Abstract
On the 24th February this year it felt as though the political tectonic plates were moving with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. People couldn’t believe what was happening. The notion of peace in Europe was undermined. Stability was overthrown, exacerbated by the knock-on effect on the price of oil and gas, wheat, and sunflower oil. It felt a bit like 9/11 with the Islamist terrorist attack on the USA. The world has changed, the direction of events have dramatically shifted in ways that will affect us for decades to come. Of course, human history often throws up events of this kind and the twentieth century had its share. History remains uncertain and troubling: what will be the long-term consequences of Russia’s aggression? As I write this, Ukraine has steadfastly resisted this invasion and the Russian army has paid a high price and President Putin’s goal had not been reached. But whatever has happened since then, the game has changed, history has shifted, and our sense of security and stability has been set back. Of course, that is the nature of life and history but when we’re living comfortably we can so easily forget that this is a ‘troublous life’, as the Prayer Book calls it.
However, the scriptures provide testimony to the fact that life is full of troubles. Psalm 199:143 talks of troubles and anguish in life, even though God is just and true; Isaiah of hands being so full of blood that God won’t listen (1:15). In Habbakuk the people keep watch and wait for God’s reply (2:1) after desperately crying out to God for help, shouting about ‘Violence!’ (1:2), and complaining about the injustice of it all (1:4), when ‘destruction and violence’ are in their face (1:3). Then from the epistle we hear of ‘steadfastness and faithfulness’ during ‘persecutions and afflictions’ that the early Christians were experiencing (II Thess 1:4). It was and is a ‘troublous life’ for so many, and for Christians, too.
However, the unprovoked Russian military aggression is complicated from a Christian perspective because Putin claims a Russian Orthodox faith and is supported by the head of his church, the Moscow Patriarch Kirill. Although most Christians around the world have been embarrassed by this church’s support of Putin and vocally challenged the Russian Orthodox Church’s stance, it won’t be surprising if some use this to claim that religion is bad and supportive of violence.
Of course, one can easily make a superficial case that religion is bad and fosters violence; think of the usual suspects: the Crusades and the Inquisition. But a quick glance at the twentieth century and its mass murderers—Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot who were totally devoid of religion, but who killed millions and millions of people on an industrial scale—demonstrates that religion itself cannot be the problem.
Violence is clearly part of the human lot, but religion is not the primary vehicle and blaming religion does not help to address the problem. After all this is a ‘troublous life’ not least because humans can do such awful things to each other and have the ability to inflict such damage on lives and communities as the war in Ukraine testifies with the destruction of whole towns and the displacement of millions from their homes.
The problem is something about us as human beings. Buddhists talk about the problem of human desire which distorts the way we live and brings suffering. Jews talk about the evil inclination within us which lives in tension with the good inclination that is also in us. Christians talk about sin: that human propensity or tendency to do the wrong thing that none of us can escape from, although we can sublimate, mitigate, and restrain it. So, although religion cannot insulate itself against being used in supporting aggressive war, violent extremism, even genocide, religion also gives us some tools for understanding the problem and dealing with it. Like anything else, religion itself can be abused or corrupted or distorted. There is such a thing as bad religion, which is in contrast to the Collect in the Book of Common Prayer which says:
O Lord, we beseech thee to keep thy Church and household continually in thy true religion.
But what is true religion? One way to understand this is to distinguish between good religion and bad religion. In 2015 we were given particularly powerful illustrations of what bad religion and good religion look like:
(a) Bad Religion: When the Sunni Moslem fighters of Islamic State, killed Shia Moslems in a mosque in Kuwait City we saw a graphic instance of Bad Religion. In the holy month of Ramadan, fellow Moslems were slaughtered whilst they were at prayer to the same God: Allah. Whatever Islamic State’s justifications, such cowardly attacks against innocent people at the point of religious duty are both wrong and indefensible.
(b) Good Religion: When a young white man took out a gun in a Bible study group in Charleston, South Carolina and murdered its black members, one can imagine how their relatives, friends, and fellow worshippers felt; but to everyone’s amazement (including hard-bitten, non-religious journalists) the response of family and members of this African Methodist Episcopal Church was to renounce revenge and to offer forgiveness to the perpetrator of this horrific crime.
Good religion, bad religion: we know it when we see it. Who can doubt, except for the most twisted mind that the ferocious attack on the Kuwaiti mosque was bad religion and the response of the AME Church to the slaughter of its members was good religion. Although Jesus can surprise us about this, most of the time we instinctively know how to distinguish good from bad religion, so when Jerusalem’s religious authorities plot Jesus’ downfall we know this is an instance of bad religion—it is a fearful, hate-filled response to the presence of Jesus that points to death—but when Zacchaeus offers to redistribute his wealth (Lk 19) we know it’s good religion—it is a generous, love-filled response to the presence of Jesus that points to life.
The Judaeo-Christian tradition provides resources to help us distinguish between bad religion and good. Listen to the word of the
Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rescue the oppressed,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow (1:16c-17)
So in this ‘troublous life’, as we live with our evil inclinations and propensity to sin, let us seek God’s support in strengthening our good inclinations, as we pray not to be led into temptation but delivered from evil, that God would keep us in true religion, and safe in God’s keeping:
O Lord, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shades [shadows] lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then, Lord, in thy mercy, grant us safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (1928 Book of Common Prayer).