Thinking religion is hard work

Good for Karen Armstrong. Her proposal has the bracing power of simplicity.

In her own post in this week's discussion, Armstrong touches a place I hear talked about increasingly among my own parishioners. From progressive to orthodox--and we certainly have both in our congregation, as well as all the shades in between--I hear expressions of worry about religion tainted with intolerance and about a fixation on doctrine instead of loving action. We say we don't want any part of that, and we're frankly embarrassed to be grouped with it just because we practice our faith publicly.

But if this challenge to join with others to create a Charter of Compassion is to go beyond the "feel-good" stage, beyond what we can easily, and ideally, say in common, then we need to look at what has piled up on the other side of the ledger.

Human misbehavior, or worse, evil committed on a massive scale, as in a holocaust or genocide, is a reality of history and, sadly, of the present. If we're going to be honest about the violence committed in the name of religion, we'll need to be equally honest that violence can arise where religion--at least in the sense of the great and deep traditions Armstrong cites--is absent or denied.

That stubborn accounting for human nature gone wrong is at the thinking heart of the great religions. Compassion is the answer. But there's still a question: how it can actually make the difference is the question that won't go away, even if we sign the Charter?

In her great scholarship on the history of fundamentalism, Armstrong has made the case for thoughtful, honest, steady, non-reactive and, yes, thoughtful religion. I believe in a God who calls me to live compassionately and to think compassionately.

It's hard work, over the long haul. It seldom rates a headline. I might even look tame. But where I live and pray, we try to do that work every day.

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William Tully

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Thinking religion is hard work