Spiritual Hiccups - Faith and Arrogance

I was watching the Colbert Report last night, and a guest on the show was Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.  This group has a pledge they ask politicians running for office to sign promising that they will not raise taxes.  The pledge must be witnessed by two people and a copy is kept in a safe belonging to Americans for Tax Reform.  And according to Mr. Norquist, huge numbers of those running for Congress in 2012, along with all the current Republican presidential candidates save Huntsman (Norquist thought his pledge would be forthcoming), have already signed it.

In the course of the interview Stephen Colbert asked if there could ever be any sort of circumstance that would make raising taxes a good idea.  Could any event or crisis warrant raising taxes on anyone?  Mr. Norquist did not even hesitate a second.  His answer was simply, "No."

It seems to me that once a persons stance on an issue, any issue, reaches this level, it is no longer a political position.  It is an article of faith.  Raising taxes is bad, period.  Discussions about when doing so might be appropriate or necessary are not allowed because it would go against the faith.

Positions on the left and right can become articles of faith.  But when they do, thinking on the matter ceases.  Mr. Norquist did not need to pause and consider whether some scenario might justify higher taxes because he has faith that tax increases are absolutely bad.

The Bible is pretty clear that divorce is a bad thing.  In one place Jesus goes so far as to say divorce violates the 10 Commandments, that those whom God joins together no one is to separate.  But if we treat this prohibition on divorce as an absolute article of faith, then we have to say to a woman who has been horribly abused, beaten, and is likely to be killed by her husband, "Sorry, divorce is bad and you can't have one."

Clearly, we're not willing to say that as a society.  Even those of us who think that divorce is against God's will can envision some situations when it is necessary.  But Mr. Norquist cannot do so in the case of taxes.

It makes me wonder what allows some things to become such an article of absolute faith.  I don't think it requires "bad" people.  I suspect that Mr. Norquist thinks himself a good man who is doing something to help the country.  He is acting faithfully, insomuch as he understands what is good and right.  But how do we know that our articles of faith deserve such as status?

The founder of my theological tradition spoke of humans as idol factories.  That's idol, not idle.  John Calvin said that we are experts at creating things in which we place our absolute trust, a trust that rightfully belongs only to God.  And religious people are in no way exempt from this problem.  In today's gospel reading and in the passage from Acts we read of Jesus' trial and of the persecution against the early Church, events carried out by people who, to one degree or another, presume they are acting on behalf of God.  They are acting against people who have challenged and threatened some of their deeply held articles of faith.

Frederick Buechner once said something about doubt being the ants in the pants of faith.  Doubt is necessary for faith to grow and mature.  And I wonder if doubt and self reflection aren't also necessary to keep faith from becoming arrogant as well as idolatrous.

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