Religious Violence and relationship to God: killing in the name of God

Religious Violence and relationship to God: killing in the name of God

Today’s first reading is one of the most problematic passages in the Bible because God appears to be calling upon Abraham to commit murder. Reading the story at a literal level tells us that Abraham received a “call” from God with the intent that his son would be sacrificed. Abraham’s faith in what he felt to be God drove him into the mountains to do what we would think would be the unthinkable: killing his son. How is it that Abraham could put aside the commands of love and obey this God who now commands him to kill his son?

If we were literalists reading the bible (and in our tradition we are NOT) we could take a reading of the bible and discover that there are several stories of the use of sanctioned violence. (see http://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/atrocity.html). For example, in chapter 34 of Genesis the Israelites kill Hamor, his son and all the men in the village and then they plundered their houses taking cattle, children and wives.  We could read the Exodus story of the escape of the Israelite slaves and feel the pain of Egypt as they lost all the innocent children killed by the angel sent by God. Reading Exodus 32 with no critical lens, we are horrified that the Israelites slaying 3000 men and we are puzzled in First Kings that the greatest prophet Elijah goes on a murderous rampage and slaughters the priests of Baal, sparing no one.  An uncritical reading of the Scriptures would lead us to believe that God approved torture, murder and genocide.  This is dangerous because an uncritical reading of Scripture allows clever people with an agenda to manipulate the Sacred Texts in such a way that you would be led to believe that violence in the name of God can be justified.  (see http://www.motherjones.com/media/2013/07/evangelicals-gay-rights-ihop-god-loves-uganda-sundance)

There are some of you out there who are thinking, “I’m not Jewish and these Old Testament readings don’t apply to me.” Or,  “Christian Scriptures do not have violence. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and he does not condone violence.”  If we were to hand-select only Christian texts and completely ignore our Christian history, then could think of ourselves as superior to other religions; however, we cannot do that.  Christians have a long and sordid past when it comes to violence…Think of the Crusades where  the Kings of Europe turned to the Church for a blessing as the armies of Crusaders left Europe and plowed though the Middle East on the pretext that they would be “re-claiming” Christian territory. These Crusaders arrived in Muslim villages pillaging and killing civilians - many who were children and women.  The Crusades were intended to open up trade routes and establish European domination over the region, not reclaim the faith! (see http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/whic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?zid=5ce04720240d6edc41ece33a60c2fc96&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX2877000020&userGroupName=tlc199095657&jsid=4a457e60f27cda06521b9794259c49f7) The Spanish crown, at the end of the 15th Century, was looking to secure their country after pushing out the last of the Muslims from Spain. (see http://religionviolenceandpeace.blogspot.com/2010/10/understanding-religious-violence.html,  http://www.ub.edu/histeco/iberometrics/pdf/Vidal.pdf, and http://www.econ.yale.edu/conference/neudc11/papers/paper_397.pdf)  In an effort to secure Catholic control over the entire country, the royal family sought to unify the kingdom and territories by initiating an Inquisition that would expose the “enemies of the state.”  The Inquisition was set up to scapegoat Jews, target foreign competitors from northern Europe (Protestants) and expel Muslims. The crown used priests and bishops to identify the unfaithful.  Prisoners were subjected to torture, hanging and other forms of painful death.  Did you know that modern torture techniques that are used by the CIA today came from this period in history? 

Today we associate religious violence with Muslim extremists. (see http://www.revealnews.org/article/islam-judged-more-harshly-than-other-religions-in-terrorist-attacks/) We are understandably horrified by images of Muslim extremists decapitating Christians and killing civilians, but looking at history we know that Muslim extremists are not the only ones guilty of killing in the name of God. Violence is violence and clearly there are those who would use Scripture of whatever religion is convenient to justify their actions.  If we are going to survive on this one small, fragile planet with dwindling resources, we have to learn how to get along with each other. We cannot allow religion to be used to keep people at war with one another nor can we allow corrupt and ambitious dictators, prime minsters and presidents to take refuge in religion in an attempt to masquerade their blatant attempts at domination.

I believe that Faith Leaders have a key role to play in shaping a more peaceful tomorrow. We need a more thoughtful way to read and interpret our religious tradition. Take our first reading, for a start. Traditionally we look at the story of Abraham and Isaac with the presumption that God was testing Abraham. At the time of Abraham child sacrifice was a common practice. What if we were to look at the story from the perspective that Abraham was testing God?  What if we were to imagine Abraham was pushing God to make a statement to end the violence of child sacrifice? What if we were to look at Abraham’s silent complicity of going along with sacrificing his son was really about forcing God to initiate a new religion, one that wasn’t based on violence, but on mercy.

Let’s now look at the story of the Transfiguration. A literalist reading tells us that Peter, James and John were at the top of the mountain with Jesus and saw that Jesus’ clothing had become dazzlingly white.  With Jesus were Elijah - the great prophet who slew the priests of Baal, and Moses the lawgiver who killed a man out of anger. The Scriptures say James, Peter and John wanted to make three tents and that they were terrified. Jesus promised his friends that they  could only speak of what they witnessed until Jesus himself died and rose. Understandably Peter, James and John were perplexed but they kept the matter quiet. They had yet to understand that Jesus’ true fulfillment would be revealed in death and self-sacrifice, not self-preservation. 

If we are to read this passage with the lens of non-violence, we might think that Jesus will ultimately fulfill his promise by dying and rising. God wanted the disciples present to know that Jesus’ word had ultimate authority. “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.”  God’s direct voice to these three witnesses was intended to give the people a sense of real power.  That power doesn’t come from lording power over others, but by giving power up.  Power doesn’t come from Pontius Pilate who held the ultimate authority of who would live and who would die. True power comes from Jesus! God’s voice told James, John and Peter to listen to Jesus.  These three would eventually come to understand that real power comes from Jesus and that the last word would be, “He is Risen!”

Religious leaders, Christians, Jews, Muslim, Buddhist, and all other men and women from all faiths, cannot remain divided by theology, ideology and ritual and claim that God is on one side only. They must stand hand in hand: Rabbis, Priests, Ministers, Imams must stand together as one against the totalitarianism of theocratic dictatorships and pseudo-democracies of oligarchies and corporatism.  And as one voice, loudly proclaim,  “If God is for us, who can be against us?” When religious leaders can stand together as one - and apart from the Empire - we will have peace.  Until then, we have hope.