The world is being torn apart by religious people with militant, aggressive certainties. If we are to find peace, it is religious people who must promote a consciousness of humility and respect in our common spiritual journeys toward ultimate mystery. God is greater than any particular religious system, and God is gracious enough to reveal divine truth in every person, culture and religion. We must learn to live and grow together.
There is a story about the days when the Jewish patriarch Isaac was seeking a place to settle in the valley of Gerar in the land of the Philistines. Each of the two wells Isaac first dug interfered with the water of his neighbors. So Isaac patiently moved and continued to dig until he struck a well that did not compromise the water of the Philistines.
The various religions drink from deep wells. We have our differences, but we do share many gifts. Those of us who are religious should challenge one another to live into our own tradition's highest values.
Some expression of the Golden Rule is found in each of the enduring religions. "Do unto others as you would have it done unto you" seems to be a universal ethic. If you would not have someone condemn you to hell or death for your conscientious religious beliefs, then do not condemn another.
Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism particularly promote the virtue of ahimsa, nonharming or nonviolence, inspired by the realization that all living beings have a spark of divine spiritual energy. Judaism bequeaths to us the Ten Commandments, teaching us to honor God, family and neighbor. Islam has a similar code in the Qur'an as part of the Muslim vow of surrender to the will of Allah, the Merciful and the Compassionate. Christianity summarizes our duty as love: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Every great religious tradition calls us to compassion, the Buddhists doing so most eloquently in my opinion.
Sadly all of the religions betray their own best values. Within recent memory a Christian nation murdered six million Jews while simultaneously provoking the deadliest war in human history, over 60 million killed. Right now radical ultra-nationalist Buddhists in Burma-Myanmar are attacking Muslims in a movement of ethnic cleansing. Hindu radicals have targeted Christians and Muslims, especially in India. Some Jewish activists see the Israeli government's policy of Hafrada separating the Palestinian population as having aspects of the former South African policy of apartheid. And violent, radical Muslims are murdering anyone not belonging to their particular sect, including other Muslims. We Christians remember our own shameful Catholic-Protestant wars.
Some of today's division and violence is provoked by the religiously extreme position of certainty. If any religion claims the absolute certainty of its truth, that religion reduces God to the limit of merely human language and understanding. Certainty is forbidden in the commandment against idolatry. We should be like Moses before the mystery of God; we should take off our shoes in humility and recognize that God is greater than we can ponder.
If a religion believes it has a monopoly on God, that religion implicitly insults all other spiritual paths. Certainty is the doorway to religious abuse and creates the potential for unholy violence in the name of God.
Conservative columnist George Will has said that "the greatest threat to civility -- and ultimately to civilization--is an excess of certitude ... It has been well said that the spirit of liberty is the spirit of not being too sure that you are right."
Those of us who are religious find in our traditions compelling truth sufficient for our trusting faith. Each enduring religion seems to have a particular charism. For Christians, it is the centrality of love. For Buddhists, compassion. For Muslims, obedience. For Hindus, nonviolence. For Jews, ethical behavior.
And each of our traditions suffer movements that violate our highest virtues. We need the humility and courage to stand up to them and to call each other to our best natures. In the name of God the Ultimate Reality, we must challenge each other to love, compassion, obedience, nonviolence, ethical behavior and peace. To do otherwise is to violate what we say we honor as holy.
Lowell Grisham is an Episcopal priest who lives in Fayetteville. Email him at [email protected].
Commentary on 02/03/2015