The Pursuit of Social & Religious Justice
By: Sandra N. Kjono
4852679
For: EDGE, ENGR297A, Prof. Lusignan
December 6, 2002
The pursuit of social and religious justice has been part of our societal structure since the beginning of time. The most recent, large scale, attempt at the “purification” of the human race, in the ‘name’ of social/religious justice, was put into motion by Osama bin Laden, who caught the eyes of the world by having some of his followers kill thousands of American civilians. This event was a life changing experience for me. Watching an airplane crash into the second twin tower, before anyone had any idea what was happening on September 11, 2001 opened my eyes, and many others’ eyes, to the outside world; it made me wonder, “why?” It made me think about how the world sees America. This paper will not delineate why there are lunatics intent on the extermination of certain races, religious followers, or any other group of people; what it will do is explore the basic teachings of the most influential prophets of the three main monotheistic religions, as well as discuss historical “Holy” wars, in an attempt to show that these proclaimed “Holy” wars are in fact political wars – and not within the practices of the basic religious beliefs. It will then offer some suggestions as to implementing positive future strategies for social/religious justice.
In the very beginning, men did not worship any God, but merely envisioned some higher force, which influenced much of their life. As Karen Armstrong puts it,“...he is strangely absent from their daily lives: he has no special cult and is never depicted in effigy” [1]. As man evolved, so did his belief system. Before monotheism entered their lives, they worshipped idols, demi-gods and many gods who were believed to be a part of a unity shared among the gods, nature and mankind.
The development of the three monotheist religions occurred in a sequential order. The first believed prophet was Moses, born around 800BC. Moses had lived a privileged life as the son of a royal Egyptian family. He was not originally accustomed to the worship of one God, known to some as Yahweh, but that changed one day as he herded his father-in-law’s sheep. He encountered the God of his wife’s people, the Midianites, and it changed him for the rest of time. He witnessed the presence of God in the form of a burning bush, which he was unable to look at because he wasn’t worthy of the experience. Moses had protested that he was “not able to speak well.”” [2] As a result of his meeting with God on the mountain, he was able to realize many truths about God, life and himself. Most importantly, he came to the realization that his purpose in life was to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, as he put it: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land….”[3] Despite his privileged life, he was not blind to the suffering of those being persecuted by the ruling class of his time, of which he happened to be a part.
The burning bush had a lasting effect on Moses, and the many ‘miracle stories’ that happened during his lifetime made rallying the Israelites to leave Egypt more feasible. The bad harvests at this time, as well as the oppression felt by the working class also made the move more necessary. In the end, the Israelites left Egypt to follow their God to the best of their ability by abiding by the Ten Commandments. The basic teachings of the Ten Commandments, which Moses received from God on the mountain, covered the following: to worship no other God, except the one true God because there are no other gods; and to not steal, cheat, murder or be jealous of anything that belongs to your neighbor. These are the basic teachings of Moses and the foundation of Judaism.
Jesus, the second prophet, was born during a time of fierce oppression for the underdogs of his time: the slaves and working class. Led by an elite group of rich Jews, Judaism was beginning to fall into the clutches of greed. Jesus is believed to have been sent from God as another attempt at ‘setting humans right’. Despite the fact that Judaism generally discredits the validity of Jesus as a prophet, Muslims and Christians fully accept him as the second prophet, differing in opinion on certain aspects, but he is nonetheless considered a messenger of God in both religions. His contributions to the evolution of monotheistic religions were his main teachings – which basically reaffirm the teachings of Moses and the Ten Commandments. But the main new factor in his transmission of religious truth is his emphasis on love and compassion.
Under the harsh rule of Herod Antipas, Jesus was the result of an immaculate conception. The man who married his mother was a carpenter, and brought Jesus into the working class, where he became a carpenter himself. He was a good Jew in that he never missed a Sabbath and as he grew older, it became apparent that he had a higher purpose in life. One day he delivered a sermon on a mountain near Capernaum where he outlined his basic teachings.
Jesus started with the “beatitudes” whose purpose was to comfort the people who had undergone terrible persecution as a result of their religious beliefs when Jews were being singled out by the Roman Empire. This was basically to encourage them to continue living their lives in the ways of God, which he would go on to explain. The basic teachings Jesus brought to the people were very similar to that of Moses, but different – they built upon the Ten Commandments. Instead of simply saying “You shall not commit murder”, he advocates that the mere thought of murder or the will to murder is just as bad as following through with such a deed. For all of the previously outlined basic teachings of Moses, Jesus elaborates and advocates the same rules, but applies them to intent as well as the acts themselves. To sum up his basic teachings, in Matthew 22:36-40, he advocates his people to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” as well as the Golden Rule: treat others as you would have them treat you. Paying attention to Jesus’ saying, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” alerts one to the fact that prophets of God advocate these two basic teachings. All three religions: Judaism, Christianity and Moslem believe in the same God - another reason to tie the three prophets and their subsequent religions together.
As a result of the teachings of Jesus, many turned to Christianity and followed the teachings of Jesus, while others continued to believe only the teachings of Moses. Besides small differences, the two monotheistic religions were based on the same teachings; and both suffered from the corruption of those in power who claimed to follow the teachings of God. The Roman Empire even decreed its state’s religion as Christianity, but only to further its earthly needs and desires.
The next prophet, recognized by Moslems as a prophet, but as a lunatic by many Jews and Christians, was Mohammed ibnu Abdillah. Mohammed started his life around 569 C.E., when he was born into an Arabian tribe that worshipped idols. He is believed to have been orphaned at birth, going along the lines of God’s special interest in the underdogs. However, given the chance to work his way up, he came into the profession of a trader and was skilled at his work. He married a woman fifteen years his senior who happened to be his employer. Despite the age difference and the way they met, he remained a devoted husband to her. He did not realize his true purpose on earth until he was about 40 years old. Around this time, he became a changed man. He had been in the habit of going into a cave for privacy in order to collect his thoughts, as was popular among his people, but one day he had a revelation (given to him by the angel, Gabriel in the cave) which would change his life, his views and his people’s lives.
Mohammed preached the same basic teachings as his predecessors. Along the lines of Moses’ and Jesus’ teachings, he advocated that God wanted his people to, most importantly, accept him as the one true God and to worship none other. He also advocated much the same as Moses and Jesus in the way of suggested social behavior for people in their lives on Earth. Muhammed taught Muslims to “hurt no one so that no one may hurt you”[4], as Jesus taught the Golden Rule before him, and Moses before him. He also advocated “an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab”, going along the lines of God’s treatment to the “underdog”, or, more closely, the equality of all human beings. Other similarities exist between Muhammed’s list of tenets to achieve nearness to Allah (God) and the teachings of Jesus and Moses, but the two resounding building blocks for each religion is that there is only one true God and that there should be tolerance and fairness in the world among all people.
But, somewhere along the way, these basic teachings of these three seminal religions have been forgotten by the world leaders and the common people. Throughout history, however, they have not been forgotten where God’s word might be misconstrued to help politicians motivate their people to do evils in order to satisfy their earthly pleasures. Examples have shown throughout history that these evils only perpetuate further evils and wrongdoings, further persecution and bloodshed among different religions. Examples of such occurrences are “Holy” wars, as well as civilizations which promote the persecution or the manipulation of certain religions. These wars and civilizations are not always titled “Holy” outright, but in the political, “motivational” speeches of politicians advocating the war or the righteousness of their people, God is used to pit a superior “us” against the evil, lesser “them”.
Take, for instance, the Crusades. Beginning in November of 1095, Pope Urban II decided to start the Crusades. As a religious leader, he was viewed as a sort of messenger of God at the time and gave speeches decreeing, “[God] exhort[s] you with earnest prayer…to hasten to exterminate this vile race from the lands of your brethren Christ commands.”[5] Urban goes on to explain that the “infidels”, basically any people whom he deems to be worshipping the wrong God through the wrong religious practices, are terrible creatures who must be taken care of so that the good people, those who follow Christ with him, may fulfill their duties as good Christians.
What is interesting about Pope Urban II’s speech is that he actually states his true intentions for the desired result of the Crusades:
Let those who for a long time have been robbers now become soldiers of Christ. Let those who fought against brothers and relatives now fight against these barbarians.
What he did not tell the people he was trying to get to fight the “infidels” for him was that he was at a loss with the warring French sons who fought over small pieces of land in France, as well as the constant hoards who invaded and overrunning Italy. He had demanded the cooperation of his warring land many times before. Take his expansion of the “Truce of God”. He had tried to limit the number of days that people could fight, as well as who could be involved in the fighting – all in vain. So, when the Count of Flanders passed the word from Alexius Commenus that he needed help with Turks attacking some pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem, Pope Urban II jumped on the opportunity to try to unite his people – to effectively create an “us” to fight “them”.
After the speech by Pope Urban II, “God wills it!” became the battle cry of the Crusader, as a result of the strong influence he had from the church and phrases such as “God himself will lead them, for they will be doing His work,”[6] as well as promises to rich and poor alike that the land they were fighting for and their cause granted them absolution, especially if they died for the cause. But this “Holy” Crusade was far from Holy. Historian Raymond of Agiles couldn’t even describe the atrocities committed by the Crusaders that he saw as a result of one of the sieges: “…what happened at the temple of Solomon… If I tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief…” And this is believable because many events during the Crusades were beyond some people’s most violent nightmares – for example, in Maara in 1098, where the Crusader troops boiled “pagan” adults in cooking pots and impaled children on spits and devoured them grilled. Even in the far stretches of the basic teachings of Moses, Jesus and Muhammed, nothing comes close to atrocities such as those committed during the Crusades – the thought that anyone could claim them as a “Holy” endeavor is beyond me and, more importantly, beyond sinful, in terms of the basic beliefs of the prophets of God.
Although the Crusades took place during a time where religious figures and politicians were one and the same, it was no excuse for such behavior if one looks at the terms outlined in the basic teachings of any of God’s prophets. The connection between church and state should not have been an excuse to allow the bishops and “monk-knights” to kill mercilessly, and allow greed and earthly possessions to overcome them. But, this behavior does not end in the middle ages. Later on, about the 1400’s, during the explorations of the “New World”, European political powers used their close “ties” with God to believe themselves to be more powerful and more important than those they wanted to conquer (or exterminate, enslave and exploit) in the “New World”. The “ties” with God refer to their corrupt religious leaders feigning to abide by the basic teachings of their prophets, who blessed the political leaders’ actions to impinge on the basic rights of those who already inhabited this European “New World”.
The Crusades and the colonization of the “New World” dealt with political leaders who were one and the same as the religious leaders of those eras, so one may think that the manipulation of the basic teachings of prophets to further a political position ended with the separation of church and state. Unfortunately, there are many examples of the corruption of the word of God from recent years.
After the separation of church and state in not only the United States, but also (supposedly) in Europe and the United Nations, there continues a tendency for political leaders to incite anger against a common “enemy” in order to attain better support for their political plight.
World War II, for example, shows the United States President, at the time, using God as an advocate for the United States joining the war. Surprisingly enough, the person to point this out was Adolf Hitler,
First [Roosevelt] incites war then falsifies the causes, then
odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy and
slowly but surely leads mankind to war, not without calling
God to witness the honesty of his attack-in the approved manner
of an old Freemason.[7]
Even though Hitler is utilizing Roosevelt’s use of God’s approval of the fallen soldiers from previous American wars against him to try and encourage ill feelings from the United States, he is still stating a fact which cannot be denied. The United States, despite its separation of church and state in its Constitution, has used God as a unifying entity and claims an eternal blessing from Him in the goals of its people. The Pledge of Allegiance even includes His name.
But Hitler was not innocent of the manipulation of God’s will in order to promote his political goals either. As he outlines in the following quote, “A historical revision on a unique scale has been imposed on us by the Creator,”[8] he is insisting upon the necessity of the extermination of lesser groups of people as promoted by God in order to save Germans. His quotes may seem a bit strange to the average American today, but that may be due to their inability to empathize with the state of affairs in Germany after World War I. As a history teacher in eighth grade once illustrated to my class, “A bad loaf of bread would have cost a barrel full of German notes.” Not even the Depression experienced by the United States was as bad as Germany’s economic chaos after being forced to take the blame of the First World War. The German people were in a state of despair, looking for a way to eat and keep warm. Hitler’s correspondence with God may have seemed a bit more feasible under these circumstances, especially after his war effort started to bring the economy back up. He later says, “I can only thank God that He enlightened me at the proper time and that He gave me the strength to do what had to be done!… Had the German Reich not faced the enemy with her soldiers and arms, a flood would have swept over Europe…”[9] In this speech, Hitler not only claims to be the messenger of God’s will and the executor of God’s plan, but the chosen one to save Europe and German people from the World War II - equivalent to the Crusader’s infidels. I could cite many other quotes, but the obvious allusion to Noah’s Arc, as well as explicitly saying that he was in direct contact with God, is enough to prove that he was manipulating God’s influence on people in times of hardship to ensure their cooperation and support.
All of these examples of human behavior concerning war, from the early Crusades to the present illustration of terrorism by the followers of Osama bin Laden, are led by those who are looking to serve God and carry out a master plan sent to them ‘from above’ but their vision is blurred and twisted. Violence and displays of aggression towards others is not supported by any of the three main, monotheist, prophets and their basic teachings; even the small discrepancies on which they differ do not cover murder of innocents or cannibalism or rape. In fact, these things are said to be evil acts. These evil acts are carried out by those following the lead of a trusted person who is under the influence of evil. The quest for natural resources, such as land, oil and precious minerals is never the result of Holy intent, never God’s will. It is the worldly desires of politicians and world leaders who manipulate scripture, people’s trust and circumstances to get the means to their desired end.
Conclusion
If world leaders could really take the teachings of their respective prophets, all of which in essence encourage the same thing - belief and worship of one God and the Golden Rule – then positive results could ensue. That “extra mile” Jesus speaks of in his Sermon on the Mount would be given and received if everyone participated. If world leaders and religious leaders could come to a compromise and realize that worldly goods are only earthly pleasures and not what matters in the whole scheme of things, then a better understanding of what life is truly for could be attained. For example, if top leaders of the religions of today could meet and work together on the premise that they are all advocating for the same basic social behavior, there would not be ignorance about the faith of one’s neighbor. When ignorance is taken care of, people are more likely to be understanding of their fellow human beings and more likely to be comfortable dealing with different cultures. Once the religious leaders got together to work together for the common goal of understanding one another and tolerance amongst themselves, they could spread this information, promoting a better understanding among the common people of the world. This could create a stronger foundation for their religious practices, hopefully decreasing the chance of a very intelligent lunatic taking advantage of a bad situation.
Social and religious justice is said to be the reason behind many of today’s struggles. I would like to end this paper as it began, with a few words about Osama bin Laden, who certainly exemplifies a case of ‘social/religious justice’ (or the lack of it). He is said to be angry at the presence of infidels in the Holy Land of his prophet, Muhammed. What he does not understand is that Muhammed would never have preached such violence in the face of infidels in the Holy land. Osama bin Laden used uses the general ignorance of his followers about the people they have been trained to hate (and about Muhammed’s views) to allow his goal to be realized. In the end, for social and religious justice to prevail, it must come out of the cooperation of a large majority of the countries that make up this world.
Bibliography
Armstrong , Karen. A History of God. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
Hart, Michael H. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, New York: Hart Publishing Company Inc. 1978, p 33 <http://www.promisedmehdi.com/hadiths.htm>
Islam 10. The Sabr Foundation. 1998-2000 <http://www.islam101.com/>
Jewish Virtual Library. “Hitler Declares War on the United States (December 11, 1941)”, < http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler_declares_war.html>
Price , Jack. “Series: Building the Church: Challenges” October 6, 2002. < http://www.crossroadschurchkc.org/teachings/archives/021006identify.html>
The Women's Division, The Women’s Methodist Church. “The Christian Crusades: 1095 – 1291” <http://gbgm-umc.org/umw>
[1] A History of God, Karen Armstrong, pg 3
[2] A History of God, Karen Armstrong, pg 42
[3] < http://www.crossroadschurchkc.org/teachings/archives/021006identify.html>
[4] Muhammed’s Last Sermon (in the year 632), <http://www.promisedmehdi.com/hadiths.htm>
[5] Pope’s Call, <http://islam101/crusades>
[6] “The Christian Crusades: 1095 – 1291” <http://gbgm-umc.org/umw>
[7]Hitler Declares War on the United States (December 11, 1941), < http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler_declares_war.html>
[8] Hitler Declares War on the United States (December 11, 1941), < http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler_declares_war.html>
[9] Hitler Declares War on the United States (December 11, 1941), < http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler_declares_war.html>