GUEST COLUMN: The Pope’s real mistake
The Pope’s recent statement that Muslims are guilty of “promoting their religion with the sword” was misguided, but not in the sense of being politically incorrect as claimed in all the uproar. Indeed, there’s obviously something amiss when the Muslim “Holy War” has produced such a staggering body count. But what’s the real problem and how does it affect each of us (or, equally important, visa versa)?
It hasn’t been that long since we witnessed the same violence-in-the-name-of-piety trend in “Christianity.” In the 1970’s and 80’s we were besieged in the evening news by the body count between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Many Utahns are familiar with violent and murderous acts inflicted on early LDS church leaders by sincere Christians in the 1830′ – 40’s. And what about reports we would have heard had there been TV during the “Holy” Crusades? (Remember, the entire purpose of the pope-initiated crusades was to use the sword to rid the world of Muslims!)
We’ve also had religious wars between Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and don’t forget, the World War II Japanese were driven by the concept of faithful “service” to the Emperor, who had a sacred connection to deity.
Humanity’s predicament is that unrighteous violence is often promoted by allegedly righteous people. But shame on the Pope for unwittingly adding his voice to the chorus that simplistically implicates organized religion as the cause for people engaging in violence, terrorism, and/or war (hereinafter referred to as VTW). I know the Pope didn’t have that in mind when he made his blunder. But such thinking, for those who do have it in mind, is similar to the immature logic of a beginning statistics student who’s struggling to realize two variables can be mathematically correlated (such as breathing and contracting cancer) but not factually connected. As our student advances and matures, s/he will learn that easily perceived potential relationships often don’t bear out after more thorough investigation.
Indeed, the real cause of VTW is usually “sincere” devotion to any cause-including religion, but also politics, doctrine, purism/dogma, jealousy, greed, intra- and inter-family disputes, etc. Whatever the cause for most VTW incidents, the bottom line is they initially materialized because of sincere people – at least that’s how they started out. Then, their sincerity goes unchecked (in too many cases, sincere people allow themselves to be manipulated by self-serving politicians, generals, or wanna-be’s) and becomes fanaticism. And presto, we now have violence, terrorism, and/or war on our hands.
So my message for the Pope is: Correction: Unchecked sincerity, leading to fanaticism, is the problem. This causes some – Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Communists, radicals, liberals, conservatives, reactionaries, patriots, rebels, disciples, true-believers or anybody – to decide that disagreement with them is tantamount to treason and they’re willing to kill people for their cause. Those demented fanatics (who are empowered by reliance on deceptive labels like these) are the ones who promote their cause with the sword.
Reflecting on that reality we marvel: Isn’t it interesting that “sincerity” is a tool the Lord uses to accomplish His work, while the same tool can be misused by Satan to effectuate his evil purposes.
The message for each of us, (Indeed, Pope Benedict, this will turn out to be a good lesson after all. Thank you!) is, “To thine own self be true” is a great maxim, but most fanatics who promote their cause with the sword sincerely believe they’re living that slogan. That’s manipulation either of the “thine own self” part, or the “true” part. As the Beatles sang, “You can get it wrong and still you think that it’s all right,” (in the song “We Can Work it Out”).
But does all this really matter to each of us at our atomic level? “Yes,” we teachers tell our students, “You never know what effects you have on the global molecules around you.” And, we add with hope in our eyes, “If a cancer can start with one cell, why not the cure?”
So let’s get it right. All of us and each of us. Hopefully, (1) we’re all engaged in some thing(s) in which we sincerely believe, and act accordingly; and (2) as we encounter those who promote various causes, they’ll be sincere. But let there be no manipulation as we regularly (daily?) check our sincerity to “our own self” and to “truth.” Yes, sincerity is great, wonderful, and important. But in today’s world we need more.
Davy McClay and his wife just moved to Logan, Utah. He just retired as a National Board Certified elementary teacher, mentor teacher and teacher trainer in Los Angeles with advanced degrees in education. He also taught part-time at the Michael D. Eisner College of Education at California State University, Northridge. He’ll be teaching elementary education classes at USU starting January 2007.