The right, ability and responsibility to make choices

I got a notice from the library telling me one of the audio books I put a hold on hss come in. I'm excited because it's science fiction and at my library, at least, it's rare to find science fiction in audio form. The book is Off Armageddon Reef and here is a bit from the Publishers Weekly review at Amazon ....

Weber (At All Costs) launches an epic series with this gripping far-future saga, which springboards off the near-destruction of humanity in a massive war with the alien Gbaba. The survivors of the human race retreat to the planet Safehold, where they sacrifice basic human rights—and an accurate memory of the Gbaba—for the preservation of the species. The colony's founders psychologically program the colonists to prevent the re-emergence of scientific inquiry, higher mathematics or advanced technology, which the Gbaba would detect and destroy. Centuries later, cultural stagnation on this feudal but thriving planet is enforced by the all-powerful Church of God Awaiting. But one kingdom—with the aid of the war's last survivor, a cybernetic avatar that awakens to reinvent itself as a man named Merlin Athrawes—risks committing the ultimate heresy. Shifting effortlessly between battles among warp-speed starships and among oar-powered galleys, Weber brings the political maneuvering, past and future technologies, and vigorous protagonists together for a cohesive, engrossing whole.

One of the interesting things about the book is the way religion is portrayed, and the author, David Webber, has been accused of writing an anti-religious book. Here's something he said in reply to that, from an interview ....

"I'm sure some people will read this book as an attack on organized religion. After all, the primary force for the restriction and manipulation of human freedom and character, not to mention corruption, on Safehold is to be found in a world-wide religion. I think, however, that reading this book that way would be a mistake. Yes, the Church of God Awaiting is a monstrous, deliberately fabricated, enslaving lie imposed upon the people of Safehold. But the very impetus for reform coming out of places like Charis is coming out of men and women who follow the logical implications of the Church of God Awaiting's own moral teachings. Off Armageddon Reef is less about the evils of religion than it is about the use of any ideology or belief structure to manipulate, control and coerce. In the case of Safehold, it's religion; it could have been communism, fascism or any other brand of authoritarianism or totalitarianism. I said that my books are about choice.

To my mind, anything which removes or denies the right, ability and responsibility to make choices is evil, destructive and a perversion. Religion that closes off, that demonizes or dehumanizes the "other" as the first step in destroying him in the name of some intolerant, oppressive, thought-denying process can be a terrible force for evil. The cynical use of religion, of man's belief in God, as a self-serving means of manipulating others is despicable. And yet religion can be an equally powerful force for good. The people who support Merlin in Charis believe firmly and fervently in God; they simply can't accept that God is as small and mean-spirited as the Church of God Awaiting's current leadership apparently believe He is."

I guess this caught my attention after reading something that Fr. James Martin SJ had posted at America magazine's blog - a quote from a NY Times story on the Catholic vote in the recent election .....

The bishops do not intend to tell Catholics how to vote; but, by the way, a vote for Senator Obama puts your salvation at risk. Catholics are to form their consciences and make prudential judgments about complex matters of good and evil — just so long as they come to the same conclusions as the bishops.

Being a member of a religion and accepting the right, ability and responsibility to make choices shouldn't be antithetical. Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises are, some say, a class in how to make good choices ..... maybe Off Armageddon Reef is the kind of book Ignatius would like :)