On the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, our mutual goal in these columns is surely to reduce the disturbing global tendency to engage in violent attacks and use religion to justify the violence. My message to those who would use religion to justify indiscriminate killing in the name of God is simply as follows: “This is your own pride and sinfulness acting. God had nothing to do with it.”
But the same message also needs to be sent to those religious extremists like the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who described the 9/11 attacks (though he quickly recanted) as God’s wrath against a laundry list of those people and organizations with which he disagreed. This too is religious language pressed into the service of justifying hatred.
There is tremendous power in evoking the deity as the justification for your actions and your prejudices. That is why those who are seeking to gain social and political power through the use (and abuse) of religion do so. Religion is a powerful motivator of human behavior for both good and for evil. And it is often hard to tell the difference because so many people use the language of “God’s will” to justify their actions. How are we to sort them out?
Well, as a Christian I have found it helpful to listen to Paul on this question. In his letters to various churches, Paul was often addressing this very question. People in the churches where Paul was ministering were saying, ‘Everybody comes around preaching that such and such is God’s will. How are we to know who’s telling us the truth and who’s lying?’ Paul had a good sorting mechanism that I use in my life to try to answer this same question. It is one of the most important religious questions we can try to answer, so I offer it to you.
Paul said simply, you can sort out what is of God’s spirit and what is not of God’s spirit when you look at the results. When God’s spirit is in us then it looks like this: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” (Galatians 5:22) And if it’s “enmities, strife, jealousy, quarrels, dissentions, factions” (v. 20) and the like, then, simply, God is not doing that.
God was not absent during the attacks of 9/11. God was with those who sacrificed themselves to save others, who worked to heal and to help survivors and the nation grieve this loss. God is surely with us when we try harder and harder still to work for peace and kindness in a world where religion is being pressed into the service of hatred. And because God is in that work of peace and justice, I believe that ultimately love will be stronger than hate.
Please e-mail On Faith if you'd like to receive an email notification when On Faith sends out a new question.
Email Me | Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook
