Written by Don Byrd
The great Dr. Molly T. Marshall penned a much-needed Baptist News Global column, partially in response to Donald Trump’s recent comment that “Islam hates us.” She declined to mention his name, for reasons you can (and should) read, but offered a powerful response to what she calls “a dangerous pandering to the most exclusivist understandings of Christianity.”
Dr. Marshall also expresses concern about the use of religion generally as a tactic of political division.
Here is an excerpt:
As a Baptist, I get very nervous when the political realm speaks too much about religion. It is the role of the state to create a context where religious pluralism can flourish; it is not the role of the state to impose or favor one religion over another. As Rowan Williams contends in Faith in the Public Square, the state serves as “mediator and broker whose job is to balance and manage real differences.” Nor it is the role of religion to commandeer the state for its own purposes, and the cynical use of Christianity (a.k.a civil religion?) to further candidates’ prospects demeans responsible faith.
Respect for the religion of others is more than simply tolerating religious difference; rather, it draws from the common affirmation of the dignity of humans and their right to religious liberty. It is a critical task of our time to learn from adherents of other ways of faith. The last thing a politician needs to do is denigrate another religion en masse. Every faith tradition has its radical fringe, and we ought to know better than to measure the whole by those who distort its essential teaching.
The Baptist Joint Committee has announced that Dr. Marshall will deliver the Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State on April 4-5 at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
We are fortunate to have such a powerful Baptist voice articulate this essential message about politics and religious liberty. Read the whole thing.
