Religious Freedom In America: It Could be Worse

I've been reading through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and was going to give my take on the beauty of the universe tomorrow morning. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 341)

That's important, but so is remembering what my Lord said about love and neighbors. It's one of those ideas that's simple to understand, but hard to do.

Headings in this post:

• Tolerance, Freedom, and America
• Life, Freedom, and Change
• It Could be Worse
• Frightened by Change?
• Human Development, Living in the Past, and Being Catholic
• A World Full of 'Foreigners'
• A World Full of Neighbors
• Yemen, History, and Getting a Grip

I may get around to the beauty of the universe tomorrow. Or next week.

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On the whole, I like living in America. On the other hand I've thought seriously about moving somewhere else. Each time, after looking at my options, I decided to stay here.

Judging from the number of new faces I've seen here in central Minnesota, quite a few other folks have also decided that America isn't all that bad a place to live:

• "Local Parishes, Universal Church, and Living in Minnesota"
  (June 16, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Minnesota: Not For Everybody
  • Minnesota, Turkeys, and Jobs

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Tolerance, Freedom, and America

One reason that I think America is okay is that this country has a fairly good track record for tolerance. Far from perfect, though.

I remember when this country was flushing McCarthyism out it its system, and when "banned in Boston" was taken seriously: sometimes as a sign of impending End Times; sometimes, I think, as free publicity.

I endured political correctness, when I last did time in American academia. It wasn't, in my opinion, an improvement on McCarthyism: just the same old 'my way or the highway' attitude, with a somewhat different agenda.

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Life, Freedom, and Change

But we got over McCarthyism. I think we'll get over political correctness, although the "free to agree with me" attitude packaged as "tolerance" is still very much with us. I've been posting about a current effort by America's national government to control how Americans practice our religions:

• "Working Toward a Better World "
  (Link list)
  • The Department of Health and Human Services vs. Conscience
• "My Take on the News: Religious 'Freedom;' Killing the Victims; Another Hack Attack"
  (March 16, 2012)
  Particularly
  • Religious Freedom: For Those With Presidential Approval
    • Don't Laugh: You Could be Next

By the way, what you may have read in the papers notwithstanding: 'Those Catholics' aren't trying to make you worship our way. The problem we have with the HHS mandate comes from our belief that human beings are people. All human beings.

Anyway, we're not allowed to 'force' anyone to change your mind about faith. It's in the rules:

• Catholics must support religious freedom
  (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2104-2109)
  • For everybody
    (Catechism, 2106)

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It Could be Worse

Like I said, America has a fairly good record of tolerance. Killing folks who don't conform, and bragging about it, isn't a serious problem in today's America.

Folks in some parts of the world have a very different approach to living with differences:

"School that employed American shot in Yemen denies he proselytized Christianity"
Associated Press, via FoxNews.com (March 19, 2012)

"The school employing an American teacher gunned down in Yemen has denied accusations that he was proselytizing Christianity.

"A text message that circulated by mobile phone in Yemen said that 'holy warriors' had killed 'a senior missionary' in the central city of Taiz, shortly after the teacher was shot dead Sunday by two gunmen on a motorcycle...."

"...A statement from the International Training Development Centre in Taiz identified the victim as Joel Shrum, an American development worker living in Yemen with his wife and two children since 2010.

"The school denied that Shrum was proselytizing, saying that he 'highly respected' Islam. It said Muslims and Christians work together on 'human development, skill transfer and community development' projects there and that religious and political debates are not permitted...."

The lesson to learn from that article isn't, I think, that all Yemeni, or Muslims, are bad. Even though whoever killed Joel Shrum may have been a Yemeni, or a Muslim.

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Frightened by Change?

I'm inclined to believe the school's claim that he was not guilty of proselytizing. Arguably, though, the entire school is guilty of trying to 'destroy' Yemeni culture. Sort of.

The school's agenda of "human development, skill transfer and community development" sounds like a 'plot' to bring Yemen into the 20th century. Maybe even the 21st.

Change can be scary. Folks sometimes feel threatened by change. I think that Associated Press article shows what can happen when folks get scared: and think that killing someone will solve their problems. Or at least make them feel better.

Judgmental as this may seem: I don't think that's right.
(Catechism, 2258-2287, 2302-2317)

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Human Development, Living in the Past, and Being Catholic

I'm a practicing Catholic, so human development is one of my priorities. (" 'To Build a Better Future ... With Confidence Rather Than Resignation' " (February 20, 2012))

For someone living in Yemen, who sees change as intrinsically bad: the International Training Development Centre in Taiz is a very real threat.

I'm not spooked by change. But then, I'm an American.

I grew up in a crucible of change: the country I live in today isn't like the one I grew up in. Which isn't an entirely bad thing. I remember when "she's as smart as a man" was supposed to be a compliment, and that's another topic.
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A World Full of 'Foreigners'

I have no problem with international organizations. Not because they span national boundaries, anyway. That's not because I'm a Catholic, though.

I grew up outside the Catholic faith, and spent my teens in the '60s. The United Nations was a disappointment, communist experiments were disasters: but I found no reason to drop the idea that people are people, no matter where they are.

Later, when I became a Catholic, I learned more about why accepting all people is important. (Catechism, 616, 631, 2318, for starters) And that's yet again another topic.

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A World Full of Neighbors

I've said it before. We live in a big world. Some of us are what the "Parthians, Medes, and Elamites..." became after two millennia of change.

Some of us are like me: what barbarians living on the far side of Magna Germania became after more than a millennia of contact with the Catholic Church. We changed a lot. We even gave up human sacrifice, and that's yet again another topic.

But we're all the same. We're people. And, like it or not, we're all neighbors.

The Catholic Church tells me that I'm supposed to love God, and love my neighbors. Also that everybody is my neighbor. (Matthew 22:36-40; Matthew 5:43-44; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 10:25-30; Catechism, 1825)

That's a simple set of ideas. Believing them isn't a problem. Embracing them isn't always easy: but I think it's important.

Particularly since some of my neighbors have been through a rough time lately.

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Yemen, History, and Getting a Grip

Some places weathered Europe's colonial period, and the Treaty of Versailles, without coming apart at the seams. Other places are still like Yemen. I think there are worse ways of wrapping up a war than the Treaty of Versailles, and that's another topic, for another blog:

• "EEEK! Guns! Hoplophobia and Foreign Policy"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (December 23, 2007)
  Particularly
  • How Not to End a War
  • Spirit of Versailles: Still Here

I sympathize with folks in Yemen who are trying to pick up the pieces from several centuries of foreign rule.¹ But I don't sympathize with those who decided that folks who don't agree with them should die. They're still neighbors: but that sort of thing has to end, for everybody's sake.

Apparently someone in Taiz, Yemen, is at least going through the motions of treating Joel Shrum's death as a crime:

"...Taiz security director Ali al-Saidi said Monday that the investigation is still ongoing...."
(Associated Press)

That's good news, as far as it goes.

Related posts:

• Tolerance
  • " 'The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum' and
    'America - Love It or Leave It' "
    (February 29, 2012)
  • "Religion, Assumptions, and Getting a Grip"
    (January 1, 2012)
  • "My Take on the News: 'There Oughtta be a Law?' "
    (November 11, 2011)
  • "The Threat of People Who Aren't Just Like Us?"
    (July 23, 2011)
  • "Religious Freedom, Niemöller, and Muslims in America"
    (April 7, 2011)
• Religious Freedom
  • "My Take on the News: Religious 'Freedom;' Killing the Victims; Another Hack Attack"
    (March 16, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Religious Freedom: For Those With Presidential Approval
    • Don't Laugh: You Could be Next
  • "My Take on the News: Death; Religious Freedom; Resistance; Burned Books; and Saints"
    (February 24, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Religious Freedom and Living in a Big world
  • "The Establishment Clause; Religious Freedom; and Getting a Grip"
    (October 5, 2011)
  • "Separation of Church and State, Assumptions, and Fear"
    (September 2, 2011)
  • "School District Celebrates Religious Freedom Day: By Banning Bibles"
    (July 1, 2010)

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¹ Yemen was a center of civilization. Two or three millennia back. Change happens, though, and several centuries of foreign rule didn't work out very well for Yemen. My opinion. (More at "History of Yemen," Wikipedia) Yemen since the Versailles debacle, briefly:

"North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The British, ... withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen. ... the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. ... exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north.... formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. ... a group seeking a return to traditional Zaydi Islam, began in 2004 and has since resulted in six rounds of fighting ... with a ceasefire that continues to hold. The southern secessionist movement was revitalized ... Public rallies ... inspired by similar demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt ... fueled by complaints over high unemployment, poor economic conditions, and corruption. ... resulted in violence, and the demonstrations had spread to other major cities. ... hardened its demands and was unifying behind calls for SALIH's immediate ouster. ... and in early June an explosion at the mosque in the presidential compound injured SALIH, who was evacuated to Saudi Arabia for treatment. ... SALIH returned to Sanaa amid heavy shelling and machinegun fire ... SALIH signed the GCC-brokered agreement to step down, to transfer some of his powers to Vice President Abd al-Rabuh Mansur HADI..."
(Yemen, CIA World Factbook (last updated March 6, 2012))