

When religion and politics intersect


The intersection of religion and politics might be compared to the intersection of two roads. When everyone obeys the reasonable rules and directions, they can arrive safely at their ultimate destination. When individuals attempt to circumvent the established procedures, or pervert them for their own selfish reasons, the result can be mayhem and destruction.

I assume that we may each have a different understanding of what we mean by “faith in the public square.” For me, two distinctly different versions come to mind.

One is the example of Fishhooks McCarthy, a Tammany Hall politician from the last century whom I first learned of while listening to Mario Cuomo when he was governor. (The name Fishhooks came about to describe the effect his hand had in his pocket when it was time to pay a bill.) McCarthy was a “devout” Catholic who went to Mass every day and is said to have begun each day with the same prayer: “Oh, Lord, give me health and strength; I’ll steal the rest.” According to the governor’s stories, when Fishhooks was in Albany, he prayed that prayer at St. Mary’s Church on Lodge Street, one of two churches where I currently serve as deacon. This is not the connection between faith and politics that I encourage.

The other example, from my own Catholic faith, is from Gaudium et spes, one of the most important documents to come out of the Second Vatican Council. It states:


This is the connection that I favor and which too often seems to be missing today.

For me, these two examples offer a simple but important lesson: there are disreputable people in all religions, who will do unsavory things despite what their religion teaches. Stated another way, no matter what good things a religion teaches, there will always be some followers who pervert it to their own ends.

May we be blessed with the wisdom to draw distinctions between religions and their followers, knowing who is true to the faith and who is not.

Walter Ayres

One Response

  1. Albert J says:

    Many people consider the advice, “Do as I say, not as I do” as shallow advice to cover mistakes, whereas, in some respects, it makes perfect sense. Most, if not all of us, “know” how to be a lot better than we can actually live up to, consistently.

    Perhaps our greatest gift, is that of free will, but unfortunately it’s that’s same free will that leads us into most of the problems we create for ourselves. Perhaps that is what is meant by Ying & Yang or that “every coin has two sides”. Choices we each choose to make hopefully point us in safe directions, while other choices we make can send us down really dark roads, and when all the rationalizations, excuses and reasons are exhausted, the bottom line is usually that we have nobody to blame, or congratulate, for the choices we make but ourselves.

    Fortunately, often but not always, we find ourselves with more choices, more opportunities to correct mistakes. The other side of that coin is that we usually also have more opportunities to really mess up that which has been going good, if we’re not paying attention and subsequently decide to choose poorly.

    It’s pretty rare that we can honestly convince ourselves that we really, truly didn’t know (suspect, feel, be uneasy about) that what we were doing wrong, was actually wrong, although perhaps to a far lesser degree than we may be forced to ultimately deal with.

    Another bi-directional gift God, or if you prefer fate, tests us with is the uncanny ability to recognize exactly what, why and to what extent others make mistakes and the knowledge of what precisely they need to do to correct them. Sadly that view only words for most in an outward direction only, whereas being able to see inwardly with the same clarity would be a real advantage.

    So it may be with religion, or the lack thereof, people inherently (be that conscience, training, experience)understand what’s right and what isn’t. It’s not all that difficult to convince ourselves that wrong is right, if what we really want to do is wrong, which is a tendency we ALL have to deal with at times, but sooner or later we have to answer for our behavior.

    Garlic is a great barometer, everyone understands that the right amount of garlic can enhance just about any meal, while the wrong amount of garlic can destroy most any meal. Perhaps the same applies to religious fervor, or the lack thereof, the right amount can steer people in generally favorable directions, too much can cause, and history confirms has caused, really serious problems.

    Bottom line seems like when all is said and done, what we do, how we behave is pretty much up to each one of us, which can be a real blessing or seem like a never ending curse, we really have nobody to blame but ourselves.