MOUNT VERNON — Are humans inherently prone to committing violence? If so, can that propensity be corrected? If not, how will the world deal with the increasing violence it is experiencing: Mass carnage caused by suicide bombers and artillery attacks, murder, terrorism, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse and war.
But the larger question addressed at this week’s 38th annual Trinity Institute National Theological Conference — held at Trinity Wall Street Church in New York City and Web cast to 64 partner sites, including St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mount Vernon — is this: Is religion to blame for global violence?
The two-day conference — Religion & Violence: Untangling the Roots of Conflict — was well attended in New York. People of all ages and races filled church pews, women in saris, priests and pastors wearing collars, nuns in habits, monks in robes. Just eight people attended St. Paul’s Web cast, one of only three in Ohio; the others were in Cleveland and Cincinnati.
The question was tackled by four learned, respected theologians and authors. Each explored the issue from a unique personal perspective, and through their experience of the three ancient abrahamic, monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism and Christianity. They made it clear, however, that they were not speaking on behalf of their religions.
Susannah Heschel is Jewish, the daughter of the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a friend of Martin Luther King Jr. who participated in the civil rights movement. It’s not by coincidence that the Trinity Institute chose to explore religion and violence on the week of King’s birthday.
Heschel told of her father’s 1968 birthday party, held just 10 days before King was assassinated, attended by a multitude of rabbis.
“When Martin Luther King walked into the room,” she said, smiling at the memory, “a thousand rabbis linked arms and sang ‘We Shall Overcome’ in Hebrew.”
James Cone is African-American and grew up in Arkansas, where the African Methodist Episcopal Church was central to his community.
“I studied the Christian faith,” he said, “and there was not one word about the civil rights movement. I approach violence and faith from the perspective of a people who have endured violence.”
James Carroll, novelist, columnist, former Roman Catholic priest, former soldier, became disillusioned during the upheaval of the 1960s and left the priesthood, but not the church.
“God is no longer violent,” Carroll said, of the manner in which God was viewed through thousands of years of history, as cruel, vengeful and terrifying. “But,” he added, “humans are more violent than ever.”
Swiss-born speaker Tariq Ramadan, scholar, author and Muslim, named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Innovators for the 21st Century, was not allowed to enter the United States. His visa was revoked some time ago because of government suspicion that he made monetary contributions to terrorist organizations. Undaunted, the institute’s organizers arranged for a satellite link whereby Ramadan viewed and participated in the conference via video cameras and monitors.
The other three speakers noted that much violence comes from an “us against them” mentality, and said Ramadan’s situation was a perfect example of that.
“I find it extraordinary,” said Heschel, “that the United States sees fit to keep him from coming to this conference, as if ideas can be kept from our borders.”
Ramadan told the audience, “If we want to get rid of violence, we would have to get rid of human beings. We have to master the inner violence in each of us.”
There was much discussion of personal violence. The four speakers insisted that violence is not just physical, that violence is committed when people are disrespected, excluded, treated unjustly, forced to live in poverty and hunger, are not paid a living wage by their employers or suffer a lack of health care and medical attention.
Cone spoke of his ancestors, African slaves, who were treated as unhuman animals over 246 years of slavery, and forced to live with violence and fear. He said religious belief sustained the slaves as they waited for God to rescue them, and that suffering made their faith strong.
“Hope should come out of resistance to violence, and reality,” he said. “Hope needs to be carved out of the real violence people have to endure. If hope is coming from optimism, it’s not genuine hope.”
Cone noted that segregation in American society began in mainline churches, thus churches bears the responsibility of reconciliation.
“No church can be a church unless it loses itself in helping the people who are suffering. God created us to be together. Any religion that separates us from each other is a bad religion.”
“Violence has been a part of American culture a long time,” Cone said. “America was born in violence. It’s as American as apple pie. But just because something is so pervasive doesn’t mean you have to let it alone. You have to resist it.”
Heschel asked the audience, “Does violence come out of religious scripture, or is religion used and manipulated by those committing violence?”
She read a chilling statement made at a 1936 religious conference, in which a theologian said that despite the commandment against murder, he could kill Jews, if he could say “Christ” as he did so. She said Hitler planted his seeds of evil in the anti-Semitic soil of Germany, and noted that many Christians and pastors joined the SS, believing they were sacrificing Jews for the good of the world.
“For the love of humanity,” Heschel quoted them as saying, “we must be inhuman.”
And yet, “To rid the world of evil is America’s most absurd fantasy,” she said. “But you can be particular in your own faith without demonizing others. God is only God if he is the creator of all people.
“Can we bring back a society rooted in morality?” she asked. Noting that politics plays a powerful role in oppression, she added, “Let us liberate God from the mendacity, selfishness and exploitations of politicians.” The audience burst into applause.
“We’re not supposed to live the [religion] of our grandparents,” Heschel said. “It’s our job to make our faith relevant. Religion needs to change, and that is our responsibility.”
James Carroll’s lecture was filled with disturbing symbolism of Jerusalem, the holy epicenter for all three religions, and his theory that the violence humans commit is a re-enactment of their primitive need for blood sacrifice to appease a vengeful God.
He spoke of the war in Iraq as America’s participation in the three religions’ “sibling rivalry.”
“The American military shows signs of embracing Christian supremacism,” Carroll noted. “The primitive impulses of our ancestors live on in us. Humans are born with an tendency to divide the world into ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Something basic to the human condition is at work here. Reforming theology is the only way to peace.”
Ramadan noted that the sacred texts of all three religions cause much contention, and are used as excuses for committing violence.
“God gave us The Koran,” he said, “but God did not tell us anything about it, not because of forgetfulness but out of mercy. He gave us our intellect and said, ‘You have to find your own way.’”
Ramadan represents a reformist trend in Islam, which is not appreciated by Muslim literalists.
He acknowledged the Koran’s scriptures on stoning, forced proselytizing and “infidels,” but said, “Scripture cannot be read literally. We must remember that it has already been interpreted. Religion cannot be forced on anyone. If the Lord willed, all the people on the earth would believe. So do we think we can do what God has not done? The Koran is the very word of God, but that doesn’t mean you read it literally.”
The other speakers agreed that his statement applied to the holy texts of Christianity and Judaism, as well.
Ramadan said a religious person’s first act must be of humility toward God, admission of a need for God, and recommended a quest for meaning in all things, especially the meaning in each person’s life.
“There is potential violence in all of us,” he said, advising commitment to education, mastering of emotions, commitment to change and understanding that the spiritual journey ends only at death.
“Peace is the main objective of Islam, as it is all the major religions. People dream of the present and of changing the future. But we need to change the present and dream of the future. Our differences are not so much. The challenges we are facing in common are more important.”
The conference closed on a hopeful note.
“The question we began with is the question we are left with,” said moderator Mark Richardson. “What do we feel called to do for the cause of peace?”
“Despair,” Heschel told the audience, “is forbidden. A religious person can’t despair because without hope, we abdicate responsibility. The world needs each one of us.”
Video can be viewed at www.trinitywallstreet.org. DVDs will be available in March.
