Churches called to counter religious intolerance and violence
by
Philip Jenks
"Never has theological confusion and bigotry been expressed
so openly and
publicly." The comment, on manifestations of religious
intolerance in the
days immediately following the September 11 (2001) terror
attacks in the
USA, was made by Dr Diana L. Eck of Harvard University and
Harvard Divinity
School.
Speaking at a three-day (3-5 October 2002)
"ecumenical conversation" on
Orthodox churches and pluralism, Eck cited
several cases of attacks against
US Muslims after September 11. "Getting to
know each other has profound
theological dimensions," she said. And concluded
that the church, especially
in the USA, must assume a higher profile in
defending minority human rights.
Hosted by Holy Cross dean Rev. Emmanuel
Clapsis, the "ecumenical
conversation" was held at the Holy Cross Greek
Orthodox School of Theology
in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. The event was
organized in cooperation
with the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Boston
Theological Institute
and Initiatives in Religion and Public Life of Harvard
Divinity School.
Contributors included Orthodox scholars and hierarchs, and
Protestant and
Anglican theologians, including WCC general secretary Rev. Dr
Konrad Raiser.
Pluralism
The tone was established at the outset in
a keynote address by Archbishop
Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox
Church in America. The standard of
pluralism, said Demetrios, was set two
millennia ago when the Apostle Paul
confessed that he had become "all things
to all men, that I might by all
means save some." (I Corinthians
9:22)
For Demetrios, "pluralism" refers to the wide variety of cultures
and
religions in a world where the poor and oppressed still vastly outnumber
the
rich and powerful. As television, computers and other mass media
bring
people more information about each other, theologians are wondering
how
tenets of ancient faiths may be affected.
"If we were to attach a
label to Saint Paul's approach to evangelism,"
Demetrios said, "we might call
it 'personal pluralism.'" He encouraged
Orthodox Christians to practice
a "parish pluralism, being all things to all
people" to create a "unity in
diversity that could be a model for our whole
society."
Professor
Richard Falk, an international law expert from Princeton
University, noted
that power centres are shifting dramatically in what he
called the
"post-modern world". In the past, power was held by
"territorial
sovereign states". But now power is moving increasingly to
potent networks
he described as "high finance, criminal or terrorist".
Out of that shift
has come a growing awareness of a worldwide resurgence of
religion.
According to Falk, "The Iranian revolution was absolutely
unexpected, only
slightly less of a shock to policy-makers than September
11." He also cited
Hindu activism in India, Christian fundamentalism in
the United States,
Muslim fundamentalism and other movements that cause
people to think of
religion as a "menace". One of the challenges facing
the church is the
widespread fear "that making religion relevant is an
invitation to religious
extremism," Falk observed.
But religion is
necessary to provide a moral counterpoint to godless
capitalism, he
said. The church "needs to address poverty as an urgent
priority.
It is an intolerable condition from a spiritual perspective.
Most people live
on $2 a day while a very few make millions."
Professor Christos Yannaras
of Panteion University in Greece described the
contribution of ancient Greeks
to human rights, and suggested that continued
support for the notion is an
Orthodox legacy. "It is no accident," he said,
"that the first
apostolic [created by the apostles of Christ] Christian
communities" were
based on the Greek political model, or "ecclesia".
The church and
violence
In a presentation on violence and religion in pluralistic societies,
WCC
general secretary Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser described some of the challenges
of
the WCC's Decade to Overcome Violence, among them the fact that many
people
see ambiguities in the Christian message of peace and
nonviolence.
"The Bible, which in large part is common to Christians and
Jews, is full of
stories of violence and of violent images even with
reference to God," he
said. "At the very least, the Bible presents a
very realistic picture of
the potential of violence in human
life."
But "violence is not innate in human nature," Raiser said.
"Humans are
capable of transforming the destructive energy of violence into
a
constructive force nurturing life."
In reply, Rev. Stanley Samuel
Harakas, professor emeritus at Holy Cross,
suggested that the New Testament
paradox between peace and violence would
probably remain "paradoxical".
Even so, he said, "the church's task is to
do everything in its power to
minimize, and make unnecessary, the resort to
violence, coercion, the 'use of
the sword', or the unnecessary use of
'necessary evil'."
"There is no
doubt in my mind that the church has frequently been coopted to
support wars
and violence in ways that do it no honour," Harakas said.
"Yet, I think that
it is also too easy to ignore the truth that the church
has sought frequently
to stand at the side of its people in times of
oppression, injustice, attack
and subjugation. While appealing to peace...
it has stood together with
its people in their suffering and defeat."
At the end of the meeting,
Archbishop Demetrios characterized the three-day
ecumenical conversation as
an "act whereby we create the very thing we are
talking about. We are living
out, albeit in a small way, Orthodox values and
priorities in a pluralistic
world through this conversation with members of
the wider American and
international theological community. We are not
merely talking
theologically; to borrow a modern expression, we are truly
'producing
theology' by the words that we exchange here in a spirit of
mutual respect,
interest and love."
For a full list of participants and complete copies
of papers, see the Greek
Orthodox Archdiocese Web page at
http://www.goarch.org/en/special/hchc_conference/
Philip Jenks is communications officer in the US office of the World
Council
of Churches, based in New York.
For further information,
please contact the Media Relations Office, tel: +41
(0)22 791 64
21
**********
Title: WCC Churches called to counter religious
intolerance and violence
Feature 02-17 9 October
2002
**********
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of
churches, now 342, in
more than 100 countries in all continents from
virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member
church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is
the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was
formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is
headed by
general secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in
Germany.
World Council of Churches
Media Relations Office
Tel: (41
22) 791 6153 / 791 6421
Fax: (41 22) 798 1346
E-mail:
media@wcc-coe.org
Web: www.wcc-coe.org
PO Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2,
Switzerland
|
