Religion and Conflict

The belief is common that religion is the main cause of wars and conflicts. Didn’t religion cause 9/11, leading to the Afghan and Iraqi wars? What about the Crusades? The Palestinian/Israeli conflict? Strife between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland?

Studying history, I doubt religion has been the main cause of conflicts. I don’t think the Romans conquered the Mediterranean basin to spread the religion of Jupiter. Surely the movement of the Germanic peoples against the Roman Empire wasn’t any desire to inflict Woden on others nor the appearance of the Huns an attempt to spread their religious beliefs.

Most struggles throughout history, from Asia to Africa to South America and Europe had to do with the desire for territory and wealth and control. In World Wars I and II, coalitions fought over land and empire. Even recent and current conflicts in the Middle East continue more for reasons of security, ethnicity, and control for one’s tribal space than for actual religious beliefs, couched though the conflicts might be in religious terms.

The Crusades of the Middle Ages are often cited as Christianity against Islam. Religious elements certainly were involved, and some did join the Crusades from religious zeal. However, the desire for wealth and power probably propelled more of the participants. Likewise the spread of Islam throughout formerly “Christian” lands.

Certainly the Crusades would be judged evil by the founder of Christianity. Jesus would not allow his disciples to take swords in his defense. Would such a person approve the Crusades?

The enlightenment era of early modern times often is cited as rationalism overcoming religious superstition. Its advocates say scientific advances have benefited humankind more than any movement before it.

That science has benefited us surely no one denies. Yet, the Holocaust happened in Germany, a nation that accepted the enlightenment as deeply as any nation. Britain spawned Methodism and influenced the western world to abolish slavery.

 

Ruins and Renewal

Tunisia, where I lived for three years, is full of Roman ruins. A small country in North Africa, Tunisia is home to the site of ancient Carthage. Throughout millennia, Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, and French arrived, conquered for a while, and left their imprint. One gains the impression that every stone in the country has been used many times over for the buildings of each civilization. The Roman ones, however, are especially impressive.

Many of the church fathers, Augustine among them, at one time lived in Carthage and other parts of North Africa. Augustine wrote his famous City of God while serving as bishop of Hippo in what is now Algeria, a neighbor to Tunisia. He died there as barbarian Vandals besieged his city, harbinger of yet another conqueror.

Tunisia has a long history both of Rome’s rule and early Christian communities. Drive up into the hills of northern Tunisia and you will see the ruins of both. Visit Dugga, a Roman town. You can wander on the paved streets, study mosaics still visible in villas of rich Romans, and marvel at the still magnificent walls of temples to various Roman deities. On a little hillside of the town are the ruins of an early Christian church.

Neither the Roman temples nor the Christian church have adherents today. Shepherds herd their sheep through the ruins. Wind whistles around the fallen stones of temples and church alike.

Wandering through the site, I wondered when the last Christian had worshiped in the little church. Christianity disappeared from North Africa, except for Egypt, sometime during Europe’s Middle Ages. As one author put it, the descendants of the Christians now are Muslims.

At its beginning, Christianity passed from Jerusalem to the rest of the Roman Empire, to Europe and Russia, even China, finally to North and South America and Australia and the uttermost parts of the earth. Along the way, however, it receded in some regions, including the region which birthed it.

Christendom’s long reign in Europe appears to be over. Though the great cathedrals are not yet ruins, they no longer appear centers of a vibrant faith.

In North America, Christianity has lost much of its influence. The nonreligious segment of the population appears to be the fastest growing. The center of Christianity heads southward to Africa and South America and eastward to Asia.

Over time, the cultural Christians of North Africa left the religion of their ancestors and joined the dominant Muslim religion. So, too, may the cultural Christians of North America join the dominant religion of the “nonreligious,” unless Christians create true resurrection communities. True Christians are subversives in any culture of materialism and self-aggrandizement.

 

Reaping from our Economic Sowing

Our semi-rural, island community of a few thousand has been hit hard by the recession. A few stores have shut their doors, and our drugstore, here for decades, consolidated with a branch in another town.

Only a couple of years ago, modest homes sold quickly for half a million dollars. Now, For Sale signs fade in the weather.

Some say the slowdown is not all bad. The development that threatened to pave over the remaining farms and forests of our island with second homes has all but halted. I enjoy knowing that the farm up the road probably won’t be sold anytime soon, and I can continue to walk by and watch the cows and lambs grazing.

I’m concerned, however, for construction workers and others laid off because of the downturn. What can we do to overcome the cycles of boom and bust?

We rejoice when the economy expands and good jobs are available. New housing appears as a sign of a healthy economy.

But arable land to build on is not infinite, and much of the new building erases valuable farm land. Are we expecting the economy to spiral upward forever? To always sell more goods and services?

Can’t someone come up with an economic model that sustains a comfortable economic level without constantly producing more and more and building more and bigger houses?

As I understand it, the last economic boom was fueled by a lot of us buying things we couldn’t afford. Most of that buying was on credit.

Tragedies and unforseen events can force any of us into debt. We’re all vulnerable to such possibilities.

But much of the past credit splurge was for things we could easily have done without, at least until we had saved money to buy them. Perhaps it’s part of the current mentality that infects us. A mistaken notion that because we want it, we should have it and have it right now.

We were blessed in the past few decades in this country to have wealth that had no precedent in human history, spread over a large percentage of the population.

We could have used the vast wealth that accrued to us since the Second World War to eliminate hunger, to build the best school system in the world, and to build liveable cities. We chose to spend our patrimony on three-car-garage houses, Hummers, big screen TV’s, the latest gadgets, and more super highways.

Now we’re paying the price. We bought on credit, and we’re paying huge interest, beyond the value of the initial purchases.

We could change, though. We could learn things like self-discipline, responsibility, and sharing. Perhaps. If we are willing to leave the days of glut behind us. Forever.