July Fourth

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a high ranking conservative Iranian cleric recently stated that the ongoing unrest has foreign roots, in particular British roots. As we know foreign press has not only been restricted in its coverage of the protests but they have now been forbidden to be on the streets and interview Iranian citizens. The spin of the messages coming from the religious and governing authorities is ungodly foreign influences are destroying the orderly calm of the Iranian nation.

Nationals who were employed at the British embassy have been arrested, interviewed/interrogated aggressively and have confessed to being puppets of the ungodly foreign power. Jannati told the thousands of worshippers that the British "had designed a velvet revolution ... In March, they said (in their Foreign Ministry) that street riots were possible during June elections. These are signs ... revealed by themselves." He went on to tell the throng that those involved in the protests "need to repent and ask God to forgive them" and that regardless of what the pre-election polls showed, the election process was “pure” and that reelection of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was truly a landslide victory.

Though he did not name Mousavi directly, Jannati implied Mousavi and his followers were committing treason when he quoted Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, as saying that "anyone disrupts unity has not only committed a sin but also has committed treason against the Islamic Republic and the system." There is no room for honest disagreement and dissenting views are crushed.
My initial reaction is that this rhetoric is typical of the Iranian fundamentalists.

Despots, whether they are religious or secular, have a way creating bogey men and escape goats, and decrying how these outsiders and other non true believers are conducting an evil conspiracy in their midst. I would like to say that that happens “out there” and yet when I look at the church I ask if our hands are clean. Do we not have church leaders over the centuries, and even today, suggesting that if you disagree with them that you are fighting God and therefore you are evil? Do we not have those who define so narrowly that if you disagree with them then you cannot be a Christian? Do we not have many in the church who hold that those who accept and support abortion cannot be true Christians? In America do we not have a large number of evangelicals who functionally cannot fathom how anyone can be a true Christian and be a Democrat? And the questions could go on and on.

I fear that similar words of Iran clerics, has been heard on the lips of American and Canadian clergy. I fear that the same the same hard line agenda and spirit of Iran clerics have been and is still found within segments of church leadership today.

On this Fourth of July my mind turns to an American fundamental founding principle, religious freedom. Religious freedom has two sides to it, freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Freedom of religion allows people to worship freely as they so choose. We often forget the handmaiden of free worship, allowing others to worship and hold views different than mine without me degrading them or thinking that their faith is less valid than mine. I should not be so arrogant and bold as to claim to have the corner on truth and view others as being less enlightened than me.
Separation of church and state rests upon freedom from religion. Whereas Europe and other countries had their official religion the Founding Fathers determined that not only would the United States not have an official religion but it would allow its citizens to hold any religion they deemed to hold, or even to have no faith. Coupled with that posture means that no religion or set of beliefs should dominate government or be advanced by government action.

I do not agree with those who extend separation of church and state to mean that a person who is running for or in public office should not speak of their faith. Hearing about a person’s faith helps me to understand what motivates the person who is running for office and even what types of legislation he or she will push forward. Though a candidate like a Mike Huckabee or Sarah Palin may be a Christian, their fundamentalist views and statements about entrenching Christian believes in national legislation and their dismissive attitude toward liberal, adherents of non-Christian faiths and atheists scares me tremendously. Their type of thinking and demonizing is the American equivalent of what Ayatollah Jannati and the followers of other Iranian conservative clerics are saying and doing.

On July 4th 1776 the United States was founded upon freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Such freedoms are part of its nobility and strength as a country. Such freedom allows for diversity of religious expression and open political discourse. Those who signed the Constitution recognized that when one set of religious believes hold sway across the land and in government, that a nation is only a short distance away from the a society that claims to be benevolent while being far from being benevolent.

I am thankful for Jannati’s recent statements and the Iranian governing authorities reaction to the recent protests as they help me to celebrate this 4th of July with greater appreciation.