What a welcome question!

“A question as we commemorate the anniversaries of Katrina and 9/ll: Why would a merciful God allow disasters—natural or manmade—to happen?”

WELCOME, because—in our secular culture of God-repression—God is the subject of the sentence expected in answer to the question—as God is the subject of the Bible’s first sentence and, indeed, the subject of the Bible.

As does the Bible’s first sentence (“In the beginning, God created....”), the question assumes that the “Maker of heaven and earth” has the power and knowledge to rule over what he’s made and to overrule any challenges to his authority. Who? God. What? Creation-Nature. How? Providence-Evolution.

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On this anniversary of 9/11, this is what I have to say to religious extremists who believe that violence advances their religion’s cause.

1. Because I, like you, am strongly religious, and strongly at odds with much that passes as acceptable behavior in my society and in the wider world, I feel a kinship with you. If we were to have a conversation, we would probably both learn something useful. This is an invitation.

2. What I would not learn from you—what I would not listen to you on—is how-where-when to use violence in advancing my cause. The Bible and the Qur’an preach persuasion for the advance of religion, and condemn violence as a means of promoting one’s religion or demoting the religion of another. In religion, violence is not power; it is the unwitting admission of rhetorical weakness.

3. I would listen in hope of hearing your deepest voice, the voice of your hurting and caring and loving and hoping. And if I could help you hear my deepest voice, we just might hearken together to a third Voice—the Voice always calling us to hear that we are brothers and have work to do together for the glory of God and the good of humanity and of the good earth.

4. Finally, as a Christian, I would want to remind you that Jesus chose to suffer violence rather than to become violent--and he did not lose out for his choice. His was not the love of power but the power of love, love (he said) even for enemies. Violence—though it may assuage one’s thirst for vengeance--is a shame rather than an honor to one’s religion, and a danger to one’s destiny. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us not to expect God’s forgiveness unless we are ourselves forgiving; we have offended God, who will forgive us only if we forgive those who have offended us. (Gospel of Matthew, 6:12-14) To believe that violence against the innocent will earn you paradise—that blasphemous notion of murderers imagining themselves to be martyrs is repugnant both to Islam and to Christianity.

5. While I must participate in the forces resisting your violence, I pray that your confidence in the sword of violence will diminish, and your conviction of the power of the word will increase. If you can manage that reversal to the tipping point, the potential for peace on earth will be less remote.

lepidopteryx said:

Rev Elliot, you're way off base inmore ways than one concerning your perception of Paganism. And quite frankly, I would find it highly amusing that you advise Terra to follow the advice of Ieshua and learn to love her enemies if it weren't so indicative of your inability to truly see any viewpont other than the Christocentric.

While I hate no one, I also am under no obligation to love those who would do me harm.
I am certainly not obligated to love the man who raped me, or the evangelist who grabbed me when I politely refused his offer of a jack Chick tract, or the JW who stuck his foot in my door when I politely refused a copy of The Watchtower and attempted to close my door.
My only obligation toward those who would make themselves my enemy is not to harm them except in self-defense. However, my gods do allow me to defend myself by whatever means are available and necessary.

The Bible and its exhortations and prohibitions are only binding for Christians and Jews.

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wiccan said:

Reverend-

My sisters have taken you to task, quite correctly in my eyes, for your misconceptions (to put it charitably). I cannot improve on their postings, so instead, I ask you to pray with me. If you open your eyes and your heart, you just might learn something valuable. Blessed Be.

A Wiccan Prayer for Peace

Gracious Lady, Mother of all that lives, we call out to you to guide all of your children. Bless our eyes, that we may see each other with love. Bless our ears, that we may hear each other with understanding. Bless our mouths, that we may speak to each other with compassion. Bless our hands, that they may heal, not harm. Bless our feet, that we may walk beside each other in peace. Great Goddess, Mother of birth and death and rebirth, Goddess of the green Earth that feeds us, of the creatures that roam upon its surface, and the tides that lap its shores, Lady of the Cauldron, let all your children drink of its wisdom, and know that all names of the Divine are but one Name, and all worship but a dance to the singular music of Life.

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yoyo said:

Rev Willis

Thanks for responding to my comment.
You seem to agree that the supernatural
and the imagination are the same thing.
The Rev John Bryson Chane,on another thread,says
"God lives within each of us...not outside of us",
which says it again...God is a creature of our imaginations,
and exists where Harry Potter exists.
Like Voltaire said,gods are our invention.
That I truly believe.

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The West is in a religio-political war not of our choosing. The enemy is not Islam but a violent movement within Islam, a movement many Muslim leaders repudiate. For this movement, this week’s “On Faith” question doesn’t make sense: “To what extent are problems in the Middle East about religion and to what extent are they about politics? Does it matter?” But to us—especially to us Americans with our “separation of church and state”-- the question does make sense. And it both does and doesn’t matter.

The realities are the same whether or not one tries to sort them into separate piles marked “Religion” and “Politics,” so the question doesn’t matter. Indeed, it’s important that one view the realities binocularly before using the religion-or-politics monocles. But the secondary truth is that the sorting is an analytic necessity for understanding, deciding, and acting.

My title addresses two abiding binocular realities about the human condition and suggests the use of each to illumine the anger, anxiety, and anguish of the Middle East.

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When I opened the front door, I was face to face with a young Jehovah’s Witness who was holding the hand of a small beaming child. A few weeks before, it was two handsome young Mormons. Now, doorbell-ringing religionists don’t get into my digs and don’t get any of my time reading their familiar hand-outs, so my answer to their question is no. But since I affirm their freedom to speak and admire their courage to witness to what they most deeply believe, I must say yes. So how? They came to bless me: how shall I bless them?

Every religion centers in a CULT (a mode of worship) and is against CULTS (innovative religious movements). These two facts—signaled by the singular and the plural of the same noun—are my opening clarification on the first of this week’s “On Faith” questions:
“Various religious groups in America, from Jehovah’s Witnesses to Mormons, have been considered cults at some point. What is the difference between a religion and a cult? What constitutes a real religion?”

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