Todd Akin and God

When Congressman Todd Akin announced after NBC had cut the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance during a sports event, “I think NBC has a long record of being very liberal and at the heart of liberalism, really, is a hatred of God and a belief that government should replace God,” the Internet really hopped, or as the expression goes, went viral.  There have been numerous postings about whether his statement is true, wise, relevant, completely false, and on and on.  In my opinion, these postings miss the point entirely.

Define what we mean by God!  At one time before I loaned it out and lost track of it, I had a book authored by Juan Arias, “The God I Don’t Believe In”.  And, frankly, I doubt very much that I could believe in a God who demands His (never Her) followers give up all reason and believe that the universe was created in six days, or a God who will take up just a few followers to heaven (leaving their clothes behind in a heap) and condemn the rest to horrors here on earth before they end up in Hell.  Or a God I can understand completely.  If I can understand God, then I would be God as well, and that doesn’t sound quite right, either.  Or a God who would insist that all there is to know, one can find in one fairly small book, the Bible – science, economics, government, you name it, that is word for word, valid for all academic subjects until the end of time. 

And while I am on the subject of a limited God, Jesus was so concerned about abortion and homosexuality that He never mentioned them once.  Now it is the responsibility of theologians and Bible students to study and explain what Jesus and the Apostles had to say.  But I question the responsibility to study and explain what He and they didn’t say.  Extrapolating from what was said is a valid exercise, but I doubt that one can condemn others on that extrapolation.

If I were an artist I would depict God, as the Trinity since I am a believing Christian who does not hate God, as dancing and whirling in Joy through the entire universe, holding it and us, metaphorically speaking, in the palm of Their hand.  At times weeping over our cruelty, but at the same time smiling and thrilled when we humans follow our good consciences in works of compassion, whatever our religious and philosophical beliefs.  This is the God many of us love and serve, because we recognize that God has no hands here on earth but ours, and we all have much compassionate work to do.

 To insist that we are trying to supplant God with government is such a limited view of either.  Jesus recognized that there is a place for both when He said, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto God that which is God’s”.  Government has its own place in our society, and using government to help people cannot in any way undermine or diminish the God some of us liberals and progressives love.  He, or She, or They are simply too much more than that.