tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22980286.post8485536409070335212..comments2024-03-28T10:26:20.408-04:00Comments on Ponderings on a Faith Journey: Monotheism, Polytheism, and Violence -- SightingsRobert Cornwallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04581876323110725024noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22980286.post-86336175151207900132008-10-22T08:26:00.000-04:002008-10-22T08:26:00.000-04:00It seems to me that religiously inspired violence ...It seems to me that religiously inspired violence stems from a lack of faith; lack of faith that God, whether of the Christian, Hebrew, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist variety, is strong enough to vindicate Godself without human assistance.<BR/><BR/>Alternatively, human adherents presume that if they feel insecure (physically, theologically, economically or culturally) God endorses if not invites violence in God's name to overcome such insecurity. Taking Franklin's motto ("God helps those who help themselves") to the extreme, it is believed that those who help themselves, especially in the name of God, are doing God's work! <BR/><BR/>The ends justify the means, especially if the preferred end is dominance in the name of God. Human dominance in the name of God becomes confused with the dominance of God.<BR/><BR/>If Christians draw any meaning at all from Jesus' death on the cross, it should be the message that God's preferred response to threat is non-violent - to the extreme of sacrificial death. And in defense to such violence, God offers resurrection, not vengeance.<BR/><BR/>If God will not resort to violence in self-defense, isn't it a fair assumption that God eschews interpersonal violence? <BR/><BR/>In the Noah stories the only evidence of the corruption of humanity compelling the apocalyptic flood is human violence. While there are episodes of violence and allegedly divinely inspired genocide described in the Scriptures, I believe those stories are anomalies, preserved more to remind and caution God's people about the horrors of our own past than to encourage future action in the same vein. I think even the ancient Israelites looked with horror on the stories of genocide. It is the all too human King Saul who is unable to complete the genocide allegedly decreed by God. <BR/><BR/>It is not the nature of the divine which inspires violence, it is the nature of humanity. Or, put more bluntly, God does not pull the trigger, humans do. And while God <BR/>weeps over the graves of our victims, we the perpetrators carry the guilt and the shame and the wounds and the scars. For this God weeps blood.<BR/><BR/>JohnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com