Harrisburg, PA, on the verge of bankruptcy despite message from God

Picture credit: http://www.polka-dot-market.com/pages/isaiah43.php

The report linked to the title sums up the fiscal collapse of Pennsylvania’s state capital.

Perhaps it started when, wanting to lift up the city from its desolate state (in the 1980s it was the second most distressed city in the US), the previous mayor of Harrisburg attempted to turn around the city by investing in museums and other costly potential tourist attractions.

In the early 2,000s, despite expert warnings, a major budget decision was made to revamp the city’s incinerator. The current mayor, then a city council member, had an “intimate discussion with God” and voted for the project. By 2007 the incinerator project had to declare bankruptcy. This, of course, came in the worst possible time, at the beginning of the economical free fall.

In the summer of this year the city mayor joined religious leaders for a three day prayer/fasting event to improve the city’s bad situation. Perhaps even more surprisingly, she refused to work with the city’s CFO, because God told her not to trust the man. Her direct connection with God determined several of her other decisions as the mayor of Harrisburg.

So, one thing lead to another, and the result is the current “state of emergency” declared for Harrisburg last week by the Pennsylvania governor.

A state capital going bankrupt is bad enough by itself but I do see a trend in this story that goes far beyond the affairs of Harrisburg.

A dangerous, a very dangerous trend.

Is the US heading back to a theocratic society? Do we really want to follow the footsteps of Saudi Arabia and the Taliban? Can we, as a society of various believes and convictions accept that our leaders guide our daily affairs based on their perception that a God, in this case the Christian God, is communicating with them?

What I’m about to say is going to be divisive but it needs to be said anyway. It was only four years ago that a president of this country claimed to have heard his God’s whisper (selective whispering, mind you, because unlike the president, Jesus was on the side of the poor and underprivileged). These special personal messages and instructions influenced him shaping his political doctrine. Remember that this same president nearly brought down the US on its knees both economically and financially.

So, are we to accept that this country’s leadership governs based on direct communication with God?

I have no problem with people practicing their religion at home or in their church if they need the guidance of a perceived god(s) in order to live in peace and harmony with themselves. We all should consider it appropriate if the head of a tightly knit family or a religious congregation makes decisions based on accepted spiritual practices of the community. Far more arguably, a country could be governed based on religious believes if that country’s constitution clearly calls for it (but then, see the Taliban). However in the absence of such constitutional intent, alas the US Constitution, society should remain secular.

Elected officials of a secular country should not be allowed to force their own believes on citizens they serve, since those citizens are allowed to hold a diverse belief system. Even followers of the same religion have various interpretations of the religious doctrines as it has been well demonstrated in Christianity itself: see Catholics vs. Protestants, Evangelicals vs. Episcopals or, dare I say, Unitarian Universalists.

Society at large of a secular nation deserves to be administered by rational thinking not imagined messages from superior beings. The latter kind of governance is bigotry, theocracy, backward thinking, and plain dangerous, as the case of Harrisburg and its mayor proved it.

When would this be a more timely warning than at a time when several presidential candidates with strong religious convictions are running for the presidency of the most influential nation on Earth today?