Please stop the horrors
If you identify as a member of one of the Abrahamic religions, thank you for reading.
I got no dogs in this race, but it affects me nonetheless.
I expect that many Christians are taught, and possibly believe, that the world-wide dominance of Christianity is due to the loving and peaceful nature of the Christians and their god. This is absolutely not so.
At the very beginning of its rise in popularity, it was more or less that. Among other things, it gave Roman slaves a justification for refusing certain duties, notably sex. I find it disturbing that the Roman slaves were treated so badly that large numbers of them would willingly choose abstinence. Imagine how terrible a house would need to be for people to decide that braving the elements is better. So it was good to get them out of that situation, but things have changed.
As soon as the powermongers realized the utility of Christian ideology for supporting imperial goals, things changed quite a lot. If you are not already familiar with The Crusades and the Inquisitions, please take a moment to familiarize yourself. The ‘peace’ enjoyed by many in the West is really a Pax Romana.
That is, once you’ve killed or subjugated everyone else, then you have something you might call ‘peace.’ But, it’s really just a lack of violence. I say this because the maintenance of that sort of ‘peace’ requires constant threats: violence, economic ruin, ostracization, imprisonment, etc. Once the powermongers can write the laws, they call the situation ‘peace.’ Then they enforce their hegemony in a nice, civilized manner, employing police, prisons, judges and executioners rather than overt military actions. Well, most of the time (🖤LA). From their point of view, it is peace. For anyone who disagrees, it is something very different.
To restate that in the current context, if a group, religious or not, has to change laws, hire1 a rogue president, terrorize local legislators2, and declare dissenters insane or worse, just so that they can keep people obeying their arbitrary rules of behavior, the problem is almost certainly not the people. Modern Christians, among other groups, use these tools to maintain their advantage. Some of them are especially enthusiastic about forcing dominance.
In the US, until recently, things were getting a lot better. When I was 10, Mom moved us to Montgomery, AL. The place was dominated by blue laws. A few drug stores were open for a few hours on Sundays, but nothing else was open other than hospitals and churches. Mom joked “they roll up the sidewalks at night.” Having recently lived in the far more enlightened New Orleans, that was culture shock despite considering myself Christian at the time. When I finally left Montgomery at 21, things had improved significantly, but I still found the city, and most of Alabama, to be far too oppressive for comfort. I decided against graduate school at Texas A&M, despite the fact that they had two(!) cyclotrons, because College Station reminded me too much of Montgomery. I couldn’t bear more of it.
The current administration, being mainly supported by people who want to Make America Christian Again, is ramping up the oppression rapidly. I will defend the rights of Christians to live according to their values. I will not defend attempts to force everyone else to live according to Christian values. Personally, I do not share a large number of their values. The one I find the most disgusting is the desire of some of them to have the US use and support violence in order to help them fulfill certain prophecies. This article, though nominally about the bombing of Iran, describes the religious motivations behind many of their policies. If you read the article, it will help if you know that the Temple Mount is in Palestine.
The United States exists, famously, because some people were tired of being forced to behave according to the requirements of a religious ideology that they did not agree with. At the time, that religious community couldn’t have easily been anything other than a variant of Christianity because being anything else would probably have gotten them killed. Ya know, like in any ‘peaceful’ society. Since the only remotely safe choice at the time was Christianity, claims about America being a “Christian” nation ring hollow and smell of tyranny. And, famously, England did not respond with “You do you! We’ve got your backs!”
It is worth noting that the Crusades continued through the 17th century. But their earliest targets were, drumroll please, all about Jerusalem. At the time, it was under Muslim control, certainly not with the approval of the Jews, though it was the Romans who originally took the city from them. There were also widespread massacres of Jews by the Christians.
The three factions haven’t stopped fighting yet.
I think it is pointless to wade into the quicksand of concern over who started what. No one alive today was around when conflict began or is to blame for the current state of affairs.
The people alive today do have the opportunity to create real peace.
For such a holy site, I think it is tragic that so many human lives have been sacrificed, and are still being sacrificed, on its behalf. How about making the site be owned, cooperatively, by all three religious communities3? The site can then be purified by vowing to never have another person murdered for its sake. For governance, I suggest consensus. If all three do not agree to something, it doesn’t happen. It would probably be polite to allow the Jews to build a new temple on the site. Give the Christians something, too, but you will need to ask them what they want.
As I said, I got no dogs in this race. This is of zero concern to my religious practice and belief. But the actions of the belligerents have, and can have, significant effects on my life. If there is any way I can help stop the slaughter – that does not involve my having to convert to one of the religions – please let me know.
In the meantime, could the Trump administration please stop trying to make America Christian again? Many of us do not want to be Christians, and we do not agree that Christian notions of morality are superior. Forcing us to do things we consider to be wrong is gross. Yes, y’all have the power to bulldoze right over us. Is that what Jesus would do? I can’t speak for him, but I don’t tell others how to live.
- I do not dispute the election results. The Christians have the numbers, money, and power to sway an election. ↩︎
- Local legislators are routinely threatened, often with death, and occasionally killed. ↩︎
- Important note: religious communities, not the governments of countries with interest in the matter. ↩︎