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8/28/02

Which way to the wellspring of morality?

By Scott McLeod
About the time we were finishing last week’s newspaper, ready to zap it to the printer, I noticed something unusual: we had a newspaper that was filled with stories with religious underpinnings. Not spiritual news, mind you, but news related to and influenced by organized religions.

One of the reasons I took notice was because of a conversation I had taken part in on the same day. A reader and I were noting how many Islamic cultures today shared many traits with the Western European cultures of the pre-renaissance period. In those days, the Roman Christian Church dominated all aspects of society, dictating everything from education to government to family matters. It was an all-consuming religion thrust upon citizens at birth. The opportunity to form world views separate from the influence of Christianity was not an option. And so it is today in many Islamic countries, particularly in the Arab world. That is one reason, I think, we Americans are having such a difficult time understanding the mentality of those who hate us.

But even in this country, it seems, religion and its moral and ethical directives are once again becoming a subject of much public discourse. Many writers and philosophers in the early part of the 20th century predicted the demise of organized religions, comparing it to a yoke that saddled the masses and was abused by those in power. The withering role of Christianity in public discourse in this country probably peaked when the Supreme Court banned school prayer and public school Bible reading in the early 1960s. A clear wall between private worship and public discourse had been established, a wall many thought would only get stronger and stronger.

But now, it seems, as cloning, genetic engineering and other scientific advances push us into new moral territory, we are once again debating where secular society and church teachings part. Look a few pages beyond this article and columnist Marshall Frank discusses Attorney General John Ashcroft’s religious objections to Oregon’s Death with Dignity law. In just the past two months court rulings — one about the use of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and another supporting the use of school vouchers for religious schools — have sent scribes scurrying to their keyboards. Once again, we are trying to define where the line between church and state — and laws and morality — should be drawn.

Two stories in last week’s edition were about restrictions on alcohol use. In Waynesville, town officials allow those attending a couple of crowded downtown festivals to buy and consume beer on the street. The town was considering adopting an ordinance that banned alcohol consumption on its public streets, but the ordinance had an exemption clause giving town officials the authority to allow the sale and consumption during the special events.

In Canton, voters had gathered enough signatures to get a referendum on the ballot to ask citizens if they want to be able to purchase on-premise alcohol at restaurants. The county board of elections still has to verify the signatures before they will schedule the election.

And so the remnants of the Puritans and the Prohibition still play out in the rural South. Unlike most every other country in the Western world, and unlike most Northern and Western states, America’s South still convulses over alcohol and the laws that govern its consumption. North Carolina is what’s known as a “local control” state, which means its municipalities and counties decide for themselves how to sell beer, wine and liquor.

These stories are “religious” because opposition to the easy access to alcohol has been organized almost exclusively by churches. The Anti-Saloon League was founded in the 1800s to try and rid the state of alcohol. The name for that group now is the Christian Action League, and its leader was in Canton last week to explain how those opposed to the sale could mount a campaign to defeat the coming referendum.

And so our own dominant religion still extends its control deep into our culture, affecting business, government and the community debate in a very important way.

While individual notions about drinking alcohol will undoubtedly remain with us for a long time, another church-related debate hopefully is on the brink of fading into history.

In Jackson County, Southern Baptists are divided over whether a woman should be able to co-pastor a church. It has caused a rift of sorts in the Tuckasegee Baptist Association, and Cullowhee Baptist has withdrawn from the organization rather than engage in a debate that might further divide the association.

Jeff and Tonya Vickery are married and both ordained ministers. After I interviewed them for more than an hour, I left with the feeling that this couple was completely focused and in tune with the direction their life was taking. They knew many Baptists would not agree with Tonya’s decision, but they also believed that each church should be able to make its own decision on this important issue. And so, in what seemed an utterly simple and Jesus-like gesture, their church’s membership said they would not fight. Instead of dividing the association, it withdrew, terminating the association’s point of controversy.

The role of women in the many Christian denominations has been the subject of controversy and disagreement for generations. In my estimation, whether it is a church, a law-making body politic, a business or a family, stopping women from holding positions of leadership is simply an anachronistic legacy of our history that needs to be buried.

These local debates do not delve as deeply into the foundations of morality and ethics as those about cloning. Still, they are representative of the connection — and tension — between religion and public policy. Many of the social advances this nation has made — outlawing slavery, women’s rights, child labor — were legislated because they were viewed as morally wrong. As we move forward and deal with environmental problems, hunger or genetic research, we will look for answers as to what is right and wrong. As long as we do that, public discourse will focus on where our moral and ethical verities come from.

(Scott McLeod can be reached in info@smokymountainnews.com)