Literal Two Edged Swords: Weaponized Religion

The Christian and Christianist blogosphere is all in a twitter about the news that Fox journalists who were captured by terrorists converted to Islam at gunpoint (story | timeline). Somewhat expectedly, the prattle is not all that compassionate. In fact, most responses and blog posts are a mix of condemnation for either both the journalists and the terrorists and careful, deep, personal reflection about how they (the bloggers) would never renounce the name of the Lord in such an abhorrent way, Lord willing, give me strength, praise the Lord, send your donation now.

Ex-gay activist Randy Thomas claims with the headline that “Fascism = Convert or Die.” La Shawn Barber claims she’d face death with all the dignity I had left. A noble sentiment, even if contrived in a vacuum. All Things Beautiful has a substantial list of links and quotes going off on the situation, including – and I think this is the kicker – is that she takes a Rabbi out of context and compares by implication the terrorists to the 14th and 15th Iberian peninsula – the era of forced conversion.

Of course, that era of forced conversion was the Christians’ Crusades Against The Moors (Muslims) and forcing them to convert. And Rabbi Shalem’s point was this: “The greatest idolatry is misusing God and His word for malevolent purposes.” (his post)

The frustrating thing about this whole situation is twofold. One is a half-century old problem that took root in the Cold War: If the Commies come, I won’t stand down from my faith! The commies never came but the rhetoric stayed, and today Christian children are taught over and over not to deny their faith in the unlikely event of capture by anti-Christian terrorists in our happy first-world sorta-freedom-loving CCTV-covered Western culture. Is it noble to believe you’d stand by your faith? Sure – I’ll grant you that. But being so adament about knowing what you would do is just a continuation of the same disease that has robbed Christianity of its faith.

The second problem is the all-pervasive myopia Christianity seems to have today. We have no idea what its like to have a gun to our head, captured by terrorists. My guess is that it’s scary and you’d be just a bit confuddled abotu what’s going on – how can we judge these journalists and yet miss the fact that our own history and even present-day situation has the same approach to conversion?

Yes the crusades – in which Christians rampaged the known world, forcing conversions or else killing the stalwarts (what do we call that again, Randy?) but that’s too easy of a comparison, and most thinking Christians today agree that was a mistake in history. But even today we have churches and peoples requiring conversion before we even talk to them. We have judgments handed down without conversation, rejections based on issues of self and identity, and compassion long on hiatus, all because of their own narrow interpretation of God, his identity, his will and his Word. Whether it’s kids thrown out of school months before graduation for being gay or, today, the Anglican church saying gays must change before they come to church, or the protests, the condemnations, the prayers against our sons and the legislation for discrimination, all in the name of God’s will.

Misusing God is not unique to the terrorists who misuse Islam. While they use guns, our preachers use shame. While they veil themselves in robes, ours are veiled in self-righteous political leadership. And while the journalists are returned to their families, we are denied the right to build such families all for sake of a militarized ideology. The weapons are different, the means are the same.

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08/29/06 11:04 AM
by The Blogger
  1. John says (Aug 29, 08:15 PM ):

    Seems to me that Peter found himself in a similar situation. Had three chance to think about what to say.
  2. Tess says (Sep 1, 10:55 PM ):

    ...so that is why sometimes it seems so disenchanting to belong to any big religious organization. Islam and Christianity are the two biggest and the worst of the lot, I guess. Is there a religion out there that isn’t so bloody?
  3. This Gay Christian Blogger says (Sep 2, 09:31 PM ):

    Tess,
    I understand the disenchantingness of it, but it’s not the religions themselves that are at issue. It’s the gross misinterpretations of them by people who appreciate power just a bit too much. Christianity is beautiful – the whole concepts of love and community and responsibility and hope bring goodness to life. (I can’t speak much for Islam but my understanding of it is that it’s core truths are similar.) But no one agrees for a moment that the power hungry who pervert the faiths into discriminatory and murderous obsessions represent the true faiths.
 

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