Science & Theology News, MA
Aug. 11, 2006

The study of genocide gets religion

Religion scholars greatly improve the new field of genocide studies

By Steven Leonard Jacobs
(August 11, 2006)

APPROACHING GENOCIDE: Scholars of religion have a place in
understanding the horror.
(Photo: EuroIL/Flickr)
In the aftermath of the Holocaust – the most heavily documented of
all genocides thus far – scholars, journalists, legalists and others
have uncovered and carefully examined mountains of data. They have
extrapolated and posited conclusions at times mundane and
at other times highly controversial.

Yet aside from parochial conclusions for their own communities,
scholars of religious studies have been largely absent from these
conversations. At the same time, increasing and overwhelming evidence
suggests that religion, both in its intellectual and institutional
contexts, has played a part in almost all historic and contemporary
genocides.

Fostering the field of genocide studies

Historically, there have been two reasons for the absence of
religious scholars from the field of genocide studies. First, those
who might otherwise look closely at these aspects of genocides are
themselves too heavily invested in their own communities of faith to
distance themselves sufficiently from what could potentially become
both community-destroying and faith-destroying conclusions. Second,
persons trained in other disciplines are usually not trained in the
field of religious studies, and thus those studying genocide seldom
include religious issues in their work.

Thankfully, this has now begun to change.

The historic and contemporary genocides being examined by those
working in the newly emerging field of genocide studies – an
outgrowth of the older field of Holocaust studies – are now being
analyzed by a small but growing number of religious-studies scholars
who will bring new perspectives. For example, the genocide of the
Armenians by the supposedly secular Turks early in the 20th century
cannot be divorced from the knowledge that the perpetrators were
inheritors of an influential Muslim/Islamic tradition and the victims
constituted the descendants of an older, comparable Christian
tradition.

All scholars, including those in religious studies, acknowledge the
historic role of Western Christianity, both Roman Catholic and
Protestant, in providing a foundational, intellectual underpinning of
two millennia of anti-Semitism from which Nazism could draw to
accomplish its own genocidal agenda – this despite the Nazis’ own war
on Christianity. The recent genocide in the former Yugoslavia saw
Christian Orthodox Serbs in violent conflict with Croatian and
Bosnian Muslims. The genocide in Rwanda in the mid-1990s – in the
most Roman Catholic of countries in continental Africa – saw clergy
representatives of both Roman Catholicism and Seventh-day Adventism
participate in the brutal slaughtering of their friends, neighbors
and families.

In the United States, where a contentious debate continues over
whether the displacement and murder of Native Americans constitutes
genocide, Western Christianity in its `whiteness’ was a significant
component against the physical and cultural debasement of the
`savages,’ their `redness’ and contrary religious systems. Even now,
the so-called `war on terror’ and `clash of civilizations’ cannot be
viewed apart from the apparent confrontation between a Middle Eastern
Islam and Western Christianity, with the most militant in both camps
perceiving the other’s goal as that of global extermination and
annihilation. How then to explain the nexus between the two?

Warring religions

The examples cited above all posit the confrontational intersection
between the monotheistic traditions of Islam and Christianity. But
lest we exclude Judaism from this discussion, the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is seen by some as a genocidal clash framed by the two
historic faiths locked in mortal combat for possession of sacred
ground holy to both and given the imprimatur of divine sanction and
authority.

Where, then, to begin a discussion about the nexus between religion
and genocide? I would suggest that the following avenues be explored
by scholars of religious studies committed not only to increasing our
knowledge of the sources of genocide, but also to the pragmatic goal
of alleviating such from an increasing smaller global community.

First, the three monotheistic religious traditions of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam have a long and somewhat problematic history
of exclusivism regarding the other, stemming, at least initially,
from their textual traditions of Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and
Quran. Each is replete with texts that privilege Yahweh/God/Allah as
the only deity worthy of obeisance and allegiance, and those that see
outside the community of the faithful are less than whole or equal.

Reading their texts literally through the pronouncements of
authoritative spokesmen confirmed the privileged positions of the
insiders and enabled followers to inflict pain and death, including
genocide, on outsiders. Absent is what I call `the midrashic way’ of
reading such texts in a nonliteral way, which brings others to the
table in a more or less equal participatory status.

Second, theologies of superiority, chosenness, divine favoritism and
the like also supplied a quasi-intellectual underpinning of support
for those in positions of both governmental and military power. This
enabled those who engaged in genocidal behaviors to justify in their
own minds the moral rightness of their work, as well as enhance group
cohesiveness and individual psychological well-being. The task of
such those engaged in genocide studies now becomes a re-thinking of
the genocidal implications of such privileged thinking and writings,
and a post-genocidal reconstruction of a global interfaith ethic that
involves both insiders and outsiders.

Third, the church or mosque – far less so the synagogue, given the
lack of Jewish political power and military might in Western
civilization for the last 2,000 years – are committed to maintaining
their successful societal functioning. This can only be accomplished
through strategic alliances with the state and a certain economic
status quo that devalues perceived lesser groups, works to divest
them of falsely perceived wealth and/or power, and validates brutal
and successful attacks on perceived enemies.

Separating religion and genocide

Significantly, and perhaps somewhat ironically, two streams may
overturn this historical complicity.

First, the American model of the separation of church and state,
despite its unevenness, continues to be a cornerstone of the
democratic political experiment, one that political scientist R. J.
Rummel correctly notes evinces less interest in perpetuating genocide
than other forms of political governance.

Second, the thesis of political scientist Samuel Huntington regarding
the supposed clash of civilizations between Christianity and Islam,
at least on the European continent, is in reality a clash between a
militant and fundamental minority in Islam and a growing Western
secularism that checks religion at the door.

Scholars of religious studies address such issues as the role and
power of myth, the question of authority, the role of insider and
outsider groups in religious communities, the function of texts, the
various tasks of those in positions of leadership, the relationship
of community to divinity, and the like – all of which have been
factors in genocides, both historic and contemporary.

Before one can fix the problem and find the solution, one needs to
examine critically all of the factors involved – including religion –
no matter how uncomfortable or distasteful. Religious scholars must
play a vital role in this examination.

Steven Leonard Jacobs is Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies
and an associate professor of religious studies at the University of
Alabama in Tuscaloosa.