To understand the religious foundations of the United States it must be understood that many came to this country due to religious persecution and prevention of practice in countries of origin.  Also, the United States is a country that is a coalition of individual states that agreed to get along just enough to have some simple commonalities in the area of defense, commerce rules, and allowing the most freedom afforded an individuals.

 

People of different religious groups landed in different states. Some states had state supported churches.  To protect this right of the states, the constitution writers in the first amendment of the bill of rights state that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”  This does not preclude a state from making state laws regarding the establishment of religion or the free exercise or for that matter the right of people to that assembly and free exercise.

 

In many communities while the regular religious practice is held behind closed doors, there are occasions of agreed upon public religious celebrations.  There are also voices of concerns from what may be perceived as the opposition.  It is generally a majority vote on community.  Also, if a person wants to avoid the celebrations they are not bound to stay but can leave either temporarily or permanently.  It is this religious freedom that comes with responsibility and theological interpretation.

 

Sarah Trone Garriott is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in America. The ELCA was formed as the merger of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) centered in the Northeast states, the American Lutheran Church (ALC), with headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a combination of Scandinavian and German churches, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), also nicknamed seminex (seminary in exile), which withdrew from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) in 1975, comprised many congregations throughout the lower Midwest. There were member churches that did not join the merger.

 

Of the three largest Lutheran Synods in the United States, The ELCA is the largest and many consider the most liberal.  The other two, the LCMS and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) are much more conservative and have limited pulpit sharing with the other Lutheran organizations.  As an example, to have communion in the LCMS or the WELS you must either belong to a member church or be approved after discussion as communion is considered “close”.  The ELCA takes the approach of the Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, and the Episcopals and has “open” communion.  The Roman Catholic Church has “closed” communion, only available to practicing Roman Catholics in good standing with the church.

 

I precede this article with this explanation to give light to comments made in an article published by the https://www.westernjournal.com/:

“We have seen some uncomfortable ways that faith and political power have collided,” Trone Garriott said at a 2023 event before the Iowa United Methodist Church Board of Laity.

 

“Um, you know, seeing the flag and the cross conflated. We have seen religious actors supporting specific political candidates, even when those candidates might not seem to match the values of that professed religious faith, there is this very strong allegiance to specific candidates,” she continued.”

 

“That confuses us, and makes us wonder what on earth is going on,” she continued. “And we have seen religion and political violence showing up more and more in our public spaces.”

 

“It’s something that is just very in our faces and something that we are very concerned about, and something that feels very threatening.”

 

Looking at current statistics, here is a breakdown of Global Religious terror attacks by the top five religions in the world in the last fifty years:

1. Christianity 200

2. Islam 66,000+

3. Hinduism 20

4. Buddhism 5

5. Judaism 200

 

This list does not point to Christianity as a problem.  But since there are so many different Christian belief structures it is easy to paint the more conservative Christians as bad.  Yes, Christians in the past have had some bad actors.  There has been misinterpretation of Matthew 18-20,

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway*, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

 

Teach, Baptizing for acceptance.  No where does it say strong arm.  But it does imply that the right to ignore those who do not believe as you do is acceptable. It also implies that if you wish you may associate with them.  As Christ commanded there is disagreement but loving disagreement.

 

Going back to the comments by Sarah Trone Garriott I ask, what “religion and political violence showing up more and more in our public spaces” does she mean?  Are we talking about Islamic prayer sessions taking over the streets in Dearborn Michigan such that traffic is blocked and people can hear this from their houses?  Are we talking about women getting raped in England, France and other parts of the world by Islamic immigrants who were let into countries but have not assimilated?

 

While a large number of the founders of the United States were Christian, there were Diests who believed in a creator but not necessarily Christ, and Theistic Rationalists who combined their combined elements of Protestantism and natural religion, prioritizing reason and morality while often diverging from orthodox doctrines like the Trinity. The nation was created not as a Christian nation but as a nation that allowed for a segregated religious approach but with a foundation of morality.  It is when that foundation of morality is missing or destroyed that bad actors can take over in the name of a specific religion and promote hate.

 

Sarah Trone Garriott, when you say “We have seen religious actors supporting specific political candidates, even when those candidates might not seem to match the values of that professed religious faith, there is this very strong allegiance to specific candidates,” to who and what are you referring?

Looking into biblical history, had not Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating slaves? God made him a leader of the Israelites for the great exodus. The Apostle Paul prior to his conversion was heavily involved in persecution of Christians and approved of the stoning of Stephen. Barabbas, a thief and rebellion leader was chosen in trade for Christ’s execution.

 

Sarah Trone Garriott what specifically do you mean by your statement?  A few followup questions. How does this affect your ability to work across the aisle to remote your ideas to become policy? How does this affect your stance on Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria?

One last item.  I see that the Iowa Senate Democrats site mention a husband Will.  Your House campaign web site you state you are “Minister. Mother. Leader.”  It is curious that you omit you are a wife. Is there a reason for this? A picture on your web site implies that you may have a husband and it was only until I did a Brave Search AI result was I able to trace a reference to a spouse on Iowa Senate Democrats web site.