Misuse of Religion
Rev. Dr. Darryn J. Hewson
Religion can be beautiful, and hopeful, and amazing. It can teach us so many things about how to be together, love ourselves, and appreciate things that are hard to appreciate. Faith, any faith, is incredibly powerful. Religion is also one of history’s most misused and misunderstood human institutions.
Religion has been used throughout history to do horrible things (this part should not come as a shock or be controversial). The Crusades were not about religion; they were about power, money, and otherness. Pogroms were also about money and Star-bellied Sneetches (I am a children’s librarian in my other life). The Inquisition was about power and money, plus a little revenge. There is a theme here. None of the world’s major religions is innocent in this.
There have been Hindu versions of this same religious distortion. Even Buddhists, who are generally known for peace, have risen up in places like Nepal and committed violence that was about identity and otherness and place and enough being enough. In 2007, I was there around the time of the removal of a king who had assassinated his beloved brother and tried to take over). Religion is also used all the time as a tool for hate. The idea seems to be that if you disagree with my version and interpretation of something, you are evil (or other worse things). Even in a religion where love is supposedly the highest value, “God is love,” I can still hate you and treat you in horrible ways if I disagree with you, or maybe you just look different than me (we might even agree in that case).
Currently, we see Israel, which was created mostly because the world felt horrible about the Holocaust. There had been pressure to create a Jewish homeland earlier than that, but World War II pushed the needle over. The world should have and should still feel horrible about the Holocaust, the same way we should abhor every case of genocide and shame on those who call for it (lawmakers and military officials in Israel). The world should also feel horrible about telling people they can have land where people were already living and giving them free reign to kill and bulldoze and take over. Every European country has its history of colonization to make up for, and we learn, but not really, and that does not make it right or a valid excuse. Palestinians called it the Nakba, the “catastrophe” in 1948, as militias came through and Palestinians were forced to either flee or die as their houses were taken by Jewish families or destroyed. Whole towns were erased.
People wonder why they do not just leave, but when you have been there for over a thousand years and know that leaving means never going back, that is not an easy choice. We teach in this “modern” world about the atrocities of colonialism and what happened to native peoples in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, often in the name of religion. Churches and denominations have ceremonies of apology and recognize our part in stealing children from their families, killing innocents, and displacing whole cultures. Religion was used to create a homeland where people already lived. The world continues to treat Palestinians as if they do not exist, or if they do exist, that they are less valuable than others. This is not about whether Israel should exist. Israel exists, and the United States exists as a colonial state. We can not go back and do it differently, but we are responsible for doing things better going forward.
Hamas attacked, and it was horrible. Israel attacked and has not stopped attacking intermittently and at times like now in full force in nearly 80 years, and it is horrible, and the world just watches. We watch mostly because the United States is in the way of anything that might make things different. Israeli leaders are calling for the eradication of Palestinians. Yet, saying anything bad about Israel gets you labeled as antisemitic and more. The thing is, Israel is a country, not a religion, and that needs to become clear in the world discourse. Judaism is a beautiful religion; what Israel is doing is not a representation of Judaism and never has been. Plenty of Jewish people oppose the policies and actions of the country Israel, but even they get labeled and attacked. History has shown that state religions have never been a good thing. The Spanish Inquisition and War of the Roses are two European examples.
Hinduism in both India and Nepal used to make all other religions illegal, and practicing such punishable (up to 10 years in prison for having a Bible in Nepal at one point). Rome used Christianity as a tool that redrew hierarchies and tried for a version of unity, but even the emperor Constantine did not convert until he was on his deathbed. Jews, Muslims, Christians, and people of tribal traditions have lived together in Palestine for over a thousand years, but no one can have peace when one group has all the power and treats the other as less than human. When Arabs in Israel have fewer rights (something that the League of Nations specifically addressed before Israel was created), it does not work. Like all of the examples in history, this is not a religious issue, and it is a problem when you use religion as an excuse or a shield. When someone does something horrific to you, that does not mean that you should do the same to others or even to them.
It is time for people of faith to stand up and say, “Not in my name.” You can not kill and oppress and have apartheid in the name of any religion. The world needs to stand up and say enough is more than enough, and the United States needs to do more than just get out of the way, though that would be a good start.
