Let’s ‘Do God’

It was refreshing to read in last week’s edition of The Southern Cross that the British & Irish Lions rugby side, which toured South Africa over the past couple of months, brought with them a Catholic chaplain. As Fr John O’Brien OFM explained, even non-Catholics (presumably including non-believers) in the touring party attended his hotel room Masses and availed themselves of his pastoral services.

Often we see players making religious gestures on the sportsfield. In last month’s football Confederations Cup, South African players such as goal hero Katlego Mphela and playmaker Steven Pienaar were seen crossing themselves, as did several players from participating countries such as Brazil, Spain and Italy.

Charismatic members of the winning Brazilian team went to exceptional lengths during their celebrations to publicly convey their faith in Christ. This week we also read about how the late actress Farrah Fawcett was seen on television holding a rosary. Her Catholic faith might not have found expression in the most scrupulous adherence to Church teachings, but her faith evidently was strong and real  and in her way, she proclaimed this publicly.

Contrast these open manifestations of personal faith  which should be welcome as long as they are unobtrusive  with the attitudes shown by politicians, journalists and other agents of socialisation who communicate the false message that religion does not matter. That mindset was consummated by the advisers to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a Christian and latterly a convert to Catholicism  whose policy held that ‘we don’t do God’.

British politicians are not unique in this. This newspaper has encountered a disposition not to ‘do God’ in its attempts to interview Catholic politicians, and in the refusal by Nelson Mandela’s staff to provide comments from their boss on the deaths of his friend Archbishop Denis Hurley and Pope John Paul II. It was conspicuous, however, that a message of condolence was issued in Mr Mandela’s name on the death of pop star Michael Jackson on June 25.

In South Africa, ‘doing God’ often is an expedient, opportunely invoked at election time and ignored thereafter.

Conversely, in the United States the manner in which one ‘does God’ represents a litmus test. Politicians are disadvantaged if they hold the wrong religious beliefs, or none at all. In 1960, John F Kennedy was regarded with suspicion on grounds of his Catholicism; almost five decades later, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith was seen as an obstacle to his electoral prospects.

The recent furore about US President Barack Obama’s invitation to a Catholic university because his view on life issues differs with that of the Church represented a profoundly polarising exercise in point-scoring. There are more productive ways of conducting public dialogue on critical issues than by digging in the trenches.

Those who seek to divorce religion from the public discourse are disrespectful of those whom they should seek to engage with for the common good (and in politics, for their votes). It is self-evident that failing to ‘do God’ excludes a large chunk of the public for whom religious faith is at the centre. There is no reason why people of faith should acquiesce in their marginalisation.

At the same time, people of faith must treat those with whom they disagree not as enemies (and how should God view such acts of enmity?), but as potential partners in candid, respectful dialogue.

That would truly be ‘doing God’.