{"id":672,"date":"2011-07-25T14:59:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T18:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=672"},"modified":"2011-07-25T14:59:01","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T18:59:01","slug":"was-anders-breivik-really-a-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/07\/25\/was-anders-breivik-really-a-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Anders Breivik Really a Christian?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What do we do with the fact that Anders Behring Breivik \u2014 the perpetrator of a terrorist attack in downtown Oslo and the mass murder of children on the nearby island of Utoya \u2014 identifies himself as a Christian? \u00a0How do we make sense of the fact that he refers three times in his \u201cEuropean Declaration of Independence<\/a>\u201d to the \u201cLord Jesus Christ\u201d?<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0First, before we say anything else,\u00a0absolutely the first response of every Christian without exception must be unqualified condemnation<\/strong> of the horrific, disturbing, and profoundly sinful actions Breivik took last Friday. \u00a0As I\u2019ve written before<\/a>, on occasion I\u2019ve been frustrated when moderate Muslims fail to condemn acts of terrorism as loudly and unequivocally as possible; yet I understand how Muslims resent that the American public associates them with terrorism and looks to them for a response. \u00a0The implication is that the moderates are somehow accountable for the actions of the fringe, and it\u2019s incumbent upon them to distance themselves from the madmen who detonate school buses and attack summer camps.<\/p>\n

I too resent the implication that I have to offer some sort of account for Breivik\u2019s action. \u00a0It should be abundantly clear that I have nothing to do with him. \u00a0And yet \u2013 and yet \u2013 I do<\/em> need to condemn his actions. \u00a0Every Christian does. \u00a0Every person of good will does. \u00a0An act of such extraordinary moral monstrosity must, before anything else, be buried beneath an avalanche of condemnation. \u00a0Christians should always be humbly willing to examine whether a cancer might be growing within their midst, a cancer that is hidden within the body because Christians assume that everyone in their community shares their best intentions. \u00a0Extremists arise everywhere, and we ought not assume that our ranks are free of them. \u00a0So let us respond with the moral clarity to call evil evil, and the humility to examine the record and consider whether our actions or inactions, the things we\u2019ve said or left unsaid, could have contributed to the worldview of the madman.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Second, we should clarify precisely what kind of \u201cChristian\u201d Anders Breivik is<\/strong>. \u00a0Because, as it turns out, he\u2019s not much of a Christian at all, at least by ordinary definitions of the term.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Anders Breivik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Raised in a secular household, Breivik went from \u201cmoderately agnostic\u201d to \u201cmoderately religious\u201d and was baptized and confirmed in the Norwegian State Church at the age of 15. \u00a0He is consistently critical of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church (which he thinks has served its purpose and should reassimilate into the Catholic Church, in order to give a united front against Islam), as he believes both have abdicated their responsibility to defend Christian subjects against an Islamic invasion.<\/p>\n

Then, square in the middle of his sprawling 1500-page manifesto, in a section (3.139) entitled \u201cDistinguishing between cultural Christendom and religious Christendom,\u201d Breivik himself tells us what kind of Christian he is. \u00a0He argues that\u00a0the inheritors of western Christendom are all, whether they like it or not, cultural Christians. \u00a0Some are liberal cultural Christians, engaged in a massive act of cultural suicide by facilitating Islam\u2019s demographic conquest of Europe. \u00a0Others are conservative cultural Christians, such as himself, who have recognized the threat of Islamicization and the infection of a weak and accommodationist \u201ccultural Marxist multi-culturalism\u201d in the elite sphere of European society. \u00a0Conservative cultural \u201cChristians\u201d should arm themselves for the new Crusade to reassert Christian cultural hegemony and drive the Islamic threat from European lands. \u00a0As for religious Christians:<\/p>\n

If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, no<\/em>, actually it doesn\u2019t<\/em> make you a Christian. \u00a0Most believers \u2013 liberal and conservative alike \u2013 decry the notion of \u201ccultural Christendom,\u201d\u00a0or the theory that a person could be Christian by participating in the outward forms of Christianity while abandoning its inward beliefs, values and relationships. \u00a0Breivik several times asserts the superior authority of logic and science, and clarifies his commitment to \u201cChristendom\u201d as a monoculture, not \u201cChristianity\u201d as a life of personal devotion to Jesus Christ. \u00a0Breivik does not see himself as a follower of Jesus Christ, but as a Crusader defending Christendom from Islamicization. \u00a0He does not defend Christianity as a system of beliefs, stories and existential commitments; he defends Christendom as his own side in the clash of civilizations.<\/p>\n

Breivik demonstrates no belief in the deity of Christ, in part because he\u2019s not really sure that there is any God at all. \u00a0Although he says that those who live \u201cunder full surrender with God the Father\u201d will receive his \u201canointing\u201d for battle, he also says that belief in God is a crutch in the face of death. \u00a0He writes:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to pretend I\u2019m a very religious person as that would be a lie. I\u2019ve always\u00a0been very pragmatic and influenced by my secular surroundings and environment\u2026Religion is a crutch for many weak people and many embrace religion for self serving reasons as a source for drawing mental strength\u2026Since I am not a hypocrite, I\u2019ll say directly that this is my agenda as well. \u00a0However, I have not yet felt the need to ask God for strength, yet\u2026But I\u2019m pretty sure I will pray to God as I\u2019m rushing through my city, guns blazing\u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Breivik describes how he will be on a steroid rush in the midst of the attack, listening to his iPod (perhaps Clint Mansell\u2019s Lux Aeterna<\/em>, he says), in order to ward off fear. \u00a0He explains that he chooses to pray and believe in God in order to overcome the fear of death. \u00a0He recommends other martyr-crusaders do the same, as religion is \u201cESSENTIAL in martyrdom operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, while it was obviously wrong for some commentators to rush to the assumption that this attack in Norway was perpetrated by a Muslim, it is a dramatic mischaracterization to say that it was perpetrated by a \u201cChristian fundamentalist.\u201d \u00a0He might have been a \u201ccultural Christian\u201d by some definition, and a political fundamentalist, but he was certainly no \u201cfundamentalist Christian.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s important to be clear: by almost every definition, Anders Behring Breivik was no Christian at all.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Finally, Christians should consider how they can build relationships of mutual respect and understanding across religious boundaries, and should understand the distinction between cultural and religious differences<\/strong>. \u00a0Breivik is critical of George W. Bush, among others, for saying that our war is not with Islam. \u00a0Yet Breivik\u2019s atrocity illustrates the wisdom and the importance of this approach. \u00a0As a matter of fact, there may be a sort of implicit, long-term struggle underway between different cultures and different civilizations, in the way that cultures and civilizations evolve and grow or else fade into obscurity. \u00a0Yet this is not remotely the same thing as a religious war, and what is emerging may minimize cultural differences and let the truly religious and spiritual differences come through more clearly.<\/p>\n

Christianity is not a cultural system. \u00a0In fact, in those cases where it has become so intertwined with a culture that the two cannot be separated, this is inevitably to the detriment of Christianity. \u00a0Christianity is fundamentally a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, a community and a way of life, all wrapped up in historical, moral and theological beliefs, values and commitments. \u00a0These things are not culture and civilization. \u00a0They shape<\/em> culture and civilization. \u00a0They ground and judge culture and civilization, and they can be expressed in a variety of cultures and civilizations. \u00a0But if we grow committed to the culture and civilization, while the faith and spirituality are hollowed out of them, then we worship empty idols.<\/p>\n

All of the western monotheistic traditions \u2013 Judaism, Christianity and Islam \u2013 have violent elements in their sacred texts and histories, bloodstained threads that run through the tapestries of their stories. \u00a0Christianity and Judaism had largely excised or decisively reinterpreted those elements by the time of the Enlightenment. \u00a0It\u2019s telling that Breivik had to look back to a medieval order (the Knights Templar) to find a version of Christianity that would arm and equip him for a battle with Islam. \u00a0But even as we encourage those remaining pockets of extremists within contemporary Islam to reassess and reinterpret the violent threads in its scriptures and stories, we need to make sure that no one else, like Breivik, draws those violent threads out of Christianity and leaves the rest behind. \u00a0If Breivik had been a \u201creligious Christian,\u201d and not merely a \u201ccultural Christian\u201d who chose to honor the most violent strains of Christendom\u2019s cultural history, it almost certainly would have prevented him from taking the actions he took.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do we do with the fact that Anders Behring Breivik \u2014 the perpetrator of a terrorist attack in downtown Oslo and the mass murder of children on the nearby island of Utoya \u2014 identifies himself as a Christian? \u00a0How do we make sense of the fact that he refers three times in his \u201cEuropean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[84,94,123,125,135,176,1353,207,208,264,308,315,1361],"class_list":["post-672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anders-breivik","tag-atrocity","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-conservative-politics","tag-evangelical","tag-evangelicalism","tag-fundamentalist","tag-fundamentalist-christian","tag-liberal-politics","tag-norway","tag-oslo","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nWas Anders Breivik Really a Christian? - Philosophical Fragments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What do we do with the fact that Anders Behring Breivik -- the perpetrator of a terrorist attack in downtown Oslo and the mass murder of children on the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2011\/07\/25\/was-anders-breivik-really-a-christian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Was Anders Breivik Really a Christian? 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