Faith is not going to go away. The results of this past election have made this plain.  It pushes the particular “faith oriented” elements of the Bush Administration to the fore and they will acquire an importance far beyond the good they contain, do or wish to impose on the rest of us.

I see two doors, much like those that confronted the “Lady or the Tiger”, that will be an ultimate test of whether you will be counted as a player in the years to come.  It is happening as we speak. It may come down to the wearing of a pin that says, “I Believe” or a Cross, Star of David, or a Crescent and Star to identify you as a believer, that you have faith and therefore are among the fungibles. (I looked up the word fungible because I read it early this morning)  It made no sense to me in the context in which it was used. In the sense in which I use this word it means that interchangeability is involved. If you are “saved” you are fungible with every other believer. But, in the end, each belief leads its believers to a particular door.

There is no single test of faith.  There are many tests and, I suppose that for each of the diverse branches, cults and divisions of religious groups, there are articles of faith that must remain paramount for its members.  I like to think that excommunication is not so much a mark of failure but a freeing of the individual to be his or her own person.  This will not be allowed in the new “FAITH” culture that has been developing rapidly across the world, and here at home.

There are two kinds of tests of faith that operate daily.  One is the expressions you use and the other is the behavior you exhibit. Using “God’s” name in vain or in support of a proposition shows you are in the right pew of the righteous. If you curse spontaneously using four and other lettered words as free expression you will find yourself on the outside looking in.  Among your own kind you will be free to say and think what you want but you will have a great big “C” planted on your forehead by the saved, the believers and the faithful. You will be seen as a descendant of CAIN, the killer of Abel. That goes back a long way to the beginning where faith was being sorted out.

I feel that the times are changing and the pressures will be upon us to conform to a stricter version of citizenship other than voting every two years or so. The arbiters of this change, a minority, have doubled their power because we have a “Born Again” Chief Executive.  This is reminiscent of the scene in Gulliver’s Travels where, walking a tightrope is the chief means of determining if you are among the elect, the elite or simply, one of the good guys.  If you can’t walk that fine line, go find another place to live.  One of my correspondents suggested Canada or Martinique. I wonder what the test of faith is in those places.