Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993 TAG: 9303310325
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NELSON HARRIS
DATELINE: "RELIGION IS LIKE WATER LENGTH: Medium
We have to look no farther than this month's newspapers to find religion in its most perverse and destructive state.
In Waco, Texas, some 95 people have fortified themselves in a compound under the militant leadership of a self-proclaimed messiah. As a result, four federal agents are dead.
In New York, a Muslim leader has been linked to the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center, an act that killed three people.
Outside a woman's health clinic, a physician was fatally shot by a pro-life activist.
All of these events have one common thread - religion. Therein lies a paradox of our history. For religion can be a positive force. Religion has built hospitals, alleviated hunger, protested war, comforted the bereaved, clothed the naked, housed the orphaned, liberated the imprisoned, healed the wounded and promoted the highest of virtues.
What, then, is it about religion that makes it humanity's best friend and worst enemy? The answer lies in religion's power.
The power of religion is unrivaled on the human landscape. Religion can overpower armies, as was done by Islamic fundamentalists in Iran; carve out new nations, such as Israel in 1948; and impede governments, as in the provinces of the former Yugoslavia. Religion is not just prayer over a Thanksgiving meal; it can be and is a maker and molder of global events, as well as individual lives.
What gives religion its power?
First, religion persuades people that certain ways of thinking and living are the wishes of the Supreme Being. It puts into people the most comprehensive motive by which they can be driven, the sense of obeying the Eternal Will.
Adherence to a self-perceived Divine Will can lead to the highest of altruistic acts or violations against others. The Protestant minister who hid Jews in Nazi Germany and then paid for it with his life was motivated by his religious beliefs, but so was the pro-life activist who shot the doctor.
Second, religion confers sacredness upon everything with which it deals. Literature, ideologies, land, artifacts, ethnicity, political agendas, nationalism and even buildings can and have been ordained as sacred.
Sacredness can also be used for positive or negative purposes. A believer reads from a sacred text "Love thy neighbor" and proceeds to live life sacrificially on behalf of others; yet the believer's forefather read from the same sacred text last century and condoned slavery.
The key to properly channeling the power of religion is knowing how to discern it. Therein lies the challenge to every believer and religious leader.
If the believer can recognize healthy from unhealthy religion, to know which elements of the faith heal and illumine versus those that hurt and destroy, then they and their neighbor will benefit. Like Jacob who wrestled with his angel at midnight, the believer must wade into the river of his or her faith and engage in the struggle to discern. Unfortunately, the toes of many aren't even wet.
In an imperfect world, religion may continue to be both cure and affliction. One should bear in mind, however, that religion's condition is dependent upon those who practice it. Jesus of Nazareth said some two millenia ago, "If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness."
Nelson Harris is a Baptist minister in Roanoke.
by CNB