Two kinds of religion, by Rev. Brian Stein-Webber, Director - Interfaith Council of Contra Costa Co.

[The following remarks are excerpted from an address given to:]

Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County

November 6, 2005

Islamic Center of San Ramon, CA 

 

There are at least two kinds of religion. (Allow me to say this first: the word 'religion' is from the roots 're-' and 'lig-.' Meaning 'to reconnect.' So the purpose of religion is to reconnect us with our past or some revelation or a person's life.) So there are two kinds of religion. One which seeks to reconnect us with traditions of life, and another with traditions of death. Too strong of words?

      There is a linguist, cultural critic and theorist named Rene Girard, professor emeritus of Stanford University, who posits that the roots of civilization rise from a religion of violence, in which a scapegoat was chosen by a mob who were conflicted by their competing desires, and the scapegoat was killed, which so miraculously stilled the mob that the scapegoat was determined to be divine, and worshiped, and so the sacrifice was reenacted at appropriate intervals in order to maintain and restore civil order. The distinction between good violence and bad violence led fairly quickly to the moral baptizing of aggression towards one's neighbors.

      We are witnessing in our country an attempt to reassert this old religion, with disastrous consequences. Our war machine is stealing from our people. It is voracious. And coupled with a mindset that we should not bother ourselves with society's wounded, nor ask those well enough off to shoulder a part of that burden, it might very well bring us to the brink of doom. Unless those who are committed to reconnect to the traditions of life come forward. And by traditions of life, I mean love, compassion, submission, humility, non-attachment, unconditional regard.

      So if, as I suggest, our violence is a religious problem, our non-violence must be a religious solution. Religious institutions themselves tend to be subject to a form of backsliding. The principles of the teacher can be forgotten or manipulated or distorted so that the way we should treat each other the earth are subsumed to other purposes. We must listen closely to the heart of God, as much as is possible, so that we may know the way to go. Those who believe that in a coming apocalypse, religion will play a vital role, are right. But what some of them might not see is that religion is fighting religion. I do not say God is fighting God. As Abraham Lincoln said in his second inaugural address about the two sides fighting the Civil War,

     "Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may see strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."

      God does not fight God. God does not seek vengeance. So when my sister called me and said that in a social visit with a Christian pastor and his wife, when the couple said that the tsunami in Southeast Asia happened because the population there is largely Muslim, and my sister said that she immediately had a terrible feeling in her stomach, I told her to trust her stomach, that the god they worship who tells them such a thing is not God Almighty, that they have spoken out of their ignorance.

      Do you see the challenge that is set before us? It is to truly follow in the way of Jesus the peacemaker, of Mohammed and Moses, Baha'ullah and Guru Nanak, Amma and Anandima, Thoreau and Emerson, Gandhi and King, Parks and Day, Baker Eddy and Black Elk. For even though they don't all say the same thing, it is close enough for our purposes. We are truly engaged in a great battle, but it is a battle that will not be won with traditional weapons. It will only be won by laying down our weapons, whereby there will be no losers.

      The blessings of life to you.