Three Religions Have This in Common

Fundamentalist Christianity, Fundamentalist Judaism, and Fundamentalist Islam all condemn homosexuality. Their agreement on this point, and most likely a number of other points, does not make them correct. But it does make me wonder why they have this (and presumably quite a few other things) in common.

So here are my thoughts: The molders (and I use that word with much careful consideration, so as to encompass both ancient, historical personages and modern religious leaders) of these religions feel that life needs to be tightly controlled and regulated--presumably by their scriptures and their clergy. So they see life--behavior--as being about a lot of rules, for what we must and (maybe more importantly) what we must not do. What clothes we should wear, how we must wear our hair, what we should (or, more likely, should not) eat. Maybe there is a view of human nature implicit here: we are all wild, savage beasts, and our natures--our lusts and other baser impulses--need control, examination, regulation, corseting.

And what about the people who are drawn to these sorts of religion, who embrace them and gladly follow them? I believe there is a certain personality type that positively likes having a lot of their conduct prescribed. I'm not sure whether this is the same personality type as the "molders" I referred to above, or a complementary type that fits that of the molders like two pieces of a jig saw puzzle.

Well, it's usually believed in modern, western democracies that people should believe and observe what they want. That's fine; but too often the attitude is, "I don't think such-and-such is right, so I am going to try to prevent you from doing it"--whether it is  homosexuality, abortion, or any of countless things which most of us feel a human being ought to be free to do.

Copyright © 2018

Christians and Muslims, Historically

At one time there were Islamic societies which led the world in their arts and sciences: notably mathematics and astronomy but also medicine, architecture, philosophy, and poetry. We owe to Muslims (and the Christian Byzantines) the preservation of much of the literature and knowledge of the ancient Greeks. By comparison, the Christian West was generally backward, and I am sure that the Muslims regarded it as even barbarian.

So how and why did the Islamic civilizations decline? I am not a historian but from what I do know, I think I can say this with hopefully only slight inaccuracy: wars with the Christians were a big factor.

In Spain, where there was quite a glorious Islamic civilization, with advanced medicine as well as philosophy and other arts and sciences--and, incidentally, generally remarkable tolerance of non-Muslims (Christians and Jews)--centuries of war (the so-called Reconquista or reconquest by Christian Spanish kingdoms) culminated in 1492 with the fall of Granada and thus the ending of the last Islamic kingdom in Spain. (In 1492, not coincidentally, Spain's Jews were expelled; the Muslims were granted tolerance but that promise lasted only some 30 years.)

In the Middle East, where notable Islamic civilizations centered on Baghdad and Persia, there similarly were several centuries of wars between Christians and Muslims, centering on the Crusades, which supposedly had the aim of recapturing Jerusalem for Christians but which caused enormous killing and destruction over a larger area. Wars between Christian states and Muslim powers lasted at least until the eighteenth century.

The last of the Muslim temporal kingdoms--and this is starting to get off the subject--was the Ottoman Empire, which had absorbed the Byzantine Empire (culminating in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople) but weakened over centuries until its final collapse with World War I.

Copyright © 2017

Is Religion Schizophrenic?

Regular readers of this blog know that I have frequently been critical of organized religion and blame it for much of the conflict that mankind has endured throughout history: persecution, terrorism, war.

I recently learned of a so-called "peace camp," which brings together children of different religions so that they can get to know one another and learn about one another's religion. One premise is that Christians are very ignorant of Islam, Muslims are very ignorant of Christianity, and so forth. So the campers visit various houses of worship, learn about holidays and, presumably, religious texts and beliefs.

With such knowledge comes the discovery that the various religions have more in common than one might realize: all advocate peace, love, friendship, tolerance, and helping your fellow man.

The man who founded the camp says that when he looks at television, all he sees is religion depicted as motivating bombings. He wanted to counter that image. I'm sure he has a valid point.

But which is the correct view of religion? I don't want to say that either idea is totally false, even though they seem to be diametrically opposite. Well, how about this thought? Maybe religion is schizophrenic; you know, having a split personality, so that it can be both.

Maybe it depends on who is in charge, so to speak. Evidently the Koran both preaches love and tolerance, and also can be interpreted to favor violent strife against non-believers. The Judeo-Christian tradition may be similarly schizophrenic. Jesus (as I understand) advocated love, peace, forgiveness, helping the poor and disadvantaged; but the Old Testament which had been the basis for the Judaism out of which Christianity arose repeatedly contains violent images and the Old Testament god is a wrathful god who is always smiting his enemies.

Maybe it's all "in there," so to speak. Maybe it depends on what part of the text is being stressed or what a particular religious leader picks out to emphasize when he or she preaches. Sort of, who is in power right now.

To close with a little anecdote: I am reminded of a little episode from a drama I saw on TV some years ago, about a Jewish family of piano manufacturers, living in Germany in the 1930s just as the Nazis were coming to power. To reports of what was happening to the Jews, the wife says, "But how can this be happening? This is the country of Goethe, Lessing, Beethoven"--the idea being that those people represented enlightenment and tolerance.

Her husband replied, "Yes, but unfortunately they're not in power right now."

Copyright © 2011 Richard Stein

Not Acts of God

The by now very old (and if he's not tired by now, I'm tired of him) televangelist Pat Robertson said that the cracks in the Washingon Monument that appeared after the recent earthquake centered near Washington were an "act of God."

Glenn Beck says that Hurricane Irene is a "blessing."

I'm not going to try to get inside these guys' heads or figure out their chain of logic (!?!).

I see a dilemma in the thinking of people who are always seeing God's hand in this or that. First, if you believe that God can and does interfere in the workings of the physical or natural world, then the god you believe in is certainly not a benevolent god. These natural phenomena have caused enormous human suffering, particularly over time (certainly they've been going on for all of the history of the human species).

The god who is always "punishing" mankind, for this or that or whatever, sounds like the Old Testament Jehovah, a vengeful god who once (the story of Noah) wiped out nearly all of mankind, who is an angry and wrathful god--as He himself tells us.

Ironically, the people who believe the things above are professed Christians; and I understand that in the Christian version of things, God in the person of Christ is supposed to be loving, forgiving, tolerant (never mind that we've got so many of these so-called Christian believers who spend enormous energy--and money--spreading hatred of gay people).

(To be accurate, there's always been that strain in Christianity--at least in American Christianity, going back to the earliest days. A notable American example of a hellfire, fire-and-brimstone preacher is the eighteenth-century figure of Jonathan Edwards.)

Maybe some Christian would care to explain their religion to me a little better. I see only paradoxes and inconsistencies.

Copyright (c) 2011 by Richard Stein

Yet Another Homophobe Outed As Gay

If you follow the news, you've heard or read about Bishop Long, of a huge (25,000 member) African-American church in Georgia. This is a man who is a very vocal homophobe, and now he is accused of having had sex with (at latest count) four men from his congregation when they were adolescents.

This is just the latest of a long list. Remember these: Foley, Craig, Haggard? I think there have been several more that I can't recall at the moment.

I have to wonder, when will people stop listening to these people with credence and simply question whether the volume of their rhetoric is in proportion to their desire to cloak their own homosexuality?

Here is an article that is excellent and, in my opinion, gives a very good slant on the issue of homosexuality and the Bible.

http://www.aolnews.com/opinion/article/opinion-bishop-long-and-whats-long-overduer-for-christians/19645378

Update, August 26, 2011
Yet another instance to add to the list along with Sen. Craig, etc.--just the latest among many: An Indiana state senator, Phil Hinkle, arranged, via Craigslist, a liaison in a hotel room with a very young guy (either 20 or 18). He claims, "I am not gay."

Copyright (c) 2010 by Richard Stein

Religious War, Episode Number-- Well, Some Thousand

As practically everyone must be aware, the pastor of a small, fringe church in Gainesville, Florida, Terry Jones, has inflamed (I use the word advisedly) world-wide controversy with his plan to burn 200 copies of the Quran on September 11, which is, of course, the anniversary of the famous "9/11" attacks. The 9/11 attacks are viewed (and I would not say wrongly) as attacks by Islam against not only the U.S. but the Christian West or Christianity.

This is the latest battle in an Islam-West (or Islam-Christianity) conflict that goes back not simply nine years to September 11, 2001, but 800 or 900 years, to the Crusades.

To refresh your memory of the history you learned: the Holy Land, so-called, was in the hands of Muslims, who had been conquering more and more of the Byzantine Empire of which it was part; and the Pope preached the Crusade—in fact there were four Crusades—to inspire (or incite) Christian knights to "recapture" the Holy Land for Christianity.

And—just to set the record straight, because I believe I heard someone getting it backwards—the Muslims then considered—and probably still consider—any and all non-Muslims to be "infidels."

So we've had 900 years of conflict, of hatred, of intolerance. In modern times we've also had Christians and Muslims battling each other in Lebanon and in the former Yugoslavia. These were all at least in part religious wars.

And if you want to look more broadly still, it's not only Christians and Muslims who have been at each others' throats. There have been wars between Catholics and Protestants--in Northern Ireland in modern times and elsewhere in earlier times.

And I am sure that the conflicts stemming from religion are as old as the invention of religion itself in human history.

I almost tend to think that there is something inherent in religion that is to blame. Every religion claims to be the "true" one, and fosters in its followers a certain smugness in the fact that they are the followers of the true faith.

And since we are right, we are justified in smiting all those who follow another religion, because theirs are false gods. In Old Testament times and in Classical Antiquity, a war between two peoples was a conflict between their respective gods, and the outcome indicated whose god was stronger or was the "true" god.

Yes, I blame religion for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people, over the centuries, and for much human suffering. Religion has done some good, I'd admit; but its inherent tendency to demarcate humanity into "we" and "they," which I've commented on before, has to devolve itself into conflict, and often conflict of the most brutal and protracted kind.

Here is a link to a good article:
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/analysis-pastor-terry-jones-plan-to-burn-quran-latest-in-long-line-of-religious-fire-starters/19623998

If there is a God, I have a suggestion for Him: On September 11, let there be a very hard rain, a deluge, in Gainesville, Florida, and drown out Pastor Jones' bonfire of hate.

Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein