Speaking from a progressive and tolerant point of view, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association William Sinkford spoke on the relationship between religion and politics yesterday in Goddard Chapel.
Stressing that he was "not a legal expert," Sinkford delivered a lecture on his "experience in my faith community as we negotiate the intersection of religion and law," an area which he called "immense."
Sinkford said that the United States is "the most religiously pluralist nation the world has ever seen" but said that the majority that has a great influence on the law, and that "thinks their law covers just them, and not everybody," he said.
He used various Judeo-Christian attempts at legally condemning gay marriage through biblical scripture as an example. "There are not merely Judeo and Christian traditions in the body politic," he said.
The laws should therefore "recognize many different religious traditions," he said. "There is a distinction between the act of marriage as a sacred right and as a civil institution which is supposed to be for all of 'we the people.'"
But Sinkford said that religion is necessary for politics to function effectively. "Real life is complex and the sound bites we're given don't even come close to approaching that," he said. "You can bring a liberal and a conservative together and they can debate, but that doesn't change any minds and I know it doesn't save any souls."
In fact, he said, "thinking about divorcing our religion on issues that deeply matter to us is frankly kidding ourselves."
But "the only public religious voice seems to come from the right," making the public think that these are the only viewpoints religious people hold on politics, he said.
The public needs instead "to find healthy ways to discuss our differences, grounded in faith," Sinkford said. "We need religiously grounded people participating in public discussions in a way that does not drive further wedges between the people."
Sinkford again pointed to the gay marriage movement as an example of his argument. He spoke about a demonstration that became angrier and angrier as time went on. When his organization entered the demonstration, he decided that the most effective means of protest would be to sing hymns.
"There is a divisiveness in this country that will cripple us spiritually and politically," he said. "In these times there is a huge need for healing and reconciliation."
Sinkford traced the relationship between church and state - "modern and Western invention" - back to the earliest civilizations when "there was no distinction between religious and secular law."
The earliest manifestation of the idea can be found in the First Amendment to the Constitution, which grants what Sinkford called both "freedom from religion" as well as "freedom for religion." No religion can be forced on anyone, nor can anyone prevent a person from practicing the religion of their choice.
Using the founding of the Unitarian Universalist (UU) tradition to illustrate the beginnings of the separation of church and state, he pointed out that when the first UU church was established, its members refused to pay the mandatory tax that funded popular churches at the time.
Sinkford also mentioned some Tufts traditions. The Unitarians who established Tufts first considered bringing their religion to Harvard, but decided that the Cambridge institution was not religiously progressive enough.
Senior Sarah Lewis said she understood Sinkman's meaning through the effect his lecture had on her. "I liked hearing someone from a progressive church speak," she said. "It's interesting to know there are many more progressive religious styles."
Freshman Laurel Schrementi felt that his talk had a broader message for her, especially with regards to his stories about the gay marriage movement. "It was great that the path that he felt was best was to not focus energy on anger," she said. "Instead, he decided to focus energy on the positive."
This lecture was the first in a year-long series on Religion in Politics sponsored by the University Chaplaincy. The next lecture will feature Reverend Robert Drinan, a professor of Law at the Georgetown Law School.
