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Letting Go of God

Julia Sweeney

“You cannot tell me there is not a God” – alcoholic friend stumbling to his room.

“You are doing a good enough job all on your own.” – me

“In case of Rapture this car will be driverless” – bumper sticker found on car in front of a local strip bar

It was the height of the American Civil War. Things were not going well for the North. Robert E. Lee and Confederate forces were rolling up victory after victory and what was supposed to be a short war was becoming a meat grinder. Northern ministers felt they needed to do something to get God on their side, especially because the gentleman sitting in the Oval Office, Abraham Lincoln, would not make a public profession of his faith, refused to say grace before meals, never formally joined a church, and held in distain Christian notions of the depravity of man, the infallibility of the Bible, miracles, and notions that God’s blessings were always given to the faithful. They decided to force his hand by creating a wedge issue to use against him in his re-election or get the country back on the spiritual moorings they believed (incorrectly) that the nation was founded on, thus receiving God’s grace and ending the bloody war. Much like the Pharisees trying to trick Jesus, northern religious leaders proposed to the President that there be a Constitutional amendment stating formally that this is a Christian nation. Lincoln understood the trap they were setting for him. If he opposed this amendment, these religious leaders would lead a revolt out of their pulpits and there would be no chance he would ever be re-elected and the Union would probably lose the war. If he supported the amendment, it would change the very character of the nation and lead to a whole host of problems the founders had sought to avoid.

Lincoln, in his backwoods wisdom, headed things off at the pass and cut the legs out from under these religious leaders who were trying to make a power play. Instead of a Constitutional amendment, Lincoln publically announced that he was supporting that “In God We Trust” be printed on the currency. It was a bone thrown to the faithful that would make them go away happy and yet make no real difference in anything, the firewall would be maintained, and he was right. Every once in awhile an atheist brings a lawsuit to get that slogan removed from the currency and Christians act like Henny Penny, the sky is falling, and I just shake my head because I am in Lincoln’s camp. It makes no real concrete difference. No one about to shell out a few Benjamins for a prostitute has seen “In God We Trust” and just went home to his family. No one about to snort a line of cocaine with a rolled up dollar bill has been stopped by the slogan. The Wall Street and mortgage industry greed that nearly destroyed this nation was not curtailed by God’s name on mammon. It is an empty gesture that makes people who think that fossils are a trick of the devil and that Jesus rode a dinosaur happy.

Just like Barack Hussein Obama is probably not the first black President (Warren G. Harding was dogged throughout his life because of his features that he had African blood flowing through his veins.) and we have probably already had a homosexual President (James Buchanan, our 15^th President, who probably had a long-term homosexual relationship with his Vice-President William Rufus King.), we have probably had an atheist or agnostic President, several actually. Yet, if you look at statistics and surveys, we are probably not going to see an openly atheistic President in our lifetime. It seems to be the lone remaining scarlet letter of politics. In fact, looking at the beliefs of those under 30, it seems likely that in the next half century we could have a Mr. President and his First Gentleman long before we have an open skeptic leading this nation. In Gallup polls and interviews Americans have rated atheists below almost every segment of society including immigrants, homosexuals, and Muslims in sharing their values. I find this surprising because I truly believe there are a lot more non-believers out there than we care to admit. For the most part, most people keep their private beliefs to themselves because they do not want the hassles that come when you state what you really believe, especially if what they believe is different than that of their friends and neighbors.

Yet, a strange phenomenon has happened in the last few years. Atheists are forcefully coming out of the closet and proudly proclaiming their beliefs. Three of the top selling non-fiction books in the last couple of years have been Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris, God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, each of which directly challenge the existence of God. A YouTube viral phenomenon was people openly blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The percentage of young people who claim to be atheists has doubled in the last decade. What is going on?

I believe two things explain the current explosion of people expressing their disbelief. The Internet, which has helped geek culture to explode, also has helped people of like mind when it comes to the existence of God to find each other. Your neighbor is no longer just down the street but can be half a world away connected to you through a fiber optic cable. Secondly, the religious right’s hijacking of a major political party has made people who normally would have remained silent have to deal with what they believe. If believing in God means being not believing in global warming, being against stem cell research, thinking evolution is fiction, being against a woman’s right to choose, against homosexuals having equal rights, anti-government, and supporting an unjust war and torture, morality means letting go of God.

Julia Sweeney, who is most famous as Pat from “Saturday Night Live”, has developed a humorous one-woman show that details her path from being a good Catholic girl to disbelief. Much like her previous effort that discussed her battle with cancer, the subject matter seems as funny as a heart attack. Yet, it is incredibly entertaining. As a child, Julia was active in her church and even completed becoming a nun. As she grew older, she embraced all sorts of new age and far eastern thoughts and movements. Yet, nagging questions continued to bother her, and much like David Plotz of Slate Magazine instead of accepting what others had told her was in the Bible, she read it for herself. What she found was a lot of contradictions, a God that was not very loving at times and supported things like killing babies, slavery and stoning disrespectful children, and a lot of things that made no sense at all. The more she read the more she struggled with the faith she was slowly leaving behind.

I think more people should examine their faith like Julia Sweeney. I find it amazing that some of the most hyper-religious are the ones who have examined their beliefs the least. What most people fail to understand is that true faith only comes through doubt. In my opinion, the greatest theologian this country has ever produced is Abraham Lincoln. Reading his public statements, one cannot help but come away with the opinion that he had a deeper understanding of what was going on than his opponents and the religious leaders of the period. He looked at his own life, the pain he had gone through, examined the ideals of the time, and conducted himself the way we wish all our Presidents would. Today he could not get elected and it is why I stand with Lincoln on such matters.

Verdict: A One Woman Show For A Very Select Audience