Sudbury Star (Ontario)
May 19, 2007 Saturday
Great faith deserves better than mere labels
Jan Carrie Steven
Today I read two diametrically opposed articles – compliments of
beliefnet.com. In the first piece, Christopher Hitchens, author of
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, asserts that
religion is worse than hell. This book, published on May 1, 2007,
reached No. 2 on the Amazon.com bestsellers list within two weeks. In
fact, it sold out.
"Christianity, he says, "has ruined, irreparably ruined, the
happiness of millions and millions of people for generations (with
its totalitarian impulse) and threatens to do the same now – and in
my view cannot be forgiven for that."
Hitler, he maintains, never renounced the Catholic Church. (The book
Hitler’s Table Talk: 1941-1944 which came out more than 50 years ago,
gives lots of evidence that Hitler rejected Christianity – but you
get Hitchens’ drift.)
Gregg Easterbrook, the writer of the second article, is also an
author of a few books – one of which is Beside Still Waters:
Searching for Meaning in an Age of Doubt. Not many people have heard
of it – I guess the title is not offensive enough.
"Faith," says Easterbrook, "makes people want to kill each other –
but it’s the best thing we’ve got."
Easterbrook doesn’t ignore the bloody history of Christians, Jews and
Muslims killing each other, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs at war, and
so on. He admits that even within a particular faith, schisms happen
and murders abound.
Where Easterbrook disagrees with Hitchens is on what is really behind
religious wars. He argues war happens because of factors that would
exist regardless of whether anyone had heard of "God." We fight over
access to power and wealth – be it in the form of land, oil, water,
class, race, ethnicity, etc. And it is religion that tells us there
is another way – that God wants us to love Him, each other and his
creation.
At least 13 of the world’s major religions have a form of The Golden
Rule, which is, as taught to us by Jesus, "Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you."
I don’t know of a group of persons who wanted to be starved, bombed,
mutilated or humiliated. I do know the folks on the receiving end of
bombs tend to hate those supplying the weapons of their destruction.
There is only one kind of bombing I know of that brings long-lasting
security – "love bombing." By that I mean a deliberate and material
demonstration of concern – feeding the hungry, providing clean water,
clothing the cold, providing health care, visiting the imprisoned and
comforting the grief-stricken.
Don’t get me wrong. There is a place for a well-equipped defence to
protect the little people. The Armenian Holocaust happened for the
same reasons that the Rwandan one did – the international community
did not intervene. But while food, clothing, shelter, education and
health care don’t stop bullets, neither, finally, do bullets.
In my faith, Christianity, providing material and spiritual care is a
requirement. Hitchens’ response to this is that if Christianity is to
claim credit for the work of outstanding Christians or for the
labours of famous charities, then it must also accept responsibility
for the ravages done. I do not agree with this – just as I do not
accept this accusation when it is made of other religions.
I am frightened and disheartened by hatred and fundamentalism in any
religion, including Hitchens’ brand of atheism.
Jan Carrie Steven is a lay preacher and pastoral care visitor for All
Peoples United Church. Her website is