a really excellent essay from William T. Cavanaugh. Excerpt:<\/p>\n
But what is implied in the conventional wisdom that religion is prone to violence is that Christianity, Islam, and other faiths are more<\/em> inclined toward violence than ideologies and institutions that are identified as \u201csecular.\u201d It is this story that I will challenge here. I will do so in two steps. First, I will show that the division of ideologies and institutions into the categories \u201creligious\u201d and \u201csecular\u201d is an arbitrary and incoherent division. When we examine academic arguments that religion causes violence, we find that what does or does not count as religion is based on subjective and indefensible assumptions. As a result certain kinds of violence are condemned, and others are ignored. Second, I ask, \u201cIf the idea that there is something called \u2018religion\u2019 that is more violent than so-called \u2018secular\u2019 phenomena is so incoherent, why is the idea so pervasive?\u201d The answer, I think, is that we in the West find it comforting and ideologically useful. The myth of religious violence helps create a blind spot about the violence of the putatively secular nation-state. We like to believe that the liberal state arose to make peace between warring religious factions. Today, the Western liberal state is charged with the burden of creating peace in the face of the cruel religious fanaticism of the Muslim world. The myth of religious violence promotes a dichotomy between us<\/em> in the secular West who are rational and peacemaking, and them<\/em>, the hordes of violent religious fanatics in the Muslim world. Their<\/em> violence is religious, and therefore irrational and divisive. Our<\/em> violence, on the other hand, is rational, peacemaking, and necessary. Regrettably, we find ourselves forced to bomb them into the higher rationality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
seriously, read the whole thing<\/a>; via Rod Dreher<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
a really excellent essay from William T. Cavanaugh. Excerpt: But what is implied in the conventional wisdom that religion is prone to violence is that Christianity, Islam, and other faiths are more inclined toward violence than ideologies and institutions that are identified as \u201csecular.\u201d It is this story that I will challenge here. I will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,137,51,138],"class_list":["post-6110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-killing-in-the-name-of","tag-reason-cannot-withstand-the-fall-of-god","tag-so-far-from-god-so-close-to-the-united-states","tag-the-endarkenment"],"yoast_head":"\n
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