Religion and Politics – The Hollow Specter of Sophia

Religion is politics, and politics is a religion. They may differ to some, but they are certainly bedfellows, for they are so closely intertwined that they can be said to be ‘as one’.

Religion is very political. Just ask anyone in a religious organization if the people in it are practicing politics. At first they may deny it, as most groups of people in places of worship would like to think that they are above politics, but the honest person will agree, religion is up to its eyeballs in the fog of political maneuvering and micro-mind wars. Wherever people are, there will be politics, and when the two mix so thoroughly that they become almost indistinguishable major wars are the inevitable fruit of that union.

Let us take one of the most famous of the religious figures – the man we call Jesus Christ. He had 12 disciples, to which he was their master, or teacher of his philosophy or wisdom -- for ‘philo’ and ‘sophia’ are the Greek words for the ‘love of wisdom’.

When we read from the gospels how his disciples acted towards him and interacted with each other we see that they became political very quickly. They jockeyed for position and power both in the here and now, and for the hereafter, seeking to become the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and the pure wisdom their master had taught them slowly became corrupted -- no longer from above, but natural and earthly -- and as one apostle has said -- demonic.

His group also found contention with other religious-political organizations such as the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees - each a faction within a party, and having their own belief systems and interpretation of scripture, often arguing amongst one another. Not much has changed in over 2000 years.

He and his disciples very quickly found that they were at odds with the most powerful political groups of his time -- the controlling powers of Judaism and the controlling powers of Romanism. Rome believed in the power of Caesar and the Roman Empire, and Judaism in the power of Jehovah and Israel. And, as the story goes, because he opposed them both, they killed him for that opposition. If we are honest about the narrative, we see clearly that those he opposed most virulently instigated the very plot to have him disposed -- his own kinsman, and the very ‘truth’ to which he attested -- the Kingdom of Heaven, was also sacrificed on that day.

Throughout the ages religion and politics have caused innumerable conflicts both great and small. The caustic reactions of those who adhere to opposing philosophies have turned the world upside down in all cultures and creeds. Some would argue that this has been a necessary evil and one which over time has brought us to the global civilization we now know, yet one must ask one’s self, ‘At what cost?’

Blood has been spilled enough to flood an ocean basin in the name of religion and politics, and it looks like the spigot will not be shut off any time soon, for wars over religion and politics continue to this day. Brother kills brother over philosophies, and this ‘love of wisdom’ is quickly turned to the ‘love of hate’. Leaders of political parties are assassinated, by name and reputation, and even bodily, as in the political assassinations of the 60’s -- losing three great ones -- JFK, RFK, and MLK. Only the religious fervor of politics could cause such a thing. Power has no conscience and would crucify any opposition to remain seated.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Civilization is not so civilized when we see it in this light. The first thing to be sacrificed for the sake of the controlling powers is the very foundation of truth, the ‘love of wisdom’. The proverbs speak of wisdom as the ‘principle thing’ -- the foremost element, the precious object that should be uppermost in all our minds, and sought with all of our heart.

Without wisdom we are as the brute beasts that prey upon one another, on our way to the eternal grave by way of the dust of the Earth -- with wisdom we are as the gods, for we are as ‘gods’ said Jesus, and with the practice of heavenly wisdom, are on our way to becoming citizens of the kingdom that is above, and as disciples who’s principle goal, said Jesus, is to bring that kingdom to Earth. At this we have failed miserably, in spite of two millennia of his teachings.

It has been said that ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. If this be true, then we must at all cost limit the powers of religion and politics, for both are insidious powers, and have been and will continue to be corrupted, and when religion and politics become indistinguishable from one another how complete is that corruption! Such a thing has so great a seed of disaster in it that it can bring a nation to its knees in a few short years.

In less than a decade a great nation has been reduced from prosperity to poverty, and the only wisdom that seems to be produced by those in control is that which is earthly and demonic -- selfishness and greed. It is a great evil to see the rich get richer, and the poor poorer on the backs of the very people who believed so fervently the religious and political rhetoric that issued from the marriage of the two.

It is a slap in the face to the very people that Jesus came to die for -- the poor -- to see the bankrupted rich bailed out and saved from calamity, and the bankrupted poor deeper in disaster and despair. Without faith, hope and vision, a nation may perish -- perhaps even
a whole planet of nations.

When this man Jesus finally returns, will he find faith and hope on the Earth? We need a new vision -- hopefully one without religion and politics. For the two systems that the powers say we must have to be civilized so far neither has worked out to the advantage of humanity. Jesus, come quickly!