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The Mighty And The Almighty
The Mighty and the AlmightyReflections on America, God, and World Affairs
Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Madeleine Albright is one smart cookie. In this book she takes on both church and state. Basically, she says that it's not only impossible, but undesirable, to completely disassociate a political leader from his or her religion.
That said, one shouldn't think they're special just because they accepted Christ as their personal savior,
Our cause will not be helped if we are so sure of our rightness that we forget our propensity, as humans, to make mistakes. Though America may be exceptional, we cannot demand that exceptions be made for us. We are not above the law; nor do we have a divine calling to spread democracy any more than we have a national mission to spread Christianity. We have, in short, the right to ask -- but never insist or blithely assume -- that God bless America.
She goes on to give several examples of foreign policy incidents that -- surprisingly to me -- had religious components. The Vietnam War, for example. And she makes the point that diplomats need to become more educated about the religions in the regions to which they are assigned.
American diplomats will need to ... think more expansively about the role of religion in foreign policy and about their own need for expertise. They should develop the ability to recognize where and how religious beliefs contribute to conflicts and when religious principles might be invoked to ease strife. They should also reorient our foreign policy institutions to take fully into account the immense power of religion to influence how people think, feel, and act.
She then goes on to apply this principle to the issues of today, from the distribution of condoms and birth control teaching to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the Guantanamo Bay prison and al-Qaeda to Iraq. This was a very well-thought out position, and one about which Albright obviously feels strongly.
I'm glad Albright is so close to our new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Hopefully, some of her smarts will rub off on the new Secretary. The Mighty and the Almighty is a good, thoughtful read. I highly recommend it.
