Good Luck, TC Manumaleuna!
“The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection
of the use of Christianity to legitimize the established order.”
Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P.
Catholic priest and theologian
Good luck, TC Manumaleuna!!!!!!
We hope you take every ounce of your 6-foot and 190 pounds of quarterbacking talent to Brigham Young University and year-after-year pass and run the football up and down the field, driving the University of Oregon Quackers and their fans to the depths of despair. [And, yes. We know they like to call themselves the Ducks but after their fans’ performance in September, we’re trying to keep it clean.]
For those who don’t know the story:
The North Salem (Oregon) High School junior is one of the most highly recruited quarterbacks in the country with offers from Oregon, Florida State, Miami and Washington State.
On Saturday, September 17, TC and his father – recruiting guests of the Quackers – were in the Autzen Stadium section immediately adjoining the student seating when UO student fans – certainly not “scholars of the history of religions” or “young ladies and gentlemen” – began taunting BYU with “F--- the Mormons.”
The Manumaleuna Family left the stadium at halftime, effectively ending what was to have been a recruiting weekend.
TC, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – colloquially known as “Mormons,” told The Statesman Journal in Oregon, “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t have some kind of impact on me… Oregon has a great coaching staff and I appreciate them reaching out to check on us [after the incident]. That meant a lot.”
The UO demonstration of religious bigotry and ignorance was a reflection – and echo ?? – of the same “chant” from fans of the University of Southern California when their team was beaten by BYU 35-31. Bad losers? No! Religious bigots!
Ahhhh! The United States… Land of religious freedom and religious bigotry. Or, as some would have us believe, “a Christian nation.”
Ahhh, the Founding Fathers….
Wooooooops! That’s a problem!
The phrase “Founding Fathers” was never used by the “Founding Fathers.” Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, was the first to use it in speeches in the late 1910s and early 1920s.
The Roman historian Tacitus (55-120 c.e.) observed “This is an unfair thing about war: victory is claimed by all, failure to one alone.” In some sense, this seems to be true of nation-founding.. Inclusion among the Founding Fathers customarily requires conspicuous contributions during the American Revolutionary War or during the Constitutional Convention, when nationhood was achieved. The “gallery of the greats” that has stood the test of time included: George Washington (the Foundiest Father of all), Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, George Mason, John Marshall, and James Madison.
Yet, there were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and 39 signatories to the Constitution. Amongst all, only two were members of the clergy. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister, signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation and served as a delegate from New Jersey at the convention that ratified the Constitution. Lyman Hall was a 1747 graduate of Yale College, founded to educate Congregationalist clergy. He briefly studied theology under the guidance of his uncle, the Rev. Samuel Hall, and was ordained by the Fairfield West Consociation in 1747, before being dismissed 1751 following a hearing on charges of immoral conduct to which he confessed. [A “consociation” was roughly a non- or inter-denominational alliance of Protestant churches.] He was ultimately reinstated and filled vacant pulpits for two years, while studying medicine. His real passions – other than the fervor of the Revolution – appear to have been medicine and public office.
Significantly, twenty-six – nearly half of the Founding Fathers held degrees in theology or biblical studies, but this is largely due to the fact that America’s first colleges/
universities were founded to train ministers. Nonetheless, according to Rodney Stark, professor of sociology and comparative religion at the University of Washington, only 17 percent of 1776 Americans were church members – understandable in a still-frontier North America with few real population centers and few trained clergymen.
Among the Founding Fathers:
George Washington. Regularly attended Anglican/Episcopal services, was never confirmed and avoided Holy Communion; it remains an historic question whether he ever received communion. He used Deistic rather than orthodox language in his writings to describe God and was buried as a Freemason.
Benjamin Franklin. Reared Puritan but was a self-proclaimed Deist, whose religion was to do good in the community.
Thomas Jefferson. Deist. He compiled his own version of the Bible, free of references to miracles and the divinity of Jesus.
James Madison. Reared Presbyterian, as an adult he was an avowed Deist.
John Hancock was the son and grandson of Harvard-trained Congregationalist ministers.
John Adams. Reared Congregationalist, he later became a Unitarian.
Alexander Hamilton. Reared Presbyterian, he held Deist beliefs.
Robert Morris. A devout Episcopalian.
Richard Stockton. Presbyterian.
Button Gwinnett. Born Episcopalian, converted to Congregationalist.
Joseph Hewes. Reared Quaker, became an Episcopalian.
George Clymer. Quaker but his adherence is uncertain.
Charles Carroll. The only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Among the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention: 28 were Anglicans – Church of England or Episcopalian after the Revolution was won, eight were Presbyterians, seven were Congregationalists, two were Lutherans, two were Dutch Reformed and two were Methodists.
Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and Monroe – to name a few – were Deists, professing a philosophical belief in human reason as a reliable means of solving social and political problems. Deist held that the Creator formed the universe and then absented himself, leaving humankind to operate exclusively by Natural Law.
And here’s big news for contemporary religious polemicists. The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, negotiated by American diplomat Joel Barlow on behalf of the Washington administration and ratified by the senate after John Adams became president, stated explicitly: “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
In addition, the United States has been the birthplace of more religious and religious movements – you’ll pardon the expression – than God could count, including:
Methodist Episcopal Church (1783)
Universalist Church of America (1793)
African Methodist Episcopal Church (1816)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – Mormons ((1830)
Southern Baptist Convention. – Organized by white supremacist Baptists who split from northern Baptists (American Baptist Churches, USA) over the issue of slavery/segregation (1845)
National Baptist Convention, US (1880)
Church of Christ (Holiness) (1896)
Church of God in Christ (1897)
Jehovah’s Witnesses (1872)
Christian Science (1879)
Black Hebrew Israelites ((1886)
Polish National Catholic Church (1897)
Pentecostalism (1906)
Reconstruction Judaism (1920s)
Scientology (1954)
Jews for Jesus (1973)
Dudeism (1998)
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (2005)
In June, the Congressional representative of from Georgia’s 14th district, she who seems unable to distinguish between “gazpacho” – a cold soup made from a blend of vegetables – and “Gestapo” – Hitler’s and Goring’s secret police, declared, “I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists.”
In September, the representative from Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District rewrote or reinterpreted or maybe simply misread Presbyterian pastor Eugene Peterson’s The Message translation of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans 1:28-32 as condemning “wonton killing.” In response to the audience’s laughter, she abruptly noted, “I don’t know what a wonton (sic) killing is. I’m going to have to look it up.” Apparently, in the America of “pro-birth” Christian Nationalists, the death penalty will be administered by burying the accused – especially the not-sufficiently-Christian – under piles of steaming Chinese dumplings.
Then there’s Missouri’s “Senator Speedster,” who saluted January 6 insurrectionists with a raised fist only to be caught on camera hours later running for his life from those same terrorists. He’s declared, “We are a revolutionary nation precisely because we are the heirs of the revolution of the Bible… Without the Bible, there is no modernity. Without the Bible, there is no America….” Let’s not forget that the Bible was written by folks who thought the Earth was flat and Eve was formed from one of Adam’s ribs and had no idea of “America.”
Some U.S. Christians have a unique sense of “Bible-based” fashion [our term] and what they might impose on a “Christian nation” America. In June, Pastor Dillon Awes of the Watauga, Texas Stedfast Baptist Church declared that gay people should be “shot in the back of the head.” Now preacher Duncan Urbanek of the same church has entered the theological world of haute couture: “If you’re a woman and you own any pants, throw them away. Light them on fire. If you’re a man and your wife has pants, throw them away. And if she yells at you, so be it. Throw them away. That’s a good fight to be in.”
In the lead-up to the November and the 2024 elections, politicians will blow lots of hot air about the United States as a “Christian nation.”
Thinking people will wonder:
What will we call the head of the American CNC? Exalted Sir? (Alost certainly women will be told to “be silent.” So…) Grand High Pobah? Most Blessed and Anointed All-Knowing One?
Will salvation through CN be only for white people?
Will the CNC send out missionaries to other countries?
Can undocumented people in the United States join the CNC?
Which Bible will we use: the Protestant with only thirty-nine books or the Catholic with forty-six – including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Sirach, ben Sira, 1–2 Maccabees, Baruch and additions to Daniel and Esther? Or maybe Jefferson’s?
Will Scripture be understood literally or do we actually do exegesis and hermeneutics? [A question that went right over the heads too many CNs.}
What do we do with Anglican/Episcopalians with King Charles as “Defender of the Faith” and “Supreme Governor of the Church of England” or Catholics with Pope Francis as the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church? Must they be deported as un-Americans?
Must Jehovah’s Witnesses salute the flag?
Are we going to re-introduce prohibition? ‘Cause, ya know, some Christians don’t like drinkin’.
Will masturbation and using condoms be illegal?
If CNs can impose their version of “right to life,” what does that do to the Roman Catholics’ complete opposition to the death penalty.
Will Evolution be in or out?
At least through the 2024 election cycle, the United States as a “Christian nation” will be a marketing/vote-getting device – a mantra – for racists, homophobic politicians and wanna-think-of-themselves-as “religious leaders.” CN has no theology. CNs have not thought-out or thought-through the most basic questions their declarations should provoke in people of Faith and no-faith.
Their words are as kitschy and tinselly, their behavior as sophomoric as that of the Quacker fans in Autzen Stadium.
So, TC Manumaleuna. Good for you! You and your dad have proven yourselves more courageous and honorable than those Quackers might ever hope to be. Just know racism, homophobic and sexual prejudices, and religious hatred still exist.
And you are men of honor and distinction!