We Believe in God – But Which God

We believe in God, therefore we are a great people. President Reagan proclaims this dogma to the world, supposedly to explain our superiority to other nations and cultures. The pious phrase, “Belief in God”, sounds good, and assures us the President is a good man.

The awful thing about the phrase, though, is that it is meaningless, and neither the President nor any of those who chant the same words, realize how meaningless it is. The real question is not whether you believe in God, but in which God do you believe. What is His (or Her) name?

The missionaries back from India, when I was a boy, told us about the devout worship of the God, Kali, to whom mothers tossed their babies in the crocodile filled waters of the Ganges River. They believed in Kali. Saul of Tarsus believed in Jehovah when he functioned at the stoning of Stephen. As St. Paul, he tells the Athenians, who had a whole stableful of Gods – Zeus, Aphrodite, Minerva, Dionysius, and others – that they were very religious, but he announced to them one whom they worshipped as “the unknown God”. St. James writes that the devils believe in one God, but they are still devils. The Jews exalted Jehovah, who was supposed to have chosen them as his special people to live in his own land, Palestine. He was a tribal God. The prophet Amos revealed a Jehovah freed from Jewish nationalism, declaring him to be a universal divinity, establishing worldwide ethical principles. Mohammed preached Allah – Allah is one, Allah is great. The Ayatollah Khomeini believes in Allah, the one God.

The early Christians said simply, “Jesus is God”. The Christians believed that we know God as we know Jesus. “God is in Christ.” Belief in God is significant only when the God is named and His character set forth.

In our Christian tradition we honor “the golden rule”. “Whatsoever ye would that men do unto you, do you even so unto them.” Let’s look at some of our national actions in the light of this rule.

Suppose the Cubans mined the waters just off New York harbor. How is this different from Reagan’s orders to mine Nicaraguan waters?

Suppose some Libyan terrorists invaded New Jersey and set fire to the huge fields of oil tanks around Bayonne and Jersey City. How does this differ from CIA terrorists, under Reagan, invading Nicaragua to set fire to that country’s oil tanks?

Suppose the Chinese, when they visit the United States next year, lecture at the University of North Carolina, extolling the virtues of communism, which has raised the standard of living for the masses of the Chinese people, reduced illiteracy, improved health care, and then urge Americans to change over to a communist society, How does this differ from Reagan’s lectures to the students at a Chinese University?

The President is so blind and insensitive to the demands of Christian ethics that he simply doesn’t comprehend that his actions are exactly the same as those he condemns in so-called godless societies. And such actions on his part are futile. St. Paul gives a bit of advice in Romans 12:21: “Do not be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Reagan promised to secure world respect for America. He criticized the weakness of President Carter who got the hostages out of Iran alive. Reagan sent the marines to Lebanon and got hundreds of them killed. Is this a mark of respect? We refuse to let the World Court judge our actions according to law and we have become the bully on the block whom everyone hopes will get knocked down. Who wants that kind of respect? Former President Ford, in an understatement, says that the Reagan administration is “ethically careless”. Mr. Reagan needs to tell us which God he believes in.

The last stanza of Kipling’s “Recessional” is pertinent.

For heathen heart that puts her trust

In reeking tube and iron shard;

All valiant dust that builds on dust,

And guarding, calls not Thee to guard.

For frantic boast and foolish word

Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord.

Kipling’s poem is English Literature, and might be taught in schools.