The Religion and Values department at Gallup recently initiated a "Gallup Religious Tolerance Index," which will now be part of Gallup’s regular polling. Five questions will categorize respondents by three levels of religious tolerance: Isolated, Tolerant, and Integrated. "Isolated" individuals–the least tolerant–have religious attitudes Gallup describes as "my tribe or no tribe," characterized by certainty that theirs is the One Right Way.
The Religion and Values department at Gallup recently initiated a "Gallup Religious Tolerance Index," which will now be part of Gallup’s regular polling. Five questions will categorize respondents by three levels of religious tolerance: Isolated, Tolerant, and Integrated. "Isolated" individuals—the least tolerant—have religious attitudes Gallup describes as "my tribe or no tribe," characterized by certainty that theirs is the One Right Way.
A lot of Isolateds must live in Muncie, Indiana, where the municipal “day of prayer” turned into a day of “not only is my prayer better than your prayer, but you aren’t welcome to pray my prayer with me, either.” The city ended up with two prayer services, one interfaith and the other for (certain) Christians only. Reverend Keller, who organized the original service and made clear that non-Christians would feel “uncomfortable” attending, defended his position in a statement in which he said “People can follow the devil and Judaism and all that.”
- Secretary of Education Rod Paige recently told a Baptist newspaper that the public schools should foster Christian values. Faced with a storm of criticism, he confirmed the accuracy of the quotation and reiterated the position.
- A few weeks ago, the Miami Herald reported that a U.S. Army chaplain had refused to allow American soldiers (desperate for baths after three weeks in the Iraqi desert) access to his tank of water unless they would first agree to be baptized.
- U.S. Senator Rick Santorum was recently the subject of controversy for his belief that Americans should not expect privacy in their bedrooms if what they are doing there violates his religious beliefs. This was nothing new for the Senator, a high-ranking member of the majority party. In a less-remarked incident, he told a Catholic newspaper that President John F. Kennedy’s decision to separate his faith from his politics was wrong and has caused "much harm in America." From the looks of things, Santorum isn’t making that ‘mistake.’
When government sponsors days of prayer, competition among religious groups for the state’s imprimatur is inevitable. Churches have the right to equate Judaism and devil worship, but not when government is endorsing the sermon. When government officials use their positions to criminalize private behaviors they consider sinful, or use the public schools as a vehicle for promoting their religion, the result—as Madison so eloquently warned us—is “corruption” of both government and religion.