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Religious Problems Demand Religious Solutions
Q: Eight years after the U.S. attacked Afghanistan, fighting continues. Religious extremists in the Taliban and al-Qaeda retain significant power there. What is our moral responsibility to the people of Afghanistan? If religion is part of the problem there, how can it be part of the solution?
Whether in Afghanistan, throughout the Middle East, or right here at home, religiously fueled conflicts require religiously fueled solutions. The premise that people can simply be talked out of, or bought out of, their most deeply held beliefs is badly misguided. In fact, the failure of that very premise, often called "secularization theory", is the story of much of the world in the last half-century.
Sadly, those who appreciate how toxic a role religion plays in global conflicts are often the most resistant to embracing the constructive capacity of those very same traditions in addressing the conflicts. Simultaneously, those who devoutly embrace a given tradition too often become apologists who refuse to acknowledge and address the damage done by significant numbers of those who share their faith.
We find ourselves like the four blind men, each of whom held one part of an elephant in his hand, and confused their personal assessment with a real picture of what an elephant is. In fact, religion is very much like an elephant - capable of safely transporting those who ride it across otherwise impassable rivers or stomping on all those it sees fit for its own internal reasons. Learning to live with elephants, not simply wishing them away or ignoring their deadly propensities, is the only way to go in a world with many elephants roaming freely about the globe.
Religion will be part of the solution when those who call themselves religious have a vision of the world which accords full dignity and equality to all people, regardless of the faith they follow, including no faith at all. Since there is no chance of that happening any time soon, at least for large portions of the world's religious practitioners, I would suggest the following minimal steps in that direction:
1. Teaching that violence is always a choice, that even when justified according to a particular tradition, damages even those who are justified in using it.
2. Assuring that those in power will guarantee that people be free to practice the religion of their choice even if it is seen as misguided or second best by those in power.
3. Nurturing religious leaders who see cooperation with others, within whatever bounds they can live with, not as a necessary evil but as a religiously preferred position.
There are others, but these three would get us moving in a healthier direction without necessarily compromising the religious integrity of even those with whom we may have the greatest difficulty. These are guiding principles which ask people to widen their sense of who they are, not dilute the rigor of their practice, and in that distinction lies a path to peace.
By
Brad Hirschfield
|
October 5, 2009; 5:11 PM ET
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Posted by: Navin1 | October 9, 2009 3:15 PM
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But if India follows the model of the west or the middle east, I would rather have it fail.
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I understand the sentiment, but do you have an alternative vision?
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | October 9, 2009 2:17 AM
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Farnaz, I agree. Women need to be liberated everywhere, the impoverished need to be enriched, the individual needs to be more free.
For all of India's strengths, the colonization of India by muslims and christians, have also left it with a mind set that denies the values of its ancestry. Given the freedom of 50 years it has done well. Given the changes in the world in the last 300 years, India has much to catch up on. Given the handicap of the european cultures, the western world has much to do to decrease poverty, improve the state of women, etc. But if India follows the model of the west or the middle east, I would rather have it fail.
hariaum
Posted by: Navin1 | October 9, 2009 12:05 AM
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Perhaps we should be teaching Hindu methods of spiritual understanding to all the religions (imagine an Ayatollah, Baptist priests, Mormon prophet or the pope saying: my children, God accepts your worship when ever you worship despite the personal name you give god - this is found in that holy book of the song of God, the Bhagvad Gita) so they can learn a bit better.
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Start by teaching the methods in India. Then liberate the enslaved Dalit. End dowry deaths, bride burning, female feticide. End the power held by ninety-five (95) separate mafias, Daud Ibrahim and his far, far reach. Root out the corruption that remains, etc.
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | October 7, 2009 5:52 PM
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So Hinduism for millenia has said, don't focus on the name of God, focus on the meaning of a God worth worshiping - that which is truth, conscience, and bliss. Sat cit ananda, but the mono-ideologists keep killing us off and then saying they provide peace (like that of Africa) - I wonder why.
Perhaps we should be teaching Hindu methods of spiritual understanding to all the religions (imagine an Ayatollah, Baptist priests, Mormon prophet or the pope saying: my children, God accepts your worship when ever you worship despite the personal name you give god - this is found in that holy book of the song of God, the Bhagvad Gita) so they can learn a bit better.
hariaum
Posted by: Navin1 | October 6, 2009 10:33 PM
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"Assuring that those in power will guarantee that people be free to practice the religion of their choice even if it is seen as misguided or second best by those in power."
Now here's the real rub. The freedom of religion was a hard won right in the West. After the 80 Years War and the 30 Years War, the Peace of Westphalia gave the right to princes to freely decide the religion of their people. Can we expect Muslims to collapse this legacy of death and misery from religious wars of our heritage and accept it on our say so or must they experience it for themselves to understand? The invention of nuclear weapons lays heavily on that question.
Posted by: edbyronadams | October 6, 2009 12:20 PM
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Opppps again.
Acsually, The SOLUTION to YE-Human(s), not Us, OUR-"Hue{mate"(s), POLUTION/Quagmire is EVOLUTION>/i> naturally Speaketh'ng!
Posted by: cyber-man | October 6, 2009 11:42 AM
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Opppss.
Leave the POLITICS to the Politicians & the RELIGICS to the Theologians!
Posted by: cyber-man | October 6, 2009 11:37 AM
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NO! NO! NO!
The Solution to All of S.pace S.hip Earth's Religious Polution [Too Many Competing for a Name for gods] is A
SECULAR SOLUTION, which is never a problemo if ye let it! Never entrust the Other way around.
Hint: The POLITICS to the POliticians (SECULAR) and Leave the RELIGICS to the Theologians. Hence the APOCALYPTIC meaning of Pure "SEPeration of CHURCH/SINOGOGUE/MOSQUE/TEMPLE/PLACES "From" STATE (stay away and out of managing Democracys & RULE of Law (not Religio Halakah, not Sharia, not Caste, not Aparthidic, Slavery.. etc.!
This Nation needs to Put All Religious Institutions [99% are IMPORTED here; Not MADE in AMERICA anyways) in their (un) godl Places!
May the REAL G-D please stand-Up then?
Posted by: cyber-man | October 6, 2009 11:35 AM
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You've asked a big question. The answer is yes, in the short, but my vision is the exact problem (my ownership). I (ego) may believe I have the right vision, and indeed I may have it, but that does not make it right. The rightness, I believe, is in the diversity of solutions.
The idea is a diverse vision. We can not see other groups as different in nature. We must see each other as different as individuals in a complex dynamic environment. We must promote human individual freedoms. We must promote a just international society. We must promote the dispersion of ideas and the methods of skeptical reasoning. We must make it clear that we will no longer tolerate the intolerant. We must think in anecdote and statistically, etc etc. As I said, you have asked a big question.
But I am but a small person. I will do my part. As this blog evolves, I will offer my opinions (I have been very slowly building my own blog). In my life I will live to achieve a higher way of living. As my faith in God that is Truth grows, I will attempt to be more faithful. As my capacity rises, I will attain to greater austerities. (Satva, Karma, Bhakti, Rajas - yogas) and at the same time I will attempt to make intelligent decisions (brahminical) and choose actions (rajasic) in an economic environment (vaisvic) and put forward my greatest efforts in action (sudra - the four castes)and I will be the student of my life, the householder of my family, the hermit socially partial renunciate, and seek the jivamukt life (of life in freedom) that comes with sanyasin realization of egoless renounced action - the four ashrams. Thusly I try to be a complete human.
I have other ideas of what WE can do, but as I said, that is a big question and who am I but another drop in God's ocean of love. Humanity is the creation of Truth. We embrace That Which Is (either we call it Yawahe of Tat Sat, or other names for the same Truth). (I'll squeeze out a little more water with your help as we go along I hope :) ) - WE must invent a better future by living well in the present.
hariaum