Searching for Religion's Middle Ground

I have a confession to make. I believe in God. Yes, we're talking about the Supreme Being, a benevolent force up there in heaven and all that stuff.

Oh no, you're thinking. Here comes another pistol-packing, Bible-banging, right-wing weirdo who believes every single word in the Gospels and will try to plead, con or force you into pistol-packing, Bible-banging and right-wing voting.

Actually, you're wrong. I'm an Eastern intellectual liberal--the type who contributes to the ACLU, votes for Democrats and wants to keep prayer out school. And I think creationism is silly, just as you do.

I believe a large group of Americans hold beliefs somewhat akin to mine, but they are all too often nameless and faceless.

A well-educated Eastern reporter was recently heard to remark "What do you suppose, 50 to 60 percent of the American people believe in God?"

The real figure is well over 80 percent, but you wouldn't know it to look at a crowd. Steering that middle course between atheism and fundamentalism often puts one on slippery ground. Often it is easier not even to try to explain how one can believe in God but not school prayer, or in the Supreme Being but not every word in the Gospels.

When it comes to political and social issues, I find I generally agree with a group of people, many of whom are atheist, or at least agnostic. I have a good friend who mocks prejudice with "Oh, that's as silly as believing in God."

When talking politics with her, I keep my aberrant beliefs to myself, because I'm afraid that she'll class me with the people she despises. Perhaps that's why I'm part of the silent segment of that 80 percent who are so anonymous.

On the other hand, my God has about as much in common with Oral Roberts' blackmailer as with the nothingness of the atheists. And Jim and Tammy Bakker's shenanigans are almost enough to make me swear off organized religion forever.

While some unscrupulous people take advantage of others' belief in God, not all religion is bad, corrupt, hypocritical. And not all ministers, rabbis and priests are intolerant or harmful.

The separation of church and state and avoidance of a state-sponsored religion are important to individual freedom--but God cannot and should not be entirely banished from our society.

At least for people like me, God provides a basis on which to make judgments. God provides me with a moral world, distinctions between right and wrong. Other people obviously don't think that way, and some of them, at least, are vocal about their beliefs. And I believe in their right to think the way they do--that right is and should be protected by the state.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the debate between religion and secularism, the media and the American reading public are mostly interested in bizarre extremism. Our attention is drawn to Jerry Falwell or the man with microphone who shouts "the Judgment is upon us!" to innocent passers-by.

The pope garners headlines when he issues a pronouncement that contraception is, and always will be, immoral. So do the courts when they rule that a creche cannot be built on the lawn of a town hall.

These events are important in the attempt to define what the proper role of religion should be in our society--but so are the quiet compromises that take place in everyday life, like the inner turmoil faced by a Catholic woman when she realizes she is pregnant with a baby she cannot take care of.

Perhaps it is not the job of the media to focus public attention on those who try to reconcile their faith in God with their knowledge of evolution. Any such balance between the faith in the unseen and the tangible workings of the outside world is obviously delicate and personal.

But a premise of our society is the right to privacy and personal belief. This is not to say that religion should be taught as a science in this secular world. We're living in a secular world, which all too often seems to cater to atheism and agnosticism. While those fundamentalists who proselytize mercilessly and are violently intolerant are wrong, not all religion should be weeded out of our society. There is plenty of room in the middle ground.

Belief or disbelief in God profoundly affects the way people look at the world, and the validity of points of view deserves to be recognized.

There are plenty of people who don't think atheists are damned to Hell, yet who don't dismiss God's relevance to the world. These are not the Moral Majority--the Moral Majority wouldn't consider them moral. But then again, many atheists would consider them deluded, misguided or just plain silly. Although they're harder to see and hear, these people are proably the majority. And their belief in God should receive the respect accorded to the other points of view. Although they are less flamboyant, their believe is just as strong.

I won't force you to join my belief in God, but at least recognize my middle ground.