When Religion Becomes Evil

“Most religions claim they have a monopoly on the truth and that all other religions are wrong. All too commonly in the past and today as well, citizens are taught that they are permitted or obliged to kill and steal from believers of those wrong religions. It in no way diminishes the guilt of the current crop of murderous religious fanatics to acknowledge that they are heirs to a long, widespread, vile tradition.”

There are those who have abandoned religion because of its sorry record of evils perpetrated in God’s name. Perhaps we too are tempted by this option. What do you think? Shall we close the doors behind us after coffee this morning and meet instead at the golf course next Sunday? Don’t answer that! It’s a rhetorical question! Then again, if we are going to come back, shall we negotiate new terms and establish a different agenda, so as to avoid the religious pathologies which result in evil?

As I step back to survey where we’ve been these six weeks, the first question which comes to mind is whether religion always and necessarily leads to evil. Is there an inherent flaw in religious endeavors which we don’t find in other human institutions? To listen to critics and detractors, one would think so. A theologian once called these detractors, “cultured despisers.” and unfortunately religious communities have provided them with plenty to despise. But I’m not so sure that the flaw is in religion so much, as it is in the human beings who take up the religious cause. I notice for example, that government and politics are also human institutions which can be used for good or ill. Science, technology and medicine have wrought miracles and marvels in the modern age, but in the wrong hands, they have also produced atomic warheads, nerve agents and guided missiles to deliver them. Commerce, business and the market-place make the world go round, but lately we spun off course with excesses of power and greed. Even music and art can be turned into tools of propaganda and disinformation to stir up blind nationalistic fervor. (Think of the newly unemployed sculptors in Iraq.) Is corruption inherent in religion and in other creations of society and culture, or does the problem of evil reside in the humans who take up these tools and abuse them?

Think about that, but even so this is Sunday morning, and religion is our game, so what can we do to avoid the pathologies which human beings in faith communities are prone to? Charles Kimball names at least two strategies in his final chapter, and I’d like to throw in another for good measure.

As we just heard, Jared Diamond observes that “most religions claim they have a monopoly on truth.” On a Palm Sunday, let’s remember that as the stories of Holy Week were recited in the past mayhem was often incited. The Gospel of John perhaps, is the place where our extremists have most often gone to feed and justify their hatred of other religions, most notably Judaism and Islam. The Jews supposedly are Christ-killers, and Muslims, infidels. Inspired by John, in this view there is only one way to stand in the good graces of God, and that is to go through a door which only Jesus Christ can open. Case closed, let the persecution begin. Charles Kimball says that he has “always been puzzled and saddened by people who make clear that they couldn’t be very happy in heaven unless hell was full to overflowing with people who disagree with their particular theology.”

But it becomes more and more dangerous in our world, given the marvels of the atom, the nerve agent, and the guidance system, for one tradition to claim it has all the truth, while everybody else knows where they can go. We already live in the most religiously diverse nation in history, and the rest of the world too, is increasingly confronted with the realities of pluralism and diversity. Like it or not, getting along with Methodist and Lutherans is no longer our biggest challenge. Thirty years ago when Diana Eck wanted to compare Hinduism with Christianity, she had to undertake field trips to India. She now goes out of her office at Harvard University and drives 10 or 12 miles on the Mass Pike to visit a thriving Hindu temple in Ashland. People in this congregation work with Sikhs and Buddhists and Muslims, and travel to visit holy sites and shrines in every corner of the world. Given such encounters and wide exposure, it becomes more and more difficult to imagine that when we come back here to Brookside Church, that we enter a domain where the whole truth and nothing but the truth resides. As Kimball notes, “Experience makes plain that my experience of God, my human view of truth, does not begin to exhaust the possibilities.”

I have clippings in my files from just the last two or three months which illustrate how controversial this seemingly reasonable statement can be in some quarters. An orthodox Jewish rabbi in London, and a Methodist bishop in Michigan have both recently been charged with heresy for expressing similar opinions. Two years ago a Lutheran bishop was harassed for appearing and praying next to a Muslim cleric in a commemorative service following 9/11. The first challenge for human beings of faith is to acknowledge pluralism, and to embrace diversity, which is to say that we have to begin with humility. Kimball cites a passage from the Qur’an, which he says, “provides a wise word that celebrates our diversity even as it guides us on the journey of faith, in which our vision and understanding of ultimate truth remain limited.” Accordingly, the passage reads,

“If God had so willed, He would have created you one community, but [He has not done so] that He may test you in what He has given you; so compete with one another in good works. To God you shall all return and He will tell you the truth about that which you have been disputing” (Qur’an 5:48).

Within this passage, we also find the kernel of Kimball’s second suggestion for what religious communities must do now to “remain true” to their “authentic sources;” which is, quite simply to cooperate with one another in doing good. We can anticipate with certainty that we will be seeing many examples of this in the weeks and months to come as relief agencies respond to the needs of the Iraqi people. Mustering his reasons for not abandoning the ship of religion, Kimball notes that,

The world’s religious traditions, provide institutional structures that are essential in many ways. Consider, for instance, all of the humanitarian relief and development work in response to disasters, wars, and rampant poverty. Countless human service agencies are connected to religious traditions. Having worked for seven years coordinating the relief and development work of the major U.S. Christian denominations through the ecumenical structure of Church World Service, I know well the importance of such institutional structures. The stories of cooperation -- ecumenical and interfaith -- in response to the conflicts in Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Iraq as well as of ongoing work among the poorest people in Egypt are powerful, inspiring, and often unknown.

To compete and cooperate with one another in doing good, will allow many people from the host of religious and faith communities around the world, to witness and experience first hand: our common humanity, and our shared compassion in the face of suffering and sorrow. What can unite separate peoples more quickly than joining in a cause to do good? Perhaps one day, we’ll all recognize that what matters in life, is not so much what we believe, or what truths we guard, but how we treat our neighbors in need. Instead of holding tightly to our respective truths and protecting our narrow points of view, better that we open our hands in shared acts of generosity, and open our hearts in common acts of hospitality.

To abandon religion and to stampede to the golf course, would impoverish humanity in a host of ways, despite our abuses of sacred and holy things. As Kimball notes,

A strong case can and should be made, for the continuing importance of the major religious traditions. These traditions have served millions of people extremely well throughout much of recorded history. They contain time-tested wisdom and provide the frameworks for ethical and legal systems. For the vast majority of ‘people worldwide, their religious tradition -- like their family, tribe, or nation -- anchors them in the world. Religious traditions provide structure, discipline, and social participation in community.

Therefore, let us begin with tolerance and humility. No one tradition contains all the truth. There are many paths to the mountaintop. Secondly, to sustain and preserve the important contributions offered by the world’s religions, let us also find ways to cooperate with one another in doing good. With respect to our theological differences, in the end it is to God that we shall all return and God will reveal the truth which we have been disputing. Then finally, there is one more thing I hope we humans might do in the midst of our religious diversity and strife, which is to unite in what Sam Keen has called the “task of authentic religion.” Rather than endless debate, controversy, and even violence over our respective claims to truth, Keen suggests, that most authentically the task of religion:

Is to keep this world a sacred place, to remind us to wonder, to tread reverentially on the humus and be compassionate to all sentient beings. I believe we do this best by remembering: in the beginning there was Silence. The Word is still spoken in sparrow-song, wind-sigh, and leaf-fall. An electron is a single letter, an atom a complex word, a molecule a sentence, and indigo bunting an entire epistle of the sacred. The oceans whispers its mystery within the chambered seashell. Listen quietly to the longing in your heart for love and justice and you may hear an echo of the holy word that addresses you. Hush for a while. Be still and know.

Would you like to raise a question or make a comment (even a provocative one)? If so, e-mail Craig Anderson at craig@brooksidechurch.org

Brookside Community Church