Us vs Them

This is a direct quote from the Philadelphia Inquirer January 19, 2012:
"Morality will be the deciding issue for me.  It's hard to trust someone who doesn't share your faith and values" (italics are mine).  So says Adam Burger, 31, a computer programmer from Lexington, South Carolina and a member of the First Baptist Church. 

I did not personally interview this person.  He might have been misquoted.  The statement might have been taken out of context.  He might just have been trying to make a point without fully thinking through its implications.  I don't know.  I am more Matt Drudge than Walter Cronkite so source verification is above my pay grade.  Mr. Burger was quoted in an article discussing the importance of the evangelical vote in S.C.  But to me this quote very clearly points out the fundamental flaw in political discourse today; the Us vs. Them mentality.  The use of the operand "and" when lumping faith and values together as opposed to faith or values is very telling for me and a key difference between free thinkers and fundamentalists.

I suspect this is why the writer felt it necessary to mention Mr. Burger's occupation as a computer programmer.  Perhaps it gives him some intellectual gravitas.  His vocation, after all, is of no significance to the point of the article or his opinions.  It only serves to emphasize the disconnect between faith and reason.  A computer programmer, at the very least, must be a logical thinker.  Algorithms, the fundamental building blocks of computer code, are ultimately based on logic.  If p implies q , and x follows y then blah, blah, blah.  So I am forced to conclude he is a logical thinker.  If Mr. Burger was a cashier at McDonald's, not that there's anything wrong with that, would we have felt something different toward his statement?  Perhaps.  But that would be just as judgmental as Mr. Burger's statement itself.

The statement " share your faith and values" can be very narrowly defined or, if we are being generous, we can think of it as being very inclusive.  The "and" modifier just makes this more difficult.  Granted, a society, in order to be successful in the long term, should share a fundamental set of values.  Respect life (a loaded proposition in and of itself), liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Whether or not these values are irrevocably connected to a single faith is the question at hand.  Though I assumed this issue was settled by Jefferson and Madison in 1787, but apparently not in South Carolina.  Or Iowa for that matter.

And what exactly does he mean by his faith?  Evangelical Christianity specifically?  Does he immediately distrust Jews and Catholics?  Western religious thought in general?  Does he only immediately distrust Muslims and Hindus?  Islamic terrorists aside, don't all faiths teach a respect for human life and dignity?  I could therefore assume he only mistrusts atheists, but since he was speaking within the context of the Republican primary I must assume he has Mormons (Romney), and Catholics (Gingrich) in mind. 

I never met Mr. Burger, but for some reason I  imagine he is a pretty good guy and I might possibly enjoy having a beer with him (the computer programmer thing.  He can't be totally unreasonable).  I further suspect he certainly does not think of himself as a bigot, but that is exactly what his statement says about him.  He is judging what would amount to be the overwhelming majority of the world's population, whom he has never met, to be untrustworthy just because they don't share his faith.  I guess it could be argued that what he meant was he doesn't trust a non-believing politician to vote for the things he values even if he says he would.  But that is not a matter of faith.  That is a matter of record.  So once again I am left to assume he specifically has Romney in mind since Romney seems to be the guy who has a history of flip flops. Mr. Burger even admits to such near the end of the above referenced article.  But what does flip flopping have to do with Mormonism?  People of faith have changed their views throughout all of history.  Just ask Galileo and Copernicus. Or Brigham Young. Perhaps Mr. Burger had the abrogation of polygamy by the Mormon Church in the nineteenth century in mind when he stated that he doesn't trust people of other faiths not to pull a switcheroo.  I doubt it. I am pretty certain he lacks even the most fundamental idea of the tenets of Mormonism.

I wonder if he has interviewed his dentist about his or her faith.  Does he trust that, no matter what their faith, his health care providers have his best interest in mind?  Of course he does.   I have many patients with whom I don't necessarily share their faith but they trust me very much.  It is because they trust my values.  Very, very different from faith. I have many patients who are deeply devout Christians but they trust me to do what is best for them.  Why?  They don't know a thing about my faith, but for the fact that I was born a Jew.  They trust me because they know I am a smart decision maker and I value their health over my purse.  Maybe my being for or against gay marriage is not so important when doing a painless root canal so the analogy is unfair.  I don't know.

A human being should never be judged solely by his or her faith.  To do so is bigoted and  in direct conflict with the spirit of the First Amendment of our Constitution.  I wish I could meet Adam Burger and tell him how deeply offended I am by his statement.  How deeply offended all of us should be.