We Recognize A Tree By Its Fruit

Summon the pastor.

Call the minister.

Contact the rectory and ask for the priest to come.

Maybe even make “advanced preparations” with the caterer, the place for the “after-it-all” family reception; decide who will speak and in what order.

Christianity in the United States is on its death bed; the death rattle can be heard throughout the house as not-so-mysterious forces turn down the flow of the once-plenteous oxygen that has nourished it for centuries.

And should the United States ever become a “christian nation” or one “ruled” by some folks’ versions of “christian nationalism,” the wake cannot come soon enough. [In the political context in which so many are using the phrases, we will, at times, not capitalize the c.]

Nonetheless, the responses of American religious leaders – especially including their responses to calls for and support of “christian nationalism” – before Election Day 2024 will determine the fate of Christianity for generations to come.

Hyperbole?

We’ll see. But first, let’s make it clear that we are not writing about a religion. Rather, the dangers of religious leaders of any type ruling a country and determining the fate of its people.

Consider the U.S. Department of State “2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iran.”

The constitution of the Islamic Republic specifies that Twelver Ja’afari Shia Islam is the official state religion and all laws and regulations must be based on “Islamic criteria” and official interpretation of sharia. While Iran’s constitution permits Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians – but not converts from Islam – to work and form religious societies “within the limits of the law,” Muslim citizens may not change or renounce their religion. 

Muslims make-up 99.4 percent of Iran’s population of 86.8 million (midyear 2022) and 90 to 95 percent of the Muslims are Shia. Five to ten percent – almost exclusively in specific border provinces - are Sunni and are essentially tolerated. 

The 2020 Boston University World Religion Database estimated the Christian population of Iran at 579,000. Members of unrecognized religious minorities are continually denied access to education and government employment unless they declare themselves as belonging to one of the recognized – Muslim, Christian, Jews or Zoroastrian – religious groups. The report quotes Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi responding to the poor prison conditions experienced by some non-Shia Muslims: “Sunni [the official and ruling version of Islam practiced in Saudia Arabia] citizens do not have the right to live in Iran.” The 1.7 billion Sunnis worldwide represent roughly 87-90% of Muslims; Shia number 180-230 million – approximately 10-13% of the world’s Muslim population. The Jewish population of Iran was estimated at fewer than 9,000 in 2021; that number has probably decreased significantly since October 7, 2023. 

According to the State Department report, “Officials continued to disproportionately arrest, detain, harass, and surveil Christians, particularly evangelicals and other converts from Islam, according to Christian NGOs. Authorities also forcibly disappeared Christian converts, whom it accused of ‘Zionism’ and proselytizing.”

Constitutionally all laws and regulations must be based on the “Islamic criteria” of Twelver Ja’afari Shia Islam (Twelver Ja’afari refers to the belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders – “the Twelve Imams.” This traditional belief is not shared by Sunni Muslims – the overwhelming larger major sect of Islam worldwide.) The constitution provides that citizens shall enjoy human, political, economic, social, and cultural rights “in conformity with Islamic criteria.” Conversion from Shia Islam to any religion – including Sunni Islam – is a crime punishable by death; a child born to a Muslim father is Muslim.

Moharebeh – “enmity against God” – in Quranic usage means “corrupt conditions caused by unbelievers or unjust people that threaten social and political wellbeing,” fisad fil-arz (“corruption on earth”) includes apostasy or heresy. Whether or not the accused is sentenced to death depends on the religion of both perpetrator and victim.  A sentence of two to five years in prison can be imposed on “any deviant educational or proselytizing activity that contradicts or interferes with the sacred law of Islam.” 

Any citizen who is not a member of the approved religions or can prove that their family was Christian before 1979 – the year of the Iranian Revolution - is considered Muslim.  Armenian and Assyrian Christians are “grandfathered in” [our phrase] because their religions predate Mohammed and Islam. Evangelical Protestants are not recognized as Christian.

The Iranian political system is based on the “Guardianship of the Jurists.” Shia clergy – especially the “Supreme Leader” or head of state – and political leaders are vetted by the clergy and the Supreme Leader holds constitutional authority over the judiciary, government-run media, other key national institutions and special nonjudicial clerical courts – each head by Shia Islamic scholars. 

The Supreme Leader also holds ultimate authority over all security agencies, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which reports directly to the Supreme Leader.

Candidates for judicial and legislative offices must be approved by a Guardian Council of Shia scholars and non-Shia are essentially prohibited from holding any office of power or influence in the government, intelligence agencies or the military. The only constitutional exception is five of the 290 parliamentary seats reserved by the constitution for recognized religious minority groups: two seats for Armenian Christians; one for Assyrian and Chaldean Christians together, one for Jews, and one for Zoroastrians. 

Freedom of the press is permitted under the Iranian constitution, except when it is “harmful to the principles of Islam or the rights of the public.”

The ancient practice of allowing for the collection of “blood money” or diva as restitution for families of Muslims and members of recognized religious minorities who are victims of murder, bodily harm, or property is enshrined in the constitution. Except that women are not allowed to collect when loss of life resulted from murder and certain male organs (for example, testicles) are worth more than the entire body of a woman. 

Women who appear in public without “prescribed Islamic dress” – the hijab – may be imprisoned from 10 days to two months or fined between $1 and $12. It is expected that the Guardian Council, an unelected body of clerics, will intensify laws regarding the hijab and punishments for violating those laws in 2024. The hijab – a headscarf conservative clerics say should be worn so snugly no hair is shown in public – became compulsory in Iran after the 1979 revolution.

The horrors of an official- and one-religion state like Iran were made clear on September 16, 2023, when 22-year-old Sunni Kurdish citizen Mahsa (Shina) Amini died in the custody of the Morality Police three days after being detained for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. [Note: Mahsa (Shina) Amini was Kurdish and a Sunni Muslim – a member of  ethnic and religious minorities.] According to her family she the Morality Police repeatedly beat her about the head. In the public demonstrations against the religious laws that followed her death, 512 protestors, including 69 children, were killed and 19,204 were arrested or detained. 

“We recognize a tree by its fruit,
and we ought to be able to recognize 
a Christian by his action.
The fruit of faith is evident in our lives,
for being a Christian is more than making 
sound professions of faith.
It should reveal itself in practical and visible ways.
Indeed, it is better to keep quiet about our beliefs,
and live them out, 
than to talk eloquently about what we believe, 
but fail to live by it. 
Ignatius of Antioch
[His death is alternately place at c. 108 AD or c. 135-140 AD]

Now the vexing questions:

What would a “christian nation” United States look like?

What version of Christianity?  Pre-the-1054 Great Schism of Christianity when just about everybody was “one” and “united”? If post-1054 will it be Catholic or Eastern Orthodox? Will worship be Latin, Byzantine, Alexandrian, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, Chaldean, or Syro-Malabar (probably the oldest of all of the Christian forms of worship and dating to the mission of the Apostle Thomas)? Or one of the bazillion different styles (including Anglican/Episcopalian/Church of England, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anabaptist, Quaker and Calvinist) that developed after the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s? 

What about Seventh Day Adventist and Mormon – both founded in the United States? Maybe some form of the Native American religions, including Longhouse (also known as The Code of Handsome Lake) or Gaihwi, Waashat (“Spirit Dance”), Inuit, Ghost Dance, Native Shaker (The name refers to the participants shaking and twitching motions used to brush off their sins; the religion is a combination of Christianity and traditional Native American religious teachings.)?

A Christian megachurch? There are somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 of them with an average size of 3,500 “congregants.” Writing for NPR on July 14, 2023, Scott Neuman described a New York megachurch where the “core beliefs” are “’Grace wins’ and ‘Truth is relevant,’ capped by a less theological component: ‘Church is fun.’”  Problem is that the “core belief” of many megachurches are dependent on the “core beliefs” and “theology” of the pastor on stage and, when he or she goes, large percentages of the church community either dropout completely or travel with their pastor.  

In addition, post-COVID attendance at some megachurches has dropped significantly, while others have survived or grown by absorbing much smaller and aging neighborhood churches. And what to do about the “57% of Americans who are seldom or never in religious service attendance” according to recent Gallup and Pew Research Center surveys? Burn them at the stake? Maybe public floggings or resurrect (pun intended) ye ole stocks and pillories? Does it count if someone calls themselves “Christian” and says “I go to church aways on Christmas, always on Easter” and “drink my little wine, which is about the only wine I drink, and have my little cracker,” as did a recently former president of the United States.

Is marriage a “sacrament” and “indissoluble” or (and how many times) does American “christian nationalist” marriage fall into the Gingrich-Guiliani-Trump trinitarian category?

Do we believe – as does a religion that originated in America – there is no distinction “between taking blood into the mouth and taking it into the blood vessels” and, therefore, we turn our back on anyone who receives a blood transfusion (Maybe outlaw transfusions?) or do we accept that common medical practice?

Do we force, under criminal penalties, everyone to salute the flag and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance or do we respect that those actions are contrary to the religious beliefs of some American Christians? 

What about worship? Are the bread and wine “consecrated” and “transubstantiated” or merely symbols?

Are Roman Catholics to be punished for praying for the pope because centuries ago some Founding Fathers saw him as the leader of a foreign nation? What do we do with Anglicans whose titular head is the King of England?

Do we close all churches (and synagogues) that allow a woman to stand in the pulpit or bimah and preach or do we require by law – or fiat as has the Southern Baptist Convention - that women may never instruct or be in a position of authority over men? Does that “theological/religious edict” apply to public office and women college professors? What about LGBTQ Americans? Do we accept them as members of our families and church communities (a la Pope Francis: “Who am I to judge?”) or do we quash and expel them?  Maybe un-American-ize (Yes. We just made that one up.) churches that treat LGBTQ Americans with respect and dignity? What about “Two-spirit” people, who were here and accepted by Native Americans long before the Pilgrims sought to separate themselves from the Church of England?

Do we eliminate those parts of Matthew 25 that speak of serving the homeless and the hungry, the stranger and the sick? Maybe we follow the example of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson and simply eliminate – literally cut out – all of the parts of the New Testament we don’t like?

Or, perhaps, it’s best just to leave things alone and simply declare we are a nation of believers – all kinds of believers with all kinds of beliefs – and an ever-growing number of “nones.”