By Rudy Barnes, Jr.
It
has been said that God’s will is to reconcile and redeem those of all races and
religions, while Satan’s will is to divide and conquer. It has also been said that Satan does a
convincing imitation of God in the church, mosque and in politics. That may explain why exclusivist religions
seek to divide and conquer other religions rather than to reconcile with them.
The
tendency of competing religions to divide and conquer was an underlying theme
of Samuel P. Huntington’s 1993 essay on The
Clash of Civilizations which was set in the Balkan conflict. According to Carlos Lozada, “Huntington
described civilizations as the broadest and most crucial level of identity,
encompassing religion, values, culture and history.”
In
Poland, where religion pervades politics, President Trump evoked Huntington’s clash of civilizations when he called on
the nations of the West to “…summon the courage and the will to defend our
civilization…and to never forget who we are.”
Since religions are the source of the ideals that shape the values of civilizations,
they can be either a reconciling or divisive force.
Trump
has asserted that Muslims don’t share the values of western civilization, but Reza
Aslan disagrees. Aslan points out that
Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, is not a monolithic religion and that “There
is no clash between Islam and American culture.
In fact, there is no clash between any religion and any culture because
religions are inextricably linked to culture.”
Culture is like
a vessel, and religion is like water — it simply takes the shape of whatever
vessel you pour it into. And this is why the prosperity gospel — the notion
that what Jesus really wants for you is to drive a Bentley — can exist in the
United States.
Islam in the
United States is an overwhelmingly moderate version of Islam, but more
interestingly a highly individualistic form of the religion. Islam is a
religion that often advantages the community over the individual, but in the
United States, where the culture is rooted in radical individualism, you see a
radically individualistic Islam forming.
If
Huntington ever suggested that religions are monolithic, history has proven him
wrong. Aslan emphasizes that religions are
diverse and shaped by culture and politics, just as religions shape culture and
politics. That is evident in the American civil religion. It is an amalgamation of Christian and secular
values that shape American culture and that are constantly changing.
Just
as Christianity and Islam are remarkably diverse, so is the American
church. In its myriad and dynamic forms
the church plays a formative role in shaping the values of American culture and
politics, and all but a few universalist denominations promote exclusivist
doctrines that continue to divide believers of different religions rather than reconcile
them.
Most
Christians are exclusivists who have fostered political polarization along
racial and partisan lines. Last year
white Christians elected Donald Trump as president and gave the GOP a majority
in Congress. Their political priorities conflict
with the greatest commandment to love
God and to love their neighbors—including their neighbors of other races and
religions—as they love themselves. That
should be a common word of faith for
Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Globalization
has increased racial and religious diversity around the world, exacerbating religious
and political tensions. To avoid a
dangerous clash of religion and politics in America and a worldwide clash of
civilizations, people of faith must reject religious exclusivism and seek
reconciliation with those of other religions rather than seeking to divide and
conquer them. That will require more interfaith
dialogue and a commitment to share a
common word of faith.
Notes:
On Carlos Lozada’s view of Huntington, a prophet for the Trump era,
see
On religion and politics in
Poland, where Jesus is king for Poland’s
new rulers and where Trump stressed Poland’s religious traditions, see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-18/religion-and-power-reunite-in-modern-poland.
On Reza Aslan’s assertion that There is no divide between Islam and
American culture, see https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/24/reza-aslan-argues-there-is-no-divide-between-islam-and-american-culture/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=Flashpoints.
In 1967 Robert N. Bellah defined
[American] civil religion as “a collection of beliefs, symbols, and rituals,”
drawn from American history and “institutionalized in a collectivity” that
function “not as a form of national self-worship but as the subordination of
the nation to ethical principles that transcend it in terms of which it should
be judged.” See How Trump is reshaping American civil religion at https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2017/07/11/trump-reshaping-american-civil-religion/. See also, American
Civil Religion is Dead, Long Live American Civil Religion, see https://progressivechristianity.org/resources/american-civil-religion-is-dead-long-live-american-civil-religion/.
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(2/15/15): Is Religion Good or Evil?
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(9/20/15) Politics and Religious Polarization
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(6/18/16): A Politics of Reconciliation with Liberty and Justice for All
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(11/5/16): Religion, Liberty and Justice at Home and Abroad
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(11/26/16): Irreconcilable Differences and the Demise of Democracy
(2/25/17): The Need for a Revolution in Religion and Politics
(3/4/17): Ignorance and Reason in Religion and Politics
(4/22/17): The Relevance of Jesus and the Irrelevance of the Church in Today’s
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(4/29/17): A Wesleyan Alternative for an Irrelevant Church
(5/27/17): Intrafaith Reconciliation as a Prerequisite for Interfaith
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(6/24/17): The Evolution of Religion, Politics and Law: Back to the Future? http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/the-evolution-of-religion-politics-and.html.
(7/1/17): Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy
(7/15/17) Religion and Progressive Politics
(7/8/17): Hell No!
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