Faith Can Inspire Violence--or Peace

In a year when Ramadan, Hanukkah and Christmas coincide and we celebrate hopes for peace inspired by the three Abrahamic religious traditions, we must take a hard look at how these traditions at times also have inspired arrogance, intolerance and violence.

In the Middle East, where Judaism, Christianity and Islam trace their common origins, Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims and Christians are still embroiled in deadly conflict in which, tragically, religion as often serves to fuel the conflict as it does to help resolve it. Among Israeli Jews, many of the most extreme and violent toward Palestinians base their exclusive claims to the land on God’s promise to his chosen people. Among Palestinians, some of the worst anti-Jewish rhetoric and terrorist attacks on civilians have been carried out by Muslims who claim their actions were mandated by their faith. Lest Christians feel they have clean hands, remember that many Jews and Muslims still associate the cross of Christ more with the Crusades, the Inquisition and colonial rule than with the extraordinary mercy of God.

There also are moving examples in the Middle East of how religion inspires pursuit of peace, such as the group of Israeli and Palestinian parents who, motivated by religious beliefs, recently appealed to both Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to halt violence and return to negotiating peace.

How can it be that our religious traditions inspire such utterly contradictory behavior? Meeting in Auschwitz two years ago, a group of Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars admitted that they all fall short of the ideals of our traditions. Also, the scholars understood that people facing extreme circumstances sometimes use religion to justify their choices. And more troubling, they acknowledged that whenever religion has been associated with political power, it has tended to justify the ambitions and requirements of power. Their examination did not go deep enough.

There are core religious beliefs in each of our traditions that have inspired the best in human behavior, but also have given believers a sense of superiority, intolerance and violence: that Jews are God’s chosen people; that Jesus Christ is the exclusive means to salvation; that Islam is the superior and final revelation of God. Believers must wrestle with and reconceive--not water down or reject--core beliefs and rituals in ways that unite and enlarge us. Here are some examples:

* A Palestinian from Bethlehem tells how his father, a devout Muslim, read to his children each evening, alternately from one of three books he kept on a special shelf in their living room--the Torah, the New Testament and the Koran. An American Muslim leader invited Christian and Jewish leaders to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony for the New England Islamic Center and then dedicated the center to the study of Judaism and Christianity as well as Islam. When asked why he did this, he replied, “I believe to be a good Muslim, I must also be a good Jew and good Christian.”

* A Lutheran congregation in Boston was hosting refugee families from Cambodia. While none of the refugees was Christian, several began attending Sunday services. On the Sunday when Holy Communion--customarily reserved for baptized believers--was to be served, the pastor invited everyone to come to the table. When asked why be did this, he answered: “First, given the recent experience of the refugees, I simply could not hold back bread and wine from them. More importantly, this table is not our table, it is the Lord’s table, and it is open to all.”

* On a Friday night at a synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla., 100 Christians and Muslims joined 500 members of a Jewish congregation for a service dedicated to peace in the Middle East. A prominent Israeli spoke, followed by a Muslim and a Christian. When it came time to take the Torah from the ark, the rabbi took out three scrolls instead of only one and, handing one to the Christian and one to the Muslim speaker, invited them to join him in carrying the Torah through the congregation. “The Torah was not given for the Jewish people, it was given to the Jewish people for the healing of the world,” he explained later. “It is clear to me that Christians and Muslims, just as much as Jews, can be involved in the work of Torah.”

If our faith is to be a source for peace, we must find ways of reconceiving the words and rituals so that they open us to receive one another. Only a vision of this generous and merciful a God reflects the one and same God made known to us through our different traditions.