10 April 04

Religion and Non-Violence

I finished my religion and non-violence class here at UC Davis back in mid-March in a mixture of stress (I was just starting a new job) and depression, because it really does seem, when you consider all the evidence from all different cultures, that the case that religions are inherently non-violent is not tenable. Certainly, it’s easy to find references throughout the New Testament to support the non-violent position, but basically people will find what they want to find in religious texts.

George W. Bush and his family, on vacation at his ranch in Texas, will no doubt go to church tomorrow morning, a church full of flowers and beauty and hope and soothing words. I’m almost certain that Bush sees no moral inconsistencies in his position.

American forces bombed a mosque this week where people were praying.

They were PRAYING.

When you have the most powerful country in the world-where the number of religious believers is growing and becoming more conservative-bombing mosques, many of us wonder when the madness is going to end. Where is the outrage?

Maybe with women getting more involved in public life (though with women like Margaret Thatcher and Condi Rice, who needs men?) there’s a chance. Maybe so through secular humanism. Maybe just through more hard thinking.

Good luck. The world isn’t looking like this tonight.

Posted by at 06:23 PM in Politics | Link |
  1. It’s hard to imagine Bush, Howard, Blair, in Church listening to prayers of intercession for peace and not feeling the least bit responsible for the havoc they are causing in Iraq. I wonder if their particular churches do the politically correct thing and avoid “mentioning the war”. Unfortunately some church leaders will take the easier option – it would take a lot of guts to stand up to Bush in church and protest that what he and others are doing go against the teachings of Christ. I wish they would.

    — Jenny    11. April 2004, 01:55    Link
  2. The last three years (can you believe we’ve been living with almost three years of this hellish nonsense now) have done more to kill any faith on humans in general, and in governments in particular, than all the stupidity and wrongs of the past. I can’t watch much American TV any more (though nearly all the channels show American shows) without finding something to get angry about, so I don’t watch it any more (except for Star Trek, of course… you can’t live without Star Trek… and I often wish the world’s governments would adopt the whole strategy of Star Trek for governing and conflict management). That the American government is now twisting the story of their presence in Iraq as a justification for making war against the Iraqi people is so unbelievable and so utterly WRONG that it is indeed astounding that the whole world is not up in arms against Bush. But I think people are also numb now. The world has become truly an ugly place now, unlike anything throughout my life.

    I have to ask, though, why do so many people get outraged only when a mosque is bombed? Any bombing in Iraq is outrageous. The whole thing, from the beginning, mosque or no mosque.

    The Dark Ages truly have never ended, and we have warrior kings, inquisitors, clerics, and mercenaries running the world.

    — butuki    11. April 2004, 02:57    Link
  3. Butuki: Of course all bombing in Iraq is outrageous. But bombing a mosque is an act of sheer—barbarity. And the thing is, the way it was reported here, it’s almost as if they were trying to avoiding saying it was a place of prayer. Where people inside were in the act of praying.

    You’re right: we’re living in the Dark Ages. Why pretend not?

    — Pica    11. April 2004, 04:39    Link
  4. Yeah, let’s just say it. Technological progress is at this point in time completely separate from humanitarian progress. We use high tech stuff to kill off the possibility of further learning and peace. (Except in weblogs, of course!)

    — Coup de Vent    18. April 2004, 02:36    Link

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