Barrack Obama has announced that he will be sworn in to office as the 44th President using the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used at his first inauguration. No doubt there will be considerable press commentary about the use of this famous Christian Bible. At the same time, we will be reminded of the rumors during the campaign that Obama is a Muslim and that he was sworn in as a Senator using the Quran. The point of the rumors, of course, was that anyone who is a Muslim should be disqualified from being President. Sadly, I suspect many Americans share this view even if they never believed the rumors about Obama.
We need to rethink our instinctive view that Islam is somehow far outside the mainstream religious tradition of the west. Americans often refer to our “Judeo-Christian tradition.“ This formulation sweeps in the shared religious beliefs of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, but it excludes many others, including America’s third-largest and fastest-growing religious community – Muslims. It also conveys the historically false notion that the fundamental beliefs of Islam differ radically from those of Jews and Christians. In fact, there is a powerful commonality that unites Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
The core of that tradition is belief in one God. That core belief, first adopted by Jews in the face of ancient polytheism, carried on by Christians in a world dominated by Roman culture, and proclaimed by Mohammed in a polytheistic Arab society, unites these three great religious faiths and sets them apart from other religious beliefs. All three faiths look to Abraham as their great patriarch. All three pray to the God to whom Abraham prayed, whether they call God Jahwheh, Allah, or simply God.
In The Uncertain Believer, I discuss the long tradition of each army in a war claiming that God is on its side. I argue that we need to rethink our conception of God in many ways, including abandoning this ancient idea that God takes sides. In his second Inaugural Address in March 1865, Abraham Lincoln made of a point of saying that God was not on either side of the Civil War that had torn the nation apart. Almost a century and a half later, we should at least be able to acknowledge that both Americans and Muslims pray to the same God, although some corrupt the values for which this God stands.
One of the most constructive steps we can take to promote better relations with the Arab world is to begin to speak of this Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. If that is too poly-syllabic, perhaps the “Abrahamic” or simply “one God” tradition is easier to convey. The point is to recognize the common fundamental beliefs of these three faiths. In addition to a belief in one powerful and just God, all three faiths emphasize the obligation to take care of the disadvantaged and to live a just and loving life.
It is true that there are fundamental differences among these faiths about the nature and significance of Jesus, but that difference has not undercut the shared tradition of Jews and Christians in the religious life of America. There are also significant differences about the role of women, the relationship of religion and the state, and the possibility of accommodation with other religious faiths. Yet, the differences among mainstream Christianity, Judaism and Islam on these issues are probably less significant than the divisions within each faith.
Some interpretations of the Quran mandate second-class citizenship for women but others do not. (Compare the number of women Muslims who have been heads of state with the number of women who have been U.S. Presidents.) Some radical interpretations of the Quran seem to endorse terrorism, but mainstream interpretations mandate tolerance and condemn aggression. We do not speak of Catholic or Protestant terrorists when referring to violence in Northern Ireland, even if terrorists claim to act in the name of their faith. In fact, they have abandoned the principles of their faith. In the same way, we should stop confusing radicals who act in the name of Islam with Islam itself. A single speech by the President about the values that unite Jews, Christians and Muslims would do more to repair the breach with the Arab world than all the millions we have spent in the futile public relations campaign to prop up America’s image in the Middle East.
Monday, January 19, 2009
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2 comments:
one more question:
"The logic of evolution means that humans developed through a random, undirected process, just as dinosaurs and jellyfish did. That would mean that man is not really created in the image of God, but he is simply a product of natural selection."
evolution isnt random. I will explain this to you later. =]
~Your daughter
It is refreshing and inspiring to observe the convergence of Mr. Correia's reflections with the recent invitation from President Obama to consider wider perspectives on the role of religion. For too long have we simply assumed that this topic was off the table for public discussion. However, it is a matter of urgent global significance that we not only air the topic but find a new synthesis of unreconciled ideas in order that our world can live in peace and appreciation for other cultures. It is the highest, yet often most elusive, form of egocentric behavior to assume that our God is the only God, and that He or She is always aligned with what we perceive to be our interests. I look forward to more from Mr. Correia on this topic.
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