Joel called our attention to an article by David Pence, in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune titled, "These wars--they're religious. Will the West take its proper side?" A note says that David Pence is a physician and teacher, who writes about religion, politics, and men.
It is an article that asserts that Americans tend to think of world affairs in terms of nations, but if we do that with respect to what is going on in the Mideast, we will not understand that religious loyalty transcends nationhood. As Pence puts it, ". . . whenever you hear that some violence is 'senseless' look for a battle over religion or ethnicity. More often than not, that will make sense of it."
The basic conflict, Pence asserts--and he is by no means alone in saying so--is between Saudi-style Sunni, and Irani-backed Shia understandings of Islam. So far, so good. The origins of that split within Islam go all the way back to the time of the death of Mohammed in 632, and the debate about who should be his successor. Some--to become contemporary Shias--said it should be a member of the Prophet's family. The Arab Sunnis said it should be whomever could best lead the movement. That simple argument became ethnic, and tribal, and national, and regional.
Christians should understand that. In the 1500s, in Europe, not the Mideast, people like Martin Luther, a German Augustinian friar, became incensed at the corruption of the Church, which as he saw it, had distorted what the Bible said, and made the Church a money-grabbing scam. Just as the Church, earlier, had effectively split into western European and eastern European and Asian branches of the Church, the Protestant Reformation split the western (Roman) Church. The result was that Europe itself was split, as well as its colonies. Terrible wars resulted; one of them aptly named, the Thirty Years War, and another the Hundred Years War. We have all heard of the Inquisition, and other inventive forms of torture and bloodshed, still not forgotten, in the name of true religion and Biblical truth.
When the Europeans divided up Africa and the Mideast, they invented national lines, very often right across ethnic and religious communities: thus, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and so on. So Iraq is a phantasmagoric nation--part Sunni, part Shia, part Kurd, etc.--held together by oil and guns.
And now David Pence proposes that the only way out of this essentially god-awful, murderous situation is by affirming by asserting a better religion: Mr. Pence's religion, as it turns out; a Christian brotherhood. Baptize the nations. Peacemakers with strong armies and navies. Christian protectors. A kingdom of Christian men.
"The sword is never our ultimate weapon," Mr. Pence says, "but Christ told his apostles to have one on hand." It is our destiny as Americans, Pence says, to bring peace on earth and goodwill toward men by means of a muscular, righteous, religious exercise of our Christian duty; none of this namby-pamby secular atheist political, spinelessness!
Who would have deduced that, if Islamic religious hostility is the underlying cause for the mess that is the Mideast, that a really muscular armed Christian force would be the solution? It didn't work in the Middle Ages: why should it not work today?
If there is a discernible curve to history, it is certainly not toward religious zealots bearing a sword in one hand and a book with the absolute truth in the other. It does not matter whether the sword or the book are Christian or Islamic or Zoroastrian. Neither sharp swords nor sharper claims to absolute truth will result in the ability to live together. In fact, it is only when the beheading and the bombing stop, and religious absolutisms are contained, that we might find ways to live together productively.
If the religious zealotry and automatic rifles are the problem in the Mideast, more religious zealotry and pilotless drones cannot be the solution. The age of holy empires is the problem, not the solution. It does not matter whose holy empire wins the battles. That war is lost.
And if we continue to speak of our own country as if we were God's chosen people, as if we were Christian soldiers marching off to put an end to other people's religious fanaticism, then we will be blind soldiers in a circular firing squad.
To paraphrase what David Pence said, whenever you hear that some war is a religious crusade, look for a senseless battle. More often than not, that will make sense of it. Especially if it is your own religion.
It is an article that asserts that Americans tend to think of world affairs in terms of nations, but if we do that with respect to what is going on in the Mideast, we will not understand that religious loyalty transcends nationhood. As Pence puts it, ". . . whenever you hear that some violence is 'senseless' look for a battle over religion or ethnicity. More often than not, that will make sense of it."
The basic conflict, Pence asserts--and he is by no means alone in saying so--is between Saudi-style Sunni, and Irani-backed Shia understandings of Islam. So far, so good. The origins of that split within Islam go all the way back to the time of the death of Mohammed in 632, and the debate about who should be his successor. Some--to become contemporary Shias--said it should be a member of the Prophet's family. The Arab Sunnis said it should be whomever could best lead the movement. That simple argument became ethnic, and tribal, and national, and regional.
Christians should understand that. In the 1500s, in Europe, not the Mideast, people like Martin Luther, a German Augustinian friar, became incensed at the corruption of the Church, which as he saw it, had distorted what the Bible said, and made the Church a money-grabbing scam. Just as the Church, earlier, had effectively split into western European and eastern European and Asian branches of the Church, the Protestant Reformation split the western (Roman) Church. The result was that Europe itself was split, as well as its colonies. Terrible wars resulted; one of them aptly named, the Thirty Years War, and another the Hundred Years War. We have all heard of the Inquisition, and other inventive forms of torture and bloodshed, still not forgotten, in the name of true religion and Biblical truth.
When the Europeans divided up Africa and the Mideast, they invented national lines, very often right across ethnic and religious communities: thus, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and so on. So Iraq is a phantasmagoric nation--part Sunni, part Shia, part Kurd, etc.--held together by oil and guns.
And now David Pence proposes that the only way out of this essentially god-awful, murderous situation is by affirming by asserting a better religion: Mr. Pence's religion, as it turns out; a Christian brotherhood. Baptize the nations. Peacemakers with strong armies and navies. Christian protectors. A kingdom of Christian men.
"The sword is never our ultimate weapon," Mr. Pence says, "but Christ told his apostles to have one on hand." It is our destiny as Americans, Pence says, to bring peace on earth and goodwill toward men by means of a muscular, righteous, religious exercise of our Christian duty; none of this namby-pamby secular atheist political, spinelessness!
Who would have deduced that, if Islamic religious hostility is the underlying cause for the mess that is the Mideast, that a really muscular armed Christian force would be the solution? It didn't work in the Middle Ages: why should it not work today?
If there is a discernible curve to history, it is certainly not toward religious zealots bearing a sword in one hand and a book with the absolute truth in the other. It does not matter whether the sword or the book are Christian or Islamic or Zoroastrian. Neither sharp swords nor sharper claims to absolute truth will result in the ability to live together. In fact, it is only when the beheading and the bombing stop, and religious absolutisms are contained, that we might find ways to live together productively.
If the religious zealotry and automatic rifles are the problem in the Mideast, more religious zealotry and pilotless drones cannot be the solution. The age of holy empires is the problem, not the solution. It does not matter whose holy empire wins the battles. That war is lost.
And if we continue to speak of our own country as if we were God's chosen people, as if we were Christian soldiers marching off to put an end to other people's religious fanaticism, then we will be blind soldiers in a circular firing squad.
To paraphrase what David Pence said, whenever you hear that some war is a religious crusade, look for a senseless battle. More often than not, that will make sense of it. Especially if it is your own religion.
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