The state, religion, and the individual in public life
Regional, Analysis, 4/12/2000

With the spread of modern transportation and communications, the natural limitation that defined the boundaries of a state will decrease in importance over time.

A state as an organizational instrument has served a function that is valued enough to have allowed it to survive in one form or another for such a long time. The basic idea is that pooling resources in an organized framework have beneficial values that far outweigh the alternatives.

But religion has in the past played a more intrinsic role in the life of society and in some instances served to act as the state does, and competed with other states. Religion, like the state, is seen by its followers as serving a fundamental role in the functioning of a society.

However, conflicts have occurred when citizens of the same country have different religions, with each trying to impose their own version of what is "right" on the other and the results of that in the political arena in terms of conflict.

Where as the state tends to limit these conflicts to a geographic location, religion itself tends to cross state boundaries giving bonds among citizens of different countries, no matter how weak or strong that bond may be.

Thus, we see the genesis of the conflict between the state that demands loyalty to itself from its citizens, regardless of their religion, and religion, which demands loyalty to itself from its believers, regardless of their citizenship.

Thus, we can see why some citizens feel conflicted trying to balance the interests of the state, which tend to be naturalistic (i.e. materialistic), and their religion which meets their spiritual needs. What do you do when the state's action and your religion conflict, especially when the state's laws are clear cut, and so are those of your religion?

Either the state has to take precedence or religion will. In either case, one has to surrender power to the other, and the individual has to make a decision, and mostly, it is in favor of the state, or else you break the law and suffer punishment. But is following the state's law the correct decision? From a societal perspective the answer is a definite yes. This is because the state serves a primal function and is willing to accommodate different religions, while religion by its nature is less accommodating to the different views in a state.

So intrinsically, the state is the one that is more flexible, and as such, should be the formative foundation of a civil society which demands such flexibility. Religion is simply not flexible enough to provide equal treatment to citizens who vary in religion and degrees of belief.

But the state is not an end in and of itself. The state is simply a useful tool for humans. And when humans that have lived with the limitations imposed on them by the state are availed pervasive transportation and communication means across national boundaries, they will seek to break away from these limitations of the state that they had sacrificed in order to gain additional benefits in freedom, opportunity, association, communication etc... all these trends, not pleasing to the state initially, as they pose challenges to its traditional way of governing and to its identity. Cat lovers may find greater bonds between themselves in different countries than among fellow citizens. And so may some people of the same religion.

Therefore we can see the elements of the dynamics between state and religion and the individual as we move into the coming years, decades and centuries.

It would be a mistake to make simple predictions about the results of this dynamic, where some would be tempted to say that religion or the state will win, or they will combine, or blend. They may both lose. The interaction between the state and religion and the individual is part of a greater dynamic.

So how relevant is this to politics and our lives and development of a civil society?

Religion is a very personal issue, and every time it is injected into public life, problems have occurred. In the past, and now, people have fought, hated and killed each other, because those who believe so strongly, and believe that they are the holders of "truth," and when this truth is not accommodating or respecting of others different religious believes, then there is little room for compromise. You are either with us or against us; you are either good or evil. And most religion tends to be taught and presented in a very dogmatic fashion.

But tremendous good has come because of religious values that elevate us above animals and calls on us for highest morals. So, when religious values and not the religion itself are injected into public life, it can, did and does elevate humanity. And this should be the foundation for the future direction that religious leaders should seek as we go into this new metamorphosis that will be unfolding in the years and decades to come.

Religious leaders should seek to find the common values that bind all religions without diluting distinctions. But much more importantly, they should seek to find in their religious texts those statements that open the door away from fixed and absolutists and exclusive statements that by their nature portray people from other religions as heretics.

Each religion, by its very nature, tends to say "my way is the way." What is going to be the difficult task is to find the other texts of those same prophets that say, "But we have not told you everything, and there is that which God gave you, a brain, so that you can discover the full meaning of 'this way,'" which means that "this way" may lead you to unexpected places, and thus the door should never be shut before other people's beliefs when they are different, and these beliefs do not intrude on the rights of others.

The reason for this is simple. If we do not do that, people will be taught to look at each other as good or evil based simply on their religious beliefs, and we will have a recipe for trouble.

If this analysis is correct, and with the trends we described that we expect to see increase in the future, we can see that the place of religion should be in private life, even though its manifestation will be in public life; that the state should not make any religious laws, thus depriving other citizens of their rights; that the clergy of different religions should seek to find common ground and "language" as a minimum, and they should seek to find in their texts the words that would prevent condemning to Hell those of other religions. Try telling a friend of yours from another religion to his face that he is going to hell, and you will moderate your tone about your beliefs without losing them.

It is best that religion be kept out of public life and not be a subject that is injected into it. But when religion is injected into public life by some and it is used by others in politics, and it affects the rights of others, and especially as it has been in the past, we can say that it is not always good to hide from the problem. And this may be a good time to begin laying the foundation for a dialogue by responsible leaders that would ensure tranquillity between people to lessen and prevent conflicts based on religion, since the role of the state will change in time as a source of "identity" for individuals, and "the competition" that has dominated the affairs of states , as it lessens and shifts to many other domains, may shift in part to the domain of religion, as people inevitably look for ways to make themselves different in their never-ending quest to affirm their individual identity.

Editor's remarks: 25 years ago,tomorrow, Lebanon began a civil war the ugliness of which is hard to describe. Religion played a role and added fuel to it. Yet, as of now, the Lebanese have not removed religion and sectarianism out of government, and the clerics are unhelpful in this regard as they guard their political positions of power.

Previous Stories:
  Culture and its role in development   (1/25/2000)
  The Arab States: Looking back on the year 1999   (1/14/2000)
  Lebanon and Syria, and the future challenges of Arab states integration   (9/28/1998)

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