening exploration of her thoughts and feelings about Pantheism, and a personal introduction to many of the major Pantheist thinkers. In these exclusive extracts she explores the tension within her pantheism between emotion and reason, and talks about her special relationship with Walt Whitman.

This Saturday morning I am waiting

© Steve Shoup, Big Stock Photo

by the Gila River to meet with biologist friends Mike and Carol and their three-year old son Dominic. Every spring and summer, Mike and Carol run a bird-banding station at the Gila River, part of a national program with over 500 stations trying to assess what bird species are breeding where. I am part of this banding crew, which makes me feel absurdly important. For ten Sundays from May to August, we will set up ten nets and catch birds. We band the birds and write down their species, age, and sex. We blow on their chests to reveal their sexual parts and brood patch. We weigh them and measure their wings. Mike and Carol do most of this work, with Carol the go-to person for molt wear, which feathers are missing and which feathers are coming in. This May, we will also take two tail feathers that researchers elsewhere can check for isotopes, as well as genital swabs so researchers elsewhere can look for avian flu. I’ve been tagging along for two seasons now and am still only a net-runner, anxiously untangling a Bewick’s Wren, waiting for Mike to get the Blue Grosbeak with its vicious bite. When all the data is collected from thousands of birds in the Southwest and thousands more across North America, patterns will begin to emerge: who is surviving, who is not. Every year we put the long banding table in the same place, under a large cottonwood tree by a glistening bend of the Gila River. We meet here today, trying to decide where to put the nets this spring. According to protocol, all ten nets should be in the same positions each year. But after last winter’s flood, half the original net sites are the river. We need new sites, and we talk about that. We feel anticipatory. These March days will get warmer, the trees will leaf out, the birds will sing, and we will be at the banding table again. I am especially anticipatory. Bird-banding mornings are my own little nature study, trying to identify the call of a flycatcher, tramping from net to net on the changing river bottom, noting which trees have finally fallen down, the print of a mountain lion, and the new patch of four o’clock with its magenta flowers opening clocklike in the late afternoon. Is the beaver back? Is that a sphinx moth - a hallucinatory blur in the air, then a focused image pink and white and black, banded and checkered like an Escher print? The moth poises before an evening primrose, its heavy body miraculously

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© Joe Burgess, Wikimedia Commons

aloft, its tongue uncurling - impossibly long, like a magician’s scarf. I marvel at the sphinx moth. I marvel at the Four O’clock (Mirabilis multiflora) whose parts can be made into a tea to treat colic and eye infection. I marvel, too, that all the plants around me are connected to the human body. Yarrow clots blood. Cottonwood and willow reduce pain. The tone of my bladder is related to mullein root. My body reflects the chemistry of willow. I marvel at the complexity. But is all this holy? Does it form a web of life we can call sacred? Or are these things just very interesting? The tongue of a sphinx moth is half the length of its body. Its abdomen circulates hot blood like a radiator cooling an engine. Great factoids! Very neat. I ask Mike and Carol what they think. This is a little delicate. We have been friends for a few years, and now we are neighbors in the Gila Valley. We laugh and talk easily. We exchange books and tools. But there are gaps in what we know about each other. Our spiritual beliefs lie within one of those gaps. Carol surprises me. Before she became a biologist, she studied music and as a young adult once spoke in tongues in a Pentecostal church, loving God and the warmth of that community. Now she has the same emotions - love and awe and warmth - as strongly and as wonderfully in nature, in the divinity of the universe. Her image of God has shifted. Her experiences have not. On a recent walk, she says, she found herself confronted with a great-horned owl who stared at her eye-level, predatory, and somehow numinous. The feeling was so strong she had to look away. In humility, she had to look away. Mike claims he is less emotional than his wife. It is just his nature, he says. He is impressed by the scientific ideas of deep time and evolution and by the fact that life came out of matter. He gestures at his son Dominic, who is leaning against Carol’s leg and begging to go home. “Isn’t it amazing,” Mike asks, “that love itself came out of matter?” Mike is a big fan of the nature writer Thoreau and can quote passages verbatim. Once as we walked together along the birdbanding trail to Net Nine, Mike quoted this one: What is it to be admitted to a museum, to see a myriad of particular things, compared with being shown some star’s surface, some hard matter in its home! Talk of mysteries! Think of our life in nature - daily to be shown matter, to come into contact with it - rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! the solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! I look at Mike now, so clearly in love with the physical world. The actual world! The solid earth! I look around me. Trees askew, sandy arroyo, rocks in the sand, plants growing. A stretch of river bottom in southwestern New Mexico. I can call this sacred, or I can not. Most religions have it right: God cannot seem to exist 9

© Iris Abbott, Big Stock Photo

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without us. We are made in His image, or rather He is made in ours - our belief in the divine defines the divine. I am involved in a word choice. Sacred means “holy” or “revered.” In some dictionaries, the antonym is “unholy” or “blasphemous.” For my purpose, the antonym to sacred would be “ordinary” or even “meaningless.” The middle ground between sacred and secular is “fascinating.” How do I want to describe the world? How do I want to feel about the world? Just west of our bird-banding table is a small archaeological site, a few rooms once populated by the Salado people around 1300 A.D. Up and down the Gila Valley are more ancient sites dating from the dawn of the first millennium to the first Apache settlements in the sixteenth century, a flow of people migrating, hunting, farming, conquering, and being conquered. Mostly they stayed by the course of the river. Mostly their adobe and rock homes are now bulldozed lumps and troughs where pot-hunters have looked too hard for buried treasure - something old to sell for a good price. Potsherds still

litter these sites, especially after a storm when rivulets uncover new pieces of painted clay. For much of my life, I have visited places like this, scouted for a sherd, and picked it up - a piece of cooking ware or the zigzag design of black on white. I have felt something flow down through my body from head to heart to arm to earth. The woman who made this pot links with me, some 200,000 years ago, when we were hominids together in Africa. The woman who stands here today traveled through Europe and sailed to the New World as soon as she could build a boat, fished in New England, farmed in the Midwest, ranched in Colorado, mined in Arizona. The woman who made this pot came by a different route. It is not really that we meet again but that we have never truly been separate. Once, visiting the Salado site, I had an experience that some people might call mystical. I felt that connection flow down through a sherd of clay to soil where billions of bacteria live in one fertile ounce, where Grama Grass and Four O’clock convert sunlight into energy, where the grasshopper mouse waits in his burrow anxious to come out and hunt pinacate beetles, scorpions, and lizards, throwing back his head and howling his shrill wolf-like whistle-song. I felt something flow down into the earth and then flow back up through my body with ten times as many cells as there are stars in the Milky Way. Ninety percent of these cells are microbial, not human. I call this superorganism myself, six hundred bacterial species in my mouth alone swimming the mountains and canyons of teeth. I flowed out through the skull, accelerating faster. Sweat from my forehead evaporated, rose, joined with other molecules, and became a cumulus cloud. Now I travelled east and south, following desire to tangle in the fur of a coatimundi I once met, a long-tailed, longsnouted, white-masked relative of the raccoon. This particular bachelor male had been driven away from the matriarchal band where he had mated with the females. Once they were pregnant, he had to leave, his tail straight up. He chittered and grumped. I left him, too, still flowing eastward, to Texas, New York, around the globe, everywhere, everything. How do we define a religious experience like this? People who have shared similar experiences speak of being outside themselves. They touch something bigger, something more than being Sharman thinking about Sharman’s problems, dealing with Sharman’s insecurities and Sharman’s vanities. They break through the limits of their life, those particular talents and faults, this father, that mother, this race, that country, this gender, that body; the time they betrayed a friend; the ragged edge of a cuticle. Who would really want immortality as yourself? It seems so little and so depressing. People speak of relationship to the sacred. Perhaps they talk to Him, or Her, and they get an answer. Perhaps they spread out, connected to everything, part of everyone. They speak to the bacteria and the grasshopper mouse. The important thing is that they are not alone. People speak of feelings. Awe. Joy. Peace. They are uplifted. Perhaps they are afraid. Hormones cascade, neurons fire. The chest hollows. The body gets involved. Was my experience at the Salado site a religious one? Sometimes I think so. Not always. I believe, without doubt, in an interconnected universe. But any faith I have in a sacred interconnected universe is hard-won. I have to search and struggle. I have to doubt. I have to cultivate belief. I have to get up early and bird-band. I have to visit ancient sites, wait for floods, be with other believers, form the neural pathways. I have to be on the alert for the numinous experience. I have to welcome reverence. 10

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© Michael Fogden, Bruce Coleman

Walt Whitman is the one I blame the most

for who I am. He brought together mysticism and scientific theory and fused them in a fiery circle. He would allow for no separation, certainly not the separation of humanity from the natural world. He infected me when I was young and impressionable with his dreams of democracy and his cries of celebration. His “barbaric yawp” proclaimed that this was our job - to celebrate and be joyous. I read his long poem Song of Myself like the Book of Psalms. We were all meant to be Walt Whitman, children of the cosmos, male and female, young and old, plantation owner and slave. Like him, our bodies are made of earth and sidewalk. We spread sideways into nature. We burrow into people. Animals adorn us. Plants grow in our ears. We have lived a trillion summers and will live a trillion more. Unlock the doors, unscrew the door jambs, take down the walls! We experience everything. We are everyone. We go naked and undisguised to the river bank, mad to be in contact with the air which is for our mouth forever. Logic will never convince. Sermons do not convince. The damp of the night drives deeper. Walt Whitman urged me to connect with the world, and in 1975, a college student at Berkeley, I thought I could do it standing on a street corner. I could see the papery trunks of the eucalyptus trees on campus, their sharp medicinal smell, the life of the mind, the life of the senses, people jostling by. I could make contact, naked and undisguised. I could do it easily through the cadence of Whitman’s poetry. I am the old artillerist. I am the mashed fireman. I am the captain on deck. I am the mother of captains. The language was a little archaic, but still, it seemed that I was all those things. And that the bigger questions about life were answered here or would be answered. I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then; In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass. Today, re-reading Song of Myself, I am still struck by how well Whitman held the enormity of it in his mind and body, in his hand and words. He saw God everyday. He understood God not at all. Does he contradict himself? Very well, he contradicts himself. We are large and contain multitudes. Joy and pain are braided. With broken breast-bone, the mashed fireman lies on the cold earth. Elsewhere, the judge proclaims the death sentence in a hushed voice. Elsewhere, stevedores shout heavy-e-yo and strong men laugh and homely 11

Matthew Brady, Library of Congress

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girls croon to babies. Agonies. Good times. The procreant urge. Elsewhere - everywhere - birds, wheat, whales, cows, and blackberries. A leaf of grass, the egg of a wren. We are staggered and triumphant. We are braided into nature. We are reflected there. Celebrate every part, mollusk and hat. Dazzling and tremendous, how quick the sunrise would kill me, If I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me.

In southwestern New Mexico, we wait for the monsoon season, the rains that fall in the months of July, August, and September. Commonly, the thunderclouds build up in the afternoon, growing darker and heavier until they drop their burden like a woman throwing water from a saucepan, hard and focused on a few choice spots, with flashes of lightning to make the humans run to shut down their computers. We hope to have rain now in the Gila Valley every day for some sixty days. The skies are tremendous, the clouds huge and masted flat-bottomed ships. Fleet after fleet set out for conquest. Majesty embodied. This is true democracy, beauty for everyone. You don’t have to be rich or successful or good. You don’t have to live by the ocean or in the middle of wilderness. This is drop-dead gorgeous scenery, the ephemeral version of prime real estate. This could be your ticket to a mystical experience, and the show runs through the rest of summer, almost every day. This is a grandeur that most of us, most of the time, barely notice, looking up and then away, intent on some errand. I walk Sacaton Mesa surrounded by cloud streets, cloud turrets, a small cloud art museum, cloud doorways arched and dissolving. It is architecture on the move. A storm builds in the east. The cloud cliffs grow taller. The prow of a ship crashes into another. Already there is rain over the Mogollon Mountains, the line clear between where water is falling and where it is not. Already I should turn back and hurry home if I do not want to get soaking wet. I feel a correspondence. This beauty is not a doorway into something better. This beauty is my other half. This sky, this majesty, is my other self. I feel the yearning to reunite, join with the sky. In some way, we reflect each other. I am transparent, and the clouds pass through me. In his preface to Leaves of Grass, Whitman prescribed what might have been an idealized biography of his own life: This is what you shall do. Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone who asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men - go freely with powerful uneducated 12

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persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families - re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body. It is essential Whitman that we move in a long sentence from the earth and sun to the skin between eyelashes. The poet greatly admired the human body, and although the release of Leaves of Grass in 1855 was first met with praise, critics were soon pointing in disgust to those passages which celebrated sexuality. The poems were “a mass of stupid filth,” “bombast, egotism, vulgarity, and nonsense” and the writer “some escaped lunatic, raving in pitiable delirium.” But Whitman never wavered. In the coming decades, he continued to revise, expand, and republish his poorly-selling manuscript. He sometimes lived in poverty. He was sometimes depressed, lost in his soul and in his relationships. But he never denied what the Light whispered to him about the beauty of physical love, the beauty of flesh, the sensuous details of being human. For a pantheist, it comes down to this: as part of the larger whole, we are called upon to celebrate our existence in the universe, no matter what and who we are, blessed or not, whole or broken, deserving or undeserving. What is the alternative? We are braided into pain and joy, darkness and light. We are braided into nature, reflecting the sky. We transcend the material, the everyday, for we know these things themselves to be transcendent. We are called on to rejoice. Who calls us? We preach to ourselves. A child of the cosmos. Here we stand.

© Paul Moore, Big Stock Photo 13

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New chart of our galactic home

Spizter Space Telescope, NASA We can admire the Andromeda galaxy three million light years away, and see the structure of its disc in detail. But it’s much harder to get a clear view of our own galaxy across the plane of its disc, through deep veils of dust and gas. Until the 1990s the Milky Way was thought to be a regular spiral with four star-forming arms, called Norma, ScutumCentaurus, Sagittarius and Perseus. During the 1990s large infrared sky surveys revealed that it was a barred spiral, with an elongated elliptical bar of stars across the center. In 2005, a team at the University of Wisconsin found that the bar extends farther out from the center of the galaxy than previously thought. The team now has new imagery from the Spitzer telescope 14

of an expansive swath of the Milky Way, stretching 130 degrees across the sky, including over 110 million stars. “Now, we can fit the arms together with the bar,” said team leader Robert Benjamin, “and we can map the structure, position and width of these arms for the first time.” The new analysis suggests that our galaxy has only two major star-forming arms - a common structure for galaxies with bars. The Scutum-Centaurus and Perseus arms have the greatest densities of both young, bright stars, and older, redgiant stars. Two minor arms, Sagittarius and Norma, are filled with gas and pockets of young stars. Our sun lies near a small, partial arm called the Orion Spur, located between the Scutum and Perseus arms.

Though galaxy arms appear to be stable features, stars are actually constantly moving in and out of them as they orbit the center of the Milky Way, like waves of vehicles in traffic. Since our sun was formed 4.6 billion years ago, it has travelled around the galaxy 16 times. “For years, people created maps of the galaxy based on studying one section of it, or using only one method,” says Benjamin. “Unfortunately, when the models from various groups were compared, they didn’t always agree. Spitzer has provided us with a starting point for rethinking the structure of the Milky Way. We will keep revising our picture in the same way that early explorers sailing around the globe had to keep revising their maps.”

Pan Magazine

Why I am a Pantheist New members write

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have finally found a “home” for what I believe in, after all these years of not having a name for my feelings and beliefs. I can now pass on to my children the spirituality of our beliefs with a name and hopefully some customs which we shall develop. I can teach them with confidence to revere the beauty and power of the universe. Lisa Smith

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have always felt more at peace in the forest than in a church. I have a problem with a god that punishes a person for being human, for doing that which seems normal, for following his basic instincts, to love whom he chooses. I also find it hard to believe a person can influence what has been proven to be a Natural process by praying to an unseen force. Above all I believe in freedom and honesty, something not easily found in the “Church.” George Ball

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feel that everything is tied, and I am sometimes brought to my knees in awe of the beauty of this world. It angers me when others take this world for granted, raping and destroying it. We need to love that which gives us life, the Universe. L. C.

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am a pantheist because in my experience, simply put, it’s the only attitude towards the Universe that makes sense: reverence, wonder, and deep abiding gratitude for all that is. James Anderson

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believe that nature is god. Nature is who we are and what is all around us. Nature gives us what we need and there is a purpose and reason that only nature provides. Nature is beautiful. I do not belive in supernatural entities. Tabatha Grainger

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can no longer believe in Christianity but still look for spirituality and have a great love of nature and a reverence for all life. I need a fresh definition of the word God and believe I have found one in Pantheism. Jack Restall

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am most at peace when I am out in my yard or going through the fields and woods with my dogs. I have long felt an inner peace from simply being with nature that I never felt in a house of worship. I also strongly believe in respecting the Earth and all its inhabitants: animals, plants, and all other manner of natural objects. I found this site and realized that there are a lot of other people out there like me and appreciate having the chance to communicate with them. D. D.

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few years ago I began working at a telescope shop and had my first chance ever to look at the sky. Upon peering at the stars and the glory of the heavens my life exploded with new possibilities and a newfound appreciation for our universe. My goals in life had changed in what seemed like an instant. After attending two years’ college majoring in music, I found that I had achieved a thirst for science and wanted desperately to open the eyes of mankind to reason and understanding of the cosmos. Having withdrawn from Christianity at an earlier age I have felt like somewhat of an outcast denying Jesus and the Christian concept of God. My family will certainly feel that I am destined for Hell for my actions today but I know that I

Spring/Summer 2008

am doing the right thing. I am a Pantheist because I have faith in humankind to be active stewards of this planet and universe and feel that by joining this religion I will further that cause. Bryan McCallister

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believe that all of nature is collectively holy and if anything deserves to be called (metaphorically) God then it is nature. I do not believe in a personal theistic God exist outside of nature. But, I do believe in the religious experience, and that experience is part of what it means to be human. I seek the religious experience through connecting with life and nature. Margaret Lee

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e are the only living things that have the capabilities to protect and preserve all other living things and our environment. This must then be our own defined “purpose” and “meaning” for existence. This comes from natural evolution, not from a supernatural entity. We must acquire the knowledge and the will to fulfill this purpose. Ted Radamaker

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love being a part of Gaia. I have no need for the supernatural when the natural is so exquisite. Carrie-Ann Giles

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one of the popular theistic hypotheses fit the observations of science. Most are absurd and some are dangerous to humankind and our planet. Whatever the place-card word God means, it seems to me to be the ground of existence and not separate from it. Spiritual reality is not something apart from natural reality but consistent with it. And the plain fact is, the natural universe is beautiful far beyond any theistic daydreams to account for it. The Medieval Age is over - it is time to move on. Joseph Maddox 15

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exing up atheism is one of the best ideas I’ve seen in a long time. The credo is logically intact and allows me degrees of freedom as an individual. The quotes by Einstein, Hawkings, Shelley encapsulate the shared wisdom and beliefs of a large, unspoken group of intelligent people. P. W.

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am a spiritual atheist, revering nature, including spiders, snakes and rats. I have not previously had any group affiliation that honored these values. Robert Edwards It offers a religious home where my spirit can be nourished in ways that do not insult my intelligence. Ernesto Torres

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feel a very deep and powerful connection with the natural world, with the universe if you like. The beauty of it all is so overwhelming and humbling, yet more fulfilling to me than any doctrine or dogma. “God” is all around us and inside us. L. H.

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have come to the harsh realization that believing in supernatural religions has caused and continues to cause immeasurable pain and suffering. But, the potential of humanity is infinite. Pantheism is a way to give individuals a sense of community, while more importantly, providing a catalyst to help individuals come together to work indiscriminately for the benefit of all humans as well as care for the world in which we live. R. K.

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fter some considerable thought (most of my life) what else could anyone be but a Pantheist. It’s the only religious expression that makes any sense. Henry Barrett

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here seems to be no evidence for a personal god which intervenes in human affairs. However, the fact that we are here and part of an amazingly complex and magnificent universe demands an appreciation and reverence for nature as a mysterious and powerful force. I see myself as pantheist because I equate the divine with nature itself. Matthew Stewart

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eligion has always sent me a “collect” call, yet nature continues to hold and teach me what truth really is. Del Beach

Calendar & Almanac

Equinoxes & Solstices

June 5: World Environment Day:         Conserving the environment. 21: Midsummer Solstice

August 6:   Hiroshima Day - focus on peace 12: Perseid meteor shower: Starwatching 26: Krakatoa day: global tectonics. Harvest (according to location)

Summer solstice June 20 23:59

July 4: US Independence Day: democracy 5: Anniversary of supernova that created Crab Nebula. 12: Birthday of Thoreau 14: Storming of Bastille - liberty, equality, fraternity 20: Moon landing day (1969)

September 16: UN International Peace Day 23: Autumn equinox

Full Moons

Autumn Equinox September 22 15:44

June 18 July 18 August 16 September 15

17:30 07:59 21:16 09:13

All times Universal time = Greenwich Mean Time

Bayon Temple © Elena Pokrovskaya

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