What Religious Liberty?
The Incredible Ever-Expanding Dead End
Anti-Cure, Anti-Life
Whose Values in
Education?
Toppling
Dominos
Anti-Christians
don't have to be Hypocrites but Many Volunteer
Intolerant Tolerance
The Emperor's
Clothes or a Cheap Tuxedo
The Myth of
Hitler's Pope, Part I
The Myth of
Hitler's Pope, Part II
Embryonic
Stem Cell Research Again
The Madness of
Secularism
"Don't Impose Your
Religion on Me"
Dictatorship of Relativism
Two Babies at Christmas
Living Will or Death
Warrant?
Court Ordered
Slow Motion Torture-Death Sentence
Men in Black
A Lot of Hot Air
The Culture War
Battles
"Stay with us, Lord"
Secular-to-English Dictionary
Moral Guidance for
Catholics in this Election
Christians
Losing America
Stem Cell Wars
Catholic
Pro-Abortion Politicians and Communion
Useful Idiots
Who Killed Jesus?
A Primer on Gay
Marriage
Whose Side are You
on?
Vouchers Revisited
Real and Fake
Cloning Bans
Broken Compasses
No Room in the Inn
Killing Fields
Revisited
Gay but not Merry
Adam and Steve?
The Battle for the Court
Victimless Crimes
More Salt, Please
The Next Big Fight
When Religion
Becomes Evil
Virginity Making a Comeback?
You've Come a Long Way,
Baby
The Incarnational
Approach
The Many Meanings of ACLU
Things Your Media Never Told
You
A Nasty Little Secret
Two Points of View on the Birth of Jesus
You Gotta Kill Them. How Else
Are They Going To Learn?
Perplexing Christmas Questions
How Do You See Christ Today?
Now that there is Another Ewe, will there be
Another You?
What is Conscience Anyhow?
Divorce of Love and Life
What Counts as a Mass?
What is a Covenant?
I Wish I had Your Faith
Are there Too Many Decrees of
Nullity?
Dutch Treats
Ecumenism
Going from Baby Doe to Granny Doe
Comments of Evangelium Vitae
The Exception Corrupts the Rule
Good Morality or
Good Medicine
Generation-X'ers Smart in Every Way But
One
A Matter of Good Breeding
Herod and Pontius Pilate at the
Polls
Hitler's Pope or Righteous Gentile?
The Unknown God
What exactly is wrong with
homosexuality?
Ideology Trumps Science, Reality,
and Common Sense
What Exactly is an Indulgence?
Infallibility and Error in the Church
Pilate Asked, "What is Truth?"
The Truth about Families
New Killing Fields
Choice of Language and Language of
Choice
A Lexicon for Our Day
Why are there so many bodies?
Marijuana, Medicine or Menace?
Medical Research and Ethics
Meditation
"You Taught me well,
Mommie dearest"
Moral Fallout
Neutral on the Wrong
Side
"These are the
Nineties After All"
Many are Wed but Few
are Married
"...Prepare him for
additional obligations"
A Useful Lie
A Partridge in a
Pear Tree
Religious Persecution in
the U.S.?
What Makes a Person a
Person?
The Point of a Point of
View
Politically Correct,
Morally Depraved
Population
Controllers out of Control
Practical Dreamers
Social Progress
through Immorality
Shall we Do Evil for
Goodness Sake?
Reason and Faith
Resurrection Glory
Same Sex Marriages?
Pearl of Great Price
"I used to be
schizophrenic, but we're all right now"
Sexual Morality
Irrelevant in Judging Public Officials?
Undesirable Side Effects
Some News is Good News
SOSSLQ's, not POSSLQ's
Spoils of Splits
Why Attend Mass
Every Sunday?
Is it All Right to Pull
the Plug?
An Appeal for Intolerance
Topics Catechetical
A Voting Catechism
A Moral Guide to
Voting
Vouchers: Has Their Time Come?
What Child is This?
What did they die of?
You are the Man
You may be a liberal
if...
Get Rid of that Worthless
Relative
Planned Un-Parenthood
Weighing Pro-Life Issues
Prior to Voting
|
|
by Monsignor James C. Brunner |
Faith Points |
When Religion Becomes Evil
This is the intriguing title of a book by Rev. Charles Kimball, professor of religion and chair of the department of religion at Wake Forest University. When Christianity and Islam seem to be in conflict and a radical Islam breeds terrorists worldwide the topic is timely.
Kimball gives 5 reasons for religion becoming a springboard for evil: (1) absolute truth claims; (2) blind obedience; (3) establishing the “ideal” time; (4) the end justifies any means; and (5) declaring holy war.
I will react only to the first item on the list, absolute truth claims. Kimball asserts, “When zealous and devout adherents elevate the teachings and beliefs of their tradition to the level of absolute truth claims, they open a door to the possibility that their religion will become evil.” An example he cites is an extremist pro-lifer who murders abortionists. I do not agree that holding human life inviolate is an inducement to murder. Catholics believe in the sanctity of all human life including that of the abortionist.
Kimball thinks that treating religious dogmas as rigid doctrine is wrong. He thinks that adherence to the truth is a problem. It is not truth that is the problem. More often it is that people do not adhere to it. Or else they emphasize one truth to the exclusion of another. Thus Christians who suffered ferocious persecution the first three centuries of their history became persecutors themselves. They failed to respect the consciences of others although previously they had suffered assaults on their consciences.
Kimball suggests lesser adherence to truth as absolute because our knowledge is incomplete. That in no way negates the value of the truth that we know. My mathematical knowledge is incomplete but what I do know is true and of great value to me.
He cites as symbolic of the subjectivity of truth the example of a little girl who thinks her father is the best daddy in the entire world. Undoubtedly some best father exists although it might be difficult to develop criteria and measures to determine this. Seemingly Kimball feels that truth is relative and personal. But if that were so there would be no objective basis for morality because whatever I consider good is good for me even though I might think it good to kill those who disagree with me. To be meaningful morality must be based on objective truth that is independent of human manipulation.
Kimball seems to think that religious truth is unattainable. We do not have this defeatist attitude toward truth in other areas and have made great scientific strides. Religious truth can be established by a preponderance of evidence just as with other disciplines.
The natural law represents human judgment about good and evil that transcends historical periods and cultures. There is widespread agreement among different religious groups about the morality of murder, adultery, theft, and slander. One expression of the natural law is to be found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948:
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and
freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to
manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and
observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes
freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may
be compelled to belong to an association.
The Church teaches respect for consciences in the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Liberty. The Council states that (1) no one is to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience, especially in matters religious; (2) a government “would clearly transgress the limits set to its power, were it to presume to command or inhibit acts that are religious”; (3) religious communities may govern themselves according to their own norms; (4) governments may not interfere with appointment of religious ministers or in erecting buildings for worship; and (5) governments may not interfere with the propagation of religion. (#3-4)
In many Islamic states there is no freedom for Christianity. There is no freedom of assembly, there are forced marriages of Christian women with Muslim men, and churches are vandalized or not allowed to be built or repaired. Evangelization is forbidden among Muslims. Christian clergy are denied entry into some countries. No open Christian activity is permitted. Muslim converts to Christianity cannot change their status and so their children are involved in Muslim activities. Seminaries are closed or forbidden. Constitutional guarantees of religion do not extend to Christians. All citizens are required to be Muslims. Christians are massacred. Any criticism of Mohammed is considered blasphemy and can lead to imprisonment and even death. Christian literature is not permitted to enter the country and is seized if found. In some countries a Muslim convert to Christianity is put to death by members of his own family.
Not every Muslim state does every one of the intolerant acts in violation of universal human rights described in the previous paragraph but each does some of them. These practices are not limited to fringe groups in Islam. These states include Algeria, (the present situation in Afghanistan is unclear although in the past their persecution of other religions was the worst in the world), Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Comoro Islands, the Islamic section of Cyprus, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan. Christians may have fringe groups that are intolerant but it would appear to me that any Islamic states that follow the UN Declaration would belong to the Islamic fringe.
Some Muslim countries deserve special mention. Sudan has killed 2 million Christians since 1985 in the Islamic Jihad directed from the north. Women are captured and if identified as Christian are often gang-raped and then killed. Some women are taken into slavery. Christian churches have suffered air bombardment. More than 4 million persons have become refugees. Saudi Arabia does not even allow foreign Christians to assemble in private for religious services or prayer. There is a total ban on possession and distribution of non-Muslim material. Nigeria recently had riots in which more than 300 Christians were killed because a newspaper writer made what were considered insulting remarks about Mohammed.
Historically Islam was propagated not by gentle theological persuasion but by the sword. Peoples conquered by Islamic armies were given the choice to convert to Islam or be killed. Muslims today proclaim that Islam is a religion of tolerance. If that is so it is incumbent on Muslims to practice this in venues that they control (I know of none that do) and to convince their brethren of this. If intolerance of infidels belongs to the essential fabric of Islam there will be constant conflict because it denies the fundamental human rights of others. It is then a religion that has become evil.
(This article was printed March, 2003)
