A few years ago Sam Harris burst onto the bestseller lists with his sophomoric screed, The End of Faith (2004). Because some people commit atrocities in the name of their supposed "god," Harris rants against religion and argues that we must abandon faith itself as a method of orienting our lives' journeys. Harris' book, filled with ethnocentric diatribes against all things Islamic, got a lot of attention. Later, Richard Dawkins weighed in with The God Delusion (2006), and Daniel Dennett (2006) got into the act with Breaking the Spell (2006), both presenting their perceptions of religions' shortcomings. Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation (2006) was added, and now we have Christopher Hitchens spewing forth with God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007). Comics like George Carlin and HBO's denunciator at large, Bill Maher, constantly berate believers. It seems these guys can't find anything at all good in religion.
Those who decry religion for supposedly religious persons' and religious organizations' failures, even atrocities, do not deal with other sectors of society in the same manner. Just because there are bad governments, we don't call for the abolition of politics. Just because there are some unethical pharmaceutical corporations and unscrupulous doctors, we do not call for the demolition of the practice of medicine. Just because some cops and judges are bad, we don't call for the dismantling of the criminal justice system. And just because a large number of U.S. soldiers mistreated Iraqis (See Tom Ricks' description of the grotesque treatment of innocent civilians in his book Fiasco), we do not call for the end to the military.
The antidote for bad religion, or the illegitimate ideological co-optation of religion's energies and prophetic power, is not the abandonment of faith and the outlawing of the practices of religion. The antidote to bad religion is good religion, religion that leads to life and love, faith and freedom, hope and healing, joy and justice, peace and prosperity. Individualistic spiritualities may succor personal life quests, but do much less than vibrant, authentic, organized religious institutions, working with other sectors of society, to fashion a just and lasting social order. Without such institutional religious powers, we, our families, and our communities are left at the mercies of the ever more globalized market economy, and the whims of various State manufactured "Jihads" and State sanctioned corporate "McWorlds." The response to the controversial religious dynamics of our time is the practice of good religion and reasonable faith, religion that labors for peace and justice, faith that complements and works with reason (cf. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio). We need faith that ushers forth in institutions dedicated to religions' true task, i.e, caring for God's people and God's earth.
These recent arguments decrying religion, and faith itself, remind me of those who use sledgehammers to swat flies. Every reasonable and truly faithful person knows that it is unreasonable and unfaithful (add immoral, insane, and hopefully illegal) to kill someone in the name of God, especially the God who is revealed and experienced as love (I John 4:16). No God worthy of worship demands we kill one another, be it on the battlefield, in the gas chamber, or at the abortion clinic. Religions have learned over the centuries to interpret and reassess their texts, as their cultures and congregations have evolved and matured. One hopes nation's can also evolve and mature. I hope we can see the day when it will be deemed unreasonable (add again immoral, insane, and hopefully illegal) to kill in the name of one's nation, especially when the leaders of a nation lie ('weapons of mass destruction") about the reasons why we must kill hundreds of thousands, and see thousands of our own service men and women perish. I hope we will hear the voices of reason raised against those who make war in flagrant violation of international law. Harris and Hitchens both have great faith in the moral acceptability of murdering supposed terrorists, while arguing that we should forget Jesus' command that we love one another.
Why are the shrill voices vilifying religion gaining such a hearing at the present moment? What religion's adversaries refuse to admit is that religions and the religious traditions, especially those born in the Middle East (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) all preach that love must be made effective and structured in society. According to believers, economic justice is the will of the creator of all. Those loudly arguing for the abolition of religion seem deaf to the call of religious leaders (from Pope John Paul II to Rick Warren to even Bono) to address and ameliorate the growing gap between rich and poor. 2.7 billion people on planet earth live on less than $2.00 a day (cf. World Bank website). Some 40 million Americans live below, or very near, the government's poverty line of $19,971 a year for a family of four.
In The New York Times on May 22, Bob Herbert writes, "The elite of the Roaring Twenties would be stunned by the wealth of the current era." Of New York City's 8 million inhabitants, some 700,000 are millionaires. Herbert goes on to describe the underside of Broadway. "One of the city's five counties, the Bronx, is the poorest urban county in the nation. The number of families in the city's homeless shelters is the highest it has been in a quarter of a century. Twenty-five percent of all families with children in New York City that's 1.5 million New Yorkers are trying to make it on incomes that are below the poverty threshold established by the federal government."
Jesus said "Blessed are you poor" and "Woe to you that are rich." He also taught "Blessed are the Peacemakers" and "All who take the sword will perish by the sword." No wonder so many want to shut up his contemporary disciples, like John Paul II and the U.S. Catholic Bishops, who opposed the Iraq war from the start. No wonder some want religious leaders calling for economic justice silenced and put out of business. If we listened to Jesus, much would change.
Harris and Hitchens and Haliburton are all making money off the ongoing debacle in Iraq. Religions and religious voices call for an end to the conflict. Faithful and rational people want peace, but Harris and Hitchens demonize Muslims, which in turn justifies killing people who follow Islam. Sounds like the Crusades to me. We believers know how atrocious that time in Church history was. Reasonable people and authentic people of faith agree that destructive crusades and murderous jihads are not the will of God. Harris and Hitchens admit they are not people of faith. Problem is, on the question of Iraq, they aren't very reasonable either.