I teach at a small private women's college in Japan. This school is a Christian school, but it isn't too heavy handed vis a vis religion. It doesn't proselytize to students and seeks to just offer opportunities for students to learn about Christianity. Every day there is a 20 minute Chapel Hour and Wednesday Chapel is led by one faculty member. Chapel Hour begins with a hymn, then a brief message (15 minutes or so) based on the hymn, and then a closing hymn.
I was nervous about this because I'm not a Christian. I've never been asked directly if I'm a Christian but I've been asked about my relationship with Christianity. As a child I went to a Lutheran church and was confirmed. I moved away soon after that and didn't go to church anymore. I'm not anti-religion as a rule but I do have problems with a lot of how religious belief is conducted.
But I wanted to do a good job and be sincere at Chapel Hour. I did want to take advantage of the opportunity to talk to students and get them to think about something. I finally settled on the following message. I think it was a good one and I got a number of compliments on it from many of the devout people from the school. They felt that I had dealt with an important and sensitive subject in a productive and needed way. I was satisfied with it.
Hymn: Onward Christian Soldiers
Verses:
Leviticus 24: 17-20
17 " 'If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone's animal must make restitution-life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.
Matthe w 5: 38-42
38"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'[1] 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Good Morning. Thank you all for coming. Today's hymn and verse are a little bit at odds with each other and I want to talk about the role of violence in religion. We hear a lot about religious violence these days and it is an important issue to think about. I know that most of you are not Christians and I want to show you how Christianity still has important lessons for you that can help you learn and live.
Onward Christian Soldiers contains a strong sentiment. Most people in America know at least the first two lines of this song: Onward Christian Soldiers, Marching as to war. It seems very militant and violent. Is this Christianity?
I'd like to read another verse to you, from the old testament:
If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.
Here again we see a strong sentiment coming from the Bible: If someone hurts you, hurt them back. Is this really the word of God?
Some people believe that Jesus came to Earth to give us extra teachings, that people needed a little extra help at that time. He talked about many ideas and gave us many suggestions for living our lives, including today's verse:
You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
There is more, actually. Jesus goes on to say:
And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
So what is Jesus saying here? If someone needs help, give it to them, and give them everything they need and more. If someone is violent to you, it is clear that they need help. They are angry, desperate, in fear. We are told to love one another as ourselves. Love and caring for others is the real message here.
Taken out of context, without understanding the environment and background, some of the words of the Bible or the songs in the chapel or even the actions of people of faith can appear to be very negative or wrong. People who believe in God still make mistakes: it is called sin. Many times people do not realize that they are sinning and they often think they are doing the right thing. But people make mistakes.
The Bible is often said to be the word of God, but this is only partly correct. It is the word of god as spoken from the mouths of men, and we know that people make mistakes.
Hundreds of years ago, the Church did many bad things. Wars were started in the name of god and many people were killed and needlessly died. The Church killed many people by burning them to death because they seemed strange. But these actions weren't what God wanted or what God asks for. These were mistakes made by people in the name of god. They thought they were doing the right thing, but they were mistaken.
God has given us free will and reason, the power to think. These are powerful and precious gifts, and we must use them. If God communicates and speaks directly to people, it is a personal conversation. He expects us to think about what other people say on his behalf though, kind of like insurance. God gave us the ability to identify when people are making mistakes and expects us to do that.
Religions all over the world share a few basic ideas: Peace, love, respect. We are told that God is the final judge of our behavior and that we are not supposed to judge others. That is God's job. We are expected to think about God's teachings on our own, but it is not our duty to punish people who violate God's desires.
But we have seen in the past and see today many people who do just that. I think most people here have heard about jihad. Jihad is the Islamic belief that recognizes that being true to the faith is a difficult task, a struggle, a battle, even a war. People must fight that personal war to be good and true and pure and peaceful. Jihad isn't about war or terrorism or suicide bombing, not at all. Onward Christian Soldiers is a song about jihad, actually.
But many people are not following the truth path of God. We see many people who believe in God but who are full of hatred and anger, who are judging others. These people sometimes look to the Bible or other religious texts for support. They can find passages like the first verse I read to you about an eye for an eye and then feel that they can punish people on their own. But the full message has to be read, and we have to understand it. We have to recognize that religious texts are mixed with the mistakes that people make and we have to be careful not to mix these two.
An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind eventually. Problems are not solved by duplicating them. Doing something wrong to someone who did something wrong only ends up with 2 wrong actions instead of 1.
Whether you are Christian or not, Muslim or not, Jewish or not, Buddhist or not, the basic ideas of peace, love, and respect for each other are equally useful and appealing. All of these religions are based on these ideas. We have to remember that this is the true meaning and the true message of God. We cannot be distracted when people say they are acting in the name of God but then do bad things like the Crusades or suicide bombing. That is not religion, that is personal anger and hatred. These actions are failures to heed the teachings of the Almighty.
I realize that some of you may not understand this discussion today, but please understand this. All religions teach love and happiness and respect. Anyone who says otherwise isn't following God, they are following themselves. Do not judge everyone by the actions of a few who make mistakes.
Thank you.
Comments are always welcome.
Posted by Nutrimentia at July 22, 2004 07:28 PM | TrackBack