In my last entry I alluded to the way that Christians often seem to pursue the logical implications of an argument only as far as it serves their own sectarian interests. Once that point has been reached, they either suddenly stop or they switch to another argument entirely – one that might not even mesh very well with their earlier one.

The example I gave in my last entry focused on those who seem to be all for having religion in public schools on “freedom of religion” grounds so long as they’re the ones in the majority and it’s their religion that’s trumping secularism and the principle of church-state separation. When they happen to be in the minority and it’s some other religion that would benefit more, all of a sudden church-state separation looks like a great idea.

Here’s a recent story that brought the point home to me yet again:

—– Church Group Asks People To Vote For Secular Parties (NewKerala.com/The Indo-Asian News Service; Feb 27)

NEW DELHI: The Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India (CBCI), a prominent church group in the country, Friday asked the people to vote for secular parties and candidates in the upcoming general elections.

“Be true to the letter and spirit of the preamble and the provisions of the constitution of India without any sectarian or party persuasion,” a CBCI release here said….

See how it works? Where Christians are far outnumbered by Hindus and Muslims, Christians defend the secular constitution. Where Catholics are the biggest denomination (like the US), a rather different path is taken – one that often involves taking slaps at secularism and those candidates who defend it.

I talked to a Christian lawyer about this once. He was trying to defend the idea that the US is a Christian country and that our government and our schools ought to reflect that. So I pointed out that by saying what he was saying and by embracing the principle of “The majority rules on matters of religion,” he was throwing away his right to claim equal rights for Christians in China today – or for Christians in ancient Rome. “Oh, I’m just talking about the US!” he lamely replied – pretty much making my point for me.

This far – but NO farther!

Here’s another recent example:

—– If You Want To Know God, Go To Church (Lisa Warren/Letter To The Editor/The Columbus Dispatch; March 26)

Columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. raises valid concern over the decline of organized religion (“Is it really any wonder that religion is in decline?” Forum column, March 16). But by emphasizing the negative minority, he misses the big picture.

All in all, people who worship within a community of faith are healthier, have stronger families and make better citizens than those who are uncommitted to a church, mosque or synagogue. Time magazine recently (Feb. 23) did a cover story on the biology of faith, revealing that regular church attendance adds two to three extra years of life.

Belief in a higher power provides incentive to compel the individual to behave above her own selfish interests.

Perhaps part of the problem lies in what Pitts states, “If all I knew of God was what I had seen in the headlines, I would not be eager to make his acquaintance.”

Attending services usually gives a more accurate picture of God than the secular press. Despite what George Burns says in the amusing film Oh God, God does go to church, and he wants us there, too.

Setting aside the many things I could say about the complex cause-and-effect relationship between church-going and health, and the way a comparison of religious and non-religious states and nations actually reveals a negative correlation between religion and health, and the inadequacies of the Time article, and the problems involved in defining “better citizen” let alone isolating the factors that might result in such a creature, etc., etc., let me say this instead….

Let us for the sake of argument grant Lisa her claim that regular church attendance produces wonderful things, including two to three extra years of life. Why stop there?

Going to a Mormon church might well correlate with better health and behavior and more years of life than going to a Baptist or a Catholic one. Why doesn’t Lisa follow her argument to its logical conclusion and say that Baptist and Catholics ought to become Mormons?
And if it turns out that the best behaved and longest-lived people on the planet are Tibetan Buddhists or secular Jews, how might Lisa avoid saying that we all ought to become Buddhists or secular Jews?

As I pointed out in the entry I posted on Jan 14, 2003, the residents of Okinawa seem to be about four times as likely to live to be 100 as the residents of the US. And Okinawa just happens to be one of the least Christian places on earth. If people like Lisa really wanted to discover the truth rather than simply defend and promote their own religious preconceptions, they would know this. And if they truly believed in the power of logic to lead us to the right conclusion, they would apply their premises consistently and follow logic all the way to the end and say, “Hey, guess what guys? If we want to live longer, we need to abandon Christianity and live like they do on Okinawa!” But they don’t. It’s another case of so far – but no farther. (Taiwan is another good example to look at if you don’t like Okinawa for some reason.)

Perhaps the best historical example of this that I can think of at the moment involves gays and AIDS. I bet we’ve all heard the claim of some Christians that gOd sent AIDS to punish gays for disobeying his Biblical order not to engage in gay sex. Now, how many of us have ever heard a Christian say, “Hey, it turns out that lesbians are among the people least likely to get or die from AIDS. In fact, they’re the least likely to get any kind of STD! Clearly gOd thinks lesbian sex is the best of all!” I seem to have missed that particular sermon.
Again, the operating principle seems to be “This far – but no farther!”

One final example and then I’ll stop:

When Katrina slammed into New Orleans, there were those Christians who said it was gOd’s wrathful judgment on an evil city. When a tornado wipes out a very Christian town or floods devastate some of the most Christian parts of my own state of Ohio, however, there’s… silence. Suddenly Christians become deaf, mute, and forgetful. Or references to a wrathful gOd get replaced with references to a fickle Mother Nature. How convenient.

This far – but no farther?

“Head I win/Tails you lose”?

It’s time we exposed this sort of thing for what it is: A big stinking ball of crap.