2008 Woodie Awards
Illini Media
WPGU
buzz
Illio
TechnographReligion's scapegoats: Finding blame in all the wrong places
By John Bambenek, guest columnist
Posted: 2/19/07 Section: Opinion Columns
- Page 1 of 2 next >
It seems in vogue lately to blame all the world's problems on organized religion, specifically Christianity. Lee Feder's recent column "Losing our religion" is the latest in the series of these factually-deficient attacks on religion.
There is the oft-recycled claim that organized religion has caused most of the conflict in the world. Northern Ireland is usually cited as a modern example of fighting between Protestants and Catholics.
The Irish believe Northern Ireland belongs to them. The English think it is theirs. Ireland has a national religion, Roman Catholicism. England has a national religion, the Church of England. The conflict is a geopolitical one. The fighting has nothing to do with Henry VIII's fertility issues. If it was, the Irish would be throwing bottles of Viagra, not pipe bombs.
Then there is the fighting in Iraq between the Sunnis and the Shiites. Even a cursory examination of the history of the Sunnis and Shiites shows this to be absurd. The division occurred after the death of Muhammad on who should succeed him. Both groups share the fundamentals of Islamic faith but differ on secondary issues. The division is political, not theological. Further, the two groups in Iraq are fighting over division of oil revenue and political power; not fine points of the hadith. Likewise the fighting over Kashmir is over control of the territory, not because it's "God's will."
Lastly, there is the fighting between Israel and the rest of the Arab world. That conflict stems from Israel believing they have a right to continue living and the Arab world that is still angry that Hitler didn't finish the job. I'm not sure theological lines can be drawn there either. Before criticizing people as idiots, one might want to make sure they have their facts straight. Mr. Kettle, meet Mr. Pot.
What Lee and others can't grasp is that ethnic groups tend to share a common religion, and have throughout most of history.
The Shiites and Sunnis are more than religious factions; they are sociopolitical groups. Nations have often identified with only one religion, that doesn't mean every war they fight is a religious one.
There is the oft-recycled claim that organized religion has caused most of the conflict in the world. Northern Ireland is usually cited as a modern example of fighting between Protestants and Catholics.
The Irish believe Northern Ireland belongs to them. The English think it is theirs. Ireland has a national religion, Roman Catholicism. England has a national religion, the Church of England. The conflict is a geopolitical one. The fighting has nothing to do with Henry VIII's fertility issues. If it was, the Irish would be throwing bottles of Viagra, not pipe bombs.
Then there is the fighting in Iraq between the Sunnis and the Shiites. Even a cursory examination of the history of the Sunnis and Shiites shows this to be absurd. The division occurred after the death of Muhammad on who should succeed him. Both groups share the fundamentals of Islamic faith but differ on secondary issues. The division is political, not theological. Further, the two groups in Iraq are fighting over division of oil revenue and political power; not fine points of the hadith. Likewise the fighting over Kashmir is over control of the territory, not because it's "God's will."
Lastly, there is the fighting between Israel and the rest of the Arab world. That conflict stems from Israel believing they have a right to continue living and the Arab world that is still angry that Hitler didn't finish the job. I'm not sure theological lines can be drawn there either. Before criticizing people as idiots, one might want to make sure they have their facts straight. Mr. Kettle, meet Mr. Pot.
What Lee and others can't grasp is that ethnic groups tend to share a common religion, and have throughout most of history.
The Shiites and Sunnis are more than religious factions; they are sociopolitical groups. Nations have often identified with only one religion, that doesn't mean every war they fight is a religious one.
The Daily Illini encourages on-topic discussion through article commenting on its articles and blogs. It is our policy not to delete any comments based upon political or ideological point of view. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are abusive, off-topic or use excessive foul language.
The posting of copyrighted material, including any and all content for which you are not the author, is illegal under Federal intellectual property laws. Such activity will not be tolerated. Comments containing copyrighted material will be removed, and continued violation of copyright law is grounds for being banned completely from commenting on DailyIllini.com.
If you feel any post meets these conditions or merits review, please e-mail our editors at meonline@dailyillini.com.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Knazze
posted 2/19/07 @ 9:03 AM CST
As a fellow Christian I would like to commend you for your courage for speaking when a lot of so called Christians. I know that the trendy thing is to throw daggers at Christians, but it is a trend we saw coming a long time ago. (Continued…)
Steven
posted 2/21/07 @ 1:32 PM CST
I can't verify all of Mr. Bambenek's assertions--particularly what seems like simplistic representations of Arab and Isreali conflicts.
However, four of his criticisms of Mr. (Continued…)
Post a Comment