In his novel Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie wrote that there was no such thing as absolute security, only “varying degrees of insecurity.” Rushdie, under a fatwa for his book The Satanic Verses, written more than 30 years ago, understood that and at first lived a life of secrecy but then of openness, defying religious extremism.
Religious extremism has many voices, many faces, from the man who stabbed Rushdie in an attempt to kill him to the anti-abortionist who shot and killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998 and the Westco Baptist Church demonstrations outside the funerals of soldiers.
It also shows its face in the ultra-Orthodox politicians in the new Israeli government, bent on destroying any vestige of Palestinian rights in Israel and the West Bank. This extremism attacks both Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land, but caught in a tradition of supporting Israel, our government has been noticeably silent. No matter from whom, religious extremism should not and cannot be tolerated.
Prayer for the Day
Redeeming God, who we cannot see but whose presence we feel,
Let us not be complacent when we see evil in the world;
Empowering God who speaks to us through your Holy Spirit,
May we respond to the anger of extremism spoken in your name.
Grant us, we pray, the strength to act against violence
And enable us to be peacemakers in a world of increasing intolerance.
In the name of the One who calls us to peace,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
- Blaise Pascal, French philosopher (1623-1662)
Faith minus vulnerability and mystery equals extremism. If you’ve got all the answers, then don’t call what you do faith.
- Brene Brown, American professor and author
For fear is nothing but a giving up of the helps that come from reason;
And hope, defeated by this inward weakness,
Prefers ignorance of what causes the torment.
Wisdom of Solomon 17: 12-13