Sermons by Reverend Don Beaudreault
Dear President Bush (PART TWO): The Devil
Rev. Don Beaudreault
Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, FL
February 19, 2006
OPENING READING: “What is it about being human…?”
What is it about being human that makes the majority of us NOT want to find out the truth?
Wouldn’t you think it would be the opposite? Especially in a “free” society – where one is free to pursue happiness – including pursuing being happy in or out of a religion?
But there it is – the existential question I have been wrestling with for most of my life: why do so many feel shackled by cultural mores and practices when it comes to discovering at least a bit of factual information about the realities they say they believe?
Could it be they have fear of the unknown? Fear they might have to change their perspective on life? Fear the things they have been told all their lives are wrong, even blatantly pernicious and terribly harmful to others?
Thank the fates for the cardinal principle of Unitarian Universalism that calls us to seek and speak the truth in love!
Don Beaudreault
SERMON: “Dear President Bush, Part Two: The Devil
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
February 19, 2006
Dear President Bush,
I am writing to you today because as a clergyman in a country that has constitutionally guaranteed me and all other citizens freedom of and freedom from religion, I am disturbed by your assumptions that you somehow speak for all Americans as God’s personal representative.
You do not, sir. Nor should you!
You are entitled to your own opinions on the matter about what God might be saying to you and I honor your right to hold them.
But you must honor mine and all other citizens’ beliefs or non-beliefs about a deity – something you are not doing. Nor am I the only clergyperson or layperson expressing this to you. And, we do talk among ourselves.
Sir, do you not take into advisement the thoughts of your predecessors? Consider the stirring words of President James Madison:
We hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth that religion, or the duty which we owe our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence. The religion, then, of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man: and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. (1785)
Now, you might be thinking that is exactly what you are doing – but sir, your statements reveal that in your enthusiasm for your personal God, you are dictating how all others should believe.
Indeed, Mr. President, when the presidency of the United States was established, it was very clear that those who did so had the fullest intention of preventing the Chief Executive of our land from even thinking s/he was a monarch and acting as a deity’s personal spokesperson for the rest of us.
Remember, sir, they were rebelling against such a British monarchial system where church and state were, in effect, one.
Further than this, in fact, was the idea that the job of presidency when created was to be just a job – not some kind of position where its holder was expected to be a purveyor of moral dictates.
There was no ethical litmus test required for the position, although it was expected that our president would be at least intelligent and fair.
Only with time did the presidency become this holier than thou job we have today, where the person in office began to take on an imperial air (thankfully not every president sought to do this).
My personal hero in this regard was President Thomas Jefferson – one of those religious dissenters, you know. And what a humble personage he was, sir! No lavish idea of his position. If he were to be alive today (and truly he is in the hearts and minds of many of us), he would be amazed at the extravagant claims you are making about your position!
Said he in a letter to his nephew:
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.
But you, Mr. Bush, obviously have and continue to believe you are more than just a man doing a job, and dare not question the existence of a god. Somehow you got the notion that you are this guardian of our ethical values (which you interpret to be Fundamentalist Christian) – both at home and abroad.
This self-inspired role would be merely ludicrous – it being based on fiction - if it were not for the fact that it also is a dangerous position to hold on the world stage.
President George Washington reminds us of that when he says:
Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.
So, Mr. Bush, your posturing as a moral leader rather than performing your duties as a political leader first and foremost, puts our country into jeopardy. You talk in terms of black and white when it comes to the religious practices of people around the world. You are very clear: those whose religious values are not in line with yours are evil; they are the enemy - not just those who are the religious extremists who practice violence.
And that is what I want to talk to you about in the rest of this letter.
Evil – and its various manifestations.
In reference to this, let me quote a group of seminary professors – Christian ones:
A group of Fuller Theological Seminary professors, saying they are responding to a "grave moral crisis” in America, are signing a statement opposing President Bush's alleged convergence of God, church and nation and what they call his "theology of war.'
Glen Stassen…professor of Christian ethics, said Bush's religious rhetoric confuses the cause of Christianity with that of a nation at war.
For instance, in Bush's 2002 State of the Union address the president labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea the "axis of evil,' Stassen said.
"Calling the three nations the 'axis of evil' and refusing to acknowledge any errors that he has made, that sets up a dichotomy between righteous United States and unrighteous 'axis of evil,' ' Stassen said. "... It leads to a crusade in which Christians think the Christian thing to do is support war-making against an allegedly unrighteous enemy.' (John Mark Ministries, September, 2004)
Dear Mr. Bush, of special note by historians of the future, will be your adopting the symbols of a Fundamentalist Christian faith and infusing them into your political agenda.
The most striking one for me, sir, has been your playing with the devil.
Do you really believe in the devil, Mr. President? I mean in a literal way? Well, I guess you do if you are a Christian of the stripe you profess.
And here is where, if there is a devil causing you to believe in “it.” I am most afraid.
Let me set the stage as to why I am.
Like so many of the so-called “Founding Fathers” and others who are in direct lineage to the rationalists of the 18th century – I am a “dissenter.” In other words I rail against the idea that there has to be any one religion or any religion – anywhere, at anytime. I respect the right of each person to decide this matter for him or herself on these matters.
Specifically, I am a Unitarian Universalist. And primary to my understanding about my religious adherence is the freedom to pursue truth.
I have to say, sir, that I was not raised in this faith, but in a traditional Christian faith that believed doctrinal things about God, Jesus, the Resurrection, the Devil, and the Afterlife.
No longer do I think in these black and white terms. Apparently, you still do. And that is what is scary to me, given your concept of what your position of president should be.
Crucial to the history and present reality of my faith has been pursuing the truth about the origin of things: like how we got the ideas we do about theology or anything else (for example ethics and religious observances).
So when you talk about the devil – or even make the sign of the devil (which you do rather often according to the websites I have recently visited) – even if you are not aware that you are making this sign of the devil’s horns – then I get scared. All this says to me is that you really do believe in such a reality.
So, I am writing this letter to give you some facts – although, given the penchant for people of a strict kind of faith such as yours who refuse to accept the facts even if they are presented to them; who prefer to rely upon “blind faith” - I doubt you will consider the ones I am presenting to you, or even read the first word of this letter!
But here it comes, anyhow, Mr. Bush: One Man’s Romp Through the History of the Devil.
Consider the fact that as far back as 60,000 before the birth of Christ, there is every indication:
That religious sentiment was entirely directed toward the celebration of life, and in particular the sun. The hollower sort of divinity embodied by the Devil seems to be absent: fear or hatred of Evil is much less in evidence than is the worship of life. (A History of the Devil, Gerald Messadie, pp. 17-18)
And in ancient Hinduism in India – with all its various manifestations of deities – there was not one “Devil” the way you might think of “him” (where all evil resides). This is true, too, in Vedic, Jainist, and Buddhist India. There was and is the cult of Shiva, the god of destruction, but Shiva is, at the same time, the source of all life; the great avenger and the giver of gifts.
Nor has the big and nasty American Christian Fundamentalist version of the Devil ever existed in any of the Southeast Asian countries. This would be true in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia as well, although there were some aspects of a devil there.
We must look to ancient Persia (Iran) and its religion Zoroastrianism to understand where you, Mr. President, and those who believe what you do about a devil derived their beliefs. This is where much of the Judeo Christian mythology and subsequent theology began.
The Persians believed God and the devil were twin brothers, born of Infinite Time, their mother called Zurvan. God (who stayed in heaven) was called Ahura Mazda, the Good one, the One of Light; the Bad One, the One of Darkness, was Ahriman, the devil who was cast out of heaven, and posted to a god-forsaken place called planet earth, third rock from the sun. We should also mention Mithra, a mythical savior whose story predated Christ’s but was remarkable in its similarity: from birth to death to resurrection.
This brings us to the Judeo Christian connection. According to Elaine Pagels (we Unitarian Universalists heard her speak at our General Assembly in your own state of Texas this summer), the early Christians saw themselves as the true remnant of Israel and all others as forces of darkness. She calls this “the demonization of the other.” This concept, says Robert Fuller is similar to how Americans view their nation (Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession).
Jungian psychology would assert that this is similar to how any of us react to those we don’t like: we project what we don’t like about ourselves on to others; we make them the “enemy,” the “demon.”
Elaine Pagels tells us that “Satan” is a Hebrew term, and did not mean a specific personage. It was a word used to describe an adversarial role. The Greek term “diabolos” later translated “devil” means “one who throws something across one’s path.” This does not necessarily connote something bad. Such a devilish act might be meant to be a protective act.
But what about today, Mr. Bush? What do we Americans believe about the Devil? Well, you are in the minority, given your more literal interpretation.
According to the scholar Sallie Nichols:
We are more ready now to view him as a shadow aspect of ourselves rather than as a supernatural god or an infernal demon. Perhaps it may mean that we are ready at last to wrestle with our own satanic underside. (The Devil in the Tarot)
Carl Jung, himself, warns us about the devil inside our self:
Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”
Shakespeare knew about such a devil, too, when he affirmed:
This thing of darkness I acknowledge mine.
Truly, today’s psychological definition of the “Devil” is really the culmination of the human need to explain why bad things happen. But it is important to realize the importance of facing those bad things so that we might come into a healthier state of existence.
The early Greeks knew this, believing in both the destructive and constructive qualities of those primal forces with us. Plato’s word was “daimonic” which for him was synonymous with “theos” or god. Eros, too, by the way, was a daimon.
But still there are those – including yourself, Mr. President, who speak from old traditions and refuse to admit their own failings; to realize that maybe what they demonize about others is really something they fear or dislike about themselves.
Mr. Bush, please, please recognize these things, lest you lead us into even further world war against those you perceive as the devil’s own representative – including the country of Iran (Persia) the place where the battle between good and evil was firmly rooted through its religion Zoroastrianism.
How ironic!
But perhaps no more ironic than this fact is the war you have waging in Iraq – the very place where the mythical Garden of Eden was said to mythically exist.
In summary, then, sir, I feel that I must end this letter with a call to a realization of human shortcomings – yours, mine, and everyone else’s. Remember what the biblical book of Matthew says:
Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.
With all due respect, Mr. President, I am:
Rev. Don Beaudreault
Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, FL
And your fellow citizen of the United States of America
CLOSING WORDS:
The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.
William Shakespeare