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The Green Guide

Religious Zealotry There and Here

Published on Thursday, September 20, 2001 in the Boston Globe
<www.commondreams.org>
Religious Zealotry There and Here
by Ellen Goodman

HE HAS APOLOGIZED as if it were a breach of etiquette or a case of bad
timing.

With the country united in mourning before the fallen towers, the preacher
spattered his words across the devastated landscape. In a moment of crisis,
the evangelist linked theological arms with the enemy.

Before a television congregation, Jerry Falwell offered up his credo: ''I
really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and
the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an
alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way - all of them
who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and
say, `You helped this happen.'''

His henchman, Pat Robertson, seconded the motion, ''Well, I totally
concur.''

Their Rolodex of villains had made, they said, God Almighty remove his
curtain of protection. Remove it, presumably, from the thousands of
Americans drinking their morning coffee in the twin towers and turning on
their computers in the Pentagon.

What better spokesman for the Taliban? Our fundamentalists agree with
theirs. God is on their side. America's sins are to blame.

What better allies for the men who call America the Great Satan? After all,
the religious zealots who took over Afghanistan may not know the ACLU, but
their first acts were against tolerance, against secularism, and, most
zealously of all, against the idea that any woman could determine her own
life.

But I forget: Falwell has apologized. He now calls these words
''insensitive,'' ''uncalled for,'' ''unnecessary.'' He calls them everything
but wrong.

On a Web posting Sept. 17, he says, ''I sincerely regret that comments I
made ... were taken out of their context.''

He says, ''I should have mentioned the national sins without mentioning the
organizations and persons by name.''

He says his mistake was making these remarks ''on television where a secular
media and audience were also listening.''

Falwell apologizes in the way that politicians apologize. He regrets it
''if'' - yes, if - ''my statements seemed harsh and ill-timed.'' And we are
to accept his apology.

What a week has followed this vast national tragedy. We've seen the best and
the worst of religion.

We've seen bigots, propelled by religious illiteracy, attack a Sikh mistaken
for a Muslim and make some Americans afraid to go out on the street. But
we've also seen, in far greater numbers, an instinctive and deliberate
reaching out in gatherings as multicultural as the list of victims.

In this scheme of things, one preacher is a reminder of our own fault lines.
One man talking about the judgment of God is a warning about how we will
stand. Together or apart.

''There are people in each religion who hold their beliefs in a tightfisted
way as if it were the only thing that could be true,'' says Diana Eck, who
has written about the explosion of religious diversity in ''A New Religious
America.'' ''There are also people in each religious tradition who hold
their beliefs in an open-handed way, an invitational way, making their faith
part of a complex and multireligious world.''

In all the talk of clashing civilizations, do we understand that the basic
clash is between fanaticism and tolerance, the open and closed fist? This
line cuts across borders and nationalities and through the heart of
virtually every religion - Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism.

''Every one of these religious traditions is a battleground now with a
fringe of fanaticism and xenophobia,'' says theologian Harvey Cox, who
teaches comparative fundamentalism at Harvard Divinity School.

''Every religion has its social justice vision, its ecumenical wing, the
wing in which religion inspires compassion and concern for the weak. And
then there is the other wing, the poisonous and rancid side of religion,
especially when it mixes with nationalism.''

We need no more proof about the world we live in - a world that is global
and tribal, ecumenical and xenophobic, religious and secular. We too live
among people who believe that God is on their side and among people who do
not believe that God takes sides. We live among people who believe that God
removed his protection from the man who got to work on time, but not the man
who was late. And among people who will never swallow that.

The preacher and terrorist both claim that we must agree with their
religious or political views - or be damned. So now we know who the dividers
are.

But of course, I forgot again. Rev. Falwell apologized, didn't he?