# 2 – Fineman’s Argument of the Role of Faith

In Fineman’s book Thirteen American Arguments, he writes a chapter called the Role of Faith, which details some of the messy situations of faith, politics, and social change in the last hundred or so years. He starts off with our native Tennessee, in light of the Scopes Monkey Trial, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and the stronghold of the Southern Baptist Convention, and shows how it birthed the political career of Bill Frist, a politician who has had to do a lot of pleasing of many camps on relations and roles of faith in the culture. In the recent years, since Jerry Falwell and other evangelicals started bringing politics into the center stage of their faith practices, and vice versa, even more dichotomies have been created, such as single-issue politics (Democrats=pro-abortion=unchristian) where sides are taken on the basis of one “moral” issue. Somehow the Republican party became joined with the Christian right, G-d him/her/itself apparently became a Republican, and holy war on culture began to be waged.

This makes us think of what role faith has in shaping our culture. I will use two examples from our travels to illustrate this argument going on today. In Salt Lake City, most of the population claim to be Mormons, which has tremendous implications on local and state laws, the arguments and politicians that reside in that area, and the types of communities that are formed. When we went to the LGBT Film Festival in Salt Lake City, many community members claim to have been openly discriminated against when looking or jobs and by police. This is interesting in light of the LDS Church giving somewhere between 11 to 13 million dollars towards the gay marriage vote of Proposition 8 in the state of California, against the legalization of gay marriage.

Another example comes from our experience at a town market in Portland, Oregon, where a group of young Christians were singing worship songs on an elevated walkway area in efforts to share their faith with the rest of the group. Rashina, Cory, and I asked them if we could ask them a few questions, leaning toward what it means to be an American, etc. They told us quickly without us really having to ask. It turns out they were all from the former Soviet Union and had moved to Portland within the last fifteen years after experiencing much religious discrimination in their home country. The youth minister told me repeatedly that the American people had lost their way, that this country was founded by Christians, and that every early American president was a Christian, and that God wanted to take this country back for Christianity. As nice as all this sounds (and as good as it is to argue about this), the reality is that this really is not true. Somewhere along the way, this man was sold a false story of the founding of America, which affects very much how he resides and conducts himself in this country. His plan, his mission, is to take the Bible to the larger picture and to bring God back to the people of this country.

It’s easy for people to get squeamish, as I often do, to this sort of chatter. I know I did in Chicago when I was told by a very, very hairy man that the reason I am not a Christian is because my parents were perverts and that God is not a loving God, as he shoved the Book in my face, asking me to pull out verses and prove to him God meant love to disparate communities and not hellfire and brimstone. Thus, we have the sandbox mentality, the brick wall mentality of keeping people out, of making ourselves feel better. I mean sociologists aren’t free of this either. In a sense, we all, as citizens, and all, as sociologists, are a bit evangelical. We feel we have keen ideas of equality and hope that we wish to spread to all people, to aid the ones in the gutter, and to create success stories. We have conferences just as every other community, create plans of action, and express hope for a progressive future.

Altruism. What unites us. In and out of our arguments. We all, generally, seem to want what is best for ourselves, our community, and our country. This is why we argue and this is why we keep this machine going. It’s rather brilliant actually.