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The Mighty
and the Almighty Richard
Olson And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
(Genesis 12:7)
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, Sabine Baring-Gould (hymn)
Fight against such as those to whom the Scriptures were given [Jews and Christians]...until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued." (Surah 9:27) (Quran)
And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings
of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he
utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded.
(Joshua 11:12)
Opening words: By Kenneth R. Warren: May we come into this building hallowed by generations of thoughtful worship. May we come into the company of this congregation, enlightened by reason and moved by concern. May we come with open minds and warm hearts. May we here cultivate a confidence that human intelligence and human affection can temper and ultimately overcome cruel circumstance and misguided malice, with faith in the power of good over evil. So may we find both our social responsibilities and our individual salvation. Chalice: Words by Eric Heller-Wagner Let us now light the chalice: Blessed is the fire that burns deep in the soul. It is the flame of the human spirit touched into being by the mystery of life. It is the fire of reason; the fire of compassion; the fire of community; the fire of justice; the fire of faith. It is the fire of love burning deep in the human heart; the divine glow of every life. Announcements: Responsive reading: #466 Silent Meditation Message: Boy, was I wrong. Not that I had never been
wrong before, or since, for that matter. But it’s one thing to be wrong in
front of a couple of people. Or to a small group. But to be wrong in the
witness of thousands of people is another story. It happened well
over ten years ago. Someone had written a letter to the editor in opposition
to gay rights. The Bible was the writer’s chief source. I responded to the
letter, pointing out that many of prohibitions in the Bible were written 3000
years ago and that modern society no longer endorses most of them. I ended
the letter with the claim that the Bible is irrelevant. Boy was I wrong.
Making a sweeping statement that the entire Bible is irrelevant just because
some of it laws and admonitions are no longer enforced was indeed a stretch
on my part. How could I have
said that the Bible, which was written and compiled with considerable debate
over many years, and translated into so many languages, is irrelevant? How
could I have dismissed the sacred authority for two significant religious
faiths of our times? And would I have
been so flip as to the say that the Quran is
irrelevant? Or that the Tao, the Upanishads or the Popul
Vuh are irrelevant? Several months ago
I read The End of Faith by Sam Harris. Harris has a graduate degree in
philosophy from His book reminded
me just how relevant religious faith and scriptures are. In fact, they are so
relevant that we continue to kill each other off because of them. While this
truly is not a revelation, it is something we need to consider again in the
light of last weeks escalating violence in the While Harris
reminds us that mighty Christian and Jewish nations are also guilty of
playing the “Almighty God” card, he is especially harsh on Islam. In fact, he
claims that we are at war with Islam, not just at war with the extremist
element of it, but all of Islam. According to Harris, the only scenario that
devout Muslims can envision is one where all the infidels have converted to
Islam, or have been subjugated or killed. Harris writes
about the two types of Jihad, a word that has entered our language since
9/11. One type of jihad is the inner, or greater
Jihad and involves a struggle against one’s own sinfulness. It is noble, more
personal jihad. But Harris warns that the nobility of this inner, greater
jihad is no mask for the outer or lesser jihad, which consists of waging war
against the infidels in defense of Islam. To support his
indictment of Islam, Harris quotes many verses from the Quran that promote violence,
religious intolerance and martyrism.
For the gentler and benevolent side of Islam you will need to find a source
other than Harris. Another book I
have read recently is The Tent of Abraham. It is a collection of
essays by Muslim, Christian and Jewish clergy. Many of these
essays center around the story of Abram, or Abraham,
the patriarch of both Islam and Judaism, as well as a key figure in
Christianity. Interpretations of Abraham and his journey differ between these
three faiths, as you might imagine. One essayist explains this in the context
of a family. Just as family
members might remember or interpret their family history in different ways,
so too do Muslims, Jews and Christians have different interpretation of
Abraham’s journey. In both the
Islamic and Jewish interpretations, God promises land to Abraham's
descendents, namely through his sons Isaac, through whom the Jews claim the
land, and Ishmael, through whom Muslims claim the land. And so, just as heirs
might fight over an inheritance, so do the Muslims and Jews, -except in this
case the disagreement results in bloody global violence. The Biblical and Quranic accounts of the same land being promised to two
different faiths are certainly relevant in today’s political scene. One of the most
well know stories of Abraham’s journey deals with his obedience to God and
his willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s request. Just as Abraham is
about to sacrifice his son, however, a messenger angel appears to tell him
God has changed his mind. I wonder what the effect of this story has had over
the years, when we confuse God with country and parents stand by, sometimes
willingly, as their children’s lives are sacrificed. I also wonder what
our planet would be like if perverse religious faith were left out of
the mix of world politics and diplomacy. Would Christians, some of whom blame
the Jews for the death of Christ, not have stood by as Jews were exterminated
in Many of you know
that I am a high school Spanish teacher. But I do not only teach the Spanish
language, I also teach my students about the cultures that speak that
language. I often ask my students to brain storm and make a list of the
elements that define or identify a culture. While they tend start with things
like music, art, and food, they generally include religion toward the
beginning of the list. Teaching the culture of Spanish speaking people
without discussing the fervor of Holy Week in To some degree or
another, religion has been, and is, a significant element in the culture of
most nations, and it intertwines with art, music, food, traditions,
celebrations and politics. And I can accept this cultural interplay of
religion and politics. What I can not accept, however, is the dominance of
one over the other or when they are in collusion for power and dominion. There is much
polemic these days about the role of religion in politics and diplomacy.
Some, including myself, are concerned that the But our current
president is not the first to make public his religious beliefs. President
McKinley, who was a devout Christian during a time of religious revivals at
the turn of the 20th century, told missionaries that he often “fell to his
knees and prayed to the Almighty God for light and guidance.” Here is the
guidance he got from God as to whether or not the McKinley’s call to
a higher purpose was echoed by many. Senator Knute
Nelson of President Lincoln,
resisting pressure to pray for God to be on the side of the Union, instead
prayed for the Union to be on the side of God. Following the Civil War,
President Lincoln appealed to what he called “the better angels of our
nature”, in an attempt to minimize the hatred and bring our nation together. President Carter
came to On the other hand,
and on the other side of the planet, Kemal Ataturk,
president of the first Ataturk abolished
the Islamic caliphate and closed religious schools. The many other reforms he
initiated brought In her recent book
titled The Mighty and the Almighty, Former Secretary of State and
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright reflects on Albright claims
that respect for the rights and well-being of each individual is the place
where religious faith and a commitment to political liberty have their
closest connection. She goes on to say
that this philosophy has the most potential to bring people from opposing
viewpoints together because it excludes no one and yet demands from everyone
full consideration of the ideas and needs of others. I want to believe
her philosophy to be true. It sounds great in theory. But religious faith and
political liberty are not always compatible. In fact, harsh theocracies tend
to allow for limited, if any, political liberty. In our own country, it is
religious faith that drives the politics that denies gays and lesbians the
liberty to marry. Another caution I
have about for Albright’s philosophy is that sometimes religious faith turns
to extremism, the kind we not only see in the Middle East but in the Religious
extremism, on any continent, rarely translates to a respect for the rights
and well-being of each individual. A good deal of
Albright’s book deals with the extremist element of Islam. But Albright
disagrees with Harris, writing that we are not at war with all of Islam. Her
concern is only with that version of Islam that is distorted by politics and
fueled by leaders who “feed these extremists with out of context quotations
from the Koran.” Religion for these disaffected young Muslims is a way to
find something meaningful to do, according to Albright. Albright points
out that, while most Arabs are Muslims, most Muslims aren’t Arabs. These
Muslims live in (pause) When a president
uses religious faith to help heal a divided nation, or when different
religious denominations come together to fight to abolish slavery or to
ensure civil rights, or when churches in central Wisconsin come together to
staff a soup kitchen, then the mighty and the almighty have come together to
alleviate misery and suffering. And humanity, and not a religion, is served. However, when
Zionist jingoism incites Jews to kill Palestinians for land that they believe
God promised them three thousand years ago, or when
Muslims engage in lesser jihad in the defense of Islam, or when Spanish
Christian soldiers carry the cross to war in the Trying to scrub
religious faith from the social and political fabric of society is generally
an unachievable goal and not worth pursuing. What is worth pursuing, on the
other hand, is a desire to mediate the force that religion has on politics
and that politics has on religion. These two forces can exist in harmony. Not
where one is necessarily central to the other but where the two meet as a
centrist force to improve our stay on this planet. Religious faith
and its scriptures are relevant. But we all need to be aware that no one
faith or scripture holds full title to the truth. We need to be reminded that
the scriptures upon which today’s religions are based are colored with
historical, cultural and political bias. And we need to remember, that when
these biased scriptures are forced onto our diverse and eclectic modern
world, then faith does become a poisonous dagger. And that is why
we, as religious liberals, must strive to appeal to the better angels of
human nature, angels who intervene in time to prevent the sacrifice of human
life in the name of a God, authentic ministering angels who pitch a tent, a
tent where descendants of the same humanity can come together in hospitality,
generosity, equanimity and magnanimity, a tent where hopes and dreams unite
in a sincere and common agenda for peace, a tent where, instead of pointing
out the evil in others, we search for the good, and we continue that search
until we find it. Hymn: #159 This Is My Song. Benediction: Words by Jim Wickman May our faith sustain us,
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