wfn.org | Commentary: Jesus offers alternative to religious warfare

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Nov. 15, 2001  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71BP{537}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Bishop Kenneth Carder is available
at http://umns.umc.org/photos/bishops/carder.jpg.

A UMNS Commentary
By Bishop Kenneth Carder*

Current world conflicts heighten the potential for rekindling religious
wars. All wars are deadly and destructive, but religious wars have been
among history's most diabolical and cruel conflicts. When religion becomes
the motivation, the participants assume divine imperative and ultimate
vindication for dastardly deeds such as suicide bombings and destruction of
innocent people labeled as "infidel," "satanic" or "demonic."

The most deadly conflicts are not among the world's religions such as
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. The conflicts are
caused by oppressive, violent, rigid interpretations within all religions.
It is the conflict between religious values that motivate love, compassion,
humility before God, justice and liberty for all people, and religious
beliefs and practices that motivate hatred, cruelty, division, arrogance,
injustice and oppression of others.

That has always been the case. It was religion that motivated people to
crucify Jesus, and it was Jesus' religion that resulted in his praying for
the forgiveness of those who executed him. Saul of Tarsus was a terrorist
who presumed that faithfulness to God meant persecuting Christians. Saul the
terrorist was transformed into Paul the Apostle by an encounter with Jesus
Christ. It was his relationship with the risen Christ that motivated him to
write, "Now abides faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is
love."

More recently, some Americans dressed themselves in white sheets and
terrorized innocent black sisters and brothers, doing so under the banner of
Christianity. Others, however, were motivated by their vision of a
Christ-reconciled world to risk their lives working for the civil rights and
dignity of all people.

The real threats today do not arise from the differences among Islam and
Christianity and Judaism, but from the hate, violence, cruelty, arrogance,
exclusion and oppression justified in the name of all religions. I cringe at
the notion that Osama bin Laden and his followers may motivate a religious
war between Muslims and Christians and Jews. Equally disturbing is the
person I heard on "talk radio" recently who used some of the same violent
language in calling for Christians to destroy the "evil and demonic
Muslims."

Terrible things are done in the name of all religions, including
Christianity. As Christians, we follow Jesus Christ, who offers an
alternative to religious warfare. Jesus lived a life of boundless love,
uncompromising magnanimity, and unselfish service in a world filled with
religious hatred and violence. 

Following Jesus requires that we love even our enemies and reach out in
magnanimity and service to all people for whom he died.

#  #  #

*Carder is bishop of the Mississippi Area of the United Methodist Church.
This commentary originally appeared in the Advocate, the newspaper of the
Mississippi Area.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

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United Methodist News Service
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