TOWARD A “THRESHOLD” DEFINITION OF “GOD”


I almost drove off the road when I heard that a federal appellate court in San Francisco had declared the public utterance “under God,” as in the Pledge of Allegiance, unconstitutional.

Having lived a fairly idyllic life in San Francisco for a number of years, I find it harder than most Americans to choke out the words “typical San Francisco lunacy.” But, of course, it is. And, if not lunacy, then it is the kind of misguided grandstanding that should find itself quickly reversed by a more level-headed Supreme Court that recognizes the point beyond which even the noble principle of church-state separation has been reduced to absurdity.

So now the issue must percolate upward through the legal system. We will watch with rapt attention, while our righteous indignation boils over on talk-radio, and the talking-heads posture for their sound bites, and the ACLU descends into an even more grotesque caricature of its once-noble self.

And every pompous bible-thumper from here to Hampton Park will have a field day decrying this and every other societal excess as evidence of America’s hell-bound Godlessness. So, I guess that my modest proposal will be just so much more dust in the wind, unheeded by fundamentalist yay-hoo and obstinate atheist, alike. But, I will propose it anyhow:

Who says that “under God” must have precisely the same nametag for every American citizen? I recently participated in a local interfaith forum at which the Christian told the Muslim that Jehovah would not allow Muslims into heaven, and the Muslim told the Christian that Allah would not allow Christians into heaven, and the only thing on which the two could agree was that I would certainly not go to heaven. Meanwhile, I asserted to deaf ears that Yahweh, the omniscient, eternal God to whom Jews turn in worship, judges people by the content of their character, not the dogma to which they subscribe.

Why can we not at least concur on a “threshold” definition of “God”? “God,” as I see It/Him/Her, should be understood as the sum total of all the forces of creativity and moral good in the universe. Certainly, this is a definition to which every honorable person – monotheist, polytheist, pantheist, deist, even atheist – can subscribe. We each give that “God” different names. And, atheists may choose to use no name whatsoever, but they certainly still affirm the virtues of creativity and moral rectitude.

No, the definition will not suffice for those of us who celebrate an intimate, personal God, the Subject of revelation, redemption, grace, judgment, and salvation. Those are beliefs that particularize the various faith-journeys that lead us to our special covenantal relationship with the Divine.

That is precisely why the definition is a “threshold.” It is the most basic consensus point for all who pledge their allegiance to our incredibly blessed country: We are indeed the grateful beneficiary of the universe’s most bountiful forces of creativity and moral good. In at least that sense, we are truly one nation “under God.” Our various religious heritages and philosophical orientations may lead us in a multiplicity of directions, but unless as Americans we cross that most minimal threshold of affirmation together, all else is for naught.