[Vision2020] Church, State & Politics, etc.

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

All:

I sent the e-mail below privately to a V2020 subscriber.  I present it below 
with the identity of who I sent it to removed.  I don't think I am revealing 
anything that violates anyone's privacy or reveals the identity of the person 
involved:

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These issues can be very divisive and complex.  

What is the dividing line between church and state?  Are not many of the laws 
enforced by government derived from the ethical codes of religious 
tradition(s)?  So how can we divide church and state?  If we cannot totally divide them, 
what religion or religions do we reference for the ethical standards for 
government?  No one can agree on this, at least not totally enough, unless you 
live in Iran, or some sort of theological dictatorship.

And if we then agree on total diversity of lifestyles derived from differing 
ethical standards, then how do we decide between them when they conflict in 
practice in the community?  Does the government backed by the people create the 
ethical standards we live by?  So basically this approach says ethics is 
decided by the vote.  Or by the dictator if you live in a dictatorship.  But most 
people do not look at ethics this way.  They feel their religion is the main 
source of their ethics.

But what about between governments?  If each government in effect then 
becomes its own creator of ethics if we vote for our ethical standards, or have them 
dictated to us, and if different governments have conflicting ethical codes 
that lead to war, where is the outside arbitrator of ethics to decide who is 
right and wrong?  We could bring in God again, or some appeal to naturalistic 
ethics, but there are problems with either approach, namely each God of each 
religion has differing values, and no one agrees on what the naturalistic ethical 
standards are.

Love and kindness to all, or survival of the fittest?  Might makes right, or 
pacifism?  

Christ Church wants to bring down the public schools in Moscow.  I happen to 
think the public schools are a needed and good institution.  Therefore I will 
speak against Christ Church's power in Moscow.  Of course they have a right to 
exist under our system.  But I have a right to speak against them.  They want 
to destroy institutions I think are valuable.

I want to avoid personalizing this whole debate.  I am sure many of the 
members of Christ Church are good decent people who would help you if you were 
stranded on the road.  I know Joan and Saundra and Rose are good people, and they 
have all helped me, even sometimes stranded on the road!  

Hopefully human beings can maintain a sense of decency and respect for each 
other even when they vehemently disagree.  It is when this basic decency breaks 
down that we have atrocities.  If Moscow was hit by massive floods or other 
disasters, I trust we would see Christ Church people along side the Moscow 
Civic Association people helping out those in need.

But I will not cooperate with Christ Church in bringing down the public 
schools (which is really just one problem out of many I have with the ethics they 
promote).  But if they draw thousands more to the Moscow area, they can defeat 
school bond levy's left and right with their voting block.  As Moscow grows, 
eventually the public schools will need more funding.  And Christ Church has a 
national stage that could result in them drawing thousands to Latah County.  
This is not just wild speculation.  Nor is Christ Church's connection to racist 
groups in the USA wild speculation.

This is the world of politics, and it is often not the nicest game in town.  
I wish politics was a much nicer game, but "nice" in politics is not the real 
world of human society.

This debate could go on and on forever ... so, thanks for your reply, and I 
will leave you with the above comments.

Ted Moffett
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