COMMENTARY: How Interreligious Relations Became a Global Political Issue

c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It wasn’t too long ago when the effort to develop mutual respect and understanding among the followers of the world’s religions was simply considered “a nice thing to do,” a worthwhile activity that kept idealistic rabbis, ministers and priests busily occupied talking to one another. But interreligious relations were […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) It wasn’t too long ago when the effort to develop mutual respect and understanding among the followers of the world’s religions was simply considered “a nice thing to do,” a worthwhile activity that kept idealistic rabbis, ministers and priests busily occupied talking to one another. But interreligious relations were considered far removed from decision making in the world of “realpolitik.”

I know from decades of experience that interreligious relations did not interest many of our political, academic, cultural and economic leaders. What really mattered to them and to millions of other Americans was U.S. dominance of the global marketplace and maintaining our nation’s conventional and nuclear military superiority over any and all “potential threats to national security.”


But all that changed on Sept. 11, 2001, when Osama bin Laden, a Saudi-born Muslim terrorist from a prominent wealthy family, planned and carried out the most destructive foreign attack on U.S. soil since the British burned Washington, D.C., during the War of 1812. He achieved his bloody goal without the aid of a large armed force, far-flung military bases or real economic power.

And because bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization spewed forth constant hatred for both Christianity and Judaism, interreligious relations suddenly became an important item on everyone’s agenda.

Following 9-11, Americans were bewildered and stunned by the use of Islam as a lethal weapon of war. What is Islam? Was Islam the serpent’s egg that hatched bin Laden? Why do they hate us? What can we do to win the hearts and minds of Muslims who want to destroy us? It seems Americans love the premise that we have it within our power to make everyone throughout the world like, nay, admire us.

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But 9-11 was more than a murderous physical assault resulting in thousands of deaths. It was also an attack on some other basic American assumptions. Many of us falsely believed if people had a full stomach, clean water, adequate housing, a television set and a good job, all international problems would be solved. We believed this fallacy even though the Hebrew Bible correctly teaches that people “do not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

For decades, Americans minimized the power of religion to decisively shape political behavior. Instead, they focused upon economic warfare, clashes of political ideologies (remember our competition with communism?), wars of political aggression to control territory, raw materials or markets as the root causes of global turmoil.

But religion as a prime cause of war? How could that be happening in the so-called enlightened 21st century?

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Making things worse were those Americans who were not sure-footed in their own personal spiritual beliefs. They often dumbed down all religious traditions by asserting that the world’s faiths are basically the same; offering an identical sweet spiritual message just with different labels, holy books, sacred sites and venerated leaders. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and all other religions offer pleasant universal pabulum, where one theological portion of bland porridge serves all.


But who could blame the American people for believing such wrong-headed ideas? After all, when in the 1950s President Dwight Eisenhower declared: “ … I believe every American should have a religious faith and I don’t care what it is. …” Ike, the quintessential American, was accurately reflecting the views of his fellow citizens.

But such a superficial understanding of religion’s power for good or ill is dangerous. Religious beliefs transcend politics and economics. The latter are transient concerns that are addressed in this world, but spiritual identity runs much deeper within people; that identity is for this earthly life, but more importantly, it is also for the eternal world to come.

Bin Laden’s Islamic-based terrorism has, at least, forced our leaders and, hopefully, millions of other Americans to recognize the compelling power of religion as a potent force for compassionate goodness or for radical evil. The days when religion was considered a minor factor in world affairs are long over.

Indeed, the opposite is now true. Love it or hate it, religion is now the principal driving force in world affairs. Deal with it.

MO/JL END RNS

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

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