We’re always more impressed when religious people enter politics, because we hope that they’re there because of devout, transcendent reasons and not simply for their own political gain.

Of course, the human heart rarely has such simple binaries, but that is the way we process the human heart, and how we understand others.  So when a priest says something, or a monk, or a nun, or a minister, or a rabbi, or a sheik, it’s harder to just ignore it.  It’s harder to say, oh that’s just a lust for power talking.  This person doesn’t really care.

Add to that the iconography of religion: A priest wearing a cassock and marching against arms (Romero, or, the movie, The Mission) .  And the monks of Myanmar, in their bright-colored robes, refusing to be quiet.

Of course, the problem is that religion can often be manipulated for this very reason.  Witness Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Evangelical Christian, Buddhist, Hindu manipulations of religious imagery and religious power structures.   So religion is a powerful witness; and because of this, and because of its ability to be manipulated, it’s a dangerous one.

Stories like these of the monks give me hope, but they  also make me nervous.