Where Have All The Bibles Gone?

As always, a lot of personal belief masquerades as religious dictate: the “it’s not me, it’s God” defense of a political argument. Recently though, it’s shocking how the Bibles have gone missing. We are in the midst of political debates regarding core moral issues – healthcare for the poor, higher taxes for the rich, war – and I haven’t heard much scripture. I am no theologian, but I know my New Testament fairly well, especially the Sermon on the Mount. Those pages contain many words (especially in red) regarding poverty, charity, and killing. Where are those Bibles now? Why do the WWJD? signs disappear when the conversation turns to taxes, healthcare, guns. and war? The criteria switches: while it’s “un-Christian” to support reproductive rights or gay marriage, it’s “un-American” to support public healthcare or to oppose war.

I don’t mean to insinuate that one cannot be religious and support war or oppose a public healthcare option. What I mean is that if the Bible is the core argument in one political debate, consistency demands that the Bible returns for the next one. If someone uses a Bible to defend an opposition to gay marriage, they need to use it when the debate moves onto healthcare for the poor or the war in Afghanistan. Otherwise that book is no longer a sacred text guiding a belief system but becomes a mere prop.

My point, of course, is that religion does not belong in government policy for this reason: it’s used as a convenient and nearly unassailable way to bolster personal opinion as divine truth. Now that we see many political conservatives shelving Bibles when their particular causes would not be helped by them, let’s keep religious texts where they belong: in homes and places of worship, guiding lives but not policy.