CONTEMPORARY SPIRTUAL MOVEMENTS
Religious
Studies 454
Spring
2003
Religion and Violence
RELIGION AND VIOLENCE
Why?
Exploring Religion and Violence
Five Reasons for
Concern:
•
Existential Reasons
•
Philosophic/theological Reasons
•
Doctrinal Reasons
•
Social/Political/Economic Reasons
•
Physiological Reasons
Existential Reasons Contributing to Violence
The human existential dilemma:
We are, at the same time:
•
Apart = possessing a separate, individual
sense of self, i.e, the ego
•
A part = possessing a sense of or longing for
interconnection, wholeness, fulfillment, belonging, love
Religion and the Existential Dilemma
General observations about religion:
• What
is most common in human experience is present, even magnified, in human religious
activity.
•
Religion represents the often desperate
attempt to symbolically bridge the existential chasm between a part and
apart.
Religion and Identity Formation
n
Religion, at the most fundamental level, is about identity-formation.
n
Identity formation answers profound life questions:
n
Who am I?
n
Why am I?
n
Where am I?
n
What do I do?
Religion and Relationship-Guidance
n
Religion is also about relationship-guidance:
n
Relationship questions are questions directed
at THE OTHER:
n
Who are you?
n
How should I relate to you?
n
Why are you different from me?
n
Are you good or evil?
Violence and Identity Formation
n
Religion is about identity formation
The origins of violence are found in a particular and common variety of identity
formation:
• the
creation of THE OTHER
• Imagining
ourselves apart from an other make us feel a part of our
own group; separation creates unity.
Philosophic and Theological Reasons for Violence
The Other as Evil:
• Ontological
dualism = a philosophy that divides the world into opposing, antagonistic
forces; good v. evil.
• Star
Wars Theology = “God” is on the side of the Good people; the Other, therefore,
must be the Bad people.
•
“The Axis of Evil” must perish!!
Doctrinal Reasons for Violence
n
Exclusivity = “our
sacred text tells us that our way is the ONLY WAY!
n
Apocalypticism = the
“old, evil world” must be destroyed; the “new, good world” can only be realized
after a period of terrible violence.
n
“Chosen-ness” = God
chooses one people over any other
n
Totalism = total
commitment to the belief system is required; to err is to be evil!
“When Religion Becomes Evil”
Charles Kimball’s 5
reasons:
§
Absolute Truth Claims
§
Blind Obedience
§
Establishing the “Ideal” Time
§
The End Justifies Any Means
§
Declaring Holy War
Social/Political/Economic Reasons for Violence
n
Social = dehumanizing
the Other, then committing violent against them.
n
Political = creating
boundaries that define who is “in” and who is excluded; denying land and
sovereignty to the Other.
n
Economic = creating
cosmic reasons to justify the economic demarcation between the “Haves” and the
“Have-nots” – example: the caste system in India.
Physiological Reasons for Violence (and its reduction)
n
Neuro-theology reveals that the human brain is
“wired” for aggressive action when it functions in the “apart” mode.
n
Meditation, prayer, chanting, and other spiritual
practices actually still the part of the brain that triggers the “fight or
flight” instinct while reinforcing a sense of oneness and peace.
HEAVEN’S GATE
PROPHET:
• Bonnie
Lu Truesdale Nettles
• Born
1924 in Houston, TX; raised as a Baptist
• Interests
in astrology, Spiritualism, and Theosophy
• Worked
as a registered nurse
• Member
of the Houston Lodge of the Theosophical Society of America
HEAVEN’S GATE
PROPHET:
• Marshall
Herff Applewhite
• Son
of a Texas Presbyterian minister
• Became
a music professor; fired for inappropriate sexual encounters with students
• Meets
Nettles in March 1972
• They
start the Christian Art Center in Houston
HEAVEN’S GATE
PROMISE:
• The
Two: Nettles and Applewhite are the “two Lampstands” (Revelation 11) come
to spread the word before God’s impending judgment & salvation
• Combined
literalist interpretations of the Bible with Theosophical doctrines, belief in
UFOs, and extraterrestrials
Heaven’s Gate
PLAN:
•
Like Jesus, believers
would transform their bodies into genderless and eternal
extraterrestrial bodies
• Believers should abandon their families and previous
lives and discipline themselves to overcome all human desires and attachments
• Soon flying saucers would pick them up and take them
to the Next Level.
HEAVEN’S GATE
POSSIBILITY (People):
• Applegate (“Do”) had come from the Next Level to
“harvest” worthy humans
• Nettles (“Ti”) who died in 1985 was piloting a flying
saucer behind the Hale-Bopp comet approaching earth
• On March 22, 1997, Heaven’s Gate followers begin to
“shed their bodily pods”
• The group decides to “exit earth”
HEAVEN’S GATE
PLACE:
• 39 members “exit” the planet in a mansion in Rancho
Santa Fe, CA
• Consumed applesauce mixed with phenobarbital, drank
vodka; plastic bags were pulled over their heads
• Surviving members removed the bags and draped each
body with a purple shroud
• Bodies were found lying peacefully on cots or beds in
the mansion
HEAVEN’S GATE
n
20 were women 19 men;
many of the men, including Applewhite, were castrated
n
They dressed in black
pants and shirts and wore new Nike running shoes
n
Shoulder patch =
“Heaven’s Gate Away Team”
n
Overnight bags
included clothes, notebook, lip balm; each person had a $5 bill and quarters in
the front shirt pocket