Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero

WHY?

Ethical Conflicts in the Middle East

® RELIGION = the collective expression of an idyllic human vision or worldview; the creative description of how life should be!

® POWER = the ethical dimension, primarily expressed in political activity, to see that ideal vision realized in the social arena.

Tensions in the Middle East

® Three main reasons:

® A long history of perceived humiliation of Muslims by Western colonialism

® The creation of Israel and USA support of that nation

® A radical interpretation of the Islamic doctrine of Jihad (holy war)

Placing ISLAM in History

® Muhammad (570c.e. – 632c.e.) receives the Holy Qu’ran (Arabic for recitation) over a 22 year period.

® The message: Allah is the ONE TRUE GOD and Muhammad is his last and final prophet

® Judaism & Christianity are part of the process leading to the final submission to the One God, Allah (Abraham, Moses, the Prophets, Jesus are all great spiritual leaders and are to be revered)

ISLAMIC JIHAD

® Jihad = part of Muslim law; the duty to struggle on behalf of the faith; to fight on its behalf to expand the territories over which the faith dominates; to fight non-believers.

® Muslim who die in this struggle assured themselves a place in paradise

® Jihad is sometimes called the 6^th Pillar of Islam (see pg. 151 in the Beliefs and Believers Study Guide for the 5 Pillars)

Western Humiliation

® Since the 7^th century, the Islamic world has enjoyed grand periods of cultural and geographic dominance on the world stage

® 1683 – Muslim Ottoman empire stopped at Vienna, Austria

® By 1918, post-WW1, the entire Islamic empire is broken up and colonized by Britain, France, Italy, and other European power

The Creation of the State of Israel

® Zionism = the late 19^th- early 20^th century movement to establish a homeland for the Jews

® 1948 = United Nations votes to create a the state of Israel in Palestine

® Bloody conflicts in 1948, 1956, 1967, & 1973 humiliate the Arab Muslim world

® Jerusalem is the third most holy place for Muslims

® Israel could not exist without U.S. assistance

® Thus, the USA is the “Great Satan”

SIX DIMENSIONS OF WORLDVIEWS

® Experiential (experience)

® Mythic (myth)

® Ritual

SIX DIMENSIONS OF WORLDVIEWS

® Doctrinal (doctrine = belief)

® Ethical (ethics = behavior)

® Social (impact of religious beliefs on society)

“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

THE DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

® DOCTRINE = BELIEF

® ETHICS = BEHAVIOR

BELIEF

+ BELIEVER

= BEHAVIOR

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SIX DIMENSIONS

MYTH

EXPERIENCE DOCTRINE

RITUAL

Inward Turning Impact

on Religion

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE SIX DIMENSIONS

ETHICS

DOCTRINE

SOCIAL

Outward Turning Impact

on Society

THE DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

® Religious behavior impacts on the SOCIAL dimension

® Religion is a MAJOR DETERMINANT of human behavior

® Religions is a MAJOR DETERMINANT of cultural experience

® Belief + Believers = Behavior

RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES

® Doctrines = belief systems; they provide specific answers to existential questions

® Religious Doctrines = the institutionalization of answers about

the unexplainable

v Doctrinal disagreements about how to interpret religious truth claims leads to division and fragmentation within a religious organization

RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES

® Death, Suffering, Change = problems that often cannot be resolved in terms of common sense, logic, or scientific knowledge

® Faith = a religious way of “knowing” the truth based on the AUTHORITY of a church, a sacred book, experience, myth, ritual, or the power of a spiritual leader

FUNCTIONS OF DOCTRINES

® Doctrines bring order or clarity to myth and ritual

® Doctrines provide the institutionalization of answers to the unexplainable

® Doctrines control the boundaries of religious expression and experience

® Doctrines determine what is inclusive and exclusive in a given religion

Religious Sects and Cults

® Sects and cults are new religious movements

® Almost all religions began as a sect or a cult

® Sects and cults provide a useful laboratory for analyzing distinctions between healthy and corrupt religions

PEOPLES TEMPLE:
The Jonestown Apocalypse

® November 18, 1978 - over 900 people commit “revolutionary suicide” in a remote a religious compound in Guyana, South America

® Leader - Jim Jones (1931-1978)

® Extreme example of the relationship between DOCTRINE & ETHICS

® Rebecca Moore = “a survivor”

RELIGIOUS ECOLOGY:
Established Species

® Established species = religious organizations that have successfully handled the dilemmas of institutionalization:

® Church = a dominant religious organization in a given society

® Denomination = one of many religious organizations in a diverse social environment; voluntary attendance

RELIGIOUS ECOLOGY:
Institutional “Mutations”

® SECT: a splinter group the forms to RENEW the true faith; breaks off from an “established species” but maintains the same basic symbol system.

® CULT: a splinter group that is INNOVATIVE; a new religious movement that shares little connection to the “established species” of religion in a given cultural environment

CHRISTIANITY: sect, cult, church, denomination

® A historical approach:

® 1st century = Jewish sect

® 2nd - 4th century = Christian cult

® 4th - 16th century = Christian church

16th century - present = Christian denomination(s) (at least in the USA)

…Christian sect formation continues today!