wfn.org | Stephen Carter Speaks to ELCA Lutherans

[Brenda Williams <BRENDAW@elca.org>]

Reply-To: ElcaNews <ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG>
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

November 26, 1997

STEPHEN CARTER: SHOW THE WORLD HOW WE ARE
DIFFERENT
97-35-104-RF

   "God doesn't want us to live our faith just for
ourselves.  God wants us to share with the world
how different we are because of our Christian
faith," constitutional scholar and best-selling
author Dr. Stephen L. Carter told leaders gathered
for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's
"Making Christ Known" conference in Pittsburgh
Nov. 21-23.
   "If we don't show the world how we are
different because Christ is in our lives, we
participate in the forces that have trivialized
religion in America," Carter said.
   The award-winning author of best-sellers
including "The Culture of Disbelief" and
"Integrity" said that court rulings, educational
methods, media biases and the expectations of
public figures have combined to marginalize
serious faith commitments. "The idea that you "put
on" a religion has a remarkable and depressing
currency in American life, even among people of
faith themselves," Carter said.
   "To be a Christian, at minimum, means that God
has changed our lives," he said. "We are different
people than before we were Christians. When we
go into the voting booth, we think (about issues)
in different ways."
   "Christians," Carter said, "have spent too much
time trying to convince the world 'We're just like
you.'  But if Christ is in you you're different --
at work, in how you raise your family, in public
life."
   In rulings about religious expression in
government workplaces, for example, the courts
have made it clear that "if the government makes
it too hard to practice your religion, that's just
too bad. There are a lot of religions out there,
you can pick another one" Carter said.
   The separation of church and state developed in
the Constitution "exists to protect the church
from the state," not the state from the church, he
said.  Religious commitment serves a democratic
society because it is the only successful way of
developing and transmitting the "shared moral
convictions" that undergird public life and
because it creates "a space of dissent" in which
believers are able to question the society's
common assumptions.
   The misperception of the Constitution's "wall
of separation" is dangerous because it "denies the
importance of filling that place in the soul that
yearns for more," Carter said. "We are not just
material creatures, we are spiritual creatures."
If society allows only material ways of satisfying
that yearning, "you create a gaping hole that
people will fill any way that they can," whether
with money, addictions or sexual gratification.
"Religious liberty cannot possibly mean that," he
said, but that is how society interprets the First
Amendment.
   Carter said that while he does not read the
Constitution to prohibit government from helping
to fund religious education, he questioned whether
Christian parents should accept such assistance if
it is offered. "Everyone today wants to feed at
the public trough," he said. "But the worst
business to get into as a person of faith is
trying to be like everyone else."
   He observed that the African American community
are among the strongest supporters of vouchers and
school prayer.  "The black community fears that
its children are being harmed by being pushed into
bad schools with a deeply secular culture," he
said. Carter said that he personally opposes
school prayer because it interferes with a
family's ability to determine the spiritual
environment for its children.
   In an interview after his presentation, Carter
said that evangelism should be grounded in the
church's differences from society. "A lot of
people say the church has to change its message,"
he said.  But religion's strength lies in the
"ability to stand fast in your beliefs while the
world is changing.  People need to find ways to
project their faith into their lives in ways that
make the connection between the loving God and the
hole that is yearning to be filled." And to do
that, he suggested that Christians need to look
inside before condemning the world.
   "Churches are very good at articulating the
evil out there," he said.  "They are not as good
at talking about how we as Christians live our
lives."
   As an example he cited the public reaction to
the recent birth of septuplets in Iowa. "We
should be grateful for seven new souls in the
world, reared by obviously religious parents," who
have received an outpouring of help from
corporations offering diapers, food, and
furnishings, he said.  "But there are thousands of
children born every day who are also souls loved
by God.  Where are their gifts?"
   Corporations and the media often succumb to the
celebrity inherent in such rare events while
ignoring more everyday problems, he said.  "When
churches go down that road, they begin to lose
their souls."

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or
NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html