Ending Religious Violence

Robert Traer

The greatest religious problem today has to do with the violence of God in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures. For centuries Jews, Christians and Muslims have looked to their scriptures to justify violence and war. Recently these stories of God have had an enormous impact on world events, for violence in the name of God is on the rise. Thus, we might well conclude that the God of these three scriptures is implicated in the terror and tragedy of our time.

Nevertheless, when we talk with Jews, Christians and Muslims, we carefully refrain from drawing such a conclusion. Instead, we celebrate the teachings in each scripture that affirm peace and reconciliation. In discussing the world's problems, we speak of the misuse of religion by those who simply hope to gain economic and political advantages. Our strategy for promoting peace is cooperation among religious people, and the price of this cooperation is keeping silent about religious beliefs that claim to justify the violence of God.

Yet, we cannot ignore the violence of God in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures. For those who worship a violent God are, not surprisingly, often violent in the name of God.

God in Three Scriptures

The story of God in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), the Christian Bible, and the Qur'an begins in the Bible with God creating the universe and human beings in "God's image." When Adam and Eve use their freedom to do what they like, rather than choosing what God commands, God punishes them for their disobedience and expels them from paradise. Moreover, God punishes the descendants of Adam and Eve for living sinfully by sending a flood to kill everyone on earth, sparing only the family of Noah because he is a righteous man.

In the Bible story a rainbow is said to be a sign of God's repentance for the devastation of the flood, but God does not renounce the use of violence on earth. Instead, God chooses the Israelites to be a covenant people and frees them from slavery by slaughtering the armies of Pharaoh. In the biblical narrative God kills rebels among the Israelites, who resist the leadership of Moses, and then God commits genocide among the tribes of Canaan to make room on the land for the covenant people.

Later in the Tanakh God uses violence to judge the descendants of the Israelites for failing to keep the covenant. When Assyrian and Babylonian armies invade the land, kill and rape, take slaves, and burn cities, prophets in the Bible proclaim that God has sent these conquering armies against the people as their punishment for breaking the covenant. If the people repent, the prophets say, God will defeat their enemies and renew their sovereign nation. Yet, five centuries after the end of their exile in Babylon, the covenant people continue to suffer under harsh foreign rule.

Therefore, the story in Jewish scripture ends with agonizing reflections about why God has not returned to earth to free the covenant people. Hoping by their faith and courage to stir God to save them, as the Tanakh relates that God saved their ancestors, Jews revolt against Roman rule in 66 CE and again in 132 CE. These rebellions, however, are crushed by Roman legions, and Jews are crucified by the thousands and finally expelled from Jerusalem. With the Jews, we can only wonder why the God of the Tanakh, who frees the covenant people from slavery in ancient Egypt, does not free the Jewish people from oppression under Roman rule.

At the time of the Jewish rebellions, other Jews are engaged in a nonviolent resistance movement to Roman imperial power. Jesus of Nazareth and his followers discern in Jewish scripture, in the Torah and the Prophets and the Writings of the Hebrew Bible, that God has chosen to renounce violence for the sake of humanity.

The Jesus movement inspires a new chapter in the story of God, which is related in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. In the crucifixion of Jesus by Roman soldiers, the church finds confirmation that God has renounced violence in history. For God does not come to earth to slaughter the Romans and save Jesus. Instead, God resists evil by dying as a Jew who urged his followers to love their enemies in order to be like God, who "causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust." In this story there is hope that even those who kill in the name of God may be forgiven.

Yet, Christians also revise and expand the vision in Jewish scripture of God's final and everlasting judgment. The gospels, Paul's letters, and the Revelation to John in the New Testament all include passages proclaiming that God will bring history to an end in order to provide heavenly rewards for the righteous and hellish punishments for the unrighteous. It is both tragic and ironic that Christians, who proclaim salvation through the self-sacrificing "death of God" as Christ, also promise that at the end of time God will punish evildoers with everlasting violence.

The courage of Christian martyrs, who are slaughtered for refusing to recognize the Roman emperor as God, strengthens the witness of the church, and early in the fourth century the emperor joins those he is unable to defeat and converts to Christianity. With access to imperial power, bishops put aside their nonviolent witness and violently suppress Christians opposing the authority of the imperial church. As Jews believed the God of the covenant used violence to punish them, Christians believe the God of the Roman Empire uses violence to enforce allegiance to church and state.

Yet, the story of God does not end with these imperial "justifications" for religious violence. In Arabia, Muhammad hears the angel Gabriel speaking for God to the world. The words of Muhammad inspire a religious movement and, when written down after Muhammad's death, these words are read as scripture. The story of God in the Qur'an seeks to correct and complete the prior revelations of God in the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

In the Qur'an God reaffirms the commandment given Jews and Christians to worship only God and also the God-given freedom of each person to respond to God's call by choosing the right path. But in the Qur'an God sees as idolatrous the devotion of Jews and Christians to their separate scriptures and religions. Moreover, in the Qur'an God rejects every use of religious and political power that restricts our freedom to respond to God's call.

The Qur'an proclaims that all of God's messengers, including those in the Jewish and Christian scriptures, have called for repentance in the name of the one God, who forgives every person who repents. But like the New Testament, the Qur'an also promises that God will judge everyone at the end of time, bringing to a heavenly paradise those who are just and condemning to a fiery hell those who are not. The God of the Qur'an is full of compassion for everyone who repents, but will be violent on the last day with everyone who has turned from the straight path.

Divine Judgment

In the following centuries Muslims, Christians and Jews look to their scriptures to justify the ruthless use of their own religious and political power. There is, however, more in this history than human error and religious terror. There is also a fundamental flaw in the story of God.

In Jewish, Christian and Muslim scripture, God is violent because humans expect God to be just. We want to believe that living a good life will be rewarded, if not in this life then in some other life or at the end of all life. Furthermore, we want to believe that evildoers will be punished for the harm they have done. When history does not yield the justice we believe we ought to receive, then we find beliefs about God's judgment almost irresistible.

What we fail to understand is that our desire for justice guarantees God's violence. This is so not only in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim story of God, but is also a problem with the very idea of God. We attribute both power and goodness to God, because this is what God means to us. But if God is both almighty and good, then God cannot ignore evil. We cannot believe in a God who watches evil happening but does nothing about it. If God is to be God, we believe God must in some way judge those who have done what is wrong.

In scripture and history, therefore, God is usually identified with some punishing earthly power, either religious or political or both. This is the way of holy war, crusades, inquisitions, religious wars, the Christian and Muslim conquests and colonization of other peoples, the American myth of "manifest destiny," and violent jihad. Yet, we know that religious and political claims to speak and act for God are for human glory, rather than the glory of God. And we know that those who claim to find justification in scripture for violence against their enemies also ignore God's call to be compassionate and merciful.

When it seems there is no justice in history, then Jews, Christians and Muslims have looked for God's judgment of good and evil in another realm or at the end of time. This religious belief is less dangerous than the self-righteous claim to be God's instrument of wrath on earth. The idea that judgment should be left to God alone, and that God has chosen to delay justice perhaps even until the history is over, should free us to have more reasonable expectations about the use of religious and political power. By leaving judgment to God, we need not assume ultimate responsibility for defeating evil and for righting every wrong.

Nonetheless, this hope in God's final reckoning continues to affirm that God's justice involves violent punishment. Today there are Jews, Christians and Muslims who believe they can discern in scripture what needs to happen before God will judge the nations. These religious fanatics are so eager to bring about God's final reckoning that they condone violence in the name of God. Their turn to terror reveals that we cannot rely on belief in God's ultimate judgment to put an end to religious violence on earth.

History and scripture, however, offer at least three alternatives. We might practice a religious discipline that does not involve God. We might embrace humanist ideals and a more pluralist way of life. We might read scripture as inspired literature, rather than as God's revealed will. Each of these options offers a choice for many of us today.

Our Choices

Buddhist practice is the most prominent example of a non-theistic religious alternative. The historical Buddha offered a path that does not require any belief in God, and Buddhist teachings focus on the impermanence of all that is. Being a Buddhist seems to be the ideal answer to the problem of God's violence. For if there is no belief in or relationship to God, there cannot be any expectation of God's violent judgment on those who have done evil.

Yet, Buddhist literature and art is filled with images of "pure" lands and places of torment, which remind a Westerner of heaven and hell in the story of God. Moreover, Buddhists have not always resisted the use of violence by governments and empires. Attempts today in Japan to revive the imperial cult confront Japanese Buddhists with an important challenge. And impatience among younger Tibetans with the Dalai Lama's nonviolent resistance to Chinese imperialism poses a difficult test for Tibetan Buddhist leaders.

Buddhist practice is no guarantee, but offers a powerful alternative to the story of God, which has been used to justify so much violence in the past three millennia. Therefore, the Buddhist witness to nonviolence today is of enormous importance for the world, and we may hope that more people will embrace this way of life.

We may hope as well for a renewal of humanist ideals. With deep roots in both Eastern and Western cultures, humanist writings have long advocated the just use of political and economic power. Confucian and Taoist teachings continue to have influence not only in China, but also among Koreans and Japanese. And the remarkable story of Confucius relating how he traveled and taught the principles of good government and honorable life throughout China has gained an admiring audience in the West.

Some characterize these humanist traditions as "religious," but in contrast to theistic traditions these humanist teachings emphasize harmony in human life rather than submitting to God's will and hoping for divine justice. Whether "religious" or not, these Eastern teachings offer a striking contrast to the story of God that has flourished in Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultures and now dominates much of the world.

In the West, Greek ideas about truth and human tragedy, as well as the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Roman writers who reflected on Greek thought, continue to be the core of humanist education. Socrates is celebrated as a model citizen for acknowledging the sovereignty of the Athenian Senate, although he believed its decision to put him to death was unjust. God or the gods are often acknowledged in this tradition, but the emphasis of humanist thought is on understanding human life and promoting civil society.

We must acknowledge that the Hellenistic Greek and Roman empires employed brutal violence to gain and maintain control over subject peoples. As with Buddhist teachings and practice, humanist ideals do not necessarily end or even reduce human violence. Nonetheless, humanist teachings about religious freedom and a secular state have helped to secure the political freedoms that today in our pluralist societies are the foundation of democratic government. Surely these humanist ideals are worthy of our continued support.

Yet, even as pluralist societies have flourished, so have Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities of faith. And some of these condemn other religious groups, teaching that God will judge all those who resist the truth they claim to have received.

In America Christian political leaders openly affirm God's blessing, as they kill terrorists and deny the human rights of those believed to threaten American security. Moreover, evangelists on radio and television spread fear by proclaiming that God's final judgment is close at hand. In the Middle East both Jews and Muslims justify killing and maiming in the name of God.

Therefore, to end religious violence we may need to read the story of God in scripture as revered literature, rather than as God's revelation. This would mean reading the story of God as our story. It would mean accepting that human interpretation and the limitations of knowledge shape religious language, like all human language. It would mean admitting that we cannot know God's will with certainty, but have learned from history and scripture that violence in the name of God does not lead to peace and justice.

Reading Jewish, Christian and Muslim scripture as revered literature need not mean ignoring the religious traditions that have preserved these scriptures. But as such a reading of scripture encourages freedom as we engage the story of God, we may see new meanings and not merely find texts that seem to verify our convictions. Interpreting scripture as inspired and inspiring literature may contribute to the ongoing debate within each religious community of faith, as to the meaning of these writings for our life together today.

Such a reading of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures will allow us to see scripture as the story of one God. We will see that this story reaffirms God's freedom as well as God's hope that all people will use their freedom wisely. The God who is free and who chooses to be good can be known by us, because God makes us free to know God and also free to live with faith and righteousness. In the story of God, it is our freedom that gives us the responsibility to resolve God's problem and also the possibility of doing so.

For All of Us

The problem of violence in the story of God cannot be left to God. For Jews, for Christians, and for Muslims this means having sufficient faith in God to allow God to renounce violence for our sake. The God, who has used violence in scripture, must be understood as free to choose nonviolence in seeking justice for us all.

The story of God proclaims that God has made us free in the image of God, and in our freedom we are able to discern that our hope for divine judgment is self-serving. We seek divine justice not simply because we want God's will to be done, but because we want vengeance. We would justify ourselves through the violence of God against our enemies.

For God to renounce violence, we must renounce violence in the name of God. Jews, Christians and Muslims are called now by the God of their scriptures to live together in peace, so wars may cease and violence may be limited by the rule of law.

Those who embrace the story of God must persuade members of their own religious faith that God has renounced violence on earth, and that being faithful means renouncing violence in the name of God. Jews, Christians and Muslims should proclaim that the one free God is doing something new for the sake of all humanity. Men and women of diverse religious and cultural traditions are called now to work for peace and justice on earth.

This may mean that dialogue among Jews, and among Christians, and among Muslims is more important than interfaith dialogue involving them all, as well as members of other religious traditions. Most likely this will be the case for countries where people have strong memories of religious conflict, or where political power supports a religious agenda.

I recall several years ago speaking privately with a Muslim religious leader in Pakistan, who agreed that his country's law making blasphemy a capital offense was not supported by the Qur'an, and also that this law was the cause of much injustice. He told me he was working to persuade other Muslims that they could support a change in the law, as good Muslims. But he said that for this reason he could not participate in any form of interfaith activity, because this sort of cooperation with non-Muslims would undermine his credibility among his own people.

Those of us who live in more pluralist societies need to understand that the Western style of international interfaith activities is often resented and resisted in more conservative countries, especially where there is an established religious community. In these cultures, involving religious leaders in interfaith activities may undermine their ability to moderate the more aggressive teachings of their religious traditions. Therefore, we should expect only that these religious leaders work within their own communities to discourage the use of violence in the name of God.

Contributing to Peace

There are, of course, innumerable ways of contributing to peace in the world. People of all religious traditions and humanists contribute greatly by supporting the rule of law at home and abroad. Urging governments to strengthen the United Nations is a significant choice each of us can make. Supporting international human rights law is another way people with diverse beliefs can collaborate to secure greater respect for the human dignity of every person.

If we live in pluralist societies, it may be that supporting interfaith activities will be an effective way of making our contribution. If we live in more traditional or conservative societies, we will probably be more successful by working with civic organizations or by supporting the human rights programs or peace activities of our religious communities.

All of us, however, have choices, and among these choices are ways of using our freedom to reduce the violence in our world.

Certainly, there is no one understanding of religion or God, or no one set of beliefs or actions, that will resolve the problem of violence in the human story of God. The violence attributed to God is reflected in the violence of human civilizations, even as the human desire for vengeance and justice is projected onto God. Yet, a new reading of the story of God in Jewish, Christian and Muslim scripture may free us to see that God has renounced violence for the sake of humanity. And if God has renounced violence, then we should end all violence in the name of God.

In the story of God in Jewish, Christian and Muslim scripture, God calls us to repent. In all three versions of this story, God offers forgiveness for those who work for reconciliation on earth. The God who leaves justice and peace to humanity is a God who trusts us to use our freedom wisely. May we now accept our responsibility to put an end to religious violence.

Published in Dharma World (Jan./Feb. 2004, vol. 31), pp.9-13.

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1 in Faith: A Christian Bible Study † Copyright © 2000 by Robert Traer